Proper layering techniques allow us to control our body temperature across various outdoor activities

The term “layering” gets bantered about with regularity when it comes to dressing for cold weather, but the mechanics of layering is often misunderstood and implemented improperly, resulting in frigid discomfort.

In order to understand how layering is supposed to work, you must first dispel with notion that clothes can make you warm. They can’t. The body actually generates the heat needed to keep itself warm, placing a particular emphasis on the heart and the brain. That is, if the heart or the brain starts cooling, the body will attempt to correct this by pulling heat away from the extremities. Our mothers knew exactly what they were doing, when they made us wear hats to go outside and play in cold weather!

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I am most thankful for being blessed with a family that loves the outdoors

It’s been another crazy year for these Oregonians in Silicon Valley. The Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Carmel Valley, the Santa Cruz Mountains and, yes, even the House of Mouse. In all, we put well over 5,000 miles under our belts this year, from Southern California to Eastern Washington – in this, a year that saw $4.50 gasoline.

California will never be our real home, but we don’t regret the many great places we’ve been able to visit here. It’s difficult to comprehend the shear size and variation in terrain of California, even for many Californians. We can camp at the beach one weekend, and be in Yosemite National Park the next; from sea level to 10,000 feet is only a four-hour drive.

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We’re just a few days away from black Friday, that strange annual ritual in which people forgo good football games in order to fight crowds at the malls. If you plan to fight the crowds this year, here are five ideas for the camper on your list.

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From cellphone towers to gas drilling and air pollution, our nation

It seems you just can’t turn around these days without stumbling across another story about modern civilization intruding upon our nation’s great parks. I started noticing it in September, when the Bozeman Daily Chronicle ran a story about the Yellowstone Park Wireless Communications Plan, which seeks to add a number of cellphone towers in the park. That was followed in November by the announcement out of Washington that President Bush planned to open public lands near Arches National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, and Canyonlands National Park to oil and gas drilling. Now today, as I unwind in my Dallas hotel room and catch-up on the day’s events, I see the Washington Post is reporting that the EPA is finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas.

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Cold weather camping is an enjoyable family adventure

Labor Day is the traditional signal for the end of camping season for most families. We tend to equate camping with sunny summer days by the lake or beach and, let’s face it, by the end of September warm sunny days are getting fewer and far between for many of us.

Winter camping offers many advantages, though, including the fact that all of those “other” campers are staying at home and not crowding your campground! The trails are still there, the fish are still biting, and the peaceful winter calm will make you wonder why you didn’t start extending your family camping season earlier.

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