Gear Reviews

Overview: My faithful old tent died recently, and what a fine time to give up the ghost. A fine time, indeed. If you sense a hint of sarcasm in that statement, you’re not wrong. At the time, Allen and I were bivouacked on a remote island in northern Ontario, where we were fishing for pike and living feral for a short week. Conditions had been comfortable, until one evening, the barometer plummeted and foul weather rolled in. Sheets of rain pounded our campsite, and we w

Overview: When it comes to cold-weather camping I'm certainly not a newbie, having weathered my fair share of snow storms and single-digit nights in my backpacking and backcountry hunting adventures over the last 30 years. And, due to investing in quality gear, I typically stay decently warm and comfortable. But sometimes the conditions are just more than the gear can handle. It's not to say that it's bad, but just not suited for the job at hand. That was the case with my col