Honest, field-minded reviews of outdoor and safety gear.
Twelve stainless spikes per foot on an elastomer harness that stays stretchy to -22F (-30C). Why microspikes are the first winter purchase that changes what you can safely do, and where they stop.
In a surprise bear encounter, a cloud of deterrent you can deploy in a second beats anything else you’re carrying. SABRE Frontiersman is a maximum-strength bear spray with a 35-foot (11 m) range, the kind of insurance you hope never to use. Heading into bear country? Read our guides to wildlife encounters and protecting food…
The default backcountry heat pack: cheap, feather-light, air-activated warmers giving up to 10 hours of heat with nothing to charge or refill. Why they earn a place in every pack and first-aid kit.
Everything in an open boat gets wet eventually, and the one thing that must not is the dry layer you will need if you go in. The Earth Pak roll-top is the workhorse dry bag: heavy PVC tarpaulin, a simple roll-and-buckle closure, and enough sizes to match the job. Ignore the phone case it ships with.
Getting back into a swamped kayak is only half the job, because a boat full of water is still unstable and still trying to tip you out. A bilge pump is the other half. Canadian rules require a bailer or manual pump in most paddlecraft, and the Pelican floating hand pump is the one that turns a twenty-minute bail into a two-minute one.
A phone is a map, a camera and a call for help until it gets wet, at which point it is a paperweight. The Pelican Marine pouch keeps it dry and floats if you drop it, which is more than most pouches manage. One change we would make before taking it paddling: the neck lanyard has no breakaway, and a cord around your neck is the wrong thing to wear in moving water.
