Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

Kemosabe or anyone else that's interested in learning to use a compass, this is about the best book I've seen.
WILDERNESS NAVIGATOR by David Seidman. I pretty sure I bought my copy on Amazon.

I know that GPS will do a lot but... The US Navy has revived teaching and requiring skilled sailors on ships, navigation the old way (sextant, star charts, etc.). They know how vulnerable the GPS system is to failure.

 

You have to admit that it's better than 90 percent of the other crap on tv

 

MT I'm with you, a GPS w/ extra batteries and an extra compass in my first aid kit. Why two compasses. I got bit once on a very foggy day and didn't believe my compass cause my sense of direction is impeccable and my compass had failed (pre GPS days) after another bit of walking I ask my son if he had his compass; he did and it indicated the same as mine. Humbled, I/we changed directions and found the road I was looking for in short order. I had been leading a course parallel to the road. A lesson not easily forgotten.

The Navy probably isn't to concerned about power loss on board but definitely the loss of the GPS satellite system due to potentially high radiation damage from the sun (cosmic rays).

 

Thanks for the reference! I just finished reading a book on topo maps, compass and GPS in french (wich I prefer haha) and it seems to be pretty complete! It is because of this book that I want to know how to use a compass to complete the use of my GPS that I surely trust too much.
I will keep an eye open for your book. It could be a great complement to have! My next step now is to buy some topo maps of the region I want to explore and go out to use the learnings on the field!

 

For as much camping you do I'm surprised you don't have a 12v fridge!

I don't have one of those but I did pick up a Coleman extreme cooler which I've been happy with. Keeps ice for 3 days or so before it's all melted.

I believe a friend of mine has one of those and he really likes. I know it was a yeti like cooler

 

I love my yeti sor far if that helps at all.

I cant find the comparison article i looked at a while back but this video isnt bad.

https://youtu.be/6-TE4RnqT0U

 

Have you tried dry ice? I know a guy who uses dry ice and a yeti and was still ice cold 5 days after we started. Plus the benefit of no water from melting ice!

If you can get a yeti for 200 I'd go with that. If it doesn't work out you can sell it and get your money back

 

If you guys would just pre-chill your coolers the night before you head out, you can make even a cheap cooler last an extra couple of days. I have an old beat up steel Coleman from the '80's that is only mid size. I pre-chill my contents the night before, then the day I depart I drain out most of the melted ice and I top it off with fresh ice. A 3 day weekend trip leaves me with more than half of the ice, even if it sits in the sun. Leave it in the shade under your tailgate and it will go forever when pre-chilled.

Pre-chill your Yeti or other high end cooler (and the contents you'll be taking with) and those things will last a week when kept out of sunlight. All of those ratings of days-of-ice are based on prechilling the cooler and contents inside first before topping off and heading out.

 

If I was Lisa I'd have a fridge.

 

there isn't much "tech" to the coolers... Yetti really burst on to the scene with some high end and expensive coolers... but then everyone reverse engineered them... now you're seeing the cheaper ones... Cabalas has their own line as well...

it's just like Rigid LED's... you can pay for Rigid... and get top of the line... or you can buy 3 china brand, which will probably fail sooner (though not always) and give you about 80%-100% of the performance.

I appreciate all the R&D that the companies do, and that has to be funded some how, but that's Business... unless you can patent it... people are going to find a way to do the same thing (or similar) for cheaper to steal your business....

I'm still not in the market for a cooler like that, but I'd buy a "knockoff" first for sure.

 

Dry ice is CO2 that's been superchilled to become a solid, so as it 'melts' it reverts to gaseous form. If you didn't have your truck cab ventilated adequately you could theoretically suffocate (Old-timey miners used to call it Blackdamp or Chokedamp). Crack a window and I think you'd be all set.

 

Fridge is a long term solution to a long term need.

 

Anyone have suggestions for which Channel island to camp at?

 

Would if I could.

It's definitely the best approach for you, IMO.. I feel like watching you buy a $200 cooler when you need a $400 fridge is like me buying my first suspension lift and then realizing it wasn't what I needed 6 months later and ending up spending the money twice, and spending way more money to fix my bad buy than it would have cost to do it right the first time.

Definitely a bigger chunk of change, but if you have $100 dividend at REI, cash that out and that's 25% off your actual out of pocket cost. So it really isn't that crazy of an idea.

With your amount of trips and durations I just don't think ice in any form is really that great of a choice, it's always going to be less than ideal - and the cooler to house it all isn't cheap from any brand.

Certainly not when compared to a fridge.