How it started
The first hike that really counted was a short ridge loop about twenty minutes from my house. I walked it in running sneakers, slid down half the descent on my heels, and got home with two blisters and a very strong opinion about footwear.
After that my friends and I went out whenever someone could drive us to a trailhead. New Jersey has more trail than it gets credit for. Hardwood forest, rocky ridgelines, and a long stretch of the Appalachian Trail running across the top of the state.
The blisters started the other half of this. I wanted to know exactly why the sneakers failed, which pulled me into outsole rubber, then lug depth, then how a pack's frame moves weight off your shoulders and onto your hips. I like that stuff on its own, whether or not I'm going anywhere that weekend.
So I wrote it down. What held up, what wore through, what cost twice as much for no reason I could find. Friends kept asking what they should buy and I got tired of retyping the same answers, so the notes became pages, and the pages became this.
"I'd rather tell you a $70 pack is enough than talk you into a $250 one."