Increasingly, studies are showing that hiking with poles can have significant positive effects. Carbon hiking poles reduce impacts on knees, ankles, hips, and all the joints in between. From personal experience, they also keep your hands closer to heart level, which reduces that uncomfortable swelling of the hands and fingers that happens on longer hikes. …
I consider a headlamp to be a very important item that should be on everyone’s checklist of hiking essentials. There are, of course, very cheap, no-name headlamps available out there, but there’s certainly something to be said for trusting your only source of light on the trail to a name brand. That’s why I’m going …