256 Fun Facts About Camping

A classic s'more sandwiches a toasted marshmallow and chocolate between what?

Graham crackers take their name from Sylvester Graham, a 19th-century minister who preached a plain wholewheat diet to curb lust; his sober health biscuit ended up as the base of a campfire sweet.

A 1927 publication from which youth organization contained an early recipe for 'Some More'?

Girl Scouts printed the recipe, which packs two toasted marshmallows into each sandwich and then warns that though it tastes like 'some more', one is really enough.

Which rash-causing plant are campers taught to avoid with the rhyme 'Leaves of three, let it be'?

Poison ivy carries three glossy leaflets on each leaf, and its sap holds an oil, urushiol, that lingers on boots, tools and pet fur, so campers can pick up the rash without touching the plant.

Thomas Hiram Holding, often called the founder of modern camping, made his own lightweight tents thanks to which day job?

Tailor: Holding wrote manuals on cutting coats and breeches, and his passion for camping began in boyhood, when his family crossed the American prairies in a wagon train.

Possibly the world's first commercial camping ground, Cunningham's camp, opened in 1894 on which island?

Isle of Man: Cunningham's holiday camp for young men opened there under canvas in 1894; in the First World War the same camp was turned into an internment camp.

Campers find Polaris, the North Star, by following the two 'pointer' stars of which star pattern?

The Big Dipper's two outer bowl stars, Dubhe and Merak, line up on Polaris, the star that marks north, so a camper without a compass can still take a bearing on a clear night.

American camping is often traced to W. H. H. Murray's 1869 book on which New York mountain region?

The Adirondacks saw the effect at once: Murray's 'Camp-Life in the Adirondacks' set off a flood of visitors to the mountains that very summer.

Which carmaker joined Edison, Firestone and Burroughs on the 'Vagabonds' camping trips of the 1910s?

Henry Ford and his friends toured by car with reporters in tow; the trips doubled as rolling advertisements for Ford cars and Firestone tires and made auto camping fashionable.

Which country enshrines a right of public access to privately held wilderness in its constitution?

Sweden wrote allemansrätten into its constitution in 1994; it lets anyone pitch a tent on uncultivated land for a night or two without asking the owner.

Norway's right to roam lets you camp on uncultivated land for two nights, provided the tent is 150 metres from what?

An inhabited house or cabin must be at least 150 metres away, out of consideration for those who live there; after two nights you need the owner's consent, except high in the mountains.

The Land Reform Act of 2003 gave wild campers a right of responsible access to most land in which UK nation?

Scotland lets you pitch a small tent on most unenclosed land for two or three nights; south of the border, wild camping generally still needs the landowner's permission.

Which blend word means camping with the comforts of a hotel?

Glamping blends 'glamorous' and 'camping', but the idea is far older than the word, as on the lavish tented safaris of the early twentieth century.

Which 1520 summit of Henry VIII and Francis I needed thousands of tents?

Field of the Cloth of Gold: the tents and costumes showed off so much fabric woven with silk and gold thread that the meeting near Calais was named after it.

Which outdoor brand grew from a gasoline-lamp business based in Wichita, Kansas from the early 1900s?

Coleman began with W. C. Coleman's gasoline pressure lamps; in World War II the firm built a compact field stove for the military that thousands of American G.I.s carried overseas.

Which campground chain began in 1962 as a Montana stopover for World's Fair traffic?

Kampgrounds of America grew from Dave Drum's land on the Yellowstone River: he gave passing fairgoers hot showers, clean restrooms and a store, and the site filled so quickly that he was soon selling franchises.

Karl Elsener's workshop, which began supplying knives to the Swiss Army in 1891, grew into which company?

Victorinox joins Victoria, the name of Elsener's mother, which he took as his brand after her death in 1909, with 'inox', a French shorthand for stainless steel.

Which tick-borne illness, a risk for hikers and campers, is named after the Connecticut town where it was identified in 1975?

Lyme disease was first taken for a cluster of childhood arthritis around Lyme and Old Lyme; investigators traced it to tick bites, which is why hikers check their skin after a day in the woods.

Mail-order pioneer Pryce Pryce-Jones patented the Euklisia Rug, a forerunner of the sleeping bag, in 1876 from which country?

Wales was home to Pryce-Jones, a Newtown draper who shipped local flannel by rail and post to customers including Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale, then exported his rug around the world.

A sleeping bag that tapers from the head to the foot to cut volume and hold heat is named after what?

A mummy bag hugs the body so there is less air inside to warm, and most add a drawstring hood with a cord lock so that warm air cannot escape around the head.

In a sleeping bag, how does down fill compare with synthetic fill?

Down is lighter and warmer, but costlier; synthetic fill wins in the wet, barely absorbing water and still giving some warmth when soaked through.

A pup tent, meant for one to three people, is a small version of which basic design?

Ridge: the army's pup tent is a small ridge tent that comes in halves; each soldier carries one sheet and half the poles, then pairs off with a comrade to fasten together a shelter for two.

The Sibley tent, patented by a US Army officer in 1856, is a version of which shelter?

A bell tent is the family the Sibley belongs to; its inventor was owed a royalty on each one, but he resigned to join the Confederacy, so the Union's thousands of Sibley tents earned him nothing.

Columbus's crews first saw hammocks among which people, whose word for them reached English through Spanish?

Taino islanders paddled out to Columbus's ships to barter cotton and 'hamacas, or nets, in which they sleep', as his journal of the first voyage records; Spanish kept the word as hamaca.

The word 'bivouac' reached English through French from a Germanic term for which military duty?

A night watch: the German dialect word Beiwacht meant an extra guard kept beside the regular watch, and the men standing it stayed out in the open, the sense that 'bivouac' still carries.

Which organization developed the shiny foil emergency blanket, now wrapped around marathon finishers, in 1964?

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center created the metallised film to insulate spacecraft, hence the name space blanket; in 1973 the agency turned to the same reflective material when the Skylab station overheated.

The insect repellent DEET was developed in the 1940s for which organization?

The United States Army wanted protection for its troops after the jungle fighting of World War II; DEET went to soldiers first and reached the public only in 1957.

Which scientist invented the vacuum flask in 1892 but never patented it?

James Dewar built it to keep liquefied gases cold and refused to patent it; German glassblowers turned it into the Thermos in 1904, and Dewar lost in court when he later tried to claim the rights.

Which knot is nicknamed the 'king of knots' and taught with a rhyme about a rabbit, a hole and a tree?

The bowline earns its crown because the fixed loop it forms does not slip or bind under load, yet unties easily once the strain is off, which is why sailors, climbers and arborists all rely on it.

Which campfire lay stacks kindling in alternating crossed layers around the tinder?

A log cabin fire stacks kindling at right angles around the tinder like cabin walls; it is the lay least likely to collapse and it burns for a long time, so it makes a good cooking fire.

Bear-country campers should pitch the tent at least 100 yards from the food store and which other spot?

The cooking area smells of dinner just as the food store does, so each sits about 100 yards from the tent and nothing scented is taken to bed: a bear following its nose should never reach the sleepers.

In the United States, which federal body registers bear spray as a pesticide?

The Environmental Protection Agency checks each brand's capsaicin strength so that the spray will stop a bear humanely; registered cans hold at least 7.9 ounces and carry an EPA number on the label.

What does Leave No Trace tell campers to do with their used dishwater?

Strain and scatter it: the scraps caught in the strainer are packed out with the trash, and the washing itself is done well away from any stream or lake, with only a little biodegradable soap.

Which hikers' packing list, first printed in 1974 in Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, covers navigation, light, fire and shelter?

The Ten Essentials were drawn up by The Mountaineers club to meet two needs: the first five items help you handle an emergency, and the second five let you get safely through an unplanned night outdoors.

Smokey Bear's slogan was changed in April 2001 to say 'Only you can prevent' what?

In April 2001 the slogan became 'Only You Can Prevent Wildfires' to cover grassland blazes too; the campaign, running since 1944, is America's longest public service ad effort.

Rescued from a 1950 forest fire, the living Smokey Bear spent his life at which zoo?

The National Zoo in Washington kept him until his death in 1976; he drew so many letters there that the Postal Service gave the bear a ZIP code of his own, 20252.

Which US president signed the law creating Yellowstone, the world's first national park, in 1872?

Ulysses S. Grant signed the act on 1 March 1872, but Congress gave the park little money or staff; poaching grew so bad that soldiers were sent in to run it from 1886 until 1918.

Theodore Roosevelt camped near Yosemite's Glacier Point in 1903 with which naturalist?

John Muir guided Roosevelt through Yosemite in 1903 and pressed him on the state's poor care of the valley; in 1906 the valley was handed back from California to federal control.

Which president signed the 1864 Yosemite Grant, handing the valley to California as a protected public park?

Abraham Lincoln signed it in the middle of the Civil War; Yosemite became a state park, and Congress later borrowed the grant's wording when it created Yellowstone.

Which president signed the 1916 Organic Act that created the National Park Service?

Woodrow Wilson signed it after a wealthy businessman, Stephen Mather, complained about the shabby state of the parks and was invited to come and fix them himself; Mather became the first director.

The Appalachian Trail runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to which peak in Maine?

Mount Katahdin's Baxter Peak ends the trail and sets the clock for the whole hike: northbound walkers must get there before mid-October, when the path to the summit closes for the winter.

Which state holds the most miles of the Appalachian Trail, about a quarter of the route?

Virginia holds about 550 of the trail's roughly 2,200 miles, so a thru-hiker on a six-month schedule spends more than a month crossing this one state, Shenandoah National Park included.

Which 1908 handbook did Baden-Powell write after testing its ideas at his 1907 camp on Brownsea Island?

Scouting for Boys reworked his army manual Aids to Scouting after he learned that boys were already reading it; it came out in six fortnightly parts and became a bestseller.

Juliette Gordon Low founded America's best-known girls' scouting movement in 1912 in which city?

Savannah was where Low gathered her first 18 girls in March 1912, after telephoning a cousin to say she had something for the girls of the city, of America and of all the world.

Why did a London Scout refuse American publisher William D. Boyce's tip in 1909?

It was his daily good turn, the boy explained, and he would take no reward; Boyce was struck enough to collect Scouting literature in London and to found an American movement on his return.

Which place calls itself 'the RV Capital of the World'?

Elkhart County, Indiana leans so heavily on building recreational vehicles that it rises and falls with them: by early 2009 Elkhart's jobless rate had tripled in a year, and President Obama came to hold a town hall there.

Returning astronauts from which space program were quarantined in a converted Airstream trailer?

Apollo crews back from the Moon were sealed in the trailer in case they carried lunar germs; the Apollo 11 astronauts spent over 60 hours inside and were welcomed home by President Nixon while still shut in.

Which motorhome maker is named after the Iowa county where it was founded in 1958?

Winnebago was started by Forest City businessman John K. Hanson to bring jobs to a town in an economic slump, and it took the name of the surrounding Winnebago County.

Alex Doumak gave marshmallows their cylinder shape in the 1950s with which process?

Extrusion squeezes the marshmallow out through tubes as a continuous rope to be cut into pieces; before Doumak's patent each one was cast in a mould, so the new method made cheap mass production possible.

Which river is credited with first popularising camping in the UK, tied to Victorian pleasure boating?

The Thames drew Victorian rowers in camping skiffs, boats with a canvas cover that turned the whole craft into a floating tent at night, as in Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.

Britain's Camping and Caravanning Club began in 1901 as an association for campers who travelled by what?

Bicycle: it began as the Association of Cycle Campers after founder Thomas Hiram Holding carried a home-made lightweight tent on a cycling tour of Ireland in 1897 and wrote up how cheaply it could be done.

Which waterborne parasite, nicknamed 'beaver fever', is a main reason backpackers treat water from streams and lakes?

Giardia cysts reach streams in the droppings of infected wildlife and people, so even clear mountain water can bring weeks of diarrhoea unless it is filtered and then boiled or disinfected.

At which famous air show do people often camp in small tents under their aircraft's wing?

Oshkosh, Wisconsin hosts EAA AirVenture, where pilots fly in and camp beside their planes; so many aircraft arrive that for one week each summer its control tower is the busiest in the world.

What is 'workamping'?

Trading labor for site discounts or a free pitch lets RV owners staff a campground for a season and then drive on to the next job, the roving working life portrayed in the film Nomadland.

Which was Canada's first national park, created in 1885?

Banff began with a squabble: railway workers came across hot springs in 1883, rival claims to them followed, and in 1885 the government settled the matter by reserving the springs as a public park.

What is an Australian bush camper's 'swag'?

A canvas bedroll is the 'Matilda' of Waltzing Matilda: the name is bush slang for the swag itself, so the song's swagman is tramping the roads with his bedding, not dancing with a woman.

Why must mountain campers boil water for three minutes instead of one?

Water boils cooler there because air pressure falls with height, so a rolling boil in the mountains is less hot than one at sea level and germs need longer in it; US agencies advise three minutes at high altitude.

Which activity combines running with camping?

Fastpacking means hiking the climbs, jogging the flats and running the descents, because even a stripped-down pack with a sleeping bag and shelter is too heavy to run uphill for long.

Which fictional summer camp is the setting of the 1980 horror film Friday the 13th?

Camp Crystal Lake is the long-shut camp that a group of teenage counselors is trying to reopen when the film's trouble starts; its success spawned sequels, a crossover and a 2009 reboot.

What material did the Roman Army use for its tents?

Leather tents were so much the mark of a Roman army in the field that 'sub pellibus', literally 'under skins', became the Latin way of saying that troops were in camp.

According to Genesis 4:20, who was 'the first to live in tents and raise sheep and goats'?

Genesis 4:20 names Jabal, son of Lamech and Adah, as the ancestor of tent-dwelling herders; his brother Jubal is credited with the harp and flute.

What do RV owners call camping in a remote spot with no water, power or sewer hookups?

Boondocking comes from 'the boondocks', a word American soldiers in the Philippines picked up in the early 1900s from bundok, the Tagalog for mountain, and brought home to mean any remote, wild place.

Which odorless gas makes it deadly to run a stove or heater inside a closed tent?

Carbon monoxide forms when fuel burns without enough air; it cannot be seen or smelled, and it locks onto the blood's haemoglobin in place of oxygen, so sleepers get no warning.

Tent rain resistance is measured as 'hydrostatic head' in which unit?

Millimetres give the height of the column of water a fabric can hold back before it leaks; groundsheets need the highest figures, because a camper's weight presses any water beneath them harder against the cloth.

Expedition tents intended for extreme conditions are often rated at what hydrostatic head?

Expedition tents are often rated at 3000 mm hydrostatic head, while groundsheets, which bear the weight of sleepers, may be rated for 5000 mm or more.

What is the floorless covered area outside a tent entrance, used to store boots and packs, called?

The vestibule sits under the flysheet but outside the inner tent, so wet boots, muddy packs and a dripping jacket stay under cover without soaking the sleeping space.

A sewn-in groundsheet that turns a few inches up the tent walls is known as what kind of floor?

A bathtub floor turns the groundsheet up a few inches at the walls, so water that seeps under the sides of the tent cannot run in over the sleeping area.

Which dome-derived tent adds extra criss-crossing poles to stand up to snow and strong wind?

Geodesic tent: two or more extra poles cross the dome's usual pair, bracing the fabric into small panels so that no large unsupported area is left to sag under snow or catch the wind.

What do navigators call the angle between true north and the magnetic north shown by a compass needle?

Declination changes from place to place and drifts from year to year, which is why topographic maps print the local figure in the margin together with the year it was measured.

The tupiq, a summer tent of sealskin or caribou hide, is traditional to which people?

The Inuit used the tupiq while hunting and fishing through the mild months, then went back to snow houses for the winter; it is rarely seen today, though elders are working to keep the skill alive.

Which US airport's main terminal is topped by a white, peaked, tent-like fabric roof?

Denver International's roof of Teflon-coated fiberglass rises in white peaks meant to recall the snow-capped Rockies; a blizzard in 2003 piled on enough snow to tear a hole in the fabric.

The Sámi Parliament of Norway's design is inspired by which traditional tent?

Lavvu is the Sámi herders' tent, and the parliament's peaked assembly hall in Karasjok echoes its shape; in 1979 Sámi protesters pitched one outside Norway's national parliament during the Alta dam dispute.

The shamiana, a ceremonial tent raised for weddings and feasts in India, dates back to which empire?

The Mughal Empire is where the shamiana's history begins; the tent's side walls come off, so it can stand as a closed marquee or an open awning over a wedding party.

What was traditionally used to power the ropes hauling circus tent canvas into place?

Circus elephants traditionally hauled on the ropes that raised the big top's poles and canvas; cranes and machinery later took over the job.

What does the Dutch word 'spiegel' mean in spiegeltent, the Belgian travelling dance hall of wood, canvas and stained glass?

Mirror is the meaning: these Flemish mobile dance halls were lined with mirrors as well as stained glass, and only a handful of the originals, built around 1900, still travel as festival venues.

Which women's peace camp began in 1981 outside an airbase near Newbury, England, chosen to house US cruise missiles?

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp outlasted its target: the last missiles left in 1991, but the camp stayed until 2000, after the protesters won the right to a memorial on the site.

Which mountaineer, first up the Matterhorn in 1865, gave his name to a classic Alpine tent?

Edward Whymper designed the tent during his Matterhorn attempts and never tried to profit from it, yet tents on his pattern stayed in common use into the mid-twentieth century.

Why do sleeping-bag labels rate 'comfort' for an average woman and a lower 'limit' for an average man?

Women tend to feel colder than men, the lab test assumes, so 'comfort' is where an average woman sleeps comfortably and 'limit' where an average man, curled up, is just not cold; brands that skip the test set their own ratings.

Which US outdoor retailer made every sleeping bag it sold carry Europe's standard temperature rating from March 2010?

REI acted after customers complained that two bags both sold as 25°F were nothing alike in warmth; it became the first major American retailer to enforce the European lab-tested rating.

Whose PCT Hiker's Handbook popularised ultralight backpacking in the early 1990s?

Ray Jardine, the climber who co-invented the spring-loaded 'Friend' camming device, urged hikers to sew their own lightweight gear; he says his base weight fell below ten pounds by his third Pacific Crest hike.

What is 'cold soaking' in backpacking?

Cold soaking means rehydrating dried food without heat: couscous, rice noodles or oats sit in cold water until soft, so the hiker carries no stove and no fuel.

In backpacking, what does 'base weight' exclude?

Worn clothes and consumables are left out because food, water and fuel vary with the length and style of a trip; ultralight hikers aim for a base weight of about 10 pounds.

Which three states does the Pacific Crest Trail cross on its way from Mexico to Canada?

California, Oregon and Washington carry the 2,650-mile trail along the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades; Clinton C. Clarke proposed it in the 1930s, and YMCA relay teams scouted the route in the late 1930s.

Which point is the highest on the Pacific Crest Trail?

Forester Pass is named for the Forest Service workers who first documented it; building the trail over it cost the life of a crew member whose arm was crushed by a boulder, and a plaque beside the path remembers him.

In which season do most Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers start their five-month walk north?

Spring starts, in mid-April on average, are a balancing act: set off sooner and the High Sierra is still deep in snow, set off later and the weather can turn before the northern Cascades are crossed.

Near which California town is the Pacific Crest Trail's southern terminus?

Campo lies just north of the border monument where most thru-hikers set out; at the far end, the permit that let finishers walk on into Canada's Manning Park was withdrawn in 2025.

What is the name of the official southern terminus of the Continental Divide Trail?

Crazy Cook Monument, in the remote desert Bootheel, is the official southern terminus; since October 2025 the border strip around it has been a military 'National Defense Area', so the hiker shuttle stops about a mile short.

Which state holds the highest point on the Continental Divide Trail, the longest of hiking's Triple Crown?

Colorado's Grays Peak, more than 14,000 feet up, tops a trail of roughly 3,000 miles; so many hikers take alternate routes that estimates of the distance actually walked differ by hundreds of miles.

At which spot in Yosemite Valley does the John Muir Trail begin?

Happy Isles, where the Merced River levels out onto the valley floor, is the trail's lowest point at about 4,000 feet; demand is so high that Yosemite lets only 45 hikers a day start the full route, 15 of them from here.

The trail that follows the High Sierra south from Yosemite Valley for over 200 miles ends on which summit?

Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States, is the finish; Theodore Solomons dreamed up the crest route in 1884 as a 14-year-old herding his uncle's cattle near Fresno.

In which national park does the Continental Divide Trail reach the Canadian border?

Glacier National Park holds both official northern ends of the trail: Waterton Lake, and Chief Mountain, the lower route that early- and late-season hikers take to avoid snow.

Who was the first person to achieve the Triple Crown of Hiking?

Eric Ryback hiked the AT in 1969 and the PCT in 1970, then in 1972 walked the Continental Divide before an official trail existed, on a route that only approximates today's.

Who was the first person to complete the Triple Crown of Hiking in a single calendar year?

'Flyin' Brian Robinson finished all three trails within 2001 by hopping between them to follow the seasons; nobody completed the feat hiking each trail straight through until 2005.

Which organisation awards the Triple Crown of Hiking plaque to those who finish all three trails?

ALDHA-West, the American Long Distance Hiking Association-West, presents the plaques at its autumn Gathering and runs the award on the honour system: it never checks that applicants walked the miles.

Which national scenic trail links the tidewater at Chesapeake Bay with Pennsylvania's Allegheny highlands by way of Washington, D.C.?

The Potomac Heritage Trail, designated in 1983, is a network of routes rather than one path, taking in the C&O Canal towpath from Georgetown to Cumberland and part of the Great Allegheny Passage.

Which national scenic trail consists of five short, disconnected segments rather than one route?

The Natchez Trace trail is five separate sections totalling just over 60 miles beside the 444-mile parkway; it shadows the old path that 'Kaintuck' boatmen, post riders and soldiers once walked.

Who wrote the Wilderness Act of 1964?

Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society drafted the bill in 1956, sat through all 18 public hearings and lobbied nearly every member of Congress, then died four months before it became law in 1964.

Which Minnesota canoe country was among the first areas protected when the Wilderness Act became law in 1964?

Boundary Waters, with some 1,200 miles of canoe routes along the Canadian border, joined the wilderness system on the day the Act was signed; a second law in 1978 then restricted motorboats and logging there.

The Wilderness Act defines wilderness as land where the earth is what 'by man'?

Untrammeled means unhindered rather than untouched: a trammel is a net or a shackle, so the Act pictures land where nature runs free and 'man himself is a visitor who does not remain'.

Leave No Trace says human waste should be buried at least how far from water?

Leave No Trace says to dig a cathole 6 to 8 inches deep and at least 200 feet from water, camp and trails, then to pack out the toilet paper.

Which outdoor school worked with the US Forest Service to develop the Leave No Trace program in 1990?

NOLS, the National Outdoor Leadership School, built the programme with the Forest Service in 1990; early versions ran to 75 principles before they were boiled down to today's short list.

What is the first of the Leave No Trace principles?

'Plan ahead and prepare' comes first: it asks campers to learn an area's rules, be ready for extreme weather and travel in small groups, while the last principle is to be considerate of others.

Yellowstone's bison herd holds what distinction among US public herds?

Oldest and largest on public land, the herd is the only one in the United States to have lived wild since prehistoric times, though poaching had cut it to about two dozen bison by 1902.

Which couple started a Yosemite concessions company and camp in 1899?

David and Jennie Curry opened Camp Curry in 1899, advertising 'a good bed and clean napkin with every meal' for $2 a day; a trademark dispute forced the park to rename it for three years from 2016.

The name Ahwahnee, once used for Yosemite Valley, is usually translated as what?

'Big mouth' or 'gaping mouth' is the usual translation, thought to describe the valley's shape; its people were the Ahwahneechee, and 'Yosemite' comes from their neighbours' word for them, meaning 'they are killers'.

Which Yosemite Valley campground is on the National Register of Historic Places for its role in the rise of rock climbing?

Camp 4 won its listing in 2003 after climbers led by Tom Frost sued to stop the Park Service building staff housing beside it following the 1997 floods.

How did George Anderson first reach the top of Yosemite's famous granite dome in 1875?

Drilling eye bolts into the rock took him up a summit that the state's chief geologist had declared would never be 'trodden by human foot'; the rope he then fixed was the forerunner of today's cables.

How does Yosemite hand out permits for the cable route up its famous granite dome?

Lottery draws hand out most of the 300 places allowed each day; permits began in 2010 to ease crowding on the cables and make the climb safer.

Which US national park was the most visited in 2025?

Great Smoky Mountains drew about 11.5 million visits in 2025, well ahead of Zion; it charges no entrance fee because a 1951 deed handing Tennessee's main road to the park banned tolls.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is nicknamed the world capital of which animal?

Salamander species number 31 in the Smokies, whose old, wet mountains and oxygen-rich streams let them diversify; most are lungless and breathe through their skin, which is why visitors are told never to handle them.

Which name did Denali National Park carry when it was created in 1917?

Mount McKinley National Park was signed into being in 1917, eleven years after conservationist Charles Sheldon first proposed it; the 1980 Alaska lands act enlarged the park and renamed it Denali.

Lafayette National Park was renamed to what in 1929?

Acadia replaced the name Lafayette in 1929; park staff say English-leaning heirs would not give their Schoodic Peninsula land to a park named after the French general, so George Dorr proposed the new name.

Which philanthropist financed and directed the car-free carriage roads of Mount Desert Island's national park?

John D. Rockefeller Jr., a keen horseman, wanted routes into the island's heart free of motor cars, so from 1913 to 1940 he built the carriage roads; 45 miles of them remain in the park.

Which architect designed Phantom Ranch, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, for the Fred Harvey Company?

Mary Colter built Phantom Ranch from on-site rock and rough-hewn wood, and named it too: Fred Harvey officials wanted 'Roosevelt Chalet', but she insisted on the name of a nearby creek and canyon.

Which explorer named the Grand Canyon's Bright Angel Creek?

John Wesley Powell named Bright Angel Creek for its clear, sparkling water, a deliberate contrast with the muddy, salty stream his men had already called the Dirty Devil.

What were the four patrols at Baden-Powell's first experimental Scout camp in 1907 named after?

Animals named the four patrols: Wolves, Ravens, Bulls and Curlews; boys from Eton and Harrow paid a pound to attend, while those from local Boys' Brigade units paid three shillings and sixpence.

What motto has guided Scouts since the movement's first handbook appeared in 1908?

Be Prepared appeared in the movement's 1908 handbook, whose author admitted the motto was 'founded on my initials'; it meant, he wrote, being ready in mind and body to do your duty.

How does the Wood Badge neckerchief honour the Scot who bought Gilwell Park in 1919?

A patch of his clan tartan, Maclaren, sits at the point of the neckerchief: William de Bois Maclaren gave £7,000 for the estate, and the scarves were all tartan until the cost forced a single patch.

Gilwell Park lies within which forest on the outskirts of London?

Epping Forest holds the 109-acre estate; the first Rover Scouts sent to repair it in 1919 met weather too foul for tents and slept in a gardener's shed, still preserved as 'the Pigsty'.

The beads of Scouting's Wood Badge are said to come from a necklace taken from a chief of which southern African people?

Zulu chief Dinizulu's deserted mountain stronghold is where Baden-Powell said he took the necklace; such acacia-bead strings were given to brave warrior leaders, and its beads made the first Wood Badges in 1919.

Who, as Gilwell Park's first Camp Chief, ran the first Wood Badge course in 1919?

Francis Gidney, Gilwell's first Camp Chief, ran the first Wood Badge course from 8 to 19 September 1919; John Thurman later held the post from 1943 to 1969.

Where was the first World Scout Jamboree held in 1920?

Olympia, London, had its arena floor buried under a foot of earth and turf so Scouts could pitch tents beneath the glass roof; about 8,000 came from 34 nations, most of them camping at Richmond's Old Deer Park.

Near which city was the first World Scout Jamboree in the Southern Hemisphere held, over New Year 1987-88?

Sydney's outskirts hosted the 16th Jamboree, moved from the usual August to January to catch the southern summer; its midnight opening on 31 December 1987 was the first official event of Australia's bicentenary.

Where was the 25th World Scout Jamboree, cut short by a heat wave and storm, held in 2023?

The 2023 Jamboree at Saemangeum, South Korea, a reclaimed tidal flat, ended early as heat casualties mounted and Typhoon Khanun approached, with Scouts bused to Seoul and other cities.

Which Polish Baltic port was chosen to host the 26th World Scout Jamboree, planned for 2027?

Gdańsk was named host in 2021, with the camp planned for Sobieszewo Island; Poland had bid before, losing the vote for the 2023 Jamboree.

The Kandersteg International Scout Centre began in 1923 with the purchase of an old chalet in which country?

Kandersteg is in Switzerland's Bernese Oberland; the chalet had housed workers on the Lötschberg railway tunnel, finished in 1913, and stood empty until Scouts bought it in 1923.

The three leaves of the Guide trefoil badge stand for what?

The threefold Promise gives the trefoil its three leaves; the vein is a compass needle pointing the way, and the gold on blue stands for the sun shining over all the world's children.

A 1909 Boy Scout rally at which London venue is tied to the origins of the Girl Guides?

Crystal Palace drew some 11,000 Scouts in September 1909, among them girls who had signed up as Scouts themselves; rather than admit them, the founder set up the separate Girl Guides in 1910 under his sister Agnes.

Camp Fire Girls was founded in 1910 as a sister organisation to which group?

Boy Scouts of America leaders helped launch it: the idea grew from a 1910 Vermont pageant where girls watched their Scout brothers rehearse and were promised an organised part of their own.

Camp Fire Girls took shape at a Maine camp called Wohelo, a name coined from work, health and which third word?

Love completes Wohelo: Luther and Charlotte Gulick ran the girls' camp on Sebago Lake, and the coined word still names Camp Fire's highest award.

In which 1961 Disney film do twins separated as children first meet as rival campers at Camp Inch?

The Parent Trap has Hayley Mills playing both sisters, who swap places after camp to reunite their divorced parents; Disney took the story from a 1949 German children's novel by Erich Kästner.

Which naturalist launched his Woodcraft Indians, a forerunner of Scouting, in the Ladies' Home Journal in 1902?

Ernest Thompson Seton began the scheme after boys vandalised his Connecticut estate: instead of prosecuting them he invited them to spend a weekend there, and his magazine series grew into the Birch Bark Roll.

Frederick Gunn's school march, counted as America's first summer camp, came at the start of which war?

Civil War drilling was part of it: in 1861 Gunn's pupils camped on the shore of Long Island Sound and practised military drills in case they were called to fight; the outings proved so popular that regular summer camps followed.

What do US land agencies call camping on public land away from developed campgrounds and facilities?

Dispersed camping comes with rules: on most Bureau of Land Management land a stay is limited to 14 days in any 28, after which campers must move on, often 25 miles or more.

In which Alabama city has Space Camp trained would-be astronauts beside a rocket museum since 1982?

Huntsville's U.S. Space & Rocket Center has run Space Camp since 1982; the idea is credited to rocket designer Wernher von Braun, who in 1977 watched schoolchildren taking notes on a tour of the museum.

Therm-a-Rest's self-inflating mattress was invented by former engineers from which company?

Boeing laid off engineers Jim Lea and Neil Anderson in the 1971 aerospace slump; a gardening cushion that pushed out air under Lea's knees gave him the idea, and they sealed foam in airtight fabric with an old sandwich maker.

Which coating did tent maker Hilleberg pioneer on its flysheets in 1975?

Silicone-coated fabric reached Bo Hilleberg in 1975 as a sample from a Belgian supplier; finding he could not tear it, he switched his flysheets from the polyurethane coatings then standard.

What are the cords that run from a tent to pegs in the ground to hold it steady in wind called?

Guy lines take their name not from any man called Guy but, in part, from an Old French word for a guide; tensioned out to pegs, they brace a tent much as stays brace a ship's mast.

Which cartoon character lends his name to the Jellystone Park camp-resort chain?

Yogi Bear became the mascot after founder Doug Haag overheard a Saturday-morning cartoon line about campers coming to Jellystone; he licensed the name and opened the first park at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, in 1969.

Which campsite-booking platform, nicknamed the 'Airbnb of the outdoors', did Alyssa Ravasio launch in 2013?

Hipcamp began after Ravasio, a surfer, booked a beach campsite to see in 2013 and arrived to find a surf break nobody had mentioned, and no board with her; she learned to code and built a better campsite guide.

Which meteor shower lights up campsite skies every year when it peaks in mid-August?

Perseids are dust shed by comet Swift-Tuttle that Earth ploughs through each summer; the streaks all seem to fan out from the constellation Perseus, which is how the shower got its name.

Which explorer's party cooked on Primus stoves on its way to reaching the South Pole first in December 1911?

Roald Amundsen's party cooked on the Primus, which vaporises its kerosene under pressure before burning it, so it gave a hot flame without the soot of older wick stoves.

The word 'camp' goes back to the Latin campus, which meant what?

A field or open plain is what campus meant: armies pitched their tents on one, and the same Latin word later gave English 'campus' for the grounds of a college.

What fuel does the classic Trangia burner use?

Methylated spirit simply burns in the classic Trangia's open brass burner, so there are no parts to break and it runs almost silently; a simmer ring throttles the flame.

Which company did William Coffin Coleman's firm acquire in 1996?

Coleman bought Application des Gaz, the French company behind the blue Campingaz butane cartridges and stoves, in 1996.

Which Maine outfitter began in 1912 with a rubber-bottomed boot designed for hunting trips?

L.L.Bean started when Leon Leonwood Bean, a hunter who wanted dry feet, joined a light upper to waterproof rubber bottoms; the boot he sold in 1912 became the Bean Boot.

Which Cumbrian town gives its name to the mint cake carried on the first ascent of Everest in 1953?

Kendal Mint Cake made by Romney's went to the top with Hillary and Tenzing, and Hillary later recalled that the pair nibbled it on the summit.

Which polar explorer served as president of the Camping Club from 1909 to 1912?

Robert Falcon Scott was the Camping Club's president from 1909 until 1912, the year he died on the way back from the South Pole, so he held the post right through his last expedition.

Which outdoor brand is named after founder Murray Pletz's girlfriend, who sewed his first prize-winning packs?

JanSport honours Jan Lewis: Pletz could not sew, so he promised to name the company after her and to marry her if she joined, and the pair did wed.

For decades from the early 1970s, JanSport took staff and dealers on a yearly climb of which Washington peak?

Mount Rainier was the goal: JanSport's founders began by inviting friends up the volcano, and by 2018 the company was marking its 46th annual group climb with staff, retailers and distributors.

What is the dangerous drop in body temperature below 35 °C that threatens cold, wet campers called?

Hypothermia often starts with wet clothes in cold weather, which is why first aid begins with getting the person under shelter, out of the wet layers and into a dry blanket or sleeping bag.

Which multi-tool brand grew out of its founder's 1975 budget trip around Europe in a constantly failing Fiat?

Leatherman began when Tim Leatherman, fixing the car and leaky hotel plumbing with only a scout knife, kept wishing it had pliers; his first tool went on sale in 1983.

The 'flints' in lighters and campers' fire-starting rods are really made of which spark-throwing alloy?

Ferrocerium came from Carl Auer von Welsbach, the Austrian chemist behind the gas mantle, who in 1903 mixed cerium-rich rare earths with iron and found the alloy showered sparks when scraped.

What is 'char cloth', a traditional tinder for flint and steel, made from?

Char cloth is cotton or linen fabric baked without air in a sealed tin until black; the charred cloth catches a spark from flint and steel and glows readily.

By the survival 'rule of threes', a person can last about three weeks without what?

Food comes last in the rule of threes: about three minutes without air, three hours without shelter in harsh weather, three days without water, three weeks without food. So shelter and water come first.

Company lore says Nalgene's president noticed which group using its lab bottles while camping?

His son's Boy Scout troop is the group in the story told of Nalge president Marsh Hyman, said to have found the boys camping with the firm's lab bottles; Nalgene's own history credits its hiking scientists instead.

Which band played the grand opening of the first The North Face store in San Francisco in 1966?

The Grateful Dead played the opening party in 1966, in a North Beach shop that Doug Tompkins had decorated with climbing hardware donated by his climber friends.

The North Face's logo is inspired by which Yosemite rock formation?

Half Dome's outline became the logo in 1971, drawn by designer David Alcorn; the company's name points to a mountain's north face, in the Northern Hemisphere usually the coldest, iciest side to climb.

The North Face founder Doug Tompkins set off for Patagonia in 1968 with Yvon Chouinard to climb which peak?

Mount Fitz Roy had been climbed only twice when Tompkins, Chouinard and friends, calling themselves the Funhogs, reached the top and filmed the trip as Mountain of Storms.

What name did climbing blacksmith Yvon Chouinard give Patagonia's first store, opened in Ventura in 1973?

Great Pacific Iron Works opened beside the blacksmith shop where Chouinard forged his climbing hardware, in what had been a Ventura meat-packing plant.

In 1993 Patagonia began making fleece jackets from polyester reclaimed from what?

Recycled bottles: used plastic water and soda bottles were cleaned, broken into chips and turned back into polyester fibre for Patagonia's fleece.

REI was founded in 1938 in which city?

Lloyd and Mary Anderson founded REI in Seattle in 1938 as a co-operative, so that fellow climbers could get good ice axes and other mountaineering gear from Europe at reasonable prices.

Under its #OptOutside campaign, REI began closing its stores on which shopping day in 2015?

REI began closing all its stores on Black Friday in 2015, paying staff for the day and urging customers to #OptOutside instead of shopping.

Which treasure-hunting hobby began in 2000 when Dave Ulmer hid a bucket in Oregon woods and posted its GPS coordinates?

Geocaching began the day after the US stopped scrambling civilian GPS signals: Ulmer's bucket held a logbook and trinkets, and his one rule was 'take some stuff, leave some stuff'.

Airstream trailers are famous for a shiny shell of which metal?

Aluminium panels riveted like an aircraft's skin keep the trailers light: founder Wally Byam honed the method in the aircraft industry. They are built in Jackson Center, Ohio.

Which Everest pioneer oversaw the building in 1964 of the mountain airstrip where most Base Camp trekkers now land?

Edmund Hillary oversaw the building of the airstrip in 1964; its short runway slopes steeply uphill, an incline that helps arriving planes brake and departing ones gather speed.

Which Scottish word names the simple unlocked shelters that hill walkers can sleep in free of charge?

Bothy shelters, about a hundred of them kept up by Mountain Bothies Association volunteers, offer little more than a dry floor; the code asks users to leave dry kindling for the next visitor.

Zippo lighters have always carried which guarantee?

Free repairs forever is George Blaisdell's original guarantee, 'It works or we fix it free'; Zippo says no owner has ever paid for a mechanical repair, whatever the lighter's age.

Yellow-Yellow, a wild Adirondack black bear, became notorious in the 2000s for learning to open which supposedly bear-proof item?

Food canisters of the BearVault type had passed tests with captive black and grizzly bears, yet Yellow-Yellow, a small, shy female, kept getting the lids off; a hunter shot her in 2012.

In which national park did Furnace Creek record 134°F in 1913, the official world record for air temperature?

Death Valley is a long, narrow basin sunk below sea level between steep mountain ranges, so the heat coming off its bare ground stays trapped in the valley instead of escaping.

A 2008 review found bear spray stopped bears about nine times in ten in which US state?

Alaska's records from 1985 to 2006 showed the spray stopped brown bears 92% of the time and black bears 90%, and 98% of the people carrying it in close encounters came away unhurt.

What is the cord strung between a camping hammock's two ends to fix its sag called?

A hammock ridgeline is a cord tied between the two ends, so the hammock hangs with the same sag wherever it is pitched and is quicker to set up; it also holds a light or a bug net.

Which hammock brand makes the parachute-nylon DoubleNest?

ENO stands for Eagles Nest Outfitters: the Pinholster brothers started in 1999 by selling hammocks out of a rickety van at music festivals around the south-eastern United States.

Everest's South Base Camp in Nepal sits on which glacier?

Khumbu Glacier carries the camp at 5,364 metres, and its ice is thinning so fast that in 2022 Nepal announced plans to shift the camp a few hundred metres lower.

From which airport do most Everest Base Camp trekkers begin their walk?

Lukla, reached by a short mountain flight, is where most trekkers start walking; its short runway ends in a stone wall at one end and a sheer drop at the other, so landings allow no second try.

With which war is the Swedish torch, a log burned from the middle, traditionally linked?

Tradition credits Swedish soldiers in the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) with the Swedish torch: one upright log gave them light, warmth and a cooking fire while sparing scarce firewood.

A camping Dutch oven's rimmed, concave lid is designed to hold what?

The flanged, slightly concave lid holds hot coals on top so the oven bakes from above as well as below; three integral legs lift the pot above the fire.

The Dutch oven is the official state cooking pot of Utah, Arkansas and which other state?

Texas made the cast-iron Dutch oven its official state cooking implement in 2005, saluting the Spanish explorers, settlers, ranchers and chuckwagon cooks who had relied on it.

What is the most widespread friction fire-making method among indigenous cultures?

The hand drill, a stick twirled between the palms against a wooden hearth, is found almost everywhere because it needs nothing but two pieces of wood; the bow drill adds a cord to spin the same spindle.

Ötzi the Iceman carried flint and pyrite for sparks along with what fire-starter?

Tinder fungus would catch the sparks; a blackened birch-bark container holding charcoal and fresh maple leaves suggests Ötzi also carried live embers wrapped in the leaves.

The word 'tipi' entered English from which languages?

Dakota and Lakota speakers call the lodge thípi, built on a word meaning 'to dwell'; Plains peoples favoured it because it could be taken down, moved and put up again quickly.

What distinguishes a tipi from other conical tents?

Smoke flaps at the top, adjusted with two outside poles, let a fire burn inside and set the tipi apart from other conical tents; modern tipis usually have canvas covers.

What is the traditional covering of a Central Asian yurt?

Felt is made from the wool of the herders' own flocks, and families add extra layers of it to keep out the cold of the steppe winter.

What is a Mongolian yurt called?

Ger is the Mongolian name: its roof poles are straight and often rest on columns that hold up the crown, whereas the Turkic yurts further west use poles steamed into a curve.

Seeing which band headline the 1970 Bath Festival inspired dairy farmer Michael Eavis to start Glastonbury?

Led Zeppelin's open-air set sent Eavis home to stage his own festival that September: about 1,500 people came, paying £1 each with free milk from the farm.

The 1971 Glastonbury main stage was a one-tenth replica of what?

The Great Pyramid of Giza was the model for Bill Harkin's first Pyramid Stage, built of scaffolding and plastic-covered metal on a spot the organisers believed lay over a line of earth energy.

Burning Man began in 1986 on which San Francisco beach?

Larry Harvey and Jerry James knocked together a wooden figure, dragged it down to Baker Beach and set it alight on the summer solstice of 1986; a curious crowd gathered, and the burn became a yearly ritual.

Burning Man's temporary Black Rock City lies about 100 miles from which Nevada city?

Reno is the usual jumping-off point for Black Rock City, a temporary city raised on the desert each summer and then taken away again, under a pledge to leave no physical trace.

Which Burning Man principle rules out corporate sponsorship and advertising at the event?

Decommodification is one of the ten principles Larry Harvey wrote in 2004, not as rules but as guidelines for the regional groups then springing up around the event.

Which actress played hiker Cheryl Strayed in the 2014 film Wild, earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination?

Reese Witherspoon also produced Wild through her own company, having gone looking for stronger female leads; Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay, and Laura Dern was nominated for playing Strayed's mother.

What does Cheryl nickname her overstuffed backpack in the film Wild?

Cheryl calls her enormous pack 'Monster' in both the memoir and the film; she starts out barely able to lift it at a Mojave motel.

Which Oregon landmark marks the end of Cheryl Strayed's journey in Wild?

Bridge of the Gods, over the Columbia River, became her finish line after deep snow made her skip part of the Sierra by bus: she walked on across Oregon to make up the missed miles.

Which New Zealand Great Walk has a side trip to the 580-metre Sutherland Falls?

Milford Track runs 53.5 km through Fiordland to Milford Sound, and it is so popular that in the main season its three huts must be booked far in advance and everyone walks it in the same direction.

Which travel writer tackled a 2,100-mile American trail with his out-of-shape friend Katz in A Walk in the Woods?

Bill Bryson and Katz never came close to finishing: they decided the whole trail was too much, skipped a long stretch and walked the rest in pieces.

The Whanganui Journey is managed as one of New Zealand's Great Walks, but how do people actually travel it?

By canoe or kayak: the five-day trip follows the Whanganui River, which in 2017 was granted the legal rights of a person after a long campaign by local Māori.

New Zealand's 2011 Freedom Camping Act was passed ahead of which event?

Rugby World Cup visitors were expected in their tens of thousands, so ministers wanted the law in place first; it brought in $200 instant fines for camping where it is banned.

Which survival expert presented the Australian TV series Bush Tucker Man?

Les Hiddins, an Australian Army major who researched wild foods for the military, presented the ABC series Bush Tucker Man from 1988.

'Rucksack', the hiker's word for a backpack, was borrowed into English from which language?

German supplied the word: in dialect Rucken means 'back', so a rucksack is literally a 'back sack'. English 'backpack' is the younger term, not recorded until the 1890s.

Which US president toured the Alaska Railroad in 1923, stopping at what is now Denali National Park?

Warren Harding drove the golden spike that completed the Alaska Railroad at Nenana on 15 July 1923, calling at the park's station on the way; he died in San Francisco on the journey home.

What is the removable waterproof outer layer of a double-wall tent called?

The rainfly, or flysheet, is the waterproof outer layer pitched over a breathable inner tent, leaving an air gap that sheds rain and limits condensation.

Which part of the marsh mallow plant was traditionally used to make the confection?

Confectioners whipped the mucilaginous sap of the marsh mallow root (Althaea officinalis) with sugar and egg whites; gelatin replaced the root in the 19th century.

Which Australian bush bread is traditionally baked in the hot ashes of a campfire?

Damper is a plain dough of flour, water and salt, so it could be made from the dry rations carried in the bush and cooked straight in the embers or in a camp oven.

Which camp-stove maker began in 1969 as Larry Penberthy's newsletter exposing unsafe climbing gear?

MSR stands for Mountain Safety Research: Penberthy, an engineer and mountaineer, became notorious for calling out equipment he found unreliable, and the stoves came later.

Which backpacking-stove brand, launched in 2003, sells its burner and insulated cooking cup as one unit that locks together?

Jetboil's founders, Dwight Aspinwall and Perry Dowst, put a ring of metal fins under the cup to funnel the flame's heat into the water and shield it from wind, which is why it boils so quickly.

Historically, the Australian term 'overlanding' referred to what?

Droving livestock long distances was the original overlanding: Australian stockmen walked cattle and sheep across country to open up new grazing land or to reach far-off markets.

In which California national park can campers walk to General Sherman, the world's largest tree by volume?

Sequoia National Park's Giant Forest holds the tree: at about 275 feet it is far from the world's tallest, but its trunk, some 52,500 cubic feet of wood, makes it the largest by volume.

As of 2025, which US programme gives fourth-graders and their families a free year-long pass to federal lands?

Every Kid Outdoors began in 2015 as Every Kid in a Park and took its present name in 2019, when Congress wrote the programme into law; the pass covers the child's whole fourth-grade year.

Leave No Trace tells campers never to bring which campfire supply from home, but to buy it locally instead?

Firewood should come from a local seller or be gathered responsibly where allowed, and any left unused is spread about so the spot looks natural again.

Leave No Trace trail etiquette expects hikers and cyclists alike to yield to which other users?

Horse riders have the right of way, and walkers are asked to step off on the downhill side and talk quietly as they go by, because horses spook easily.

What do campers call the six-to-eight-inch-deep hole that Leave No Trace says to dig for their own waste?

Cathole depth changes with the ground: in the desert it is dug only four to six inches deep, so that the sun's heat can reach the waste and kill its pathogens.

Leave No Trace says campfire wood should be no thicker than which part of an adult's body?

A wrist is the upper limit, and the same guidance says to pick sticks up off the ground and leave every standing tree intact as shelter for birds and insects.

Leave No Trace's advice on being considerate of others favours tents and jackets in which colours?

Earth tones such as browns and greens blend in, whereas the guidance says day-glow kit that can be seen from far off adds to a crowded feeling in open country.

Leave No Trace advises burning campfire wood right down to what before soaking and spreading the remains?

White ash is the goal: any small lumps left are ground to powder between gloved fingers, soaked through and strewn over a wide area away from camp.

Leave No Trace warns that wildlife is drawn to places where campers urinate by which substance in urine?

Salt is the attraction, so the guidance is to pick rocks, pine needles or gravel and to dilute the spot with a splash of drinking water.

After straining out the scraps, how does Leave No Trace say campers should dispose of dirty dishwater?

Scatter it broadly is the rule, well away from any lake or stream, while the scraps caught in the strainer are packed out in a bag with the leftovers.

Which Leave No Trace campfire is built on a flat-topped layer of mineral soil spread over a ground cloth?

Mound fire builders pile the soil three to five inches thick so the heat cannot scorch what lies beneath, which lets the fire sit on bare rock or even grass.

Which blackish layer on desert sand does Leave No Trace say to cross only when absolutely necessary?

Cryptobiotic crust is so easily crushed that a group crossing it should tread in one another's footsteps, the opposite of the advice for walking through vegetation.

Inuit and Yupik peoples carved slitted goggles from driftwood or antler to prevent which hazard of bright winter sun?

Snow blindness is caused by ultraviolet rays, and fresh snow bounces back about 80 percent of them, against roughly 15 percent for a dry sandy beach.

Which face-covering knitted headgear, favoured by winter campers, is named after an 1854 battle of the Crimean War?

Balaclava is the Crimean town where soldiers on that campaign wore knitted headgear, much of it handmade and sent out to them against the bitter cold.

Air-activated hand warmers, a winter camping favourite, give off heat as which powdered metal inside them oxidises?

Iron powder in the pouch is simply rusting at speed: opening the wrapper lets in air, which reacts with the metal and the moisture held in vermiculite.

The first wind chill tables came from explorers timing how fast a small container froze on a hut roof where?

Antarctica was the laboratory for Paul Siple and Charles Passel, who made their measurements on a United States expedition of 1939-41 with an anemometer set beside the container.

Which mild cold injury often comes before frostbite, with a similar look but no ice crystals in the skin?

Frostnip is the signal to get out of the cold: true frostbite follows with prolonged exposure, and even its mildest first-degree form means surface skin damage.

In Inuit languages, the word 'iglu' is not limited to snowhouses but can describe what?

A house of any material counts as an iglu, including tents, sod houses and modern buildings, while a snowhouse has its own word, igluvijaq.

Which winter Scouting event, run since 1949, has patrols pull a homemade sled of gear between skill-testing stations?

Klondike derby events recall the Klondike Gold Rush, and where the winter turns out too mild, many of the homemade sleds swap their skis for wheels.

Which soft Arctic boot of sealskin or reindeer hide takes its name from a Yup'ik word for the bearded seal?

Mukluk comes from maklak, the bearded seal whose tough hide made the soles, while winter pairs were often cut from caribou leg fur for extra warmth.

Which Canadian snow shelter is made by piling up loose snow, letting it harden, then hollowing out the inside?

Quinzhee builders push foot-long sticks into the pile first, so that when they dig from inside and meet a stick tip they know the wall is thick enough.

What is the Nordic name for the low, boat-like sled that skiers tow behind them to haul winter camping gear?

Pulk sleds can also be drawn by dogs or reindeer, and in Norway and Finland parents use them to tow small children along on skiing trips.

Which routine do fire services teach children for the moment their own clothing catches alight?

Stop, drop and roll is only for clothes that are burning, and trainers remind children never to use it when a smoke alarm sounds and it is time to get out.

The fire triangle behind every campfire is made up of heat, fuel and which third ingredient?

Oxygen is the side a fire blanket takes away, and removing any one of the three is enough to put a fire out or to keep it from starting.

Nearly 85 percent of wildland fires in the United States, says the National Park Service, are started by what?

Humans start them through campfires left unattended, burning debris, equipment sparks and discarded cigarettes, while lightning is one of only two natural causes.

Besides water and a bucket, which item does Smokey Bear's campfire checklist name for stirring the soaked embers?

A shovel mixes the water into the embers, dirt and sand, and the job is finished only when the back of a hand held over the ashes feels no warmth.

Smokey Bear's advice is to keep pouring water onto a campfire until which sound dies away?

Hissing embers are not yet out, so the routine is drown, stir, drown again and feel, with dirt or sand alone never counted as enough to finish a fire.

Which Disney character fronted US forest-fire prevention campaigns for one year before Smokey Bear took over?

Bambi was only on loan from Walt Disney, so the Forest Service needed a symbol of its own and chose a bear, named after a New York firefighter, 'Smokey' Joe Martin.

Campfire guidance warns never to bury hot embers under soil because, out of sight, they can do what?

Keep smouldering is what buried embers do, feeding fires that travel through the ground itself, so water rather than soil is the way to finish a fire.

Smokey Bear received so many letters that the United States Postal Service gave him his own what?

ZIP code 20252 belongs to Smokey alone, awarded when the living bear at the National Zoo in Washington was receiving more than 13,000 letters a week.

Which National Weather Service alert warns that drought, low humidity and high winds are ideal for fire to spread?

Red flag warning forecasts are written for the public, firefighters and forest managers alike, and the conditions behind them include the chance of lightning.

Burning scrap CCA-treated timber on a campfire can release which poison in its fumes and leave it in the ashes?

Arsenic is the A in CCA, chromated copper arsenate, and the ashes of burnt treated timber are toxic enough that cattle have been poisoned by them.

Which fastener on tents and jackets was inspired by burrs that clung to an engineer's dog on a trip in the Alps?

Velcro copies the burdock burr in miniature, tiny hooks catching soft loops, though the weaving experts of Lyon at first turned its inventor away.

Which waterproof, breathable membrane in rain jackets was created by giving a heated rod of PTFE a sudden, sharp yank?

Gore-Tex was a lucky accident born partly of frustration: abandoning a slow pull, one quick tug stretched the rod about 800 percent into a microporous material that is roughly 70 percent air.

Which coverings do hikers strap over their boot tops and lower legs to keep out mud, scree and deep drifts?

Gaiters also guard against snakebite, and heavy pairs are teamed with crampons to shield the leg from the spikes on the opposite foot.

Which cords run from a tent out to pegs in the ground, pulling on its poles and panels to keep it stable?

Guy ropes hold best when each peg goes in at a slant instead of straight down, so that the peg sits at right angles to the rope pulling on it.

Which hydration-pack brand began in 1989 as an IV bag of water that a racing cyclist stuffed into a sock?

CamelBak founder Michael Eidson was an emergency medical technician, which explains the IV bag he pinned to his jersey, its hose held over his shoulder by a clothespin.

Which nylon cord, nicknamed 550 for its breaking strength in pounds, did astronauts use to repair the Hubble telescope?

Paracord has a core of yarns, nicknamed the guts, that campers pull out to use as sewing thread for gear repairs or to fish with in an emergency.

Which woven nylon used for tents has thicker reinforcing threads set at intervals in a crosshatch pattern?

Ripstop does what its name says: the thicker threads make the cloth resist tearing, and newer weaves make the grid less obvious than it was on older lightweight fabrics.

Which rating, also used for the insulation in a building's walls, measures how well a sleeping pad resists heat loss?

R-value climbs as a pad insulates better, and most of that insulation comes from trapped air, which is one of the best and cheapest insulators there is.

Which Italian brand's rubber lug soles for hiking boots were developed after six climbers died in the Alps in 1935?

Vibram takes its name from founder Vitale Bramani, who lost six friends on that climb and patented a lugged sole whose tread he called Carrarmato, or tank tread.

Which adjustable loop knot, typically used to secure a tent, can be slid along to take up slack without retying?

Taut-line hitch users include arborists climbing trees and crews tying down aircraft, and the knot also goes by the names rigger's hitch and midshipman's hitch.

Which soft adhesive padding, a first-aid kit staple, do hikers cut to fit around a blister to shield it from rubbing?

Moleskin is cut with a hole in the centre so the blister sits in the gap, and the thickness of the pad around it takes the friction instead.

Duct tape, a repair-kit standby for torn tents, was first used in the Second World War to seal cases of what?

Ammunition boxes were the worry of ordnance worker Vesta Stoudt, who feared that poor seals cost soldiers time in battle and wrote to President Roosevelt about it.

The jerrycan, a campsite favourite for carrying water and fuel, takes its nickname from its design in which country?

Germany designed the can in the 1930s for its military, and the Allies, whose slang for Germans was 'Jerry', copied it during the Second World War.

Giardia, caught by campers who drink untreated lake or river water, causes an illness nicknamed what in North America?

Beaver fever is among the most widespread parasitic diseases in people, and boiling the water kills the parasite's cysts, which chlorine struggles to destroy.

Citronella oil, the scent of mosquito-repelling camp candles, is obtained from the leaves and stems of which plant?

Lemongrass species of the genus Cymbopogon supply it, though candles that burn the oil in wax have been found ineffective against the mosquito that carries dengue.

Which halogen, alongside chlorine, do backpackers add to drinking water as tablets or a solution to disinfect it?

Iodine kills by oxidising the cells of microbes, but it leaves an unpleasant taste and may harm health if swallowed over protracted periods.

The P-38, small enough for a camper's key ring, was issued with American military rations from 1942 as what?

A can opener that folds flat, the P-38 came first in the K-ration and later the C-ration, and it stayed in service until canned rations ended in the 1980s.

Which resin-soaked heartwood of pine stumps, sold as a natural fire starter, lights quickly even when wet?

Fatwood forms in the stump left after a pine falls or is felled, where hardened resin makes the wood rot-resistant and hot-burning enough to light bigger logs.

Permethrin, sprayed by campers onto outer clothing and mosquito nets, imitates chemicals found in which flower?

Chrysanthemum flowers yield the natural insecticide pyrethrum, and burning its powder to repel mosquitoes in late-1800s Japan led to the mosquito coil.

Camping propane has no smell of its own, so which additive gives it the rotten-egg odour that reveals a leak?

Ethyl mercaptan, also called ethanethiol, goes into nearly all propane fuel as a precaution, because the gas itself is colourless as well as odourless.