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Update: We raised $2078 for The Venture Out Project! Each September, Cnoc Outdoors pledges 10% of the revenue from our website to an organization working hard to keep up our trails and care for our communities. For 2019, our recipient is The Venture Out Project, an organization that leads backpacking and wilderness trips for the queer and transgender community. In the past, Cnoc Outdoors has donated Vectos to make it easier for The Venture Out Project to take groups on trips with long stretches between water sources. Perry Cohen is a trans man who saw a need to create safer spaces in the outdoors...

Three years ago, at PCT Days of 2017, I had the unfounded courage to take my fledgling company to present at PCT Days: the official event along the Pacific Crest Trail, at Cascade Locks. It was a funny time for Cnoc Outdoors. It was still a one-person company and I just finished a Kickstarter, to launch a brand new product that no one even thought about: the Vecto. I was selling the Vertex Z-poles and had more dreams than real experience, but I was full of enthusiasm! PCT Days that year was hard, running it all by myself (2 days...

While growing up in central Maryland, my father was the one to introduce me to camping, hiking, and canoeing, which he had been doing for decades. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, during WWII, where he lived until he went to college at Sewanee in 1959. In the late 40s and 50s he was a Boy Scout and then a Senior Scout (Explorer) and that's how he got introduced to outdoor activities. Two books I found on Dad's bookshelf: The Camper's Bible (1970) and  The Sierra Club Wilderness Handbook (3rd printing: 1968)  Most of their Boy Scout gear came from army surplus,...

When it comes to coffee while backpacking, especially with an ultralight setup, there are many ways to go, but usually, it comes down to mediocre, bland instant coffee (mainly Starbucks Via), but does it have to? Might be a splash of luxury, but for the perfect coffee brewed in the great outdoors, nothing beats a fresh pour over, especially in a light set up (almost ultralight)! Basics of a pour over coffee Pour over coffee is one of the most basic ways to make coffee: water pouring over ground coffee beans, letting gravity "pull" the coffee into a cup. No...