Experts say the Mantis hammock tent is "game changing"

Valentine’s Day is just a few days away! Still coming up with last-minute plans? Don’t worry—you’re not alone. We’re here to help with four easy wins to make any date a success. Hammock picnic for the win! (Budget: $50)There’s no better way to picnic in our opinion than in the comfort of a Roo Double (Bonus: it’s currently 30% off). Step one: Pick out the ultimate secluded hammock spot. Step two: Charge your bluetooth speaker and curate a playlist with all your favorite songs. Step three: Hit up your favorite local market for a bottle of wine, some fresh fruits, crackers, and cheese, and you’re ready to go! Don’t forget to pack your Dragonfly bug net to keep those pesky flies away, and bring a headlamp if you plan to stay for sunset.     Hike to your morning coffee. (Budget: $15)Coffee dates are easy wins, but they can get pretty boring. And no one wants a boring date. Pack up your favorite bag of local coffee and hit the trail with your brewing supplies for an early sunrise to take this coffee date to the next level. Bonus points for dropping by your favorite bakery or pastry shop! Take your Field Blanket along so you’ll have a comfy place to enjoy your morning.     Rent a van for a weekend getaway! (Budget: $300-500)As much as we love to romanticize it, we can’t all live full time on the open road. Luckily, companies like Outdoorsy make it possible to get a small taste of van life. Surprise your valentine with a weekend getaway for two at one of your favorite local parks, and book an awesome RV or decked out van to make the experience unforgettable. Remember to bring your Firebelly if cold weather is rolling in!     Venture out to see the stars. (Budget: $50)This date will only cost you as much as a tank of gas and a six-pack of beer, but the payoff will be just what you and your valentine are looking for. Unfortunately most of us live in areas with high levels of light pollution, and seeing the wonders of the Milky Way is impossible at home. Take a trip outside the city to a nearby state or county park, and bring your Swiftlet along so you can gaze for hours at the night sky. Find amazing places to see the stars near you by checking out Space Tourism Guide. They’ve put together stargazing guides for cities like Austin, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, and on and on and on.  Celebrating Valentine's Day in Austin? Check out these two guides for spending some time outside in The Capitol City: 5 Hidden Gems on Austin's Barton Creek Greenbelt Everything you need to know for 36 hours in ATX

Don’t let your hammock collect dust all winter. Here are five tips for staying warm and elevated all winter long: 1. Get out of the wind. One of the biggest favors you can do for yourself when hammock camping in cold weather is to find a campsite with natural wind protection. For example: Instead of camping on the edge of a tree line, walk twenty paces in or so to allow denser foliage to act as a natural wind barrier. The addition of a rainfly hung snug over the top of your hammock can also work wonders on extra gusty evenings, plus a proper rainfly will trap in some of your body heat as it rises to escape. If you’re looking for a complete setup, the Mantis all-in-one hammock tent offers a hammock body, bug net, and rainfly in a convenient, packable stuff sack. 2. Pack an Underquilt Sleeping bags are a must when camping in cold weather, but the pro move for hammock camping is to attach an underquilt beneath your hammock. Since insulated materials need loft to work properly, using a sleeping bag in your hammock makes for less effective insulation because your body is compressing the underside of the bag. Instead, opt for an underquilt that hangs snug to your hammock with maximum loft and effectiveness. Depending on where you camp and the temps you usually experience, we offer three trail quilts with varying temperature ratings. 3. Consider a Sleeping Pad We designed our Insulated Pongo Pad to fit perfectly in your camping hammock and shield you from the bitter cold. Our sleeping pad does double duty, acting both as an insulator and the deliverer of ultimate hammock comfort. Cloud nine, here we come! The Insulated Pongo Pad works great in any season, but you’ll definitely never want to leave home without it when the weather turns south. 4. Add Warmth With a Top Quilt Now that you have a wind-free spot, a cozy underquilt, and the comfiest sleeping pad in the woods, it’s time to lie down for a toasty snooze under the stars. But what about your top quilt? Both our Mountain and Field Blankets make great basecamp options, each offering snaps along the edge that allow complete integration with your Roo hammock. For packing light and heading into the backcountry, our lighter and more packable trail quilts offer a huge advantage. However, depending on the weather, your underquilt might be cozy enough of a cocoon that all you need are your base layers to stay warm. 5. Final Tips Here’s a sneaky tip that lots of cold weather campers know well: Boil water over your stove before bed, fill up a Nalgene, and slip it in your hammock to warm the top quilt and underquilt. If you have an extra sock or two, slip them over your water bottle and leave it at your feet. This way you stay warm, but the bottle doesn’t burn your skin. If you’re not wearing your jacket to sleep, keep it at your feet as well so it’s warm when you’re ready to wear it in the morning. Lastly, test your setup before setting off in extreme conditions and know your limits. Everyone has different sleep preferences, so there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to hammock camping in cold weather. The better you know your gear and your sleeping preferences, the more you’ll be prepared when those ultra-cold temps hit. And of course, if you ever feel uncertain with extreme temperatures in the forecast, be safe and maybe plan for a night indoors.

Gooey, toasty, crunchy goodness, no one can resist a s'more. This year for National Camp at Home Day, we turned to the marshmallow experts at SmashMallow to share their favorite recipes to level up your s'mores game. Give these recipes a try when you camp at home on March 27th. It may not be summer just yet, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be s’more season! It’s actually ALWAYS s’more season in the SmashMallow office! We have complied our 3 favorite s’more recipes to share with you so that you can join us on the #snackapade – time to get s’moring!    Dark Chocolate S’mores Dip See the original recipe. Ingredients 1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 4.5oz. SMASHMALLOW (any flavor or combo you’d like!) Graham crackers Directions  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chocolate chips in the bottom of a small to medium cast iron skillet  Top the chocolate chips with as many SmashMallows as you can fit! Mallows will puff up and brown, so some chocolate poking through is OK.  Put the skillet in the oven and bake for 7-9 minutes, or until the SmashMallows turn golden brown. Serve immediately with graham crackers for dipping! Dark Chocolate S'mores Bars See the original recipe by @amandalee_lifestyle  Ingredients Base Layer 2 cups oat flour1/3 cup tahini ¼ cup maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla extract Pinch of sea salt Chocolate Layer ¾ cup dairy free chocolate chips 2 tbsp creamy almond butter Topping 4.5 oz. bag of SmashMallow (any flavor you love!) Directions  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and great or spray 9’’x9’’ pan  Mix all ingredients for base, then press into a greased pan. Bake for 14 minutes  While base is cooking, cut SmashMallows in half. Then melt chocolate carefully in the microwave by heating for 30 second at a time and stirring in between until fully melted. Stir in almond butter Remove base from oven and switch from bake to broil. Pour chocolate mixture over the base, ensuring complete coverage Top the chocolate layer with the halved SmashMallows. Broil for 2-3 minutes or until SmashMallows are golden brown Allow to cool for a few minutes, then cut and enjoy!  Traditional S’more  Ingredients 4.5 oz. bag of SmashMallow Graham Crackers Chocolate of Choice Skewers Directions  Skewer 1-3 SmashMallows on a metal or water-soaked wood skewer  Toast SmashMallows over campfire or stove top until you have achieved your desired toastyness  Remove SmashMallows from skewer and place on ½ a graham cracker Top SmashMallow with chocolate and the other ½ of graham cracker  Enjoy! 

This year for National Camp at Home Day, Alisha McDarris from sustainable travel and adventure blog Terradrift offers tips to help you level up your sustainability game and reduce waste at the campsite and beyond. So you can stay classy, not trashy. Start with proper preparation If you want to reduce waste on your next outing—whether it’s in your backyard or across the country—if you wait until you get to camp to make your move, you’ve already lost. Successful low- or no-waste camping starts with solid preparation. Skip the pre-packaged meals and bars This is a tough one, especially because pre-packaged, store-bought backpacking meals are just so easy, but the packaging they come in is usually single-use and not recyclable or compostable. So for every freeze-dried meal you snag off of store shelves, commit to making one yourself. It’s about doing what you can, not achieving zero-waste perfection. Use ingredients you already have around the house like noodles, instant rice, or spices and combine them with your favorite protein sources like instant dried beans or, my favorite, textured vegetable protein. Blend together ingredients like oats, dates, nut butters, protein powder, seeds and dried fruit to make your own snack and protein bars. Prepare your own fruit leather and jerky in the oven. Get creative! And after a few experimental recipes, we bet you’ll be way more pleased with the flavor results than with those bland pre-made meals. And if you need a few idea to get you started, I wrote a whole cookbook of plant-based recipes, which you can find here.   Buy in bulk If you’ll be making your own meals and snacks, call on your local grocery store’s bulk bin. Usually, you can bring a reusable container (for even less waste) to fill with items like instant potatoes or beans, hummus or textured vegetable protein, nuts and dried fruit, even spices and energy bites, all without an ounce of extraneous packaging. If your local grocery doesn’t have a bulk bin section, then buy larger packages of items like rice or trail mix, freeze-dried vegetables or fruit instead of single-serve sizes in order to reduce waste. Utilize reusable packaging Zip-top bags are convenient, no doubt, but in most cases, they are single-use items that don’t get recycled (though you can usually recycle clean zip-top bags at your local grocery store’s bag recycling bin). So opt out of single-use whenever possible. Snacks, meal ingredients and more can be stored in reusable silicone zip-top bags, plastic storage containers, or food wraps that can be washed and reused many times. Opt for snacks in sustainable packaging We can’t make all of our own snacks all the time. Take nuts, dried fruit, and seeds for example. Fortunately, you can still get waste-free snacks by purchasing from brands that use compostable or biodegradable packaging. Shar, for example, offers trail mix in refillable, recyclable, and compostable cardboard tubes while Sun and Swell packages their snacks, nuts and dried fruit in compostable bags, including single-serves! Reduce waste at camp Prepping is at least half the battle if you want to enjoy to a low-waste camping trip. But it doesn’t stop there; keep the good vibes rolling (and the trash bags empty) once you arrive. Ditch disposables Save the paper plates for your kid’s pizza party and commit to using reusable plates, utensils and cups when camping. There are plenty of quality and durable mess kits out there and they’re easy to wash and reuse at camp. Plus, they don’t create bags full of trash at the end of every meal. But don’t stop there: swap straws, napkins, and paper towels for reusable and washable items, too. Skip single use bottles Instead of bringing along a case of single-use plastic water bottles or even gallon jugs of water, bring a refillable container with a spout or nozzle like a water cube for storing and serving up H2O. Use a refillable gas tank You know those little green bottles that fuel your camp stove? Millions end up in landfills every year because they can’t be easily recycled. Upgrade to a small, refillable cylinder like one from Ignik to drastically reduce waste when camping. Repurpose your water bottle Skip the wasteful bags of ice (for at least as long as you can) on your next camping trip and use reusable ice packs or make one of your own: The night before you leave, fill your Nalgene or other hard plastic water bottle 3/4 full and stash it in the freezer. In the morning, you’ll have a multipurpose DIY ice pack that also functions as a water bottle as the ice melts. You can even refill the bottle with ice from a beverage dispenser when repacking your cooler on the go. Utilize refillable and compostable toiletries If you’re camping at home, this won’t likely be an issue, but if you’re spending more than a day or two farther afield, you might plan to wash up a few times (dishes or yourself). If that’s the case, avoid purchasing travel-size toiletries and soaps and instead utilize reusable and refillable containers and tubes to hold soap, shampoo and more. Also important: Make sure they are biodegradable for the least amount of impact to the natural spaces around you. Bottom Line There’s plenty you can do if you’re looking to reduce your waste while camping. All it takes is a bit of planning and preparation, a willingness to try something new, and a touch of creativity and you’re well on your way to producing less waste and enjoying more environmentally-friendly outings. Wander on!