Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

Anyone else get one of those Marlboro sleeping bags a hundred years ago? I still love mine! It’ll be on top of a Nemo Tensor this year. Can’t wait to try it!

 

A friend climbed Rainer with a bunch of Marlboro gear in the 90s.

 

ah the 90's! only 30 years ago, sorry misspoke.

 

I posted the original question about the cot/tent size. Ended up getting a Big Agnes 2P tent. Just got it, going to set it up in the yard to see. Have not purchased a cot yet, might review some of the mattress options.
And yes, this is for car/truck camping. I didn't want a large full-blown tent, as I don't camp that much/long, and didn't want the hassle of setting up a big-ass tent.
Thanks for all the tips though! definitely food for thought!

 

FWIW the bigger tents can be fairly quick to set up solo. Our 'family' tent is a 6p coleman w/ screen room (variation of this https://www.coleman.com/camp-sports...t-with-screen-room-rock-grey/SAP_2207041.html) and even solo it goes up in 5 minutes. For it, though, since it's family camping we're running a queen air mattress, which isn't the warmest but hey helps having a lady in the 2p sleeping bag for mutual warmth. Plus we don't family camp when it's too nasty anyway.

 

Car camping has always allowed me privilege not permitted backpacking.
I love my Springbar Outfitter tent. Easy to set up.

 

Welp… the new pack felt great, the tent went up easy, sleeping pad stayed inflated, GPS worked well, and the sleeping bag was warmer than it needed to be. All in all it was a great trip:

 

Just a thought on your gear, assuming you are backpacking with your cell phone on you. Ive switched entirely away from a handheld GPS over to OnX app on my phone. The only thing you have to do is download an offline map of the area you will be hiking. GPS has always been accurate and trails are 99% on point. It's just one less thing to keep charged and carry around while you are out.

Also the iPhone 14 and higher can now text via satellite which essentially all but did away with my need for the Garmin mini. The only thing I keep it around for now is the SOS function.

 

So I thought about this before picking up a new gps unit while trying to justify the $500 (GPSMAP 67i; $600 when not on sale!) price tag. I've used my phone for satellite messaging since they released it and use OnX Hunt to ensure I'm not crossing property lines when out hunting. My only gripes with the iPhone as my sole GPS/SOS/messaging tool are that I have no redundancy, in the cold (when I use GPS the most and am rarely on trails) it dies pretty quickly, and in snowy/wet conditions, the touchscreen functionality gets a bit ornery. Plus I like having a dedicated "outdoor built" unit to minimize the risk of damaging the phone by dropping, falling, etc in the field.

Carrying a power bank to recharge the phone on multi-day trips would cost me about 6-9 ounces depending on capacity. The GPS Unit I bought weighs about 8 ounces, so it's a wash in pack weight.

I'm big on redundancies so I'll always carry my phone with me as a backup, but a handheld GPS unit is my comfort zone. I'm not an UL backpacker or hiker so I don't mind 8 ounces. My base pack weight is a shade over 14 pounds right now, and I'd rather shave those 8 ounces off elsewhere for the peace of mind. But I may download OnX Backcountry (I think that's the hiking app?) just to have another option beyond All Trails.

 

Yea most of my backpacking is backcountry hunting so I’m rarely more than 15 miles from base camp so I get where you’re coming from.