I’m always keeping my eyes peeled for new, up and coming brands making outdoor gear for the modern lady who likes to spend a lot of time outdoors, because to be honest… I feel like women’s outdoor clothing often misses the mark. Recently I got my hands on some pieces from Alder’s collection from our friends over at REI to test during my South American travels to see if they’re filling the void in women’s outdoor clothing!

Today we will be talking about hardshell/rain jackets! I want to go into detail of what jacket I had, why it failed, how to pick the right jacket for you, how to care for your new jacket to be sure it stays waterproof AND some crowd suggestions from all of you!

Last year’s gift guide focused on environmentally friendly gifts, while I will always have that in the back of my mind when giving gifts, this year I wanted to focus mostly on small businesses.

It feels only fitting that we should be environmentally minded when we’re shopping for gear needed for going out into nature for recreation! That way we’re ensuring that we’re taking care of our beautiful resources for generations to come while still getting to enjoy them today! In my own personal quest for a more sustainable lifestyle, I’ve found that our clothing and gear choices are a huge area of opportunity to improve on that frequently overlook, so I wanted to take some time to dive into the details and learn how we can make more informed decisions when it comes to buying clothes and gear for the outdoors!

I’ve recently been asked this: “Any advice on cooler weather hiking clothes for women?” I’ll do you one better, and talk through the gear for both men and women! I figured that this would be some helpful information to share with you guys.

   Yup, you read that right... We each have just 1 cubic foot of space to store our clothes in the van. ONE. Buckle your seat belts people this is going to be a wild ride.

Let me back up and explain why we have such a small space to work with. When making the organizational plan for Stanley we decided pretty early on that our clothes were going to live under the back bench seat. It's perfect, there is plenty of space and it is easily accessible! It was not long that we realized that the space had to be shared by our two 6v batteries that control our aux power system...