by Austin Campbell August 25, 2017
A sharp knife can be one of the most useful tools in your pack or pocket. Along with always wearing our CloudLine hiking socks, we always carry a knife when we are hiking and backpacking. A good blade comes in handy for everything from food prep to survival and is an important item on the 10 Essentials list. Whether you are looking for a pocket knife for everyday carry or just for the trail we've rounded up our favorite options for everyone from ultra-light backpackers to day hikers.
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by Austin Campbell June 29, 2017
If you are feeling adventurous and want to make your own meal for your next backpacking trip this Pad Thai recipe is a great place to start. It doesn't take much prep work at home and is fairly easy to prepare on the trail and is delicious. A few of the ingredients can be difficult to find at local grocery stores but can easily be found on Amazon with free shipping and can be used for other backpacking recipes as well. Best of all because we won't be using traditional fish sauce, you can easily keep this recipe vegetarian-friendly by omitting the chicken.
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by Austin Campbell May 23, 2017
If you've never gone hiking or have never planned your own hike there are a few things you should know before hitting the trail. The last thing you want is to become a news story about an unprepared hiker who got lost or needed to be rescued. Luckily, preparing for a successful first hike is not rocket science. Just follow these tips and you will be on your way to a great first hike that is safe, fun and memorable. So keep reading, and then get out there and go hiking!
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by Austin Campbell May 10, 2017
In our current political climate, National Parks, Monuments, and Public Lands that were once protected are now in danger of being opened to mining, drilling, logging, and development. These videos are a powerful reminder of the reasons we preserved these places. Watch them, share them, and most of all contact your elected officials and let them know how important these wild places are.
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by Austin Campbell April 20, 2017
Seeing a bear in the backcountry can be simultaneously breathtaking and terrifying. We are always hoping for a chance to see a bear from a distance while also hoping to avoid the danger of a close encounter. Over the years we've been given good and bad advice on what to do when we see a bear, like the time our Scout Master threw a rock towards a black bear and told us to drop our packs and run if it charged us (three things you should never do during a bear encounter). While bear attacks happen regularly, the number of attacks is very low in relation to the number of hikers, backpackers, and campers spending time in bear country every year. While it is impossible to completely eliminate bear danger in the backcountry, employing common sense and familiarizing yourself with these bear safety tips and resources will greatly reduce your risk.
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by Austin Campbell April 12, 2017
Some days when we are stuck in the office and need a boost a few words of adventure wisdom are all we need to get through the day. We've gathered a few of our favorite quotes here to give everyone a little midweek motivation for their weekend adventures. We hope they inspire you as much as us and if you have a favorite quote leave it in the comments below to inspire the CloudLine community!
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by Amoris Walker April 04, 2017
Christine “Buzz” Busby and I met this January at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City. We were both sitting at the tables by KEEN’s enormous booth and our mutual friend introduced us. Within minutes we were both divulging stories of our latest adventures and our future travel plans. Buzz struck me right away as a woman who gets things done. The kind of person who doesn’t sit around and hope the next project will roll into her lap, someone who is on the phone, blogging, emailing, photographing, and scanning flights on Kayak.com all the time. So when she told me that she had been working on this project in Kenya for almost a year and it was about to come full circle (digging a well in a Masai community that she helped raise the money for), her enthusiasm and optimismwas palpable.
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by Austin Campbell March 17, 2017
CloudLine ambassadors Justin and Patrice Lavigne live a life less ordinary. They are constantly doing what they love and that involves adventures like thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2011, living in their van for months at a time, spending the summer guiding kids on outdoor adventures at summer camps, writing for Backpacker's Magazine, and in 2015 they thru-hiked New Zealand's long trail, Te Araroa.
Beginning May 1st, 2017 the Lavigne's will be hitting the road in their camper van to speak about their thru-hike of Te Araroa at 31 events across the country.
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by Austin Campbell March 02, 2017
Whether you are currently prepping for a 2017 thru-hike or just dreaming about someday checking the PCT off your bucket list, we've collected 11 books about the Pacific Crest Trail to add to your reading list. The PCT runs 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada and draws thousands of hikers for day hikes and thru-hikes each year. If you readWild by Cheryl Strayed and loved it then these lesser known books about the Pacific Crest Trail will be right up your alley. Pick a couple or read all 11, and then at least go for a day hike on the PCT this summer or start planning your future thru-hike! Read More 
by Brandon & Stacy from Pacific North Wanderers February 15, 2017
With well over 100 state parks in Washington, there’s always something to explore without traveling too far from home. The state’s many parks are located on the coast, in the mountains, on islands, and far out east. Many of the parks offer a range of activities from camping to hiking to exploring old bunkers when the park was once a fort. We’ve put together a list of our six favorite parks to visit.
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by Austin Campbell February 10, 2017
The number of climbing gyms in North America has exploded since Seattle'sVertical World opened in 1987. As indoor climbing grew in popularity, gyms went from flat brick walls in drafty warehouses, to world class training gyms that offer intricate climbing walls, weights, aerobic equipment, yoga, and more. If you aren't a climber but love the outdoors, there's never been a better time to trade in your traditional gym for a climbing gym membership. Read More 
by Adrienne Renée January 25, 2017
The decision to thru-hike the Appalachian was initially an extremely overwhelming path to travel for us. Not only did outsiders begin bombarding us with a plethora of questions, our own minds seemed to be swimming in the thought of how much knowledge we’d have to acquire before a thru-hike was even a plausible feat. Let me tell ya, it is incredibly easy to let your mind wander tirelessly down a trail of daunting thoughts at first.
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