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TrailGroove Blog

A Blog by the TrailGroove Team

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  • Aaron Zagrodnick 218
  • Mark Wetherington 71
  • Susan Dragoo 21
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Gear | Trips | Food | Technique | Reading

Entries in this blog

Gear

MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe Stove Review

An upright backpacking canister stove released by MSR in 2019, the Pocket Rocket Deluxe takes the normal version of their popular upright canister stove (the standard Pocket Rocket stove) and adds an external piezo push start ignition system along with an internal pressure regulator, promising more stable performance across both low canister and in colder weather applications. After utilizing the Soto WindMaster for years that utilizes a pressure regulation system – for more you can see our full
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Kahtoola MICROspikes Traction System Review

If you ask five people when backpacking and hiking season is, you will probably get five different answers. For those that want to extend their own personal season into the fringes of the shoulder seasons and even into the heart of winter, there are a couple things that will be necessary. Warmer gear can only get you so far, and as it gets icy, you’ll need to add something to your footwear to help with traction. Even during the peak of summer, traction devices can make or break a trip
tmountainnut

tmountainnut in Gear

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Gear

Sea to Summit Ultralight Insulated Sleeping Pad Review

Back in 2015, Sea to Summit introduced a new lineup of sleeping pads (or mats as they refer to the line) made up of 6 different models utilizing their Air Sprung Cell design, an egg-crate like dot weld pattern designed to prevent the transfer of movement throughout the pad and increase a user’s sleeping comfort. The mats ranged in r-value from a low of .7 to a high of 5, and ranged in weights from less than a pound to 36 ounces. The details of the lineup on paper caught my eye: Durabl
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Reading

Ultralight Winter Travel Book Review

Even among the most avid and enthusiastic three-season backpackers, winter backpacking is an intimidating prospect. The long and cold nights, the high consequences of mistakes, and the challenges of travel in snowy terrain – not to mention the specialized equipment often needed – dissuade many people from heading out on overnight trips during the colder months. While winter conditions certainly make backpacking more difficult in several regards, winter also has unique rewards born of its frigid
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Reading

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Gear

Coast FL1R Micro Rechargeable Headlamp Review

I’ve always been a fan of headlamps powered by either 3 AAA batteries or a single AA battery (my current favorite). While these types of headlamps may at first seem a bit archaic – the performance is simply there. When it comes to the ultralight headlamp category, lithium has matched, but not overtaken a single AA battery when watt hours are compared side by side. To avoid throwing away batteries, I use all Panasonic Eneloop batteries – rated for over 2000 cycles. On the plus side, ex
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

NEMO Moonlite Elite Backpacking Chair Review

For nearly the past 10 years, I’ve packed a backpacking chair of some type along on most of my backpacking trips. It’s one of those items that is never immediately packed – ending up somewhere off to the side while packing in what I describe as some type of “maybe” pile. Although rocks and logs in the field are free of charge and don’t add weight to your pack (provided you don’t carry them), the chair always ends up coming along. New to the lightweight backpacking chair market, the NE
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Review: BearVault BV450 Bear-Resistant Food Canister

Aside from bear canisters, there are few – if any – pieces of gear that backpackers can be required to have. Don’t want to bring a tent? That’s your choice. Feel like skipping the stove and eating no-cook dinners? Go for it. Trust the forecast and decide to leave the rain gear at home? No big deal. The ability to choose what we bring and the multitude of options for nearly every type of gear that exists are part of the fun of planning a backpacking trip. However, for certain national parks and o
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Gear

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Gear

Platypus GravityWorks Water Filter: Long Term Review

For the past 10 years, the Platypus GravityWorks water filtration system has been my primary method for treating water in the backcountry. When it comes to backpacking water treatment, we need a solution that is effective, reliable, and reasonably fast, without taking up too much space or weighing us down on the trail. Essentially, we need all-around performance. In this review we'll evaluate the GravityWorks water filtration system and how well it performs in the backcountry. The Gra
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket Review

For backpackers in all but the most temperate and low elevation climates, a down jacket is an almost indispensable piece of gear. While fleece jackets, wool sweaters, or synthetic insulation pieces can provide warmth, their ability to do so at a comparable warmth-to-weight ratio as a down jacket is lacking. Although synthetic pieces are certainly catching up in the warmth-to-weight regard and their ability to insulate when wet provides a distinct advantage, there is a reason why the most common
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Gear

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Food

Mountain House Veggie Chorizo Breakfast Scramble Review

A newer meal from Mountain House, the Veggie Chorizo Breakfast Scramble Meal is a meal based on eggs, a plant-based chorizo-flavored crumble, hash-style potatoes, and bell peppers. Each pouch has 580 calories and is ready in 9 minutes after adding 1 1/3 cups of boiling water. This vegetarian and gluten-free meal has a well-rounded nutritional profile, and has a shelf life of 30 years. The Veggie Chorizo Breakfast Scramble meal from Mountain House offers 580 calories in a vegetarian an
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Food

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Gear

Helinox Ground Chair Review

The past year or two I’ve become a fan of at least on occasion, heading out on a trip every now and then that involves a day or two of backpacking into the wilderness with a particular destination in mind, then staying a couple nights exploring in that area. As a backpacker who’s also a fly fisherman, a secret lake in the wilderness is often involved on these trips. In contrast to the more typical backpacking trip of packing in the miles and moving daily, these types of excursions allow you to r
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

MSR WindPro II Stove Review

For 3-season use stove choices are simple: many of us rely on an upright canister stove – with my current favorite choice being the Soto WindMaster. For year-round utilization however and when temperatures fall in winter, and / or melting snow is one’s source of water, modifications to your stove system or a different system entirely are called for. As temperatures drop, performance of upright canister stoves begins to suffer and especially as temperatures approach or surpass the boiling point o
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Western Mountaineering UltraLite 20 Degree Sleeping Bag Review

For many lightweight and ultralight backpackers looking for a single sleeping bag to suit their needs throughout the year in many parts of the country, a 20 degree bag is often chosen for its blend of warmth while still remaining light enough to easily carry. Here in the Rockies, it might be a bit too warm in the summer, though you’ll still see lows in the 20’s at times at high elevation even in August. For spring and fall the rating is nearly spot-on perfect, and for colder temperatures you can
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Technique

Summer Hiking: Tips & Techniques for Hot Weather Hikes

Summer is a great time to be out on the trail. The long daylight hours expand opportunities and you can get away with lighter gear when staying warm isn’t as large of an issue during the day and at night. At the same time however, considerations such as heat, hydration, and insect protection must be considered – any one of which can quickly turn a great trip into a journey where putting one foot in front of the other becomes an exercise of sheer determination. Here are a few tips and techniques
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Gear

REI Co-op Flash 18 Backpack Long Term Review

With a market full of competitors, choosing the right daypack for your needs can be a difficult task. In this review, I’ll evaluate the features and performance of the smallest pack in the popular REI Flash series – the Flash 18 (18 = 18 liters / 1100 cubic inches). In a sea of competing daypacks this is one pack that has managed to stand out for the past decade plus, partly due to its competitive price point. However, with an attractive price I of course always have my concerns – sometimes in t
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Trips

Grand Canyon Hiking and Backpacking Logistics

The Grand Canyon captivates many of those who penetrate its depths, and I am one of them. Living nearly a thousand miles from the South Rim means I visit the canyon, at most, once or twice a year, so I try to make each visit count. In April of 2024, I completed my fourth hike to the canyon floor. Each of my hikes has been very different. When it comes to hiking in the Grand Canyon, those looking for expansive views and rugged terrain won't be disappointed. Backpacking the Grand C
Susan Dragoo

Susan Dragoo in Trips

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Trips

Two Short Hikes in Zion: Canyon Overlook & Many Pools

Zion National Park is one of my favorite national parks, and for good reason: there are amazing views, beautiful cliffs and streams, abundant photography opportunities, and wonderful hikes. The park has several well-known popular hikes – The Subway, Zion Narrows, and Angel’s Landing for example – but there are some other shorter or lesser known hikes that are also well worth your while. I have made a couple of short visits as part of my mountain biking and hiking trips over the past two years, a
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

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Gear

Soto WindMaster Backpacking Stove: Long Term Review

The Soto WindMaster upright canister stove was released in 2013, and has become a popular stove in the upright backpacking canister stove market. Improving upon Soto’s now antiquated Micro Regulator OD-1R stove, the WindMaster was designed to be even lighter and was designed with wind resistance and efficiency in mind. Soto’s micro regulator valve system is utilized in the WindMaster, which Soto claims improves efficiency and operation during cold weather, where many canister stoves begin to fal
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Trips

Hiking the Mariscal Rim Trail: A Return to Big Bend

Last fall, my sister, Melissa, and I visited Big Bend National Park in west Texas (see TrailGroove #56). As we left, we decided that we needed to return in the spring – unfinished business! One of the main reasons was to hike the Mariscal Canyon Rim Trail, which we didn’t hike last trip as the temperature was going to be too high. While our previous trip (detailed here) involved more extensive hiking and some backpacking, during our latest trip, we hiked several shorter hikes and drov
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

2
Reading

Backpacking and Hiking Songs: 11 Favorite Classics

Whether you’re driving across the country to finally hike that classic mountain range that’s been on your mind for years or simply on the way to your local trailhead, perhaps nothing can get you ready for the hike like the perfect song or hiking playlist. And hey, there’s nothing else to really do in the car anyway. On the flipside, it could be argued that nothing is more annoying than getting the latest pop song – that you happened to hear on the radio right before locking the car – stuck in yo
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Reading

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Food

10 Best Freeze Dried and Dehydrated Backpacking Meals

Let’s be honest; not every backpacking trip provides the time for us to prepare a nightly gourmet meal, and not all of us are ready to embrace, or perhaps we have yet to have a discussion with, our inner hidden chef. While I like to create backpacking meals from scratch at times and when I can, if you’re like me, after a long day on the trail I simply often find myself wanting a sufficient amount of calories that taste great, and I want that meal as quickly and as easily as possible with minimal
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Food

6
Gear

REI Co-op Flexlite Air Chair: Long Term Review

While some categories of backpacking gear have already gone from heavy to as light as possible and already cycled back to achieve a balance between weight and durability using currently available materials and technology, of all things the backpacking chair stills seems to be in the middle of this cycle. As lighter and more packable chair designs supersede previous models on a near yearly basis, one of the latest and lightest chairs to hit the market in the lightweight, somewhat contradictory to
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Six Moon Designs Lunar Duo Tent Review

For groups of two looking for a lightweight backpacking tent with decent elbow room, the choice of lightweight backcountry shelters can at times seem limited. The category can be narrowed down to just a few contenders quite quickly, with one of the leading candidates being the topic of this review, the venerable Six Moon Designs Lunar Duo. A single-walled shelter offering 34 square feet of interior floor space, the Lunar Duo offers a nicely adequate floor plan for 2 or luxury for 1. This is a we
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Feathered Friends Hummingbird UL 20 Sleeping Bag Review

For three-season backpacking in most of the continental United States, a 20-degree bag is an ideal choice. When it’s warm it can be used like a quilt, when a late season or high elevation trip has a cold night or two dropping into the teens it will be adequate if not downright comfortable (especially if paired with a down jacket and thick socks), and for nights where low temperatures range in the upper 20s to low 40s it seems perfect. Although I’ve owned 30-degree bags and 15-degree bags over th
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Gear

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Food

Mountain House Chicken Tikka Masala Review

No matter how many freeze-dried meals you have queued up in your gear stash, it’s eventually nice to add some variety even to an otherwise favorite selection of backcountry meals. Mountain House recently released a couple new meals to include the Chicken Tikka Masala meal reviewed here, as well as a Kung Pao Chicken meal. When I noticed the meals were out, I had to give these meals a try to see if they’d either serve to add that needed variety for the season ahead, or maybe they’d even become a
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Food

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