Recent content by MichaelMerry

I understand that, at some point, portaging becomes an issue for many. This year will be our fourth straight year taking a 9-10 night trip in boundary waters. After the 4th or 5th portage in, it feels much like wilderness to me and skinny dipping is a simple proposition. These trips have...

I suggest soaking your ground cloth in a bucket of water with a mild soap, like Nikwax tent wash or simple green. Then scrub with soft brush is necessary. This has been worked for me with persistent pine sap in the past. I currently use three copper spur tents: solo, 3 person and 4 person.

A visitor o along the trail while backpacking the Black Forest Trail in Pennsylvania last week.

First, I’m a canoe paddler and sea kayaker. Grew up paddling a canoe, but living on the Great Lakes has me appreciating the sea kayak and we spend a lot of the summer in the cockpits of our sea kayaks. We’ve taken trips with them as well. I’ve never attempted to convert those who only kayak...

I have found a couple of titanium sporks on trips. We now use the long handled one found at a campsite on a backpacking trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. A simple spoon would suit me just fine, but we enjoy the extra long handle and I use the end as a screwdriver more often than I would have...

I also lift and row quite a bit. The lifting is something I’ve done for 25 years. I just added the rowing a couple years ago when I had some running injuries as a way to maintain my cardio. I really like the full body workout it gives me in addition to getting the heart rate up. I also backpack...

I did a ton of frog hunting by canoe in my younger years. It’s less frequent now, but I love that headlamps have improved enough so that a frog can be spot lit. Before they got this good, we had to balance the gig on a large flashlight and hold it all steady long enough to get the frog. Much...

Four of us just returned from a nice little backpacking trip in Quehanna. The foursome included my wife, father in law (78 years old) and our old, very experienced friend (81 years old). We kept the mileage pretty low at 16 miles over three days. We hiked 5.25 Monday, 6.75 Tuesday and the...

My wife’s winter backpacking valentine surprise for me.

Yeah, I’m in no rush for this wonderful winter to end. I’ve spent more time strapped to skis and snowshoes than I have in many years. It’s replaced my running for most of 2026 so far! And I’ve had 6 great backcountry nights in the beautiful snow as well. Love it! Before I know it, I’ll be...

Quehanna is one of our favorite places in the world.

We rely on our gear for warmth. The fire is ambiance. I don’t prefer the odor of the fire on me or my gear and worry about sparks damaging my gear. Even when we stay in lean tos, we prefer to sleep in a cold lean to and, if we have a fire, have it outside. I’ve been following that Sierra dump...

We broke trail about half the time. Another snowshoer, ironically from the Cleveland area, came through some of our route from the opposite direction. It saved a lot of energy for that portion. The days were unseasonably warm. Once the sun was up, temps quickly climbed above freezing. Clear...

If weather allows, we cowboy camp. We pitched the tarp for frost as the nights were incredibly still. The first night, we arrived to a brief, intense snow squall. The only reason we ever really use a tent is to keep insects away. That is one of many reasons we love winter wilderness travel. We...

We got in late Friday and hiked out Sunday afternoon. Two nights! Thanks for the kind words. We love to do this and spend a lot of time out there.