Outdoors
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Who manages the public land you are standing on
Four federal agencies plus the states run American public land, under different mandates that produce genuinely…
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Wilderness is a legal designation, not a description
Designated Wilderness comes with prohibitions that surprise people: no bikes, no motorised equipment, and sometimes a…
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Winter changes the rules on public land
Seasonal closures, gate schedules, avalanche terrain and the fact that nobody is coming quickly — winter…
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Hypothermia does not start with shivering in the snow
Most cases happen between 30 and 50 degrees, in wet and windy conditions, to people who…
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Food storage orders are law, not advice
In bear country, how you store food is often a written order with a fine attached,…
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Fire restrictions have stages, and the stages mean specific things
Stage 1, Stage 2 and full closure are defined terms with defined prohibitions. Knowing which is…
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Park Service moves to streamline bike trail approvals
A proposed rule would change what the NPS must do before designating roads and trails for…
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Trail right-of-way and why it is ordered that way
Uphill yields, bikes yield, everyone yields to stock — the conventions follow from physics and animal…
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Dispersed camping: what the rules actually say
Camping outside developed campgrounds is broadly allowed on Forest Service and BLM land, and it comes…
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Backcountry water: what treatment actually removes
Filters, chemicals, UV and boiling each fail against something different. Knowing which is which is the…
