Circle June 7th on your calendar and get the hiking boots and backpacks ready to rock, National Trails Day is this weekend!

Outdoor enthusiasts hardly need a reason to take off to nearby woods, mountains or canyons, but increased awareness in the American Hiking Society and the millions of miles of trails around the United States is always a good thing.

This year the AHS is bringing exhibits, workshops and dedications to a number of trails throughout the nation. Everyone from equestrian groups, to cyclists, to hiking parties are involved, and some locations will have gear demos sponsored by your favorite suppliers.

For more info, and a list of the sponsored events by state, go to the American Hiking Society's website.

And if anyone gets out to any AHS events, drop by and let us know how it went!

This pretty sweet camera bag/day pack/torso pack from Kata has been mentioned on a few blogs this week, and there's an excellent review over at Trailspotting (a pretty cool blog I just discovered today - I'll be back for more).

I've wanted to pick up a decent SLR camera for the hiking trail for some time now, and besides the money, the only thing really stopping me is wondering how I'd pack it on the trail. Between the weight and the fact I'm not big on trashing expensive cameras, it just didn't seem practical. Seeing this concept for a bag, with easy access, nice weight distribution, and super protection... well, I might start looking at that nice Canon Rebel after all....

More info at Kata's site:Kata-Bags

Depending on your camping ability and enthusiasm, cooking can be a chore or a delight. If you're tired of the same old camping fare, check out CampRecipes.com.

Ham and Sweet Potato Foil Packets, Campfire Cabbage, even Mandarin Chicken, all featured here. Some seem like a lot of trouble for a simple campsite meal, but for others the variety might be worth the extra work, and if you're driving rather than packing in, there's certainly room for these types of delicacies.

I'm really thinking about trying the Chicken Salsa Parcels.... Hmmm, I might have to test some of these recipes at home before I hit the trail...

What sorts of foods do you bring with you for camping?

Let me be the first to say I've never been a fan of trekking stixs, or hiking poles, or whatever the popular name is now. They got in the way, and really seemed to screw up my momentum on the steep uphills.

But sadly, we are all getting older, and my knees and arches of my feet started to feel the hurt, especially on a steep downhill. My hiking buddy swears by her stix and loaned me one when my legs weren't giving me the, ahem, stability, I required while navigating some downhill paths covered in scree.

That was last fall. Now with summer arriving and a gift certificate to my favorite outdoors shop burning a hole in my pocket (thanks Dad!), I finally picked up a pair of Komperdell collapsible trekking stixs. I knew I'd need collapsible because there was no way I could carry those suckers around for an entire hike.

So far, so great. The poles are strapped out of the way to my day pack and only come out when the downhill slope makes my knee hurt. Often I'll only use one pole as extra leverage.

My biggest concern about using collapsibles was that they would start to slip over time and lose tension. It's only been a handful of hikes, but I see no chance of that happening. The Komperdell has a twisting/tightening mechanism that locks the pole into place at the proper height. I picked this over the type that have a latch because it just looked like a more stable option over time.

I went with one of the lower-end models because I still wasn't 100 per cent sold. I figured if I really loved them I would simply upgrade next time. Well, assuming these last at least one season, I'll happily buy another set, but I'm still not convinced I need to drop $120 on poles. I actually really like the cork-handled grips, though surprisingly blistered starting to form on my thumbs right away. From talking to other hikers, this is fairly common with the trekking poles and not unique to this model.

Everyone seems to use these poles differently, but for $60, they're a great addition to have strapped to my backpack, and I don't worry about my knee becoming a problem on the way back down the trail. That's worth $60 right there.

For more info check out the Komperdell web site, or Mountain Equipment Co-op.

With the camping, hiking and general outdoors season in full swing, another traditional summertime season has begun - forest fire season.

Anyone heading into the wilds needs to check on local fire conditions before venturing out to their favorite back country recreational area. At the very minimum you can save yourself the inconvenience of being in a smoke-filled area. More importantly, you can prevent yourself from being in an area where emergency services are operating to put out a fire, prevent yourself from getting into the path of a fast moving fire, and save yourself the hassle of finding your favorite spot closed due to emergency efforts.

The National Interagency Fire Center operating out of Boise, Idaho updates their web site daily and covers all areas across the US. The handiest way to use the site is to surf to http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm. Or from the main page, select "Fire Information" from the side menu, and from the menu that pops up, select" National Fire News".

The report that appears first lists daily notes about weather conditions that might impact certain states, a summary of the current fire situation and some daily stats. Scroll down and there is a list of the current fires by state, with detailed descriptions about location, intensity, size of fire and amount contained.

Exceedingly useful for anyone planning any outdoor trip, in fact the whole site is full of useful information for forest users.

Canadian Andrew Brash summited Everest for the first time on Thursday, May 21.

This is notable because Brash is one of the climbers who sacrificed his attempt in 2006 to save Australian climber Lincoln Hall. Hall had been left for dead before Brash and his team encountered him on the mountain.

Brash's success is even more impressive considering the summit was inaccessible for part of the month due to the Beijing Olympic torch run.

Meanwhile Hall has just released an account of his nearly fatal Everest ascent, "Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mt. Everest".

This is a great story all around. Karma must have been hard at work to ensure Branch made his summit, despite all the factors working against him.

Some other great Everest related sites:

Andrew Brash's personal site
Andrew Brash blogs during his climb
Everest News Site
More Everest News