Ultimate Camping Thread

I recommend the SOG line of knives. I have a flash II that is on me at all times, and a trident I carry while kayak fishing. Both are great knives, and the assisted opening is really nice, especially when kayaking.

They are also made in the USA, hold an edge pretty well, are are pretty damn durable

 

Guberment warning label on a water bottle?

 

Yup.

Lest you laugh, I saw a sign that said "drilling and cutting wood which creates sawdust. Sawdust is known to the state of CA to cause cancer"...

 

I'll look these up

If I want to fill it with beer normally they have to have the Warning Label

I'll just throw a sticker on it then.

 

Can't go wrong with a Benchmade knife.

 

Sure can't. Made in USA. Free sharpening for life.

 

This, I absolutely love mine

 

Everything causes cancer in CA. Always fun visiting there for work and seeing signs on buildings "this building contains materials which cause cancer in CA"

I picked up the Sawyer PointOne Squeeze filter last summer. Its pretty nice. I havent used it enough to totally make up my mind on it but the couple times i used it I liked it.

But it fits my style of backpacking. Im a carry as little weight as possible type person. The Sawyer is nice cause i can just go with one water bottle. When im near water one water bottle works fine and getting more is pretty simple. Then when its time to go up and over the pass or for a stretch without water i can just fill up the bag and have extra water with me.

But still not 100% sold on it vs a steripen type device. We will see this summer when i get out more

 

Am I the only one in here that doesn't care about a super light bag? I am not a "what if" kinda guy and pretty much pack nothing unless I know I am going to use it but I am not worried about weight at all.

 

i with you ^^^^ i dont worry about weight as long as i use it.

 

I'm in between, but I'd rather have a light pack than a heavy one for sure. When I'm up at 4-5 thousand feet I don't want to be humping around a laundry basket of clothes in my pack. I pack pretty sparingly on the changes of clothes, usually just a few layers. That can be removed/added if need be. If I'm camping/backpacking I'm likely going to stink anyways, so why take up valuable space with spare clothes.

On the other hand I usually pack more gear than I really need, but that's nice to have.

 

yeah i dont bring a whole lot of clothes just a spare in case i get wet. i do bring some stuff for the "just in case". and food. i love food so i cant survive on jerky and bars

 

how much I carry really depends on what I'm doing, my rock climbing gear or canyoneering stuff usually weighs more than stuff for a couple nights out.

 

I don't carry much but never cared about how much it weighs. I find a 30-45lb bag to be very comfortable and sometimes will add excessive water or food just to have the weight.

 

Exactly!

 

My base weight of my pack is right at 22lbs

 

I have a few set ups that I can create. I've managed to collect a lot of gear over the years. Between my girlfriend and I we have 7 stoves, 7 sleeping pads, 5 sleeping bags, 4 water filtration systems and 3 tents plus a tarp.

For summer the lightest set I have is a Golight Speed pack using a folded thermarest ridge rest as the frame, tablets for clean water, an alcohol stove, a quilt and a Silnylon tarp. It's a bit more than 8 pounds minus food fuel and water.

For winter or spring high altitude in the Sierra my heaviest set up has a 60L pack, a thermarest neoair, -5* mummy bag, MSR whisperlite, tablets, Black Diamond hilight with vestebule, snow shovel, mountaineering boots, crampons, helmet, ice ax and sometimes snow shoes. Minus food, Fuel and water this is around 40 pounds. With a week's food, fuel for melting snow and water and other climbing things it can get up around 55-60 pounds. I haven't used this in a while because it takes a few months of extra training and planning to have the conditions to use it.

 

You sound like me. Redundancy!

 

My base weight sits right around 10lbs for 3 season, I dont do much camping in super cold weather because during the winter all the good climbing that is too hot during the summer is perfect