A good backpack can make or break a trip. Drenching rain, language barriers, delayed flights -- you can weather all with humor and go-get-'em attitude. But a good backpack is the foundation upon which your trip rests. It holds your entire life in one place. It protects it. Sometimes you wear it so often it...

What Vagabonder doesn't want some used gear, at cheap cheap cheap prices? Especially if you are a camper or backpacker...or kayaker...or biker... Two extremely popular outdoor supply stores, REI and MEC , offer "used gear" garage sales to their card-holding members, at least once or twice a year. These bonanza style sales often open their...

The ultralight backpacking craze started with one Ray Jardine and the Pacific Crest Trail Hikers' Handbook , which outlined Mr. Jardine's efforts to hike the PCT with the absolute minimum weight of pack. Since then, ultralighters have refined their gear until a tent can weight 2 pounds, a backpack 4lbs, and a stove only 12...