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TrailGroove Blog

A Blog by the TrailGroove Team

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  • Aaron Zagrodnick 238
  • Mark Wetherington 76
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Gear | Trips | Food | Technique | Reading

Entries in this blog

Trips

Backpacking Wyoming's Breathtaking Bighorn Mountains

As I drove to the trailhead the mountains were hidden in the clouds. The highway allowed me to drive 80 mph through vast open spaces with few signs of human activity. The rain fell heavily. Although a Michigander at heart, a few weeks earlier I had set out on temporary work that would allow the opportunity for adventures out West. While I had enjoyed many backpacking adventures in the West, this short overnighter would be my first near my new home. Into the Bighorn Mountains The Bighor
Eric

Eric in Trips

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Trips

Hiking & Exploring Kentucky's Red River Gorge

Usually when I travel, I am pulled to the west – New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and surrounding areas. For my latest trip, however, I headed in the opposite direction and visited a place that I had first heard about several years ago: Red River Gorge Geologic Area in northeastern Kentucky. My companion for this trip was Joel, with whom I’ve taken several other trips, both mountain biking and hiking. We left Oklahoma on October 2nd, 2022 and spent four days hiking in the area. The Red Rive
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

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Food

How to Make Backpacking and Camping Pancakes

Pancakes are a tried-and-true breakfast dish, but they aren’t a common dish for backpacking. While I typically opt for oatmeal when on my backpacking trips, from time to time I like to add some variety by starting off my day with pancakes. Since this dish requires a skillet and spatula, I usually plan to make it when I’m having quesadillas for dinner during the same trip as I will need the skillet for that meal. Before or after the pancakes, the skillet can also be used for making scrambled eggs
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Food

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Reading

Turn Around Time by David Guterson Book Review

David Guterson’s Turn Around Time: A Walking Poem for the Pacific Northwest (Mountaineers Books, 2019) is a bold and much-needed undertaking in contemporary outdoor poetry, and though it may not reach the highest echelons of technical deftness and poignancy, it makes up for it in ambition. Turn Around Time is a unique read in a walking poem format. Reading Turn Around Time At its essence, Turn Around Time is a walking poem in the style of Wordsworth, Frost, and Thoreau, chro
Steven Genise

Steven Genise in Reading

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Gear

Feathered Friends Egret 20 Degree Sleeping Bag Review

Muscle creates energy while adipose tissue stores energy. Energy in this context is synonymous with heat. The female anatomy typically consists of more fat than the male anatomy, especially in the chest and hip area. This is why women are generally perceived to sleep colder than men. Women’s bodies are highly efficient at keeping their vital organs protected and warm, but at the expense of our extremities. When hands begin to ache and toes go numb from coldness, these sensations relay a message
Adel

Adel in Gear

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Gear

Zpacks Multi-Pack Review: More Capacity, More Convenience

On backpacks, I’m a huge fan of exterior storage. I’ve settled on a popular arrangement: A large interior storage compartment for items I likely won’t need while hiking during the day, a large outside pocket for items I might need when stopped, and dual side and hipbelt pockets for items I’ll definitely need while on the move like water bottles, maps, snacks, and other great to have at hand items. The Zpacks Multi-Pack builds on this idea by adding a large additional storage option with a variet
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Technique

Hot Weather Backpacking: Not Too Hot to Handle

In an ideal world that seems to only exist in outdoor gear catalogs, all our backpacking would take place in temperatures that are 65F during the day. Our nights would be a cool and crisp 45F or so. A few delightful sprinkles of rain would occur to add some atmosphere and perhaps a change of scenery to delight photographers. Otherwise there would be perpetually sunny skies with only a few clouds. Clouds to form interesting shapes that materialize as movie characters, castles, or butterflies in o
PaulMags

PaulMags in Technique

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Reading

Thirst: 2,600 Miles to Home Book Review

A successful thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail is, by any means, a notable physical and mental victory. Setting the fastest known time (FKT) record on the PCT is a nearly superhuman feat of athleticism. Writing an engrossing, entertaining, and inspiring book about the experience is not only another accomplishment for Heather “Anish” Anderson, but is also a true gift not only to the hiking community but to readers in general. Written largely in a day-by-day format, Thirst: 2,600 Miles to Home
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Reading

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Technique

The PCT Method: How to Hang Your Backpacking Food

There’s more than one way to hang a food bag – but after trying a few, I’ve come to rely on the using the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) method. The PCT method balances simplicity, speed, and effectiveness. Rather than simply tying one end of your throw line onto a nearby tree, where a bear or another hungry forest dweller could attempt to chew through the line, break the line, or cause other forms of disorder, PCT style hanging eliminates that point of failure in a quick and easy way. The
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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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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Reading

Breaking Into the Backcountry Book Review

Breaking Into the Backcountry (University of Nebraska Press, 2010), is a memoir of solitude, anxiety, and beauty. It is the story of Edwards’s 2001 experience with the famed Boyden Wilderness Residency, in which an author lives in a remote homestead in the Klamath Mountains, alone, and with only a generator for (limited) power. A chance for the kind of true, unparalleled solitude the likes of which writers seldom get. But Edwards is young, and deeply inexperienced, having grown up in suburban In
Steven Genise

Steven Genise in Reading

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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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Technique

Hiking Blister Prevention, Treatment, and Care

Blisters are a very common hiking injury. Blisters can cause a trip to become very uncomfortable, and in worse case scenarios they can slow you down significantly causing unintended consequences. I find a small first aid kit with a few specific items and some practice will eliminate most foot issues, and will quickly alleviate small problems before the blisters and related problems get big. Preventing blisters from happening is the first step when it comes to backpacking and hiking bl
tmountainnut

tmountainnut in Technique

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Technique

Backpacking and Fly Fishing: An Introduction

An argument can be made for keeping backpacking as simple as possible. Stuff your pack with warm clothes, a tent, your sleeping bag, and any other luxury items you wish to carry. Grab a map, hit a trail, and set off through your local woods, the red rocks and canyons of the southwest, or hike towards high alpine cirques. Unbothered by the distraction of the world back at home, you’ll have nothing but the sounds of nature to rock you to sleep wherever you decide to set up your tent. Ho
jansenjournals

jansenjournals in Technique

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Gear

Montbell Mirage Down Parka: Long Term Review

If you’re comparing specifications among commercially available light to mid-weight down parkas, one option will surely start to rise to the top of the list as you compare down fill and overall weights across the board – the Montbell Mirage. As a long-time user of their popular and lighter U.L. Down Inner series, and as a backpacker who isn’t afraid to carry a few extra ounces if the comfort trade-off is worth the weight, the Mirage is tempting option for shoulder season and winter trips, or for
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

How to Keep Your Pillow on Your Backpacking Sleeping Pad

We all know a better night of sleep leads to a better next day of hiking. While the most ultralight of pillow techniques calls for using extra clothes, stuff sacks, water reservoirs, or anything you can find all stuffed into another stuff sack, many of us are already wearing the majority of our clothing in our sleeping bag, leading to a bleak build-your-own pillow situation. This case calls for a separate (and more comfortable) dedicated pillow, and with many options now weighing just
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Black Diamond Firstlight 2P 4-Season Tent Review

Shelter from the elements is a crucial component of a backpacker’s equipment list and having adequate and reliable shelter is of paramount importance in winter. When I primarily backpacked in the Southeast, I was able to get away with using a three-season tent or a tarp for backpacking trips in the winter months without any issues. However, when I moved to Montana and knew I would be backpacking year-round in the Northern Rockies, a dedicated winter tent quickly rose to the top of my “to buy” li
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Gear

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Technique

How to Keep Your Backpacking Sleeping Pad in Place

No matter the lengths we may go to in order to find a great campsite, when it comes to the flat and level part of the selection process I can think of only a few occasions when a chosen spot for the night was truly perfect in this regard. Most of the time in the backcountry, instead of finding a spot that is perfectly flat and level, you’ll likely end up finding one that’s flat and level enough. When you combine these types of sites with a slippery tent floor and especially when combined with sl
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Gear

Tarptent Hogback 4-Person Tent: Long Term Review

With a new addition to the family nearly 15 years ago, I at first held fast to my minimalist approach to backpacking, and on our first trips together we tried to make smaller shelters work. We could find a way to all fit in a 2+ person tent right? For two adults, a child, and a dog who somehow takes up twice as much space when asleep than awake those shelters worked, but without a doubt made for some of the most uncomfortable backcountry sleeping arrangements in recent memory. I learned my lesso
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking & Outdoor Gear Maintenance & Repair Guide

A great season was enjoyed. And it is not quite the end of winter. Spring is almost here. The fine art of ski touring was mastered a bit more. The goal of one winter backpacking trip a month was achieved. Some foothills trail work was done on a few occasions. Your trusty leather hiking boots not only let you walk up to a trail work site, but also became coated with mud on some of the warm winter days that occur just before spring. Your down coat seems a little grungy from some deep shoulder
PaulMags

PaulMags in Gear

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Food

Mountain House Buffalo-Style Chicken Mac & Cheese Review

While this new meal from Mountain House wasn’t quite released in time to make our full backpacking mac & cheese roundup in Issue 51, it seemed almost a necessity to test out this new meal given the recent release of our previous article. This take on the dish from Mountain House definitely shakes things up however, as a mac & cheese with freeze-dried chicken and Buffalo wing sauce now added. While most everyone likes mac & cheese and I’ll personally go for some Buffalo chicken most d
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Food

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Gear

Tarptent Scarp 2 4-Season Tent Review

When it comes to backpacking gear and especially the big three or four (shelter, sleeping bag, pack, and pad) there are two schools of thought to meeting the needs of different types of trips across the different seasons. On one hand, one can choose to select from an array of seasonally specific choices – for example having 3 sleeping bags with different temperature ratings that ideally fit each trip at just the right weight. On the other hand, one could just choose gear that fits every trip wit
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Food

Mountain House Kung Pao Chicken Review

When it comes to pre-made backpacking meals, manufacturers understandably often seem to be trying to come up with meals that are compatible with as many palates as possible. Right away, this typically leaves meals that should be spicy toned down and even perhaps, bland. Luckily, by packing a small bottle of hot sauce or hot sauce packets and / or bringing some spices, this can typically be easily remedied. That said, as someone who has never called a meal too spicy, having a meal check off this
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Food

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Technique

How to Pack Food for a Backpacking Trip

Food for any backpacking trip is all about balance: a balance of meals that are lightweight yet still offer a sufficient amount of calories and nutrition, food that will likely not be of the fresh variety but will still bring flavor to the table, and finding that delicate balance between bringing enough food without bringing too much. Once you get the balances right however, planning out food for a multiday backpacking trip can be a simple process while still keeping us well fed and in good spir
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Trips

The High Point of Texas: Hiking Guadalupe Peak

A spur of the moment side trip landed us in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park with easy access to the tallest point in Texas. Guadalupe Peak looms over the surrounding desert flatlands at a respectable 8,751 feet, accessible only after paying the price of a grueling 8.4 mile round-trip, 3000-foot elevation gain trail. This is truly a spectacular not-to-be-missed hike that comes with bragging rights for ascending the highest peak in Texas. Located in Guadalupe Mountains National Pa
Karen Garmire

Karen Garmire in Trips

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