Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

Please report back. Suggested that this tent reduces heat in the sun???

 

I would expect that the dark material would actually absorb heat in direct sun. Would be a good thing in the winter though.

 

New light weight tent was delivered yesterday. https://www.tarptent.com/product/protrail/
Hopefully will be able to try it out this weekend.

 

I would say it reduces the heat in the sun, not by a whole lot but by just enough to matter. I was never uncomfortable in it during direct sunlight, although it wasn't for extended periods.

 

Unfortunately the trip did not happen. My partner (girlfriend) had a nervous breakdown the night we were suppose to leave. Given her state of mind, I didn't want to push her. The other people in the group bailed when they heard fire. In hindsight I should have just gone anyways on a solo trip.

 

Oh man, that sucks. Lessons learned. Next time just go solo and you won't have to deal with any of that BS. It's so liberating to be on your own schedule and not have to worry about anyone flaking out or falling to pieces.

 

aww man sorry to hear. Theres always next time man.

Exactly my thoughts. I went with a large group to Zion this past weekend, but all they wanted to do was The subway, which we had a permit for. besides that, they just wanted to stay at the South campground,which was at the park, chill, and drink. Thankfully I talked myself out of carpooling with them and was able to be there Thurs-Tuesday and did a ton of hiking, offroading, and BLM camping too.

 

Just added this vibe 75 to my Arsenal currently on the look out for a

$429 napier 84000 napier sportz SUV tent 10'x10' waterproof camping tent with 6'x7' screen room and awning 6 person blue/grey car tent

napier 84000

 

Yes, lesson learned. Ill need to do a make up trip next year. I doubt any more permits will be available this year.

 

Walk-ups are always a possibility. I am going to surrender my back-up permit soon. Mammoth to Tuolumne, 2 people, Aug 9-14.

 

What do you guys use for putting food in an ice chest after the ice melts. Usually my tubberware gets eater in it,

 

I use a separate cooler for food. 3 blocks of ice flat on the bottom, and on top of that I have 2 high-walled square aluminum baking pans that really transfer the cold from the ice right to the food. I normally use gallon freezer ziploc bags for my foods I want to keep dry. Ice blocks melt much slower, so you don't have the soggy cooler situation to really deal with anyways.

 

buy a fridge, haha. dealt with that and it sucks. last year i had a jar of jalepenos open and it reeeked so i dumped the ice (mostly melted anyways) and water then found out there wasnt ice at the gas station. literally bought the fridge on Amazon a few mimutes later

 

How do you know which trails have walk-ups available? was looking at doing golden trout lake next weekend but it’s all booked on recreation.gov.

 

All of the trails out there, and in most rec areas across the country, leave an unpublished amount of walk-up permits that can't be reserved online. Usually the ratio of reservable to walk-up permits is 60/40. You just go the day before or the morning of your hike to the permit issuing agency and ask. Normally you have to go the morning of the hike, but sometimes they'll sneak you one the day before, if you get a cool ranger.

 

I use the gallon ziplock bags. They keep the water out and like others have stated, blocks of ice work better.

 

Ziplocking around any other packaging seems to work really well. And definitely use *freezer* ziplock bags as those have the thickest plastic.

 

I just freeze bottles of water, that way you have something to drink (I mean I guess you could drink from the ziplock)

 

Yes, this is an excellent solution I've used in the past if you have time to prepare. Get 24 pack of water bottles. Open each one a drain a bit of water out to leave space for the ice to expand. Put them in the freezer. Use those in your cooler. No water getting into anything.

These days I live a couple thousand of miles from my truck so I don't have that option anymore as I have to fly in and provision in a few hours. But I used to use the water bottle technique and it really works great!

 

Did this our last trip.