Camping & Cooking
Latest Camping & Cooking Skills
Bad News Bears: 5 Tips To Avoid Problem Bear Encounters
One of the greatest benefits of canoe camping is the way it brings us closer to nature. But when it comes to bears, keeping...
Campfire Book Review: Chris Nuttall-Smith Teaches Us To Cook It Wild
People fall into one of two camps when it comes to cooking trip meals.
There are the pragmatists, always planning the next reconstitution of one...
The Bear Canoe: A Risky Way To Store Food Overnight
Canoeists love to debate camping techniques. Single blade or double. Stuffing your tent or rolling it. Ground cloth inside or outside. One of the...
15 Family Camping Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them)
Family camping trips are all about making s’mores and singing Neil Diamond’s ultra-classic “Sweet Caroline” around the campfire, right? We certainly hope so. Not...
29 Tips For Fun, Worry-Free Family Camping
Parents of young children, don’t you miss the great outdoors? Great news: bringing kids along on trip doesn’t have to put a damper on...
How To Make Sushi On Trip
Sushi makes a great, versatile backcountry meal. Sushi prepared ahead of time is a quick and elegant meal on the first night of a...
12 Packing Tips For Lightweight Kayak Camping
Before I became a kayaker, I was a canoe tripper. Canoe tripping taught me that you can never have too much good camping gear—as...
7 After-Dark Activities For Your Next Family Camping Trip
Nothing holds the promise of adventure quite like a warm summer’s night—especially when you’re camping. Looking to make your next family camping trip truly...
How To Make Cowboy Coffee That Actually Tastes Good (Video)
Learn to make a great backcountry coffee the old-fashioned way for your camping adventures. This technique, often called cowboy coffee, has been used by...
Tarp Shelter Tips For Canoe And Kayak Camping
You’re a paddling Jedi who can keep it hull-down in any sea conditions, roll a loaded double and cook a mean backcountry soufflé. But...
The Surprisingly Tasty History Of Bannock, The Classic Camping Cuisine
To identify a hardened wilderness canoe tripper, I watch how someone paddles a J-stroke, lifts a canoe and whether they use a tump. But...
Ultimate Guide To Choosing The Best Shoes For Canoeing
Much fuss is made by hikers about the demands placed on their feet, while canoeists tend to focus more on their boats. But before...
The Paddler’s Greatest Debates
Few topics get backcountry paddlers more fired up than debating the ethics of burning garbage on trip, or contesting the best way to bear-proof...
Mike Ranta Shows You How To Whittle A Canoe
Spend 60-minutes handcrafting a tiny prospector for someone with big dreams.
Tim’s Wilderness Rules
As my wife and kids know all too well, I’ve got a complicated set of rules for how I expect people to behave in...
How to decide between blue barrel and canoe pack
The Official Scorecard
Comfort
No amount of money spent on barrel harnesses can overcome the physics that make a canoe pack more comfortable. Canoe packs are...
A Dirtbag’s Guide To Building A Canoe & Kayak Rack For Your Pickup Truck
Pickup trucks are utilitarian, but the simple fact is canoes and kayaks don’t fit in them. Yes, you can tie a bunch of sketchy...
Cooking Tips & Recipe Ideas For Your Next Camping Trip
Do you want to know the secret to cooking camping meals? With the right gear, prep and knowledge, your camping meals don’t actually have...
4 Ways Of Treating Water In the Backcountry To Make It Safe To Drink
Humans don’t actually need that much to survive: food, water and shelter. You can even skip food and shelter for a few days—but you...
Wood-canvas canoes are tougher than you think
There’s no time to hesitate in the rapids of this steep, shallow, unnamed river, deep in the wilderness of northern Quebec. But my wife...
6 Expert Tips On Tent Repair And Maintenance
The tent commandments.
8 Basecamp Essentials For A Paddling Dinner Party
Making all that good stuff.
Canoe Camping With Kids: 7 Tips To Survive And Thrive
Survival strategies.
The Axe: Outdated Or Valuable Paddlers Tool?
If they don't axe, they won't know what they're missing.
Get The Best Backcountry Sleep Ever—In Your Canoe
What makes the best bed on a canoe trip? Some say a thick pad in a tent. Others swear by a hammock. Still others...
How To Make Your Own Voyageur Hat
Canada’s modern-day voyageur is windbound in a spruce swamp on the edge of Cedar Lake, Manitoba. Windy days have been a theme on this...
Sauce Recipe: How To Flavor Up Your Dehydrated Food
Dehydrating your own food will give you a variety of nutritious but also flavorful choices while reducing pack weight and food costs. Not to...
Tough Love: Teaching Skills To The Next Generation Of Canoeists
The headline, “Quit Doing These 8 Things for Your Teen This Year if You Want to Raise an Adult” appeared innocuously in my Facebook feed, shared by...
7 Best Camping Hacks-According To Pinterest
While not everything the Internet brings us is great, it is an amazing resource for new ideas and innovations. Although chatting to other paddlers...
Guiding Principles
I wouldn’t normally run this photograph. Why not? Let me count the reasons. For starters, my chicken line perimeter rope is too slack. It...
8 Healthy Snacks For Paddling Trips
Receipes for your next trip to keep you and your tastebuds happy.
Top 11 Canoe Trip Faux Pas
1. Never doing dishes at the campsite
Picture yourself lounging around the fire after a day slogging through portages and battling clouds of mosquitos....
The Ultimate Backcountry Birthday Cake Recipe
Being on a canoe trip for your birthday is a treat in itself. Make it even more special with a camp-stove friendly birthday cake....
5 Tips For Backcountry Cooking
Well-fed campers are happy campers. When you’re cooking at a campsite, your best approach is to prevent mistakes in the first place—not even hot...
The New Best Thing to Do
With so much focus these days on experiential learning, I sometimes feel to be a good parent I have to bombard my children with...
3 Easy Campfire Dinners Perfect For Hungry Paddlers
When you’re paddling you need to fuel your fun. Campfire dinners don’t need to be an impossibly orange blob of dehydrated mac and cheese...
