by Alicia MacLeay
Where else can you find dehydrated meals just for backpacking pooches, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, a device that charges your GPS or phone with your own kinetic energy, and surfer Laird Hamilton on a stand-up paddleboard?
Probably not your local REI. The place is Outdoor Retailer Summer Market.
The bi-annual giant gear show happens next week, August 2-6, in Salt Lake City, and Trailspace will be in attendance. With 1,040 outdoor brands exhibiting their latest, lightest, strongest, greatest, greenest outdoor gear, we'll be on the ground, working to bring you the most interesting backcountry gear news, announcements, and trends we discover.
Check here for daily coverage of the newest backcountry stoves, minimalist hiking shoes, water treatment devices, locator beacons, survival gear, and even a debut pack brand founded by a pair of 23-year-olds (anyone else wishing they'd actually done that?).
For real-time updates of our daily show coverage, you can subscribe to our blog and news RSS feeds, and follow our tweets from the show floor on Twitter. Or read it all on the website.
