#Winadventure

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Well, we’re on the internet and so are you. That probably means we know a bit abouts the interwebs. That’s why we’re having a Giveaway focused on things digital.


For the last couple months, We at The Outdoor Adventure along with in no particular order: My Life Outdoors, Wilderness Dave, A Little Campy, Hiking the Trail and Trail Sherpa have been working together with a whole bunch of outdoors companies to bring all you guys more than a month of giveaways. This week we start our Digital week with this list of wonderful prizes:
Enter to win below!

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This past weekend a group of friends and I did a quick overnight backpacking trip to the Ozette Triangle on the Olympic Coast. We were blessed with clear blue skies and warm temperatures for our 9.4 mile roundtrip hike with sea stacks, deer, sea lions, and ocean scenery for as far as you can see.

1.       Black Bart Chili with Beans & Beef (GLUTEN FREE!) Weighs 6 oz and makes two 1 cup servings.

2.       Texas BBQ Chicken with Beans (GLUTEN FREE!) Weighs 5.5 oz and makes two 1 cup servings.

3.       BananasFoster (GLUTEN FREE!)  Weighs 4 ounces and makes two 1 cup servings.

4.       Blueberry Honey Granola with Milk (Contains Milk & Wheat) Weighs 6.5 oz and makes two 1 cup servings.

As a Texan boy I know a thing or two about chili, so my standards are fairly high when it comes to traditional southern food. Now that my review has hopefully gained credibility in your eyes I will continue. With spoon in hand I proceeded to devour the Gluten Free Black Bart Chili with Beans & Beef. I was pleased with the consistency, as it has the texture of chili one would make at home – complete with beefy chunks and plenty of spicy beans. At first I worried about upsetting my stomach, as usually spicy food can make for an unpleasant atmosphere for my fellow tent mate and anyone who dares to hike downwind. But, much to the joy of all those around, the only waft in the breeze was of the cool salty air billowing in from the ocean that night. Overall, I felt satisfied with the allotted portion and comforted on a cold night with my belly full of delicious Gluten Free Black Bart Chili with Beans & Beef.

Let’s fast forward through the night to breakfast time the next morning. I could slow this down and tell you about how well I slept in the Adventure Medical Kits Escape Bivy that night, but you can just read all about it here. So, there I sat on the log eating Blueberry Honey Granola with Milk. Now most would just add the required ¾ cup cold water and call it granola, but I like to add ¾ cup hot water and call it porridge. Somehow, I just feel like it sticks to my ribs better that way. Knowing I have a warm breakfast helps me get out of the tent on the cold mornings too. Now, because this is a review I get to say whatever I want. So here’s my whatever: it’s bland. While I felt full and ready to tackle the trail, I also felt like I should have packed some brown sugar to sprinkle on top. I felt it just needed a little something extra.

On the menu for lunch is Gluten Free Texas BBQ Chicken with Beans.  As with most pouch foods, I removed the oxygen absorber packet, added 2 cups boiled water, and waited 12 minutes. To be honest, I kind of eyeballed the water pouring it in this time, and think I might have added too much. The consistency was rather soupy, but again, that might have been my fault. I did enjoy scooping out the chunks of chicken and found them to be enjoyable, but was decidedly disappointed by the overall flavor of the meal. Like the granola, it just needed a little something extra, but this time a little brown sugar wouldn’t have sufficed. In the end I just felt obligated to finish the meal, and let’s just say I added a little something extra to the wafts in the breeze this time around.

Now before you think I’m a Negative Nancy, pause and consider my review of the Gluten Free Bananas Foster Dessert Meal. This meal only required ¾ cup of boiling water, but still required the full 12 minutes to cook in the pouch. AlpineAire describes this dessert as sliced bananas, cinnamon, and brown sugar that swim in a delicate vanilla sauce. Having never had Bananas Foster before, all I could do was glance down at the brown mush and then shrug my shoulders and dig in. The taste was a fairly sweet, banana-y flavor and the texture was chunky and chewy. As I continued to eat I realized that I had not mixed it as well as needed, and had to remind myself to pay more attention to getting deep down into the corners next time. Having the correct utensil can make all the difference. My short little spork can be such a nuisance for mixing freeze dried meals, leaving me licking sauce off my hand and yet evidently clumps of powder still evade me. We ate this as a group snack, but it ended up being more of a spork feeding frenzy. The only complaint was that some weren’t waiting their turn in the spork line-up. It almost got crazy.

Sorry for the delay, but I assure you we have some reviews in the pipe and we wanted to let you know what they were, so here are some photos of what we’re testing. Have you seen or tried any of these? What do you think?

WAHOO! I’m seriously a bit giddy about this week’s giveaway! Can you believe it? A huge pile of survival gear in all the truest senses of the word! Are you ready?

For the last couple months, We at The Outdoor Adventure along with in no particular order: My Life Outdoors, Wilderness Dave, A Little Campy, Hiking the Trail and Trail Sherpa have been working together with a whole bunch of outdoors companies to bring all you guys more than a month of giveaways.

This week we’re super excited to be giving away awesome gear to keep you surviving… in style. I recommed you subscribe to the feed for some awesome gear reviews coming up highlighting this stuff on the blog! Oh and we’ll be updating this with links to all the reviews!

Now you want to know what we’re giving away! Wait no further… I mean Look no longer… never mind, just read it and enter to win:

Always on the look out for a more natural and safer sunscreen for myself and my children, I was thrilled that Beyond Coastal gave me a chance to review some of their products.

I have tried a number of brands in the past but Beyond Coastal is definitely one of the best that I have tried so far.

They gave me Active Sunscreen SPF 30+, Natural Clear SPF 30, Active Face Stick, Natural Lip and Face Screen SPF 30, and a variety of flavors of their new line of flavored lip balm to try. Here are my thoughts:
Active Sunscreen SPF 30+

This sweat and water resistant, non-mineral broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection sunscreen is gluten free (great news for my son) and also free of all those nasty oxybenzone, paraben and petroleum stuff which, though not conclusively proven, has me worried about what chemicals and toxins are entering my body through my skin.

So it doesn’t contain any of those nasty chemicals, so what does it contain? Healing aloe vera, revitalizing green tea, nourishing Vitamins C and E, moisturizing shea butter, soothing yerba mate, hydrating panthenol and algae extract is enough to make any skin happy. The sun protection (active ingredients) come from octinoxate, octisalate (that gives it that lightly sweet scent), octocrylene and avobenzone (which protects against UVA rays). Ocinoxate makes up the majority of the active ingredients at about 7.5% and avobenzone makes up only 2%.

I liked that it has no noticible scent and that it applied invisibly to my skin and after 5 minutes when I checked again, it was almost unnoticeable. No white residue.

As some of the active ingredients (such as Avobenzone) start to degrade within an hour when exposed to UV rays, Beyond Coastal added Solistay to prolong and stabilize its effectiveness. As I burn easily, I will be curious to try it this summer and find out how effective it is at keeping my fair skin from turning an unflattering strawberry color. I like this sunscreen because of how quickly it disappeared on my skin, how a little went a long way, that it had no scent and that it was water resistant. I am not wild about the fact that it still contains octocrylene (4% of the active ingredients) which some studies have linked with increased incidences of malignant melanoma.

Natural Clear Sunscreen SPF 30
If your plan for the day is to cheer on your favorite team, a stroll in the park with your best friend (be it four footed or two) or taking a spin in a convertible then this is the sunscreen of choice. It is a good everyday sunscreen which one can easily apply makeup over it without the makeup caking and no one will know that your skin is protected (even without makeup).

What makes Natural Clear Sunscreen a good every day sunscreen is that it only has one active ingredient (the very safe and non-toxic zinc oxide). It also nourishes your skin with rose hip oil, jojoba seed oil and shea butter.It repairs and hydrates with cococa seed butter, alpha lipoic acid (an anti-oxidant), pro vitamin B, algea extract, and aloe vera.

Fragrance free like the other sunscreens, it has only a very faint sweet smell. The zinc oxide sits on the skin’s surface and is not absorbed into the skin while protecting the skin from both UVA and UVB ultraviolet rays and is not destroyed by the sun like some other sunscreen ingredients.

I like this sunscreen because it absorbs so quickly into the skin and leaves no noticeable residue while still giving my skin powerful protection against the sun. I also love the active ingredient list. Even though the sun protection will rub off with a towel, wash off while swimming, and sweat away when exercising, I think the hassle of frequent application is worth it because of the lower risk of strange (and potentially harmful) things being absorbed into the skin.

Natural Lip and Face Screen

I did not like the Natural lip and Face Screen. Even after 10 minutes there was still a noticeable white sheen on the skin. It has a very light, hardly noticeable scent and comes in a tub which meant that the sunscreen got under my nails.
The active ingredients are in equal amounts Titanium Dioxide (which does get absorbed into the skin) and Zinc Oxide (which stays on the surface of the skin). For moisturizing and hydration of the skin there is aloe vera, coconut oil, safflower oil, Vitamin C and E, Shea butter, beeswax and Mango butter.

Like the other sunscreens by Beyond Coastal it is gluten free, and Paraben and Petroleum free. It offers strong UVB and UVA protection but I still prefer Natural Clear Sunscreen SPF 30+.

Active Face Stick

The Active Sunscreen Face Stick’s biggest advantage is that one can apply it without getting one’s hands greasy. It comes in a stick form (kind of like deodorant) and is great for people who don’t want their hands to be slippery every time they apply sunscreen. One could apply this sunscreen half way up a cliff face and still be fine to keep on going.

It has a pleasant unobtrusive scent. Easy no-mess application, no drip, no sunscreen in the eye, no inhalation (like with spray-ons) and no greasy fingers.

After 10 minutes the face still felt sticky and greasy to the touch (but not more so then most normal sunscreens).

The active ingredients are Avobenzone, homosalate, octinoxate and octocrylene (boo!). It nourishes and hydrates with aloe vera, Vitamin E, Beeswax, shea butter, yerba mate, and orange oil extract (which gives it a light hint of citrus scent).

If I was in any sort of active sport which would make slippery hands dangerous then I would use this product. It is water and sweat resistant and oxybenzone, paraben and petroleum free but it still contains octocrylene which turns me off.

SPF 15 Active Lip Balm


Coming in four fun flavors (Citrus Grove, Mint Leaf, Cherry Blossom, and Vanilla Bean) these Active lip balms nourish and hydrate (beeswax, aloe vera, shea butter and yerba mate) while giving your lips protection (octinoxate, octisalate, octocrylene, avobenzone) against UVB and UVA rays. I normally don’t go for scented lip balms as I find them too cloyingly sweet but that was not the case with this brand. Applied to dry, slightly chapped lips it instantly gave relief and moisturized my lips leaving them feeling luscious. They stayed on even after drinking some tea and giving my husband a kiss (he didn’t mind the scent either). It left my lips feeling smooth and not sticky and kept them soft throughout the day.


by Thamar A.
The Outdoor Adventure Team


Products provided by http://www.beyondcoastal.com/

You’ve been waiting, I’ve been waiting, we’ve all been waiting for this moment! That’s right, Today is the day that we kick off the first giveaway in our Spring into Adventure Gear Giveaway!


For the last couple months, We at The Outdoor Adventure along with in no particular order: My Life Outdoors, Wilderness Dave, A Little Campy, Hiking the Trail and Trail Sherpa have been working together with a whole bunch of outdoors companies to bring all you guys more than a month of giveaways. 


This week, our COLD Week, 2 People will walk away… from their computer… with some awesome REALLY AWESOME gear. and the rest of you? well, you’ll just be more excited to win the next week’s Gear Giveaway!


As a reminder, here’s what’s up for grabs:

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