Vegan

Sunscreen. It’s a summer staple. A product ubiquitous in beach bags, backpacks, and drugstores the world over. It protects our skin while we’re out in the world exploring and keeps us from looking like leather couches as we age. But could the sunscreen we use be doing as much damage to the environment as it’s doing good for our body’s largest organ? Turns out, a lot of the ingredients in suscreen damages coral reefs (which are not only a natural wonder, but living things, remember), makes ocean life sick, and contaminates waterways. How can we avoid such destruction while still preventing skin cancer? With reef safe sunscreen, of course! We rounded up 7 quality options that are not only reef friendly, but vegan, too, so you can wander (and swim) on!

We frequently get asked what we eat on the trail. Sometimes by folks who are interested in trying backpacking and just want to know what to eat, sometimes by folks …

Maybe you read our post about down and are wondering where wool comes into the equation. Maybe you can’t figure out for the life of you why vegans forgo putting …

Down. It’s everywhere in the outdoor world: in sleeping bags, coats, even those weird puffy booties that are supposed to keep your tootsies all warm and toasty inside your tent. …

I’m addicted to coffee. It’s a problem, I know, but there are worse things to be addicted to, right? Thing is, we have a habit of drinking some pretty bad coffee on the trail. Instant was a staple for quite some time. I blame it on the fact that I am a minimalist when it comes to backpacking and I don’t like to carry the extra weight of complex devices (like this personal press that weighs more than I’m willing to carry). However, there are plenty of ways to make a cuppa on the trail and many of them don’t take up that much room in your pack or weigh a ton. Here are 5 ways to make coffee while backpacking or camping.

When most people head to their local outdoor store to stock up on socks, one thing you’ll see everywhere is wool, which is a no-go for vegan hikers who eschew animal by-products on an ethical, environmental, or animal welfare basis (check out our post on why we avoid wool). But synthetic hiking socks can be trickier to locate. Fortunately, we found 9 vegan hiking socks made entirely without wool so you can explore blister free.

I hate shopping for new hiking boots and shoes. I don’t know if my feet are weird or I’m too cheap or too picky, (it’s likely a combination of all of the above) but add in the necessity that my hiking boots contain no animal products, and finding footwear that fits the bill is a veritable nightmare. Fortunately, we’ve done some of the legwork for you and found 20+ of the best vegan hiking boots and shoes so you can wander on confidently and cruelty-free. You’re welcome.