*** Official Backpacking Thread ***

PPK96754

Miki Dora status
Apr 15, 2015
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Kauai's north shore ~
Cool! ... So are You gram weenies or just the conventional backpacker when you get out on the trail? "??" has already brought up "backpack weight", bear vaults / Ursack's, if you want to go around the bulk of the container. Do you hang your food instead?
Do you have a personal list that you refer to, everytime that you go out to make sure that you have those items? Perhaps the REI list that you can download and go from?

Do you have just one backpack for every hike or another for specific hikes? Size? Weight? Do you consider the weight of the pack before purchase? A starting base weight before adding clothes / insulation, knife, food, Crocs, etc?

Sleeping bag or quilt? Down or synthetic? Why?
Sleeping pad? Does cost come into play for you when choosing?

Tent or hammock? Ease of use? Weight? Just prefer?

Camp Kitchen ~
Stove? prefered fuel? Why? Cookset? Coffee mug or collapsable cup? Soap? Spoon, fork or Spork?

Hydration ~
Water bladders, Nalgene or Smart water bottles?
Sawyer water filters, Gravity filtering, or pump style?

I understand the "trip and where to go" erBB interests, but interested in what you "take" with you to make your trip a wee bit more enjoyable / tolerable.

:waving: mahalo plenty, r32
 

crustBrother

Kelly Slater status
Apr 23, 2001
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Cool! ... So are You gram weenies or just the conventional backpacker when you get out on the trail? "??" has already brought up "backpack weight", bear vaults / Ursack's, if you want to go around the bulk of the container. Do you hang your food instead?
Do you have a personal list that you refer to, everytime that you go out to make sure that you have those items? Perhaps the REI list that you can download and go from?

Do you have just one backpack for every hike or another for specific hikes? Size? Weight? Do you consider the weight of the pack before purchase? A starting base weight before adding clothes / insulation, knife, food, Crocs, etc?

Sleeping bag or quilt? Down or synthetic? Why?
Sleeping pad? Does cost come into play for you when choosing?

Tent or hammock? Ease of use? Weight? Just prefer?

Camp Kitchen ~
Stove? prefered fuel? Why? Cookset? Coffee mug or collapsable cup? Soap? Spoon, fork or Spork?

Hydration ~
Water bladders, Nalgene or Smart water bottles?
Sawyer water filters, Gravity filtering, or pump style?

I understand the "trip and where to go" erBB interests, but interested in what you "take" with you to make your trip a wee bit more enjoyable / tolerable.

:waving: mahalo plenty, r32
I am bigfoot!
 
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PPK96754

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Kauai's north shore ~
** my map was dated and apparently the spur from PCT that goes north to New Army was no longer in service so I wound up coming back around and returning over
cottonwood pass which was better in the end as it was shorter **

Guthook's Pacific Crest Trail Guide


might have been helpful ....
 
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afoaf

Duke status
Jun 25, 2008
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I just meant I left the bear cannister behind in the car...not out in the bush

I strung my food up high and tied off

it was more a matter of space than weight....but the space issue really is
a weight issue in the end.

I'm really interested in hammocks...looking at a quilt and a sea to sky pad
if I stay tent-based, but hammocks seem really logical to me....I am such a
poor sleeper on trail that ANYTHING must be better than pads over rocks and
pine cones....plus it solves the issue of finding a flat spot.
 
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ElOgro

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Dec 3, 2010
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Hammocks are easy to go to sleep in but sleeping all night takes some getting used to. It’s off the ground though so it would be worth trying to get used to it.

Post more pictures.
 
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r32

Administrator
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I hate hammock tents. Have camped in many spots where there would be nowhere to tie them off to. And for some reason, when I wake up after sleeping in a hammock, my back muscles are aching. Give me the ground any day. I can always find a suitable spot unless it's lava fields of Iceland. There was literally nowhere to pitch a tent there :ROFLMAO:
 

afoaf

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Jun 25, 2008
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Hammocks are easy to go to sleep in but sleeping all night takes some getting used to. It’s off the ground though so it would be worth trying to get used to it.

Post more pictures.
you first, sweetheart!
 

crustBrother

Kelly Slater status
Apr 23, 2001
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So what does your stove and cookset look like? Like it? Need to upgrade perhaps?

MSR Whisperlight ~
I have used *many* different stoves over the past 40 years of my backpacking life and Jetboil just blows them all away. Its not even close.



The only drawback is that its no good for preparing anything that requires something other than boiling water. So no pancakes. But the only thing that I care about cooking that takes more than boiled water is fish, and I just wrap that in aluminum foil with some olive oil and garlic salt and toss it in a campfire.
 
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Aruka

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Feb 23, 2010
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So what does your stove and cookset look like? Like it? Need to upgrade perhaps?

MSR Whisperlight ~
I got one of those solo stoves after I think you posted about them a while ago PPK. I dig the thing! Takes a little practice but it works better than expected. Still haven't used the alcohol burner yet but I do have it. I haven't done any serious backpacking this year yet but did a couple short hikes in. Trying to keep my kit all together and ready to go so we can take spur of the moment trips up into the coastal range when the mood strikes.20190721_083829.jpg20190713_093019.jpg
 

Mr Doof

Duke status
Jan 23, 2002
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San Francisco, CA
I hate hammock tents. Have camped in many spots where there would be nowhere to tie them off to. And for some reason, when I wake up after sleeping in a hammock, my back muscles are aching. Give me the ground any day. I can always find a suitable spot unless it's lava fields of Iceland. There was literally nowhere to pitch a tent there :ROFLMAO:
There are hammock tents and then there are hammock tents:1594147833318.png

FWIW, I've found I can sleep on the ground or in a hammock if I am tired enough and it is is at least the 2nd night outdoors.
 
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afoaf

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Jun 25, 2008
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Post more pictures.
Trailhead:

20200630_082816.jpg

Horseshoe Meadow:

20200630_083607.jpg

over Trail Pass and northwesterly towards Tunnel Meadow:

20200630_121036.jpg

Heading northeasterly up from Trail Station towards Big Whitney Meadow:

20200701_130342.jpg

Big Whitney Meadow...Cirque Peak at center...Cottonwood Pass and Trail Pass outside of right hand side of frame.

20200701_151728.jpg

BEEF STROGANOFF CHALLENGE - ELEVATION TO BEAT: 10,850 ft

20200702_085104.jpg

Siberian Outpost - major Alpine Lupine bloom...I thought it was a sheet
of frost on the slope at first because of the lavendar sheen...

20200702_085419.jpg

20200702_085729.jpg

high trail southeasterly towards Cottonwood Pass after missing non-existent New Army spur.
that is Big Whitney Meadow below....

20200702_111101.jpg


20200702_151435.jpg
 

PPK96754

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Apr 15, 2015
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Thanks you guys! I tried to load photo's and couldn't. Anyway, I have the MSR Whisperlight, the original, umteen years old and an old workhorse. Then bought the Whisperlight International because it used multiple fuels.
I've since gone to the Solo Stove Lite, which is a wood burning stove which can also hold my Fancee Feast alcohol stove that nests purfectly inside the Solo Stove.
And my newest purchase is the MSR Whisperlight Universal which uses the Coleman fuel And, the pressurised canister fuel.
It seems that folks have moved over to the canister fuel and single burner for cooking because of it being so light and maybe a simple 2 pot cookset.

And like CrustBro mentioned on the Jet Boil, he can only boil water but not cook up a meal unless using the expensive freeze dried or dehydrated meals in a bag.
 

crustBrother

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Apr 23, 2001
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And like CrustBro mentioned on the Jet Boil, he can only boil water but not cook up a meal unless using the expensive freeze dried or dehydrated meals in a bag.
Or top ramen, instant mash potatoes, minute rice, mac&cheese, etc... Just don't want you to think I'm some kind of snob, PPK.

;)
 
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PPK96754

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So the above two links are the leading Hammock's for "hangers". Warbonnet is from Colorado and was the new guy on the block some years back and opened up a whole new bag of worms for the better. Bug netting, sewn into the hammock, toss the netting over the back of the hammock and just hang out style. Pull the netting back over the ridgeline and zip yerself in for a mosquito free night. Same for Dutchwear gear, but, he gives you options on your hammock and bug netting.that

And then you get into Underquilts (more $$'s) that slip under the hammock to keep you warm with the reason being that sleeping in a bag, mashes the sleeping bag filling, allowing cold air to collect over your back / body throughout the night as you sleep making for an uncomfortable night.

Due to the COVID-19 foolishness, both are back logged on orders. I'm just tossing these out there for a look-see.
 
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crustBrother

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Also worthy of note on the stove topic is the homemade pepsi-g stove. Its really cool to use a stove that you made yourself. I used one of these exclusively for about a decade. They work fine, but any trip over a couple of days the fuel weight and long boil time starts to really add up.

 
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PPK96754

Miki Dora status
Apr 15, 2015
4,683
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Kauai's north shore ~
Also worthy of note on the stove topic is the homemade pepsi-g stove. Its really cool to use a stove that you made yourself. I used one of these exclusively for about a decade. They work fine, but any trip over a couple of days the fuel weight and long boil time starts to really add up.

DYI alcohol stoves were cool to make! Quite the rage when they came out because of how light they were. The "fuel", coming from the "Gas-Line antifreeze" HEET, in the yellow plastic bottle, not the Red. One ounce of fuel can heat 16 ounces of water in about 5 minutes - / + and certainly not ,as fast as a Jet Boil. :bricks: