Brian Green

Odd timing, but I have been sent several different ruggedized, solar-powered, portable power banks recently. I’ll admit that I’m not really the type of person that carries around a spare power bank for my smartphone or devices when I’m on the trail. The CoreThird Maasai 10 Solar Panel is slightly more expensive but solar panels are and this one is extremely well made – and light weight. Anyway, this isn’t a in-depth product review, just a short post to say that I’m back testing gear and looking forward to getting back to blogging.

There’s been a lot of online chatter lately about how to earn one of my BBB morale patches and “The BBB Challenge You may have heard it mentioned on the latest episode of the Red Teams Podcast, but there’s not much I can say right now. The Challenge will span days, weeks, even months depending on your abilities to think, act, and do. For now, if you think you have what it takes to complete #TheBBBChallenge and earn one of these patches, start with this simple decryption test…

Ever since I first posted about my frustration with Esbit fuel tablets (more than four years ago now) and my eventual solution of developing a more efficient Esbit tray stove, I have received a steady stream of emails from readers asking if I could make them a stove and sell it to them. For a while I tried making my Esbit tray stoves for those that asked and sold them for a few bucks just to cover shipping, but I didn’t have enough materials or the time to do it on a frequent or scalable basis. The 309 stainless steel Dan has chosen can withstand temperatures up to 2,100 degrees and an Esbit fuel tablet only produces 1,400 degrees. The production version includes a ready-made 309 stainless steel BGET stove and comes bundled with a radiant heat reflector, three sealed Esbit fuel tablets, and an ultralight stove storage container to protect the stove when being transported – all for $9.95.

It let’s you carry your baseplate compass right on your trekking pole so that it’s easily accessible and ready for navigation while you’re hiking. I consider my compass to be an extremely important piece of gear, as such I usually have a length of cord attached to it so that I can’t accidentally lose it. I was initially concerned that I might lose my compass off of my trekking pole if the Compass Caddy was not a snug fit. I tend to be heavy with my trekking poles and thought the continual impacts might dislodge my compass from the caddy – amazingly that never happened.