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TrailGroove Blog

A Blog by the TrailGroove Team

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  • Aaron Zagrodnick 248
  • Mark Wetherington 76
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  • Susan Dragoo 27
  • Steve Ancik 18
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Gear | Trips | Food | Technique | Reading

Entries in this blog

Gear

Backpacking & Hiking Jargon: Piezo Igniter (Stoves)

A piezo igniter is a push-button stove ignition system that is often integrated directly onto upright canister stoves for convenience and ease of use. The system works via use of a striker that hits a piezo-electric crystal, which generates electricity even when slightly deformed. When the ignition button is pushed the resulting electrical charge generates a spark. With the integrated ignition system there’s no need to hunt down your lighter or use matches – simply open your stove’s g
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Exped REM Backpacking Pillow Review

The Exped REM backpacking pillow is a newer pillow from Exped that's a hybrid air pillow with a layer of foam above. The REM foam layer (That's recycled extracted modules, not the band or the sleep you'll hopefully get) consists of chunks of soft foam that make this pillow a little closer to a non-backpacking pillow you might find at home. The foam layer is all contained in a soft pillow case, with an inflatable air chamber underneath than can be removed for washing or even if you wanted to use
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Best Hiking and Backpacking Shoes by Category

Shoes may be the most important piece of gear for hiking or backpacking. They are with us every step of the way, and we are relying on them to be steady and supportive. If we are thinking about shoes while hiking, it is usually because there is a problem. Maybe they don’t fit properly – too tight or too loose? Are they not grippy enough for rock slabs? Are my feet sore from feeling every rock on the trail? Instead, we want to count on them to provide the right level of support and com
Jen

Jen in Gear

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Gear

Vapor Barrier Liners (VBL): Backpacking & Hiking Jargon

A vapor barrier liner is some type of vapor impermeable layer often utilized and effective while recreating outdoors in very cold conditions. By preventing vapor transfer from your body into clothing, footwear, or a sleeping bag for example one is able to boost warmth and keep insulation dry in conditions where wet insulation would be very difficult to dry and result in compromised warmth. While using a VBL with your clothing and sleeping bag (for sleeping bags, see the Western Mountaineering Ho
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Review: PowerFilm USB+AA Lightweight Solar Charger

Disposable batteries are just not ideal for backpacking. After every trip, batteries keep piling up – whether from headlamps, Steripens, or even just from non-backpacking devices we used around the house. Most of the time, getting back from a trip batteries will still have some juice left, but how much? Enough to take along next time? I found myself either installing new batteries for nearly every trip, or taking extras, unless I’d barely utilized the batteries the last time around. Worst of all
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

How to Select the Best Hiking Socks: Tips from the Trail

Socks have more to do with your comfort while hiking than most of your other gear; however it seems like they sometimes can be an afterthought when packing for a trip. A good sock or a good sock system can prevent blisters and provide you with comfort in nearly any shoe. Selecting the right sock for you means you need to understand the different types of socks that are available. Cotton, polyester/nylon, and wool are the three main types of fabrics used in socks. Cotton has gotten a bad rep
tmountainnut

tmountainnut in Gear

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Gear

Best Hiking & Backpacking Boots by Season

While the popularity of using trail-running shoes or otherwise trail-appropriate low shoes for hiking and backpacking has only risen in recent years and continues on that track – my hiking included – there are times when only a proper boot will do. Take a look at our footwear guide (by season) for help deciding between a low shoe or a high hiking boot. And while the trail-runners vs. boots debate (as with all trail gear) will surely only continue, if you’ve decided on a boot, in this
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Trail Tip: Using a Backpacking Bear Canister as a Cooler

While a camp stool is perhaps the most popular multi-use application for a bear canister, this tip is best suited for short trips when you're trying to put an emphasis on good food and cold beverages. Bear canisters are a piece of gear added, reluctantly, to the kit of most backpackers only when required for an upcoming trip. However, if you're wanting to freshen things up in regard to food and don't mind some added weight, the underappreciated bear canister can help you turn your fir
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Gear

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Gear

Silnylon Fabric: Backpacking and Hiking Jargon

Often referred to simply as "sil". Nylon fabric impregnated with a silicone coating on each side. Fairly economical. Typically offered in a 30 denier (30D) fabric weight, with lighter options sometimes available. Often used in lightweight shelters, tarps, and backpacks due to its strength, light weight, and waterproofness. Non-breathable. Silnylon has been a popular backpacking fabric for many years, and although silpoly (sil-polyester) has gained traction in recent years, silnylon's
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking and Hiking Jargon: Fabric Hydrostatic Head

At what point will it leak? In the outdoor industry, hydrostatic head (often abbreviated as HH) is a measure of the waterproofness of a particular fabric, most applicable to the fly of a shelter, canopy, and / or floor materials, as well as rain gear. The measurement reflects how high a column of water a secured piece of fabric could support before leakage occurs. This column of water is measured in millimeters, and the test is performed with a special machine or apparatus that applies water pre
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking Jargon: 2L vs. 2.5L and 3 Layer Rain Gear

Waterproof / breathable clothing and footwear is often classified depending on the type of layering construction that’s utilized in combination with the actual waterproof and breathable membrane or coating. The layering process is used to protect the more fragile waterproofing layer from abrasions, snags, and from dirt and body oils which will compromise effectiveness. Along with weight and price, when choosing your backpacking rain gear its construction (in regards to layers) should
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Best Lightweight & Ultralight Backpacking Chairs

Unless I’m mistaken, after trying out a modern backpacking chair for the first time and taking it on that first trip, I’ve taken a chair on every backpacking trip since. That’s a solid 10+ years of backpacking. While the limited use of a chair and the extra, non-necessary weight carried may go against ultralight principles, the comfort in camp is worth it. And with many of my trips featuring a blend of miles plus extra activities like photography or fishing or just watching the scenery, there is
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Durable Water Repellent / DWR: Hiking & Outdoor Jargon

Durable water repellent (DWR) is a coating added to the surface of a fabric to aid in waterproofing without sacrificing (and usually aiding to) breathability. The most frequent application of DWR in the outdoor gear world can be found in breathable rain gear and breathable water resistant shells. If the surface of the fabric were to “wet out”, breathability through that portion of the fabric would be severely compromised. DWR allows for water to bead and roll off the surface of the fabric, maint
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking Jargon: What is a Freestanding Tent?

The default term “tent” is no longer accurate to describe the various shelter options used by backpackers. Tarp-tents, tarps, bivy sacks, hammocks, and tents generally cover the gear used to seek refuge from the elements, but each have further sub-categories that merit examining and understanding when making the best decision about what you will put in your pack. Freestanding tents add convenience, but also add weight. Freestanding & Non-Freestanding Backpacking Tents In
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Gear

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Gear

Glow in the Dark Zipper Pulls: Backpacking Trail Tip

Instead of blowing your night vision out with your state of the art LED headlamp to find that tent and / or sleeping bag zipper late at night, one tip I like to utilize is to use a short length of glow in the dark paracord as a zipper pull for your sleeping bag and tent zippers. Now you can get out of your tent at night without having to fumble to open zippers and can quickly locate your zipper pulls potentially without even having to use your headlamp. When sufficiently "charged", gl
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Trail Tip: The Backpacking Dining Tarp

The image of a heavy blue tarp stretched above a picnic table at a car campground is often the first image that comes to mind when a "dining tarp" is brought up in conversation among backpackers. While many lightweight tarps are on the market, they are primarily showcased as shelters and their other uses are understated, if depicted at all. Often left out of the pack, and understandably so in many situations because of the added weight and limited function, there are certain circumstances where
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking & Hiking Jargon: Baffle (Insulating Gear)

Used in sleeping bags and insulated garments, baffles are a sewn compartmented wall utilized to control the distribution of down insulation throughout a garment or bag. Sewn through construction (the resulting compartments sometimes also referred to as baffles) achieves the same type of insulation control and is simple to construct as well as lightweight, but creates cold spots along the seams making such a construction ideal for milder weather. A good example of this type of construction can be
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Best Women's Hiking & Backpacking Clothes: What to Wear

Finding the perfect clothing to hike in can be a challenge, particularly if your body doesn't work well wearing unisex clothing. In the past there were not many women's-specific clothing items created for hiking and backpacking. Luckily more manufacturers are designing and selling clothes made for women and their specific needs, and many are providing extended sizing to accommodate more of us. Here are some favorite items that are made specifically for women, although individual prefe
Jen

Jen in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking and Hiking Jargon: EN Rating (Sleeping Bags)

An EN rating (European Norm 13537) is a testing and rating system that standardizes sleeping bag temperature ratings across manufacturers into a relatively easy to understand and comparable scale. Achieved by measuring thermal efficiency utilizing a sensor-equipped mannequin in a specialized environment, the results of an EN Rating are comprised of 4 parts, and generally you’ll just focus on the comfort rating (women), and the lower limit (men). Backpacking sleeping bags that have an
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking and Hiking Jargon: Micron (Water Treatment)

A unit of measurement equal to one-millionth of a meter, or a thousandth of a millimeter. You’ll almost certainly hear the term micron used in relation to backcountry water filtration methods. The standard micron size of most popular water filters is usually around .2 microns, but there are filters available with both smaller and larger pore sizes. What’s best? It depends. Most of the things you can actually see in a water source are quite large and will be caught by almost all filters, but
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

How Not to Lose Your Tent Stakes: Heat Shrink Tubing

Although the venerable titanium shepherd's hook stake is an ultralight favorite, if you've ever used a set you know that one of their drawbacks is their ability to blend into their surroundings when loose on the ground. This can make packing up in the morning frustratingly difficult as you search for that last stake that's somewhere on the ground in a very specific area, but seemingly invisible. To assist, there is one way that will help ensure your set of titanium shepherd's hook stakes all sta
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Trail Tip: Hiking (and Backpacking) Shoe Fit

One of the most important considerations for successful (or at least comfortable) hiking and backpacking is your connection to the ground. While discussion regarding the best hiking shoes can and does go on and on, regardless of which shoe or boot you choose you need to make sure you get the right fit. If you follow size charts and measure your feet at home, it is likely you’ll end up with too small of a shoe size which can lead to blisters or other discomfort on the trail. Not to men
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking & Hiking Gear Jargon: PU (Polyurethane)

Applied as a coating to many backpacking and hiking fabrics, PU (polyurethane) is a coating that adds a waterproofing layer to fabric, but also reduces tear strength. As the coating is applied to the face of the fabric it’s prone to wear over time, and most PU coatings will offer only moderate waterproofing when new, moving towards water resistance over years of use. This grid-stop fabric has a very light PU coating on the inside (used for a backpack in this case) to add some level of
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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