by Brian Patton | Mar 17, 2020 | backpacking, Canadian Rockies, canadian rockies trail guide, gear, hiking, technology
A veteran solo backpacker looks back to a decade of exploration on the remote trails of Banff, Jasper and the Willmore Wilderness and provides useful tips for today’s wilderness travellers. Back before there were text-enabled GPS units, solar panels with power...
by Brian Patton | Oct 25, 2017 | gear, hiking, technology
After years of searching for the perfect water filter for the backcountry, I recently discovered the Katadyn BeFree Microfilter with Hydrapak 0.6L flask—a water filter and soft, collapsible bottle that comes very close to the good old days of scooping water...
by Brian Patton | Apr 17, 2017 | gear, Home page News, technology
Once again, tick season is upon us. For most in the Rockies wood ticks are an annual nuisance that we suffer for a couple of months. The only defence is to tuck our pants into our socks and check ourselves carefully for the beasties following every hike. But in many...
by Brian Patton | Dec 9, 2015 | blog, canadian rockies trail guide, gear, hiking, technology
When we set out to create the first edition of the Canadian Rockies Trail Guide, we needed a way of accurately measuring the trails, many of which had never been measured before. Professional surveying wheels with their small wheels and substantial weight were out of...
by Brian Patton | Nov 17, 2015 | gear, hiking, Home page News, review, technology
Technology continues to bloom in the backcountry, but one of the best and simplest I discovered this summer is the Luci solar-powered light. LED lights are nothing new on the trail. LED light output and reliability is used in headlamps and even strip-lights to...
by Brian Patton | Oct 16, 2015 | technology
Technology always seems to be testing the National Park experience these days. In August, I took a short evening hike to a waterfall in Banff National Park. When I got to the viewpoint, I was greeted by three hikers photographing the falls with a buzzing,...
