Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

Good luck dude! I really hope your plans work out for ya

 

@ETAV8R

After getting the 16 ft tarp I bought 2 8' Kelty adjustable poles, and 2 6' REI adjustable poles.
They are quite strong and stable. We had pools of water in Kentucky and the tarps fell over before the poles had any trouble.

I had a problem with the shockcord on one of my Kelty adjustable poles. I got a replacement and a coupon.
So, I ordered a Kelty Noah 9 ft & a 20 ft.
I probably will not keep both, but I might. It will be good to have options.

As a note about the adjustable poles from Kelty. I looked at the connection that they used and it is attached somewhere in the middle of the pole section. It does not appear to be accessible.
Customer service said:

I am thinking that they meant spring, not string.

Ken in NC

 

That's right., inverted v with a loop in it is the standard shock cord fitting

 

For a tent pole?
These poles are not the same. About 8-10 inches from the end is a wire with the shockcord attached. That location is somewhere in the middle of the pole section. It is not at the end like 'standard' poles.

 

That's right, not at the end. Most poles use the v-spring attachment. If I were home I'd send you a pic. used to spec these things.

 

V spring.
Like a wire that can go 'down' the tube, but cannot go 'up'?
I tried it and I could slide the wire a ways. Not tight enough.
(So I tied a knot)

 

As of right now, they're still allowing shuttles to go pick up exiting hikers at the Portal. Everything at the Portal has been evacuated though, including the store. The fire is just north of WP road, so it's not actually in the Portal as of yet. Watch that link closely, and maybe consider exiting out of Cottonwood or somewhere a little further south. You can still summit Whitney, but it would add a couple days of hiking another 20+ miles. But it will get you out to an open trailhead at least. Might keep that as a plan B, because when you go to pick up your permit, they may deny your exit out of WP and make you exit elsewhere. Hopefully you get lucky with the fire and they open WP back up soon.

 

They just posted a few hours ago that they are planning to reopen everything at 6PM PDT today. They do say they could of course close everything again if the fire conditions change.

 

Yep, just read the last Inciweb update that the closures at Whitney Portal have been lifted! You're all set. Fire is 42% contained and it isn't growing much at all now.

 

After a bit more research I called Anker. (Actually I called EufyHome and they transferred me to Anker)
EufyHome is the Amazon seller, and it says ships in 6-10 days.

They are in the middle of some transitions. Eufy will be selling the solar chargers, and I should wait to buy until after that transition settles. Eufy is still Anker.

So, I will wait.

 

Yeah, you can also spread the spring a little with pliers and it will bite. They come in a couple of sizes or you can make your own from spring wire (Ace Hardware) if you have odd-sized poles. We used to do that for expedition tents that used over-sized custom poles.

 

Cool. I had not seen them before.

 

Anker is still Anker. EufyHome is a 3rd party reseller. I'd check the listings and make sure it comes direct from Anker because they'll handle any customer service issues and you never know what a 3rd party will do.

It looks like Anker took down their direct listings of all of their solar panels on Amazon. Maybe they're phasing them out? Anyone else selling them is a 3rd party who probably has some inventory left. If EufyHome is going through "transitions", I'd steer far away from them. Sounds like a dude running sales in his underwear from his mom's basement. Legit Amazon resellers don't F around because Amazon will penalize them heavily for not meeting high standards and metrics.

 

Car (truck) camping or carrying crap on your back?

If this is a car camping, then just go to Walmart or Costco and get an affordable tent you can stand up in. It helps a lot to be able to stand up in your tent. Take it from a guy who has the whole range of tents starting with a high altitude single person gore-tex tent for $2K (and this was the price 15years ago - different dollar, have no idea what I would have to pay for it today) And ending with the cheapest Coleman tent from abovementioned Walmart. Anyways, you want to enjoy camping. Not to survive it.

If you are carying it on your back - get the lightest tent you can afford and the smallest you can use. Again - brand is not important. Check the REI out, they have an excellent warranty.

Most important - have fun!

 

Still available...price reduced.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323347521301?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

 

It looks to me like Eufy is a part of Anker. Not a 3rd party.

https://www.eufylife.com/blogs/news/whats-eufy-genius
https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/14/eufy/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anker_(electronics)

Like I said, when I called Eufy they transferred me to Anker.

 

Oh, Eufy is a new sub-brand for their home automation category. Interesting.

 

Eufy, Soundcore, Nebula, and Roav are all Anker. Eufy has the Alexa stuff, robovacs, smart lightbulbs and switches and stuff like that.

 

How'd your trip go?

 

Bought a Coleman Darkroom tent for this upcoming fall, gave it a trial run at the family cabin last week. It does a pretty good job of keeping sunlight out where the "darkroom" material is on the tent, which is basically only on the window flaps and walls. The stakes they provided with the tent aren't great, but that's to be expected. Height inside is 4'11" and the floor is 9' x 7'. For me at 5'9", it was a pretty comfortable fit.