Patagonia Micro Puff Hoody

Patagonia Micro Puff Hoody

I bought this jacket for the Manaslu Circuit Trek in Nepal and could not have been happier.  In fact, I have been using it for many other things once I returned home as this is easily one of the best purchases I have ever made. They boast “A piece of high-tech magic from Patagonia.” and I have to say that it definitely lives up to that statement.  It weighs about the weight of a chocolate bar but is probably one of the warmest jackets I own, aside from my Spyder Ski jacket.  How this works is way beyond me, but I can attest to it effectiveness.  Additionally, it can be packed and folded up into one of the jackets pockets for easy storage and packing. How light is it actually? I bought the Balkan Blue Medium jacket and it weighs a total of 289 grams, after using it for a while.  … Read more

Survival Frog Hand Warmer/USB Charger and my Snow Shoes

Survival Frog Hand Warmer/USB Charger

Hey everyone, hope you are having an awesome day.  My day has been jam packed thus far and this evening promises to be just as fun.  For those of you sitting inside because it is too cold, you may want to rethink that as there are many things you can do to stay warm and enjoy the outdoors when it is cold and snowy.  Today’s blog is about two of the pieces of equipment that will help you with exactly that. Survival Frog USB Charger and Hand Warmer Every once in a while, I come across multi-purpose devices.  Not devices that I use for multiple purposes but devices are actually designed for multiple purposes.  The Survival Frog is exactly one of those devices and I have fallen in love with this thing.  As you know, batteries lose charge quite fast in the cold and our hands are also quite susceptible … Read more

Modern RV Kitchens Take Camping to a Luxurious New Level

Modern RV Kitchen

Gone are the days when a camping kitchen consisted of a small pot on a Coleman propane stove. Today’s modern RVs have kitchens equipped with many of the amenities you enjoy in your home. You don’t have to “rough it” in the back country anymore. Almost any amenity that you might find in your kitchen at home is also available in a new RV kitchen, albeit sometimes in a scaled-down model. One appliance that you don’t have to use a scaled-down version of in a new RV is the refrigerator. When RVs first became common, it was not unusual to find that they were either supplied with an ice box or a tiny refrigerator capable of holding only enough food for a day or two. The less expensive RVs may come with small-apartment-sized propane refrigerators, but some of the more luxurious RVs made today come outfitted with full-sized residential electric … Read more