Category: Gear

Best Gear of the Year + Links to Holiday Gift Guides

Every year I like to look back on the best gear of the year. What did I try? What was awesome? And I’m not the only one. More than 15 outdoor family bloggers got together this year to share our picks for holiday gift giving. Check out my choices and the links below to get some great Gift-spiration just in time for the holidays.

Velobling Jewelry – Unique jewelry and accessories made from recycled bike parts. They are beautiful. Watch for a giveaway coming soon!

Features: Recycled bike parts, made in USA
Uses: Unique jewelry and accessories.
Price: $12 – $155

ChicoBag Produce and Snack Time Bags – I had never thought about using reusable bags in the produce department until ChicoBag gave me some to try. Now I use these bags every week. It’s a small way to make an environmental difference and I don’t have a bunch of plastic bags to throw out every week. I also use their Snack Time RePETe reusable bags when packing my son’s lunch every day.

Features: Three different materials for different food needs. Packable, light-weight, reusable.
Uses: Produce, snacking, food storage.
Price: $12.99 – $16.99

Earth Creations – This eco-conscious clothier uses dirt to dye clothes. At least that’s how it started. I love the bicycle inspired design of this T-Shirt they sent me, as well as the comfortable cotton feel.

Features: Organic and sustainable clothing colored with natural dyes.
Uses: Mens, Womens and Kids clothing.
Price: $10 – $115

Aquabot by Lunatec – My kids would choose this as their top gear choice of the year. This water bottle add on presurizes your water, turning an ordinary bottle into a multi use tool. Cleaning, drinking, waterfights, the Aquabot can spray up to 25 feet. See my review here.

Features: Fits standard Nalgene and CamelBak water bottle tops. Easy to use. Variable setting for spray or stream.
Uses: Cleaning, Drinking, Water Fights
Price: $20-$28

Monkey Mat – Perfect for an outdoor baby or frequent picnicker. The Monkey Mat came in handy on several outdoor adventures when I just needed a place to put Mountain Baby for a minute. Diaper changes, picnics, sitting by the splash pad, the Monkey Mat was my go-to ground cover. See my review here.

Features: Water Resistant, lightweight, conveniently clips to a stroller or backpack.
Uses: Picnics, Hiking, Ground cover. I used it on the side of a parking lot when I couldn’t find a place to change the baby.
Price: $19.99

LuminAID Solar Lantern – My husband purchased the PackLite 12 early this summer. It’s light weight, inflatable, solar lantern that accompanies us on every campout. See my full review here.

Features: Light weight, inflatable, solar charged
Uses: Camping, Emergency Preparedness
Price: $22.95

Lifestraw Go – This was one of the coolest products I’ve used this year. There is something awesome about scooping water right out of a river and taking a big swig. See my review here.

Features: Built in water filter for easy use.
Use: Water filtration, Hiking, Camping, Emergency preparedness
Price: $34.95

Liberty Bottleworks – Water bottles made from recycled aluminum right here in the USA. The unique and colorful designs instantly drew my eye. See my review here.

Features: Double wall aluminum, unique threadless cap style, awesome art.
Use: Water Bottle
Price: $23

Butler Over Boot – Little G loves these bright rain boots. Designed to be worn either with the included liner or over the child’s own shoe, the Butler Boots are fun, easy to put on and really cute. Full review coming soon.

Features: Wide opening with toddler friendly fastener. Durable. Fits over regular shoes or can use insert.
Uses: Waterproof rain or snow boots
Price: $49.99

Pakems – These packable boots have become part of my camping experience. It doesn’t matter if I wear sandals, sneakers or snowboard boots all day, when I’m done with the activities, the Pakems come out. They’re lightweight, compact and come with their own storage. And my kids loved coloring theirs. Full review coming soon.

Features: Lightweight, Compact, Warm
Uses: Packable shoe for relaxing after outdoor activities.
Price: $45-$65

Go Sun Stove – This Solar Oven, the Go Sun Sport, was really fun to use. It’s a unique outdoor cooking experience, requires no fuel and is shockingly lightweight. See my full review here.

Features: Lightweight, innovative design, requires no extra fuel source, quiet
Uses: Cooking and baking outdoors.
Price: $279

Looking for more? Try these awesome gift guides from some of the best Outdoor Families I know.

Hike Like A Woman- Holiday Gear Guide

Utah’s Grotto Trail Hike and Monkey Mat Review

This post is part of a series of weekly gear reviews. Check back most Wednesdays* for reviews of cool gear for outdoor families.

In honor of National Public Lands Day, Mountain Dad and I went with some friends to Grotto Trail. Not only is this a great hike for kids, it was beautiful with fall colors in full effect.

While Big E and little g slid down the dirt slides, explored the stream and ran around with their friends the adults enjoyed the leaves. Occasionally we called the kids back to the trail in an attempt to finish the hike in less than three hours, but they were having so much fun playing we didn’t try too hard.

The colors were beautiful, the weather was perfect and the hike ideal. The trail is only 0.3 miles long, and ends in a twenty foot tall waterfall cave. And although the trail was fairly busy, it still had a feel of seclusion in the grotto.

We all enjoyed the hike so much we stopped for a picnic on the way out. Luckily I had my Monkey Mat to make things easier.

The Monkey Mat is a portable floor that folds into a convenient pouch making it an easy carry along for outdoor adventures. It was given to me for review at Outdoor Retailer and I’ve used it more than I expected in the last two months.

Now you may be thinking, isn’t that the same as a blanket? Although a blanket can serve the same purpose, the Monkey Mat stands out as being conveniently portable, as in it can fit in a large pocket or purse or clip onto a belt loop, backpack or stroller. The 5 by 5 foot square of water resistant material has weighted corners and toy and stake loops but folds up into the attached 6 by 6 inch zippered pouch.

There are times with a baby that I just need a clean place to put her down – going to the bathroom, helping another child, carrying something. The Monkey Mat makes that aspect of outdoor adventures much easier. At 6 months and not crawling yet, Baby L is the perfect age for the Monkey Mat. We’ve taken it on picnics, to the water park, as a stroller cover, even to put her down on my dirty floor at home. Within an hour of getting it I used it as a place to change a diaper on the side of a parking lot.

I have found that lugging three kids’ worth of stuff around makes me want to declutter everything, including what I take on outdoor adventures. The Monkey Mat gives me a space saving option that has made outdoor time more comfortable when sitting on the bare ground won’t work.

But even with the convenience of it, I don’t know that I would buy it myself. I’m frugal by nature and spending money for a portable floor when I already have a blanket or baby wrap seems redundant. With that said, had I received it as a baby shower gift I would use it all the time. It is a great gift for an outdoors loving parent.

Bottom line, when I have the Monkey Mat with me it can be a life saver, but sometimes it’s redundant. It’s list price is $19.99.

Pros:

  • Lightweight, portable, and packable 
  • Fits into attached pouch and clips onto bags, belts, or strollers.
  • Water Resistant
  • Machine Washable (don’t dry it in the dryer to keep the water resistance)
Cons:
  • Redundant if you already have a blanket or towel

*I know this is a Thursday, but I ran out of time to finish yesterday.

Directions to Grotto Trail in Utah:
Take I-15 to Payson Exit 254. Head South on Main Street until 100 North, Turn Left. Go East until 600 East and Turn Right. This road takes up up Payson Canyon. Follow for approx 7 miles to the trail head of Grotto Falls.

Aquabot Review and Camping in Logan Canyon, Utah

This post is part of a series of weekly gear reviews. Check back most Wednesdays for reviews of cool gear for outdoor families.

The whole mountain family headed up to Logan Canyon, Utah for an end of summer campout. Along for the ride were cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and lots of fun. We tubed the river a bit, hiked Tony Grove Nature Trail and of course had a fire and played cards in the tent. That last activity is the real reason my kids go camping. Forget about nature, let’s play Go Fish!

Next to the cards my tots’ favorite activity was spraying each other with water. What made that easy was a nifty water bottle attachment we received from Lunatecgear.com. The Aquabot.

Convenience and function are the top criteria I use when I’m packing for an outdoor adventure. The Aquabot filled those requirements and was really fun to boot. It changes a regular water bottle into a squirt gun, mister and hose all in one. With a few quick pumps you can pressurize the water in your bottle, making your drinking container double as a sprayer. This is especially convenient trying to clean sand off of feet or dirt off of hands as we found while camping in Logan Canyon, Utah.

How does Aquabot work exactly? I’ll leave that to Big E and little g to explain.

Big E especially liked Aquabot because of its high powered spray. I can’t blame him, who wouldn’t be impressed with 25 ft of soaking ability? The only problem there was that he liked it so much he sprayed the water out before even hitting the trail and had to drink from my water bottle instead.

The three settings – stream, spray, and mist – are controlled by a variable trigger and can even function upside down. The Aquabot fits any standard wide mouth water bottle (nalgene, camelbak, lifestraw) and includes attachment points for a lanyard. The cost on their website is $20 per unit, $27 with the bottle. 
Pros:
  • Fits water bottles I currently own.
  • Can spray, mist and stream making a water bottle multi-use.
  • Really fun for kids (and adults)
  • Lightweight – 4oz
  • BPA free
Cons:
  • Kids sprayed it out before drinking from it
  • When pressurized it can be hard to remove top (just release the water stream)

At times it felt like the Aquabot was little more than a glorified squirt gun and if I didn’t have kids I probably wouldn’t get one unless I was frequently at a beach or needed to clean off in a hurry. Since I do have kids, I do like it. I just can’t think of it like a water bottle, at least not until Big E learns what rationing is.

Backpackables with Munk Pack, Chapul and GoChia – Camp Cook Week Day 4

Welcome to Camp Cooking Week! We’ll be cooking outdoors all week long so come back tomorrow for more outdoor cooking tips and tricks.

Backpackables – Camp Cook Week Day 4

Camp cooking is all great to talk about, but when you’re hauling all your food for several days on your back camp cooking takes on a whole new meaning. Backpacking requires lightweight, easy food options. Here are some grab and go foods we tried recently.

Munk Pack Oatmeal Fruit Squeeze
Grain and fruit in a convenient pouch make eating a balanced meal on the go much easier. Moms out there may be familiar with these food pouches for apple sauce and baby food, but these meals in a bag are designed for both kids and adults. So when Munk Pack gave me some to sample, I was excited to try them out, especially because they’re wheat, egg and nut free – perfect for my allergic son.
Munk Pack Oatmeal Fruit Squeezes are larger than an applesauce pack at 4.2 ounces and come in three great flavors – Apple Quinoa Cinnamon, Raspberry Coconut and Blueberry Acai Flax. My favorite was the Blueberry, although Big E wouldn’t let me try to Apple Quinoa Cinnamon. The texture was a bit odd, like applesauce with little lumps in it because of the grains, but it was still tasty.

Traditional protein bars take up an entire aisle at the grocery store yet all seem very similar to me. The energy bars produced by Chapul are very different. Why? Because they’re made out of crickets.
Since crickets need minimal resources to raise, do not emit greenhouse gases and are a complete protein they make sense as a sustainable form of protein in a growing world. People have eaten cricket for thousands of years all over the world. Chapul grinds the insects into cricket flour, not that different in look and texture than whole grain oat flour. From that flour they created four uniquely flavored energy bars.
  1. Aztec – Dark Chocolate, Coffee and Cayenne
  2. Matcha – Matcha Tea, Gogi and Nori
  3. Chaco – Peanut Butter and Chocolate
  4. Thai – Coconut, Ginger and Lime
I was given each flavor to sample and I liked the Chaco bar most, I think because I’m used to granola bars having those flavors. The Thai bar was strong on the ginger flavor, and the Aztec was good, but has a kick of Cayenne and I’m a spicy wimp.
The last grab and go food I got samples to review was a bag of GoChia bites. These food squares are like granola bars’ healthier, stronger cousin. With a mix of quinoa, chia and dark chocolate these superfood bites provide high energy in bite sized pieces. Kinda like my kids.
Chia seeds are promoted as a superfood containing omega-3 fatty acids, carbohydrates, protein, fiber and antioxidants. They’re tiny black seeds that remind me of poppy seeds.
Compared to a traditional chocolate granola bar, GoChia bites are grainier and less sweet. They taste healthy, like something I’d only eat if I had to, kinda boring, a little like cardboard. So imagine my surprise when my kids gobbled the whole bag up before I could take a single picture (this one is from their website). They loved them, asking for more when the bag was empty.
I was shocked and pleased. It’s always hard to find pre-made foods that Big E can eat with his allergies (wheat, eggs, peanuts and treenuts). These GoChia bites are gluten and nut free, super healthy and the tots thought they were delicious.


Backpackables
If you’re planning a backpacking adventure, or even just a trip to your local park, these grab and go options are great for something a little different. They’re energy packed options that are healthy, sustainable and unique. Try some out and let me know what you think.

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Other links you might like:
Dutch Oven Cooking for Beginners – Camp Cook Week Day 1
Primus Firehole 100 Camp Stove Review – Camp Cook Week Day 2
Backyard Bonfire – Camp Cook Week Day 3