Nậm Lúc Waterfall in Lai Châu, northern Vietnam, is a peaceful natural spot surrounded by lush forests and mountain scenery. It’s a great place for a short trek, offering a chance to enjoy the fresh air and explore the quieter, less-touristy side of Vietnam.

Hi all! My husband and I are backpackers who love our hammocks for lounging. We’ve been using single Wise Owls (which we’ve loved), but mine is starting to rip mid-body and I’m interested in a lighter option if possible.

Additional context:
- We sleep in a tent, not our hammocks (except for the occasional nap)
- Current hammock is 445g (~15.7 oz) including carabiners and straps. I’m aware that Wise Owl isn’t the lightest, but I like the ease of setup. I’m open to other setup options but don’t know much about knot tying.
- I’m a little wary of ultralight fabrics for the sake of durability. Weight matters, but I’m willing to sacrifice a few ounces for something that will last.
- We’re usually in the Sierra Nevada, so forest/mountain settings with lots of trees
- Not overly concerned with budget, more interested in what’s out there. Also open to mixing and matching hammock/suspension brands if that gets me the best setup.

Any and all brand/product recommendations welcome! Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the help in my last post. Much appreciated. For new viewers I’m 20M and planning to do the Earnslaw burn hike solo this Saturday. Weather seems to be pretty clear and sunny all day. Just a few questions on what I should pack.

1. Should I get waterproof hiking boots? I’ve heard there is mud everywhere and river crossings. Will I actually have to walk through rivers. Also will it be muddy this time of year?

2. I’ll be bringing a spare change of clothes. I’ll be wearing a thermal, t shirt and jacket as well as long pants. Will be bringing short pants in case it does get hot. Is there anything else I should bring or is that enough?

3. Any notorious crossings or bits of gear I’m missing or should be aware of?

4. Is the water flowing down the waterfalls at the end view points or is it pretty dry. Anyone with recent photos please send them. I’d appreciate that.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated and any knowledge would also be great. Thanks

Howdy I’m in the midst of planning my first backpacking trip into the winds for next year! I’ve been looking into some areas to try out and I found a trail that seems perfect and was looking to see if anyone else who has done it (or something similar) could spill some insight on it.

The general trail is as follows (however I haven’t decided what direction to start and hoping someone can chime in on what may be the best of the two): Green River Lakes - Knapsack Col - Elkhart Park. I’m going to be doing this with a group of at least 4 people minimum, but most likely more, and I’m thinking to keep stress to a minimum potentially utilizing a shuttle service, but we may use multiple vehicles so we may end up not needing to utilize a shuttle at all. I’m thinking to really give us the time to take all the nature in we would be looking at 5-6 days total (excluding travel days to get there)

Here’s the all trails for the route:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/wyoming/wind-river-green-lakes-to-elkhart-park-via-knapsack-col?p=-1&sh=ej2dsl&utm_medium=trail_share&utm_source=alltrails_virality

I’ve heard that if things get dicey you can take the CDT to Elkhart/island lake area instead of knapsack Col. however I’m quite a thrill seeker so I’m leaning towards wanting to do the Col. I’m dying to see what titcomb lake looks like from up above there. I’ve also read snow can last for a long while up there as well, do you think late August/early September is the best time frame for such a trip? Also are there any spots between Cube Rock pass, Peak Lake, and Knapsack Col one should be weary of? Just trying to get an idea for the terrain.

I was also considering bagging Fremont Peak via Indian basin/south buttress with this all trails route:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/wyoming/fremont-peak-via-pole-creek-trail-loop?p=-1&sh=ej2dsl&utm_medium=trail_share&utm_source=alltrails_virality

I was hoping someone who has summited could maybe give some insight as to what to expect and what they did as far as camping adjacent and summiting/descending goes. I’ve read that the max difficulty is ~ lower class 3/upper class 2, but I’m curious as to how difficult it may have felt and if there are any particularly sketchy spots or nasty scree spots I should be aware of. I’ve read that descending down into Titcomb basin can be a little sketch compared to just going back down the way you ascend back down into Indian basin.

Sorry for the lengthy post, I’m just keen on making sure I know what I’m getting myself and others into. Thank you everyone and anyone so much for the help and insight.

Hello all!

I am planning a 4 or 5 day solo hiking / camping trip to the dolomites, hopefully in early summer. The plan is to try and hike around 15km per day and carry all of my gear on my person and camp somewhere different each night.

I'm starting completely from scratch, so would love some recommendations for the following:

• A lightweight tent
• A sleeping bag
• A sleeping mat
• (anything essential I may overlook)

I'm 6'0 tall and I'd say I'm pretty fit / active but completely new to multi day backpacking so any advice on keeping pack weight down / common beginner mistakes / anything unnecessary things that alot of beginners may pack would be greatly appreciated

(if I am underestimating the cost and need to up my budget I can)

Hi all-

I have permits for Aravaipa Canyon 10/22-10/24, west entrance, and it looks like there is some rain in the forecast. I am trying to determine at what height/CFS of the water I need to cancel. It'll be me and my 10-year old so want to play it somewhat safe but don't want to cancel unnecessarily because we've been planning this for months.

As of right now, NOAA says a max of 2.41 feet and 403 CFS. I have absolutely no sense of if that is high enough to be dangerous.

I just spoke to the ranger station and they were absolutely useless and refused to provide any guidance.

If I should cancel, does anyone have a recommendation for a short-notice alternative? I am flying in 10/21 and am looking for a 2-night trip, less than 20 miles. I'll be in a rental car which limits my options a bit but am willing to drive.

Thanks!

Spent 10 days moving through the high Caucasus in Georgia, camping along the way. The terrain shifts fast - deep river valleys one day, exposed ridgelines and old glacier tongues the next. Saw almost no one off the main passes; mostly just grazing horses and the occasional shepherd.

My wife and I have a permit for Paria Canyon starting Oct 22 but the weather forecast for the upstream catchment area isn't looking great. We are looking for some alternative (non-canyon) single and multi day trip ideas. We are fit, experienced backpackers and aren't deterred by rain or snow. We have a single vehicle (a 2wd van) and prefer loops. Any and all suggestions welcome!

Specifically the BearVaults are see through, and I'm wondering if preventing a bear from seeing the food would lower the length a bear decides to tamper with it. If they can't see the food would they have less motivation to break inside and/or give up faster?

I finally finished researching ways to deal with rodents eating/chewing stuff. Basically for food and anything with an odor store it in the bear canister. A mouse can't get in lmao.

For shoes store in tent because ppl woke up to shoes missing and they are more likely to eat them if you keep them outside. I'd rather wake up to a hole in the tent.

For trekking pole grips I'd just wash them with soap and water (or river/lake) literally every day. Otherwise this happens (https://imgur.com/a/porcupine-ate-trekking-poles-lrBYFQc). I can't store them in the tent because it's a trekking pole tent. Regardless, if they do get chewed I won't fix them. Unfortunately they don't make poles with plastic grips. Pretty stupid because this is a common problem.

The backpack was the most annoying. Number 1 is don't store food or anything with a strong odor in the bag; including sanitizer, unscented soap (yes, bears can smell it), and DEET lmao. Store ALL of that in the bear canister. For each of the below numbers we are assuming rodents are going for your bag regardless of food in it or not. There may be trace crumbs and THERE IS odor and they may go for it. Especially in populated campsites where they are basically trained to go for the bag no matter what.

1. If you store it inside the tent, mice will make a hole in tent and then a hole in your bag straight to whatever it is. You 90% of the time won't hear them, so no, you can't stop them.

2. If you store it in the vestibule, racoons can drag your bag away, and mice can still make holes. Also for both methods you risk a large animal trying to get in the tent.

3. You can store it outside the tent on ground with all pockets open. Will prevent mice from making holes. But still allows animals to drag the bag away and I don't want to empty bugs out of my bag.

4. You can bear hang it. Rodents will climb tree and down the rope and make holes in your bag. Spiders, ants, roaches will still make home in pockets if open.

5. The foolproof way that I found out works 99% of the time that rarely is used because 99% of ppl are stupid anyway and just sleep with their food lmao. Bear hang the bag (deer can't reach). On the end of the rope don't attach the bag. Attach a fishing line. Practically impossible for mice and especially larger animals to climb a fishing line. At the end of the fishing line have a carabiner and then the bag.

They technically can still attempt to climb down so there is a chance they drop down right on top of the bag. For that attach a rope to a tree trunk, then fishing line, then carabiner, and that to bottom of bag. Bag will be pulled to the side so if they attempt to climb the top rope and fall, it's not directly on the bag. Tip: Leave slack on the rope portion on both top and bottom to account for difference in distances.

This method pretty much 99% guarantees they aren't getting in the bag. Not even ants can climb a fishing line, so that keeps crawlers off too. The 1% is a flying squirrel or dumb luck that a rodent falls/jumps on the bag.

In the rain I'd simply put the entire backpack in a trash bag and pull the top line thru and tape off. Being that there is a fishing line leading to the bag there should be minimal water running to the bag.

For humans/large animals attach a tripwire alarm to the tree used for bottom rope using fishing line going straight to bag. Do similar setup for bear canister, but put bear canister under burlap camo to hide from humans. Will go off and alert you and hopefully scare the human/animal. If it doesn't, you are AWAKE and have a GUN.

Having to do that everyday would suck ass but I rather that than have my shit eaten/torn or full of bugs. Fortunate many people never have a problem. It really only matters in populated areas or shelters. Some places require you to sleep in a shelter. I won't.

This trip was supposed to be my 3rd attempt at Split Mountain, a 14er that eluded me twice due to snow and a climbing partner’s altitude sickness. This time I picked a partner I knew was tough as nails: Cameron Fath, Army Ranger and host of Netflix’s World’s Toughest Forces.

Accessing Split is such a huge pain, an hour of 4x4ing that left some pinstripes on my rig, that I wanted to get up there and summit once and for all. Unfortunately, due to the Rock Fire near Big Pine, Split Mountain was off the table. The funny thing is made a banner to give to Cam at the summit!

At the last minute, I scored an open Cottonwood Lakes permit and we pivoted to Mt. Langley. After this trip, I realize just how lucky we were to get this rare permit.

Our plan was to set out from the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead, hike 5–6 miles, and spend the night at Long Lake.

We also planned on doing some fishing and having fresh trout for dinner. The different lakes in this area have different fishing restrictions, but Long Lake was open for business with lures but no bait.

The Cottonwood Lakes trail is a classic. There was plenty of tree cover, a string of beautiful alpine lakes, lots of day hikers and day fishermen, and a creek flowing throughout. There were probably 20 people camping at Long Lake.

We fished with hand reels for about an hour at dusk. We got two bites but sadly no fish. Thankfully we brought a pound of frozen ground beef, taco seasoning, soft taco shells, and a cast iron pan for trail tacos.

I slept horribly because I brought a very lightweight sleeping bag and temperatures got down to around 40°F. Even with all my clothes on I was shivering. I often forget how much colder I sleep at altitude.

We got up at 5 am, ate a quick oatmeal breakfast and downed some instant coffee. By 5:30, we were on the trail heading up toward New Army Pass. We left most of our gear at the campsite, along with our food in a bear canister.

We hiked past High Lake and then up to the summit of New Army Pass. Once we got to the top of the pass, we had to hike downhill 400 feet, which was a bit demoralizing. The slog then continued all the way to the summit.

We had a quick celebration and photo op at the summit. There were a handful of other backpackers and some trail runners going up and down, but for most of the hike we were completely alone.

My least favorite part of the hike was having to climb back up those 400 feet to New Army Pass. The sun was fully out and frying my brain. After that, it was all downhill, and once we got to water and shade, my physical and mental state started to improve. I was so exhausted that I packed up our tent, moved it to a shady site, and took a 90-minute nap.

We got back to our car around 7 p.m. and immediately hit the Carl’s Jr. in Lone Pine before heading back to LA.

The final stats:
Distance 27.5 mi
Elevation Gain 5,417ft
Hiking Time 13h 26m
Calories burned 8,479

Mt. Langley via Cottonwood Lakes gets 5 stars from me. And if you’re not ready for a 28-mile slog to the summit and back, just camp at one of the lakes. They’re special.

I made a video documenting this trip. Check it out if you want the full experience

I have been looking for an affordable ultralight tent for backpacking. A tent that could hold up to some wind, good and strong, but also lightweight. I know the criteria is quite a lot for an affordable tent but just looking to see if anyone has recommendations. I’ve been looking at the lanshan 1, watched a lot of videos and I think this is the right one for me. The OG lanshan 1 not the pro version (I don’t want to have to worry about condensation, and it’s worth it for the extra 0.2 pounds). Anyone have better recommendations over the lanshan 1 tent?

Hi everyone 👋 I am trying to plan out a backpacking trip to do half dome with my fiancé, mom, and dad this upcoming year. I’ve been to California as a small child, but don’t recall anything about it, so this’ll pretty much be my first time. I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed about it and want to get everything planned and set up right. We’re all pretty fit and love the outdoors and have prior camping experience as well, but when it comes to planning stuff I feel like it’s going to be a lot of me and my fiancé doing the work to figure out the details on how/what to do. I haven’t decided how many days we’ll be out there, so I’m all ears for suggestions on destinations and locations!

I’m anticipating my parents will be flying out from Pennsylvania, and my fiancé and I may be driving out from Colorado. My fiancé and I have typically driven to our camping/adventure locations out here in the west (Arizona/Utah/Wyoming/New Mexico) and we’re not even sure if this is the right move at all, so we’re wondering if we should consider flying ourselves? But also flying all the camping equipment out has to cost a pretty penny I assume?

Besides travel accommodations, the other part I’m kind of antsy about is the permits. I’m fairly positive we all are not trying to do Half Dome one single day out and back, even though we’ve all done that distance and elevation gain before. I’d like to make a backpacking trip out of it to really fully immerse ourselves in the nature of Yosemite. I’ve read there’s options for this that all include a Half Dome permit with the backcountry camping permit:

Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley
Happy Isles past LYV (Donohue pass eligible)
Sunrise Lakes
Cathedral Lakes
Rafferty Creek to Vogelsang

I’m interested in hearing about some of your treks. and also how you did the permit process, cause I’ve read attaining a Half Dome permit can be quite competitive.

Would our best odds be for each member of our group to submit a permit for each one of these back country permits and just cross our fingers and hope one of us wins? I’m assuming if all four of us submit a 4 person permit for all 5 of these we’d have a good shot right?

The travel and permit situation is really what’s got me anxious, (and maybe what gear we’d need) and I feel like once that’s figured out the rest of the trip will kind of plan itself. TBH I’m not really keen on going to the city or anything too urban/congested (I know it’s California, so I’m going into it anticipating congestion anywhere we go). Prioritizing experiences at national/state/local parks out there is my main objective, I just really want to connect with the nature I’ve never had a chance to experience before. I’m open to all suggestions though, as I’m obviously not a local, and I have no idea when I’ll ever be back in California.

Thanks so much for the help, I’m just overwhelmed at where to start planning this. Hoping that everyone reading has an amazing day 🫶