Camping and Backpacking

[rolf]

I carry a Bleuet 470 HP, which is on a small campingaz tank (CV470, smallest available). Due to the quickfit closing, it's easy to detach. Image of the top part, which weights about 300g. Also, those 5 points can be bend to each other such that it is easily to hide in your bag

 

I use a cheap highly deformed lightweight tefal pan of about 1.5L for cooking, but it still works. I can put the campingaz set in it, so the inside space is not wasted. And a spork. Total setup is about 800g I say, but it works quite well, about 2750W. And to calculate it, boiling 0.5L water from 10 to 90 degree will cost about ((90-10)*500*4.18)/2750=) 60 seconds if it wouldn't lost heat over cooking, but since we're cooking outside without lid, about 4 minutes

 

 

I've been looking at a better, more lightweight setup, but I was looking at Trangia, which weighs about 330g (all in), however I will need to carry more fuel (which will take easily 200g, a safe! bottle of 100g + fuel), which is not yet worth my money. I also considered stuff from MSR, but that's way to expensive, not lighter and just overkill for me

 

 

@Thoracic: Well, luckily there aren't bears here. The worst thing are midges apparently, but I didn't yet had the pleasure to meet them As for the sitting, I can sit on my bagpack while it's not empty, borrow a chair, find a wall, or just sit on the ground. For food, I usually carry these bags: http://www.knorr.nl/...teria-carbonara (Dutch yeah), there are 5 different tastes (but Carbonara is healty full of cheese etc, 740kcal), and gives a tasty dinner (especially after a hike). For breakfast/lunch, I try to bring/eat bread for the first days and after that I continue with fruit bars. For both dinner and pre-dinner, I have enough food which won't be affected by the weather. But it takes a large part of my total weight.

[Bosman]

I use a snowpeak titanium spork, i just bend it and put it in my pots everytime i pack up. It can be bent endlessly.

http://www.snowpeak.com/tableware/cutlery/titanium-original-spork-sct-004.html

http://www.snowpeak.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/750x500/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/SCT-004.jpg

this mini solo is a great kit and their burners and fuel fit right inside them all

http://www.snowpeak.com/cookware/backpacking/ti-mini-solo-combo-scs-004t.html

http://www.snowpeak.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/750x500/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/SCS-004T.jpg

 

One time we took all the ingredients for chicken tacos, chicken in pouch, red onion, tortillas, hot sauce, i dont remember if anything else but i got this cool idea. I wanted to heat the tortillas because when you heat them their flavor really comes out and besides when its a little chilly warm food is good. We had the fire going once we had our shelters up and it was time to eat. I dug a hole next to the fire and I took some of the fire coals and dragged them into the little hole. I found these green reeds nearby and cut them to about 10in. I laid a bunch of them over the coals but they didnt touch the coals and then layed the tortillas on the green reeds and heated them up. As i heated them i put them in the bag they came in so they stayed nice and war in their vapor barrier. We had a colorful and tasty meal that night. I also like to have snickers or some form of chocolate if it isnt too hot that it will melt.

when you just dont want to fuss with making a meal this works everytime when you just dont feel like prepping food after a long hike. http://www.mountainhouse.com/

Chilli mac, lasagna and beef stew are all awesome!

I often have the 3oz pack of tuna and squirt a mcdonalds mayo pack and a taco bell hot sauce pack or 3 into the little pouch. I usually have a small bottle of hot sauce though. but fast food joints have awesome backpacking condiments.

Knorr is a well known brand here too rolf.

I also use a platypus hydration system that fold flat like a glad bag when empty. Its nice becuase instead of pumping water i have an inline filter similar to what they sell now.

http://cascadedesigns.com/platypus/hydration-systems/big-zip-sl/product

http://s3.amazonaws.com/media.cascadedesigns.com/images/product/large/platy_big_zip.jpg

the suck tube is where i have an inline filter like the new platypus filter, you just cut your drink tube and put it in line.

http://cascadedesigns.com/platypus/filtration-and-storage/gravityworks/cleanstream-filter-cartridge/product

Kinda like it looks in their no pump filter system.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/media.cascadedesigns.com/images/product/large/GravityWorks_Filter.jpg

I like the zip top because it has a little rope to hold on to as you drag it in a stream or the lake and thats it, no pumping.

[rolf]

For water, I still always had the possibility to get water from a camp site, which is freely and quite good. My sisters, when hiking through Scotland generally use simple 0.5L bottles (as do I), and a bottle of water disinfectant (which I carry also in case of emergency). That's good enough if you're not near a large city; but generally that is not the reason you start a hike

 

I've considered those camelbags too, however I can't balance my drinking well. I usually drink not enough, and with a camelbag either I drink much less or overcompensate. When normally hiking, I take about 2 hours for a 0.5L bottle (which is not enough, but works by compensating at the campsite, drinking 3L without problem ), but at least I don't have to carry too much additional weight

[Thoracic]

Speaking of water another item that is important to have is a water filter, I used to use PUR filter but now I use a Steripen. Works great by using UV and you just stir it for 90 seconds, very fast and much easier than filtering and tastes better than the tablets.

[rolf]

Waterfilter is useful, but if you're in the real middle of nowhere chlorine is killing everything for you.

[Bosman]

Waterfilter is useful, but if you're in the real middle of nowhere chlorine is killing everything for you.

I live surrounded by lakes, the great lakes since i am in michigan. When i hike there are lakes involved. When i spent a week in Montana's Glacier National Park i also have prisitne waters to work with. Rarely have i had issues with sooty water. If it is I just boil it and bypass the filtration as it just gets it plugged from soot. Like i said for me part of backpacking is knowing i have decent water sources to work with within a couple miles of my reach. I dont carry lots of water for that reason since i just grab my playpus water container drag it in the water to fill it and filter and i suck on it when i need hydration.

 

Thorac i have always had an interest in the steripen, its prettty cool tech! I just havent needed it with my setup. I can see it useful for large groups where water use is pretty substantial.

[Bosman]

Ok, got the ol 2005 hardrive out of the cabinet. Here i have three docs. One is for cold weather, one is my warm weather, the other is a diff way to do it by having all your gear in the doc and siply putting a checkmark by the items you want ot pack and it will dynamically tally the total weight of your pack. All work well but one style may be better for you.

 

Also i have tot diff stuff now so bear with me on the gear in the lists.

 

Here are the rapid share links. It does say something about binary files in the doc but dont worry theres nothing fishy in the docs, they are just Excel files.

https://rapidshare.com/files/358964151/All_gear_and_their_weights_only_Final.xls

https://rapidshare.com/files/1871714610/2005_Backpacking_Gear_Bosman__Cold_Weather_.xls

https://rapidshare.com/files/3318908976/2005_Backpacking_Gear_Bosman__Warm_Weather_.xls