Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

My favorite piece of camping gear has to be my Akorn jr Kamado. You can smoke food all day or over night without messing with it. It only weighs prob 25-30lbs and fits perfectly in the corner of the truck bed.

 

No bears where you live? We can barely keep them out of our fruit trees in the yard, let alone at a campground with a smoker.

 

Think I'm going to get to tikkia like the optiond etc

 

We camp in NH often where there is a fair amount of bears and haven’t had any trouble yet, but it has deff been on my mind when smoking a pork butt over night for a group

 

anyone here have a personal review for the petzl tikka (200 lumen) vs the actik (350 lumen)

 

Sure do, have both. The actic is noticeably brighter and of course has a low, med, high for the light .The Tikka has one cool feature over the actic though. When you turn the light off, the little Halo glows from where the light was on, so it's easy to find in a dark tent. I use the actic, my wife uses the Tikka. The battery life seems to be good/decent in both. Nice upgrade from a lesser lamp, better headbands too. But if it's light you're after, go actic. If it's quality or batt life, either are fine. Good luck, enjoy the ride .

 

I'm happy to report my Klymit KSB 0 degree performed great in Saline Valley last week. I also only used my Trangia 27 system the entire 5 days.

 

thank you. i was semi leaning towards the actik but wasn't sure if the extra 150 lumens was worth it but i do like how you can charge it and it has 3 levels of light. ill just spend the extra 40 and get more lumens.

 

Used them tonight actually. Had to help my little buddy find French fries

 

Same here. They come through the yard with nothing to attract them. But, they find bee hives and such.
They come down from GSMNP a few minutes walk from here.

 

I wanted to go with a UL headlamp so I had the

$44 Nitecore NU25 360 Lumen Triple Output - White, Red, High CRI - Lightweight USB Rechargeable Headlamp (Black)

Nitecore NU25 on my Amazon christmas wish list and got it. Most of the extra weight from single-battery headlamps comes from a huge headband, so I removed mine (didn't need to cut) and made a custom UL one out of shock cord and a line lock adjuster I used some cut DCF tape to make a ribbon around the existing headband bracket and folded it over on itself so it stuck together snug. I punched a small hole in the DCF and tied the shock cord to it and ran a quick lighter over it to set it all. 1.16 oz and it's USB rechargeable and has 3 brightness settings for the white LED and a separate button for the red light also with a high, low and strobe. At the lowest white setting, it's plenty for me around camp and in my tent. The mid setting is plenty to night hike by, and the the high setting goes up to 360 lumens. The red is more than enough on high setting to see all around camp and save my night vision and battery. I got the white model so it's easy to find in the tent at night. Very happy with the comfort of the custom headband and that it shaved off over a full ounce while still being functional. USB recharging so I don't have to carry a spare battery. Testing so far has given me over 4 hours of use on the lowest setting and showing no signs of dimming. That's awesome for me as I'll only need to recharge it every 3-4 nights but if I night hike the mid setting should get me a couple hours. It's super thin and pivots up and down to give me optimal angles. Loving having a UL headlamp again instead of my tiny AAA flashlight so I can be fully hands-free again.

Only gripe I have is that the two buttons for the white/red LEDs are not lockout protected so I'll have to be careful how I pack it so it doesn't turn on. However they take a pretty firm push to activate so I'd have to just about lay on my pack to have a chance to accidentally turn either of them on. I'm not worried about it, and if it does die then I'll just use my phone flashlight while I hook it up to the usb charger to get it going again. Only takes about an hour to charge fully.

 

It's got a secret lockout feature. Since I'm an all around nice guy I'll make your day.

Press both buttons at the same time and hold till you see a little red light. About 2 seconds. Congrats, your now locked out. To unlock press them both again.

 

You sir are a gentleman

I'm a typical man that never reads instructions that come with tech haha

 

So you probably also missed it has 4 and not 3 brightness levels for white. The “turbo mode” is accessed by holding down the white button for one second once already turned on in white spot mode. 1650 lumens for up to 30 seconds before it goes back to regular high setting to prevent the LED overheating. Good for getting a bit of extra reach for a few moments.

The other thing I like about this light is the wide field white mode (hold for one second when off) uses a high CRI LED which is nice when cooking meats and the like. Everything looks more natural doneness is easier to evaluate.

I love my NU25!

 

I'll never use the Turbo mode (I don't even really use high) but thanks. I read more detail and saw that mode but Hi is plenty if I really need to look deeper into the woods for things that go bump. I night hike on medium and that's plenty for me to see what I'm doing. Thanks for the pointers though. Nice when something you already like has extras that make it even better.

 

Recently went to one of those REI used gear garage sales... not worth it lol. Woke up at 4:30am to get in line at 5:30am. There was already a bunch of people in front of me, some even camping out. 6am they passed out ticketed numbers, i was 55. I think the numbers ended up going upwards of 150+. Came back at 8am when they started letting us in groups of 15-20. By the time I got in, the place was out of all the good stuff. I scored a nice Northface rain jacket for $30.

Also ive decided to start packing a pillow again for backpacking. Found a great one on Amazon. 2.6oz, inflatable and actually very comfortable and large. Def one of the luxury items I will be carrying.

https://www.amazon.com/Trekology-Ultralight-Inflating-Camping-Pillows/dp/B07BWFJVPH

 

I've got a 3oz nemo that I carry with me definitely worth the weight

 

If I do a Garage Sale, I do make it in the first group going in, or not at all.
I quit using the REI MC card this year, and have not been in yet this year. I wonder how many months I can go???
Nothing I need there anymore. I started using my Credit Union card, much lower rate.

Last year I was in one, on a road trip and cannot remember what city.
Anyway, they had old gear on display. Old Coleman stove from the '60s for example. It looked usable. I remember the stores used to have cool displays of old stuff.
This reminds me of the old Capital Hill flagship store in Seattle that had old gear on the walls. An old Kelty SUPER UL pack, only color available was white, due to not able to dye the material, some guy ordered, then did not pick up. 800 USD at the time.

 

I’m looking for a lightweight and reasonably packable 2 person tent with poles that are no longer than 18”. Any suggestions? It’s hard to find actual pole lengths on manufacturers’ sites and the packed length dimensions aren’t a reliable way to find out.

 

My big agnes copper spur ha ul2 comes in at 17 inches for the poles right at 3lbs