Gear Review & Giveaway: Life Straw

A while back we were asked if we would be interested in reviewing the LifeStraw® by Vestergaard. It wasn't long (a week if that) before the LifeStraw® was at our door step. Being avid outdoors people you can only imagine what our answer was. We wouldn't be here right now if we had answered the other way. 

Unsure as to when we'd get a chance to try it out, it sat in our gear stash pile on the bookshelf for a couple weeks. Then Father's Day came and this was our chance. When asked what I wanted to do for Father's Day, the only answer was a family hike. We geared up, loaded up the car and off we were to Frozen Head State Park. We took a nice little family hike/stroll up Panther Branch Trail to Debord Falls and at least one pit-stop along the way for the Bug to play in the creek before reaching the falls (a whopping .6 miles from the trailhead). She's little so we take it slow.

Mountain Men Season 2 DVD Giveaway

We've watched Mountain Men on several occasions on the History Channel. Every time, I think Robin and I both are both in awe and jealous of how these guys and their families live. Simple, free, and "wild". Basically, they are masters of their own destiny, in control of their own survival in this world without being apart of the "rat race" most of us live by holding down normal 9 to 5's or staying at home raising the kiddos while spouses are at their day jobs.

That's not to say that they have it easy. By no means do these men and their families have it easy. As a matter of fact I think the rest of society (as a whole) have it easy. Heck, if what these guys did was easy, everyone would be doing it and there would be no need for a show right?

THOUSAND TRAILS ANNOUNCES GEAR UP AND CAMP SWEEPSTAKES

While we aren't RV'ers by any stretch of the imagination, Thousand Trails, home to some of the most beautiful and natural campgrounds and RV resorts across the U.S., is giving outdoor enthusiasts a chance to get out and camp with the Gear Up and Camp sweepstakes.  One lucky camper will win a free week of camping and a camping gear package, with a combined value of $1100.  Sweepstakes entrants will also be entered for a chance to win one of four second place prize packages, and one of 30 third place prize packages daily.

The sweepstakes grand prize includes a week-long camping trip for the winner at any participating Thousand Trails or Encore RV resort campground.  In addition, the winner will receive a package of camping gear, including the following: Rand McNally’s RV-specific GPS device - the  RVND™ 7720 LM; $100 gas card; Strongback Chair; Coghlan's Camper's S'mores Grill and Corn Popper; Coleman Lantern; $50 MyRVMarket.com gift certificate; Thousand Trails sweatshirt, umbrella, window cling, backpack, blanket and travel mug; and a Duck Harbor Cool Weather Sleeping bag.

Gear Giveaway - Rokit Fuel Oatmeal

Just yesterday we reviewed Rokit Fuel Oatmeal. Now that we have your taste buds all fired up and ready to go, here's your chance to try these awesome all natural oatmeals for yourself. One lucky reader of Appalachia & Beyond will receive a four pack of single serve Rokit Fuel Oatmeal. This four pack contains one of each flavor we reviewed: Cherry Almond, Stud Muffin, Pumpkin Chocolate, and Chocolate Dream.

How do you get in on this action? Simple, just use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter. It is mandatory to leave a comment in order to enter and unlock all the other extra entry options. If your on a smart phone and don't see the comment form, the it would appear that our Disqus comment platform isn't working on your phone's browser. If this is the case be sure to get to a computer and get entered. Also if you are one of those who can't leave a comment on our Disqus comment platform, let us know so we can research what's going on with that.

So here's the other info: The contest will run from 12:01am EST Tuesday, December 4, 2012 and will close at 11:59pm EST Saturday, December 8, 2012. We will pick a winner soon after the giveaway closes and will announce the winner on our Facebook page as well as on the Rafflecopter widget. So without further ado...good luck to you all.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kupilka Cup - Gear Review and Giveaway

Some time ago, we were sent a Kupilka Cup by Sport Hansa to review on our blog. This is a sweet little cup. It actually reminds me of one of those ladles you see in in movies scenes that take place in a Russian Gulag. Perfect for dipping into gruel or in our case stew. You could actually put stew into this cup or my personal favorite, coffee.

The Kupilka Cup is made of a thermoplastic natural fiber composite biomaterial consisting of 50% pine wood fibers and 50% plastic materials. This makes for a durable and engraveable cup that doesn't absorb smells and is insensitive to humidity. Additionally, it has a higher heat endurance which I find quite useful as I can hold the cup in my palms after it's been filled with pipping hot coffee or warm soup without it burning my hands.

Gear Giveaway - Space Bag® Dual-Use Bags

Remember the little P.S. at the end of yesterday's post (The Space Bag® Dual-Use Bags review)? Well here it is, in the...hrm, I don't suppose it would be appropriate to say "in the flesh" considering this is just a blog post. So here it is, the giveaway, as promised. One lucky winner will receive 1 large and 1 medium Space Bag® Dual-Use Bag. Here are the details.

Five Year Blogiversary Giveaway Day 1 (Hiker)

Happy 5 Year Blogiversary to Appalachia & Beyond. We hope everyone is just as excited about this as we are. We've been anxiously waiting for this day to get here. As you all know we have decided to have 5 full days of giveaways just to celebrate the occasion. Also, just to be clear, you have a full week to enter on each day's giveaway starting on the day of each giveaway (e.g. Monday's giveaway will stay open until Sunday, Tuesday's until Monday, etc.).

5 Year Blogiversary Giveaway Teaser

With our blogiversary coming up next week, we thought we'd get everyone excited with us and let you know what would be given away on what days. So without further ado...

Monday = "Hiker" giveaway package. (Please note you don't necessarily have to be a hiker to enter.)

• A Pair of Women's GoodHew socks size M/L (These are the Lumber Janes that will be out this Fall.)
• A SportScience Smarter Short Sleeve T-Shirt (We reviewed this shirt last week, however we will not be giving away the one I wear.)
• Hyland's Poison Ivy/Oak relief tablets
• "The Way" movie poster

We Have a Winner (5.11 Tactical ATAC A2 Flashlight)

Happy April everyone. We know that y'all have been waiting with nervous anticipation to find out who gets to add the spiffy ATAC A2 flashlight from 5.11 Tactical to their packs. Well ladies and gentlemen, wait no longer. We do have a winner and to beat it all Dinah helped me pick the winner when we logged into the Random Number Generator and input the numbers for the entries.

So without further ado, the lucky winner of the ATAC A2 flashlight from 5.11 Tactical is none other than Jeff of the blog AppalachianHikerHQ. Jeff, when you see this send us an email at appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com with your mailing address and we will send it along so 5.11 can get you your new flashlight. Let us know how it does out on the trail.

Okay everyone, that's about all the time we have for this evening. It's time to go wolf down supper before the Bug wakes up from her nap. Stay tuned as we have a pretty cool contest announcement post for tomorrow from a company located here in the Southern Appalachians and we are happy to help spread the word.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Early Celebration Giveaway(5.11 Tactical Flashlight)

Wow it's already spring and well it's one of our favorite times of year to be out on the trail and/or camping. We've been at this blogging business for a while now and well this year is a bit different. You know this May we will be celebrating five years of blogging, trail reports and destination guides here at Appalachia & Beyond. And while you can expect some cool things to celebrate the occasion, we thought with it being spring and a great time to get out on the trail or in the campgrounds, why not start celebrating a little early.

Photo Courtesy of:
5.11 Tactical

We are lucky enough to begin the celebrations for the upcoming anniversary by teaming up with 511Tactical  to give away a prize to one of our readers - and it could be you! The prize is an ATAC A2 Flashlight from 511's range of flashlights.

The ATAC A2 is simply designed to be strong, light and bright - the 2AA batteries supply 162 lumens, or just 15 lumens on 'ultra low power' mode.

FGR - 10/28/2011 - Who's Ready to Win Some Stuff?

Seriously, who's ready to win some stuff? There's a few great giveaways going on in the outdoor blog-o-realm so let's get right down to business shall we? First up over at Live Free and Hike New Hampshire, our buddy Karl has two copies of Following Atticus to give away to two lucky readers. It looks like these are hard back copies and they would make for a great gift for someone, or better yet a wonderful edition to your own personal library. You have until Nov. 11 before Karl picks the two lucky winners so get over to his blog for all the entry details.

Next up, Trail Sherpa has launched it's first gear review, offered by none other than our lead sherpa Tim Miner. He's reviewed the Geigerig Hydration System and in so doing has decided to celebrate the first gear review post on Trail Sherpa by giving away a Geigerig 1600 day pack with inline filter. How awesome is that? Pretty dang sweet if you ask me. Like the first giveaway mentioned, there are multiple entries available for this one, but you only have until Nov 3rd to get them in so head over to the review post and get entered now.

ENO and Headsweats Winner

Ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages, we have ourselves a winner for our giveaway. It is with great pleasure to announce that the winner of the ENO DoubleNest Hammock, ENO Slap Straps, and Headsweats Adventure Hat is none other than Lindsey @ OutsideMom.com.


Congratulations Lindsey! Does this mean that your husband doesn't have to make hammocks for Mini-Van camps anymore? Send us your mailing address via email to appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com as soon as you see this. We will get the prize pack out to you as soon as possible.

We would like to thank Eagles Nest Outfitters and Headsweats for helping us celebrate our 300 "Likes" which has since turned into over 400 "Likes" on Facebook. Additionally, we would like to also thank all of you, our fans, for making it all possible. Without y'all, we wouldn't have a reason to be doing this. Have a great weekend everyone.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Happy Fall - FGR 9/23/2011

Hello and Happy Fall. We hope you've had a great week and are looking forward to getting outside to enjoy the first weekend of Autumn. We have a pretty busy weekend ahead and are looking forward to the cooler temps and I'm sure the rest of you are too. A lot of things have been happening this week and with the giveaways, well that's not much different at least not here. So let's jump right to it.

For the first giveaway, we have to go ahead and toot our own horn. Late last week we hit the 300 fan mark on Facebook. In so doing we were lucky enough to team up with Eagles Nest Outfitters(ENO) and Headsweats for a sweet little giveaway to celebrate the occasion. This prize pack includes an ENO DoubleNest Hammock, ENO Slap Straps to hang the hammock with, and a Headsweats Adventure Hat. To get in on this opportunity all you have to do is head over to our Facebook page before 8:00pm this evening, "Like" our page, and leave a comment on our wall telling us why you love ENO. Sometime after 8:00pm tonight we will draw a winner at random and announce it here on the blog and on our Facebook Page.

ENO Hammock Giveaway (Celebrating 300 Likes on Facebook)

So sometime yesterday evening we hit the 300 mark on our Facebook page. It really amazes us that we have so many fans and that we continue to grow that fan base on a daily basis. It's because of you that we do this as we hope to inspire everyone to get outdoors and enjoy the many gifts that mother nature has given us to enjoy. We especially hope that you will come to East Tennessee and enjoy the abundant outdoor resources available to us here. That's the other reason for our blog, to highlight all that East Tennessee and this region of Southern Appalachia has to offer to the outdoors lover.

With that being said, we couldn't be happier to highlight one of Southern Appalachia's outdoor gear makers, Eagles Nest Outfitters (ENO). Located in Asheville, North Carolina, ENO makes hammocks and other great outdoor products that make hanging out a true pleasure in the outdoors. If you remember we reviewed a DoubleNest that Robin bought us for Christmas, and we've been using it ever since. Well to help us celebrate, ENO has decided to help us out with a giveaway.

Since you, our fans, have helped us to reach that magical 300 number, ENO and Appalachia & Beyond is giving you a chance to win a DoubleNest Hammock and the Slap Straps to hang it with. You can't get any better than that can you? All you have to do is like us and then leave a comment on our Facebook Page that you want to win an ENO DoubleNest Hammock and why you love ENO. In addition, we'll even throw in a Headsweats Adventure Hat. The Adventure hat is made of lightweight Cocona fabric that wicks moisture away while keeping you dry and comfortable. It also has a Cocona terry sweatband for additional moisture management and a velcro back closure The hat is a nice olive green for that foresty look.We will draw a winner on Friday Sept. 23rd at 8:00pm.

Happy Trails and Good Luck,
Tim and Robin

(**Disclaimer:** This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger. You are providing information to Appalachia & Beyond only and not to Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger. The information you provide will only be used for this giveaway.) 

Another Friday Gear Giveaway Roundup - 8/19/2011

We hope everyone has had a wonderful week and are gearing up for a fantastic weekend. The weather around here has gotten hot again and there's threats of rain. That won't stop the party for us though as the Kiddo turns the big 1-5 this weekend and is having some friends over for tea. I don't think it will be your normal tea party though, as it turns out, it will a slight bit mad. Anyway, we've just about completed the nursery for Little Miss Dinah. There's just a few items left, mostly decorative in nature though so all the hard stuff is completed and out of the way.

Being that it's Friday again, you know that means it's time to get in on some great giveaways and this week is no different from the previous weeks. There's three new giveaways going to let you in on and a few that are still on going to remind you about. So let's get started shall we?

Giveaway Roundup Friday - August 12, 2011

So the last week and a half has been crazy hectic. If you follow us on Facebook, then you know that we've been neck deep in turning a bathroom into a nursery, and getting the house looking nice before the appraiser comes out. With that being said, we ended up missing last weeks giveaway roundup and for that we sincerely apologize. If you please, don't put us in "Time Out" for it.

Anyway since we missed it last week, we have one for you today that features some pretty sweet giveaways from around the outdoor blog-o-sphere. These items include huge prize packages, to a GPS, a sleeping bag, and more. So with no further delay, let's get straight to the goodies that are up for grabs out there and start the weekend off right.

New Knives Winner

In case you've been wondering where we've been, it has been crazy busy around here.We haven't abandoned y'all and we are sorry we haven't been posting lately. We're especially sorry that we missed Friday's Giveaway Round Up post. We know how much everyone looks forward to those. If you keep up with us on Facebook, then you know we've been neck deep in converting a bathroom into a nursery and have started the house buying process.

We've got so much stuff to get done before the appraiser comes out so we may still be hit or miss on the blog for the next couple of weeks. This week though we will have the outdoor blog carnival post up so y'all will have plenty of blogs (both new and old) to read. Also, we will make it up to you on Friday for the gear giveaway roundup.

Anyway... Remember the knives and GoGirl giveaway? Well the winner of the knives has never contacted us with an address or anything. You know what that means right? It's time to pick a new winner. We removed the initial winner from the list and let the RNG do it's thing. This time it has picked D.Nash (of My Leaky Waders fame) as the lucky winner of the Winchester Knife set. Congrats D. Nash. Send us an email to appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com with your address and we will get the knife set out to you as soon as possible.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

We Has A Winners! (Yes that's plural)

This morning we awoke to sunny blue skies. Upon stepping outside, we decided it was going to be another hot steamy day, the likes we've seen for the last couple of weeks now. With that we decided to go back inside for our usual cups of Joe, bowls of cereal, and air conditioning. In a bit we will get ready to start back on ripping out the bathroom in our hall as we are going to convert it to a nursery for our bundle of joy that is due to arrive this winter. I can only hope that in a few weeks time we will be close to finishing that up, the temperatures will start to cool a bit, and we can get out for a couple more hikes.

In the meantime, while sitting here enjoying the coffee and having polished off what was left of the Crunch Berry cereal, I realized it was time to fire up the random number generator (RNG) as we have two prizes to give away. After doing it's thing twice the RNG has declared that we has winners. For the first prize: The GoGirl, our lucky winner, as designated by the RNG, is Family Wilds. Congratulations Pablo and Nea, may the GoGirl serve Nea well.

The second prize up for grabs was a pair of Winchester Limited Edition Ersatz Scrimshaw Knives. We had a few more entries for these than the GoGirl so the RNG had a few more numbers to crank through before declaring the winner. So without further ado, the lucky winner will now have to answer the question as to whether she, "should keep them to herself or share them with her hubby?" Congrats goes out to Brandy, the lucky winner of the knife set.


Okay, so our lucky winners just need to send us an email to appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com with your mailing address so we can get your prizes out to you. Thank you all for entering. We will have another giveaway sometime soon so stay tuned for details. Until next time....

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

His (Knives) and Her (GoGirl) Giveaway

I know we missed the Giveaway roundup yesterday and that many of you always look forward to that post. However, we've been a little short on time this week as we've had a lot of errands to run and my parents came back through yesterday and are staying for the weekend.

So to make it up to you, instead of a roundup we thought we'd just giveaway some stuff ourselves. We've been so fortunate here lately, and with baby on the way we've been busy cleaning things out and tidying up the house. Don't worry, we're not giving away anything old or used. That would be gross "bleck!"

Gear Giveaway Roundup 7/15/2011

Friday is upon us yet again, and another promising weekend stares us in the face. We itch for that end of the day whistle to blow so we can start our weekends, and invariably get our outdoor plans into full swing. If you are anything like us, then your outdoor plans as of late have been a bit lacking as work around the house has kept us quite busy. Hopefully though, we will be able to get out this weekend for some fun outdoor activities such as walking in the woods. Because next weekend, my parents will be back in town, and we will have to figure out a way to entertain them. It won't be with walks in the woods or anything like that, however I think my dad is hoping we can take a 9-hole walk on a par 3 course somewhere in town which wouldn't be a bad hike in my opinion. :P