News / Tips

Survival Starts at Home: Tools, well there are a million and one ways to address this and I will start off with this one, make sure your tools are in good repair and ready to go. So much of what we do in the outdoors is seasonal and because of that a third of our gear can be shelved for the season at any given time. So, we should be aware that what we need to make sure we might need to keep our backcountry adventures safe and fun might need some periodic maintenance and a check out before we grab it and go.

Survival Starts at Home: Fire, well, well, well, fire is a touchy subject as I sit here writing this and California has some major wildfires going on. So, first off, its summer here its hot you probably don’t need a campfire, you might want one, but you probably don’t need one, it’s like me and my relationship with snickers bars.

Survival Starts at Home: Water, we spent an amazing week in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and you can read about it HERE, but it was definitely a stark contrast from the water situation down here in SoCal.

Survival Starts at Home: Signaling, one of the more underused, carried and understood concepts of backcountry travel is signaling. Like what am I talking about when I even bring it up, who are we trying to signal and how are we doing it. Well like we say Survival Starts at Home with planning, training and communicating a plan.

Survival Starts at Home, Shelter; when we are talking “survival” we love to jump right into the worst case and learn the cool skills (which are important) but the true mark of a backcountry pro is not having to use those skills because of things that they can control.

Fire roads and truck trails are a great way to get your feet wet when it comes to back country travel and backpacking. Lately with all of the shutdowns I have been exploring local places I have usually overlooked.

This last weekend was an amazing trip and my first non-local escape ion a little while, we headed up to the Alabama Hills Just outside of Lone Pine Ca and positioned at the foot of the eastern sierras and Mt Whitney.

Mini Backpacking trips have become one of my favorite ways of getting out and enjoying a little nature with out totally impacting my schedule.

Today we are talking about the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and their Lands Pass.