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Buyer's Guide

The Best Backpack Phone Holders & Add-On Pockets (2026)

Your phone is your camera, your map, and your emergency line, and on most packs it lives in the worst pocket you own. We ranked the fixes: the Peak Design clip that owns the category, a phone-carry sling from the same house, an Osprey add-on pocket for bare hipbelts, and Osprey's waist pack for the days you carry no pack at all, sorted by the only metric that matters, whether you can reach it without stopping.

Read the guide →~13 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Camp Shoes for Backpacking (2026)

After 20 trail miles, the single best feeling money can buy is taking your shoes off, and the second best is having something to put on after. The thru-hiker camp-shoe debate is a cult argument with real stakes: ounces carried all day versus bliss delivered at 6 p.m. We took it seriously, ran the math honestly, and picked the three camp shoes worth their place in a pack, plus a straight look at the barefoot and DIY-foam alternatives.

Read the guide →~13 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Kid Carriers for Hiking (2026)

The carrier is the piece of gear that decides whether hiking survives parenthood. We ranked the four framed kid carriers worth the $198 to $315 they cost, from Osprey's flagship Poco Premium to the entry Poco SLT, around the two specs parents consistently miss: torso adjustability for the adult, and the listed maximum load that quietly sets the clock on the whole era.

Read the guide →~14 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Tick Protection for Hikers (2026)

Tick protection is not one product, it is a system, and the part most hikers skip is the part that works longest: treating the clothing itself. We built the five-piece layered kit worth carrying, from an $18 bottle of permethrin that keeps working for weeks (listed) to the $5 removal tools you hope to never need, and we drew the safety lines in permanent ink.

Read the guide →~14 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Microspikes & Winter Traction (2026)

The difference between a winter hiker and a fair-weather hiker is about $26 to $85 of steel. We ranked the five traction systems worth strapping to a boot on the ladder that actually decides the purchase: coils for sidewalks and flat packed snow, spikes for real trails and ice, and full crampons for the steep mountaineering that none of these are, with listed spike counts doing the honest talking.

Read the guide →~13 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Bear Canisters (2026)

BearVault's three sizes (440, 565, and 700 cubic inches listed) cover every trip from an overnight to a week, and the choice is arithmetic: about 110 cubic inches of repacked food per day. Sizing table, approval map, and the bear-spray rules by park.

Read the guide →~13 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Backpacking Chairs & Camp Seats (2026)

The best backpacking chair is the Helinox Chair Zero: 1.1 lb listed, a real backrest, and the benchmark every clone still chases. Around it we ranked the eight other camp seats worth carrying in 2026, from a $10 foam pad to a reclining 2-pound throne, and did the ounces-versus-comfort math honestly at every rung.

Read the guide →~18 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Sun Protection for Hiking (2026)

Sunscreen is the sun protection you have to remember every two hours; clothing is the sun protection you put on once. That single idea, coverage beats reapplication, organizes everything in this guide: a sun hoodie, a real hat, a neck gaiter, sunglasses, gloves for your pole hands, and one pocket sunscreen stick for the skin fabric cannot reach. Seven picks, about $14 to about $80, and together they cover more skin than a whole tube of SPF 50 ever will.

Read the guide →~14 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Dog Hiking Gear (2026)

Your dog is the most enthusiastic hiking partner you will ever have, and the most honest: no complaints, no bailing at the trailhead, no opinions about your pace. The catch is that dogs also hide pain until it is a problem, so the safety work falls on you. We picked the seven pieces of dog trail gear we would actually clip on, from the benchmark Ruffwear Front Range harness to a $14 clip-on bowl, and the whole kit costs less than one emergency vet visit.

Read the guide →~14 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Hiking Gear Under $25 (2026)

Here is the best-kept secret in outdoor retail: the gear that improves every single mile costs less than lunch. Not the pack, not the boots, the small stuff, the socks and tape and tabs that live at the exact points where hiking actually hurts. Eleven picks from about $10 to about $25 (two drift a few dollars over, and we say so), every one verified, every one pack-proven.

Read the guide →~14 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Gifts for Hikers (2026)

The best hiking gift is the thing they would never buy themselves. Hikers spend their own money on necessities and quietly skip the safety splurges, the camp luxuries, and the small upgrades that make every trip better. That is your opening. Nine gifts, from a ~$10 titanium spork to a ~$250 satellite messenger, every one of them field-proven and none of them a guess.

Read the guide →~14 min read

Buyer's Guide

The Best Hiking Gear for Bad Knees (2026)

Bad knees do not end hiking careers; unmanaged descents do. We built the six-piece kit that attacks downhill load from every direction, shock-absorbing poles, compression, a patella strap, a supportive insole, and a max-cushion shoe, from a ~$14 strap to a ~$155 HOKA, and explain the load math that makes each piece earn its place.

Read the guide →~12 min read