Outdoor Gadgets to Help Adults Beat the Back-to-School Blues

It does not matter that you’re all grown up. Even adults get the blues during the back-to-school time of the year. You may not be trading in your swimsuit for a school uniform and a backpack, but you can see a time in the not-so-distant future when your camping tent will be used far less than it is now.

Don’t worry, though. We have the perfect cure for your sadness. We have culled some of the best outdoor gadgets to ease the transition during this hard time. Consider these tools the adult version of the extra bright pens and superhero notebooks that once made going back to school slightly more bearable.

Swiss Army Microlight Knife
Swiss Army knives are the original outdoor gadgets, so our list had to include one. This Pocket Tool Microlight Knife features the addition of a microlight to the basic multitool. This makes it perfect for camping. No more struggling to aim a flashlight while slicing sausage for dinner; this ultra bright light shines right alongside a knife that you can trust to be sharp and sturdy. 

Survival Straps
This is one fashionable bracelet you should not leave at home. Survival Straps are made of military issue paracord and come in thousands of color and weave combinations. If you never need to use your Survival Strap, you get to keep a stylish bracelet on your wrist. However, if you find yourself with a broken guy-rope on your tent, lost in the woods and in need of a snare, or simply needing to tie your Christmas tree to the roof of your car, your bracelet can unweave and fix the situation.

Zippo’s 4-in-1 Woodsman
This is one gadget that made the list strictly to hold you over through the snowy winter. The Woodsman is not available until 2013, but the first images of the 4-in-1 product were released this week. Zippo, the brand that has been lighting your campfires for years, is stepping into the survivalist arena. This Zippo product is a mallet, a stake puller, a bow saw and a hatchet. We are pretty sure that combination makes the Woodsman the perfect addition to your camping backpack.

Van Berlo’s TentLED
We’ve all done it. It’s painful; it can be embarrassing; it can bring a tent to the ground. Tripping over your tent’s guy-rope or ramming your foot into the metal stake is a hazard of the campsite. TentLED is thoughtfully trying to eliminate your stubbed toes and rope-burned legs. These tiny LED lights thread onto the guy rope and are turned on and off by a light sensor. As the sun goes down, the light comes on, and you say hello to a camping world free of tripping.