Cooped Up? Get Uncooped.

What's better than a free trailer? A free modular GO trailer packed to the brim with great outdoor sports gear like a Jackson kayak, Burton snowboard, Niner bike, Kelty camping gear and even Ground mountain boards--$14,000 worth of rad outdoor sports gear to be exact. SylvanSport is sponsoring a new contest called "Cache Me If You Can". Contestants will need to go onto the website--findtheGO.com--register and watch a video clue each week. Tucked inside the videos will be sets...

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This may be only tangentially related to the outdoors, but I enjoy a good cup of coffee with or on the way to most of my favorite outdoor activities (snowboarding, camping, backpacking), so I thought it was worth posting. The device in question also looks like an excellent alternative for backpacking caffeine. What I speak of is the Le Whif coffee inhaler. The inhaler is a lipstick-sized pack of coffee dust that users inhale. Each...

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I'll admit that I partake in an energy drink here or there. Even though it's a nasty-tasting, overpriced can of caffeine, once in a while the boost is worth it--especially when a cup of coffee would eat away at my stomach lining and make me have to drop trou in the middle of the forest. A new emerging trend is the "anti-energy" drink, a small bottle of elixir that calms you down and gets you ready for...

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Rescue beacons like the SPOT Messenger and ACR personal locator beacons (PLBs) offer outdoor lovers an invaluable safety tool. If ever you find yourself in a life-threatening situation, rescue is just a simple click of a button away. While the devices use different infrastructures, their aim is the same: transmit your location via satellite to a team of rescue personnel who can come give you the assistance you desperately need. While these type of devices might...

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We all know the old addage "cotton kills." Among outdoor folk, cotton apparrel is known for its tendency to soak up sweat, take forever to dry, and hang on you like a lead sheet. If you plan on sweating, cotton just isn't the ideal fabric to wear. Looks like that's all going to change with Polarmax's TransDRY tech shirts. It's touted as having all the softness and comfort that comes along with cotton, but none...

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The Inflatable Sleeping Coat is a recent design by Tsui-Wei. The coat functions as a traditional wind/waterproof jacket and can also be extended into a full-body raincoat. When the sun disappears, the coat is capable of being inflated into a camping mat/sleeping bag and used for sleeping. Unlike the JakPak, you'll need to bring your own tent if the weather is questionable because this offers very limited rain protection and insulation. The add-on rain skirt can also...

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Camperboy and I spotted a video series on You Tube last weekend, courtesy of the DIY Network's Classic Rides, and fell in love. Not with the show's presenter but with his project. It's been a dream of ours to buy a silver bullet like this (1970, 27 ft, Land Yacht) and renovate it, so when we started watching the first episode we were glued to the Mac for the following 9. That's right, in ten...

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On my long distance runs, I often find myself on lonely, isolated stretches of widy roads. When a car cruises by on a curvy mountain roadswith no medians, a runner can be left with a renewed sense of mortality. Since the thought of lying in a ditch with no help and no way of reaching my loved ones is a pretty disconcerting one, I was very appreciative when I was given a Wrist ID Elite...

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Google Maps is great if you're looking for point-to-point driving directions. It even provides the options of walking and public transportation directions. And now Google has added bike routes to its popular navigation service. Maps users can now select a bicycling option from the Directions drop-down menu. The feature will be available for 150 cities at launch and will offer bike-optimized directions for getting around town that give users access to information on bike lanes,...

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I am taking a solo canoe trip this summer, from Pine Island, Florida (around Fort Myers) to Key West via the Everglades. Any thoughts? Advice? I know the mosquitoes will be bad, hurricanes, what not, but that's nothing alien to me. Anybody done the Wilderness Waterway before or lived out of a canoe?

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  Today, I am lucky enough to live on the opposite side of a world-class ski mountain. But I wasn't always so lucky. I grew up snowboarding the massive mountains of central New Jersey. Evenings before snow storms would be spent scouting out "lines" under the high-tension wires or at the local school. The subsequent snow days hosted hours of trudging around town and up snow-covered hills to catch a little bit of gravity-fed powder. Two minutes...

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Nathan Sports' Synergy Multi-sport/Race Pak is a race vest designed for running, cycling, hiking, and any activity where water just won't be enough. The lightweight pack (19.2 ounces empty) features a Synergy dual bladder system: one  side of the bladder holds water, while the other side is made for an electrolyte drink. Each bladder has an individual output tube that leads into a dial which lets you control the water/electrolyte ratio.  I've had a few...

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  California company Manic has come up with a suspension system for snowboard bindings. Between the footbed and the baseplate of the Massive Pop 1.0 bindings sits a series of four titanium springs that eat up bumps and chatter. The springs can be adjusted for your weight and riding conditions with the help of an Allen wrench. In a sport where responsiveness between feet and board is optimized by purchasing the tightest possible boots and...

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U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan have been experiencing problems with GPS coverage in canyons and mountain ranges, an issue that has motivated the mlitary's Strategic Command to enhance the capability of the Global Positioning System (GPS) by adding three satellites. GPS currently relies upon a series of 24 different satellites along six separate orbital paths. Information from at least four separate satellites is used to provide a 3D position here on Earth. The addition of three satellites will...

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Every snowboarder knows the pain of letting his board hang from one knee on the chair lift as well as the beginner's humiliation of losing control of the loose foot when getting off. If only those stomp pads had boot straps... With the addition of a simple velcro strap, the Strap Pad takes care of those little irritations. The latest in a never-ending series of inventions that I wish I'd though of, the Strap Pad...

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A couple crazy guys took a drill to two Apple PowerBooks and turned them into a snowboard. While watching the video, I had that feeling you get when you think someone is talking about something/someone you love behind your back. Can anyone translate?? 

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    You just know a shelter named after an Italian mountain infantry has got to be impressive, and the Alpini Shelter won't prove you wrong. Kind of a cross between a tent and outerwear, the Alpini is a lightweight, no-frame shelter solution that gets you out of the weather quickly. Imagine if a rainstorm is bearing down; you want to get out of it as quick as possible. Trying to unload and pitch your...

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For all of us climbers who were scarred by Sylvester Stallone's 1993 film Cliffhanger, it looks like we've got a remedy. North Face, a film directed by Philipp Stolzl about two men's attempt to climb the Eiger's North Face in 1936, is being hailed by critics as gripping, suspenseful, and excruciating (in a good way). Film criticism patriarch Roger Ebert paid North Face high praise, saying that "I was on the side of that mountain...

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We all know about the demise of the dinosaurs, but since that happened millions of years ago, the import of occasion seems a bit removed to our daily lives. Fast forward to 1989 when we said goodbye to the Golden Toad. (Photo: Charles H. Smith / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) In 1996 we said farewell to the Zanzibar Leopard. (Photo: Helle V. Goldman and Jon Winther-Hansen) In 2000 it was the Pyrenean Ibex.   ...

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Here's a product that looks great in the catalog, but won't work so great in real life. The All-In-1 camp chair has an under-the-seat cooler and a magazine sleeve. It even has a set of wheels to roll around to the perfect spot under the shade of a generous elm. What more could a good camper ask for? How about a seat that doesn't include bottle caps probing your rectum or a cooler in which the...

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