- Joined
- Feb 1, 2004
- Messages
- 360
I recently went backpacking and I thought I would review a couple of items I used. This is in a basically random format.
One combination of items I used was a surplus US Army issue buttpack, Y-suspenders, pistol belt, and canteen covers. I found this combination to be very useful. One downside is that it places most of the weight on the shoulders, however the maximum that you can practically carry with it is 25-30 pounds anyway unless you pack ammunition, hence it was very comfortable. It was over 90 during the daytime, and it dropped to 40 the first night and 60 the next. The backs of every one of my backpacking partners shirts were simply black with sweat, wheras mine had a thin X from where the harness padding covered it. As you can imagine this is one of the benefits of the combination. For whatever reason, though the buttpack was covering the small of my back I didn't sweat there very much. Overall I would recommend this combo for warm-moderate weather camping for 1-3 days, depending on what you want to pack. One downside is that all of the stuff cost about 80-90 dollars. But it was comfortable to use, far more so for me than a backpack, and it got the job done. It can easily carry several days worth of supplies if water is available every 4-8 miles on the trail and you pack sensibly. I carried a down 20 degree sleeping bag on top of the buttpack, it worked fantastic and was very comfortable, both sleeping and walking with it strapped on.
I packed a 6 pound german entrenching tool that I bought from Omegaman Surplus. This is a trustworthy company that will work with you, I would definately do business with them again. The entrenching tool has a very solid lockup, that unlike the screw thread lockups that most other entrenching tools have simply will not come undone when using it. It has a pick in the back that I use every time I pull it out because the ground is so rocky here in Southern California. Overall an extremely solidly built and useful tool. It is absolutely best in class for that weight category. It comes with an excellent quality heavy duty leather sheath/cover, whose belt loops are too small for the pistol belt, so I attached it in the front with the sheaths straps. Worked out well. PS you might think those little trifold shovels are light but they are not only suprisingly heavy, they are relatively weak.
Also used was a surplus German poncho, which is billed as being able to double as a tent. Indeed it can, it has stake/rope holes. One way of using it is to use two tent poles in an x pattern through the holes, propping it up. Instead I staked it on 4 corners and ran a rope through the middle to form a classic A-frame tent. Inside it was extremely spacious, two people could comfortably sleep in it with the gear combo mentioned above at their feet. One note: when you run the rope up the middle, don't make the part where your head is under more then 2-3 times higher then the part your feet are under. This will be tempting at first, but if it rains you'll regret it, as the tent now does not cover your head. Too short. Anyway, I tied one end to a tree and the other end to a rock and it worked perfectly. It kept in the warmth suprisingly well and let 100 percent of the moisture out. In addition, it makes a great poncho, no suprise there. It is heavy duty rubberised cloth, and makes a fantastic windbreaker, stopping 100 percent of the wind, and actually does let moisture out somehow. It will also stop rain well. The head part buttons down to keep rain out when you use it like a tent. In 40 degree weather on another camp this kept me perfectly warm with a thin sweater underneath. I kept it on the outside of the buttpack, strapped to it with the buttpacks built in straps, and with a hat, space blanket, 550 cord, stakes and toilet paper wrapped up in it.
For a groundcloth I used silver/OD survival blanket I bought from Brigade Quartermasters, another quality business I would work with again. I was worried it would crinkle me too death at night, but it makes no noise unless you're turning from side to side violently. However, it was very thin and got minor tears in several places, so I'm going to get a silver/OD tarp from an A-16 store around here.
One less heard of thing that I did was; inside of the canteen pouch there is enough room for an aluminium canteen stove, a metal canteen cup, and an aluminum canteen. You will have to get the old style metal ones for this to work, but they are the same weight as the new plastic ones and hold as much water. The canteen:
fits inside the canteen cup:
Which fits inside the canteen stove, which fits inside the canteen cover, which has an outside pocket for iodine tablets (or chlorine in a little dropper bottle purchased from REI).
Stove and cup in use:
So in essence, you now have two stoves, two cups/bowls, and two one liter canteens, all in the space of two canteens. In addition to that, in each canteen cover two army issue tabs of trioxane in metal foil can fit in between the stoves and the canteen covers, inside the covers. This is enough to boil 2-4 cups of water if you feed the fire twigs.
Speaking of trioxane, it is fairly odorless, lights instantly with the slightest spark, and works fairly well. If you get a puff of the invisible smoke that it produces though it burns the eyes like crazy. Just face the mouth of the stove towards wind and you will be fine. Feeding it twigs is pretty easy, and greatly increases the effectiveness of the whole thing. What you do is while its still in the metal foil package, use your hands to break it into three evenly sized segments. Open the package (doesn't need a knife), and feed the fire one tab. When that tab starts burning out, in 3-5 minutes, feed it another third and so forth. The trioxane tab burns into what appears to be pure carbon, a crispy little slag that you can just throw away. It leaves a shiny black deposit on the bottom of the canteen cup (which goes inside the stove), but this comes off easily.
You can boil an entire package of ramen in a single canteen cup, just fill it a little over two thirds with water, get it boiling, put in the ramen, throw in the flavor, and keep it boiling with tabs and twigs for a minute and then you eat it right out of the canteen cup while the stove is attached to the bottom with friction (too hot to take off, may as well eat with it on.) To make one ramen it takes one foil of trioxane, 10-20 little twigs and five or ten minutes. Not too bad. The trioxane costs 2 times as much as the ramen package itself at around 50 cents a foil, which I find comical. You can go straight from boiling to holding and eating by using thin gloves of some kind. I used surplus wool US glove liners, which keep the hands very warm, and also insulate you from the somewhat hot to the touch handles.
To purify water I used iodine tablets. I let it sit in the canteen for 30 minutes, then throw in the neutralizing tablets (which are 100 percent vitamin C, you can make them yourself to save money) and let it sit for 5 with the cap loose so it can degass. This neutralizes about 80 percent of the taste, and nearly all of the nasty mothballs aftertaste, also turning it slightly milky in appearance. Anyway, I had no problem drinking the neutralized water, and you could get used to drinking non-neutralized iodine water eventually. Next time I might try liquid chlorine just because.
The canteen covers are... furry on the inside (and 100 percent nylon), for several reasons. One is to insulate the canteen from heat and cold, the other is to absorb water. When that water evaporates, it cools the canteens. Nifty.
I had an Opinel which is always as handy as hell. I fashioned a few fishooks out of wood in the way the US Army survival manual recommends to pass the time but didn't use them. With a little work these babys get very sharp, and as long as you don't do an insane amount of wittling, will keep a sharp edge for days on end. As Cliff Stamp mentions, everything loses its crazy sharp edge quickly, but takes geometrically longer to lose all reasonable sharpness. With an Opinel and normal use (IE not fashioning survival shelters out of hundreds of pine boughs) it will be nice and sharp after days of camping.
In conclusion, I highly recommend everything I used, with the exception of the space blanket. With this combination (excepting the 6 pound entrenching tool), you can backpack for 3 days with a 20-25 pound load as long as it does not drop below zero at night. With a 20 degree bag you would easily survive, though be a little cold inside at zero with skivvies and a t-shirt like I had. Comfort zone could be reached again if you wore long underwear and a Snugpak jacket or wool sweater in the bag. Yes, its not for everybody, but the suspenders/belt/buttpack system fills a niche between massive backpacking backpack and daypack. A daypack will barely even hold the average sleeping bag to give you an idea. Then you've got fannypack backpacking, but thats a level that I'm not at yet, I would love it if someone could do a little report like this one on their experiences with fannypack backpacking. Feel free to use this thread too!
Good luck in all of your adventures!
One combination of items I used was a surplus US Army issue buttpack, Y-suspenders, pistol belt, and canteen covers. I found this combination to be very useful. One downside is that it places most of the weight on the shoulders, however the maximum that you can practically carry with it is 25-30 pounds anyway unless you pack ammunition, hence it was very comfortable. It was over 90 during the daytime, and it dropped to 40 the first night and 60 the next. The backs of every one of my backpacking partners shirts were simply black with sweat, wheras mine had a thin X from where the harness padding covered it. As you can imagine this is one of the benefits of the combination. For whatever reason, though the buttpack was covering the small of my back I didn't sweat there very much. Overall I would recommend this combo for warm-moderate weather camping for 1-3 days, depending on what you want to pack. One downside is that all of the stuff cost about 80-90 dollars. But it was comfortable to use, far more so for me than a backpack, and it got the job done. It can easily carry several days worth of supplies if water is available every 4-8 miles on the trail and you pack sensibly. I carried a down 20 degree sleeping bag on top of the buttpack, it worked fantastic and was very comfortable, both sleeping and walking with it strapped on.
I packed a 6 pound german entrenching tool that I bought from Omegaman Surplus. This is a trustworthy company that will work with you, I would definately do business with them again. The entrenching tool has a very solid lockup, that unlike the screw thread lockups that most other entrenching tools have simply will not come undone when using it. It has a pick in the back that I use every time I pull it out because the ground is so rocky here in Southern California. Overall an extremely solidly built and useful tool. It is absolutely best in class for that weight category. It comes with an excellent quality heavy duty leather sheath/cover, whose belt loops are too small for the pistol belt, so I attached it in the front with the sheaths straps. Worked out well. PS you might think those little trifold shovels are light but they are not only suprisingly heavy, they are relatively weak.
Also used was a surplus German poncho, which is billed as being able to double as a tent. Indeed it can, it has stake/rope holes. One way of using it is to use two tent poles in an x pattern through the holes, propping it up. Instead I staked it on 4 corners and ran a rope through the middle to form a classic A-frame tent. Inside it was extremely spacious, two people could comfortably sleep in it with the gear combo mentioned above at their feet. One note: when you run the rope up the middle, don't make the part where your head is under more then 2-3 times higher then the part your feet are under. This will be tempting at first, but if it rains you'll regret it, as the tent now does not cover your head. Too short. Anyway, I tied one end to a tree and the other end to a rock and it worked perfectly. It kept in the warmth suprisingly well and let 100 percent of the moisture out. In addition, it makes a great poncho, no suprise there. It is heavy duty rubberised cloth, and makes a fantastic windbreaker, stopping 100 percent of the wind, and actually does let moisture out somehow. It will also stop rain well. The head part buttons down to keep rain out when you use it like a tent. In 40 degree weather on another camp this kept me perfectly warm with a thin sweater underneath. I kept it on the outside of the buttpack, strapped to it with the buttpacks built in straps, and with a hat, space blanket, 550 cord, stakes and toilet paper wrapped up in it.
For a groundcloth I used silver/OD survival blanket I bought from Brigade Quartermasters, another quality business I would work with again. I was worried it would crinkle me too death at night, but it makes no noise unless you're turning from side to side violently. However, it was very thin and got minor tears in several places, so I'm going to get a silver/OD tarp from an A-16 store around here.
One less heard of thing that I did was; inside of the canteen pouch there is enough room for an aluminium canteen stove, a metal canteen cup, and an aluminum canteen. You will have to get the old style metal ones for this to work, but they are the same weight as the new plastic ones and hold as much water. The canteen:
Which fits inside the canteen stove, which fits inside the canteen cover, which has an outside pocket for iodine tablets (or chlorine in a little dropper bottle purchased from REI).
Stove and cup in use:
So in essence, you now have two stoves, two cups/bowls, and two one liter canteens, all in the space of two canteens. In addition to that, in each canteen cover two army issue tabs of trioxane in metal foil can fit in between the stoves and the canteen covers, inside the covers. This is enough to boil 2-4 cups of water if you feed the fire twigs.
Speaking of trioxane, it is fairly odorless, lights instantly with the slightest spark, and works fairly well. If you get a puff of the invisible smoke that it produces though it burns the eyes like crazy. Just face the mouth of the stove towards wind and you will be fine. Feeding it twigs is pretty easy, and greatly increases the effectiveness of the whole thing. What you do is while its still in the metal foil package, use your hands to break it into three evenly sized segments. Open the package (doesn't need a knife), and feed the fire one tab. When that tab starts burning out, in 3-5 minutes, feed it another third and so forth. The trioxane tab burns into what appears to be pure carbon, a crispy little slag that you can just throw away. It leaves a shiny black deposit on the bottom of the canteen cup (which goes inside the stove), but this comes off easily.
You can boil an entire package of ramen in a single canteen cup, just fill it a little over two thirds with water, get it boiling, put in the ramen, throw in the flavor, and keep it boiling with tabs and twigs for a minute and then you eat it right out of the canteen cup while the stove is attached to the bottom with friction (too hot to take off, may as well eat with it on.) To make one ramen it takes one foil of trioxane, 10-20 little twigs and five or ten minutes. Not too bad. The trioxane costs 2 times as much as the ramen package itself at around 50 cents a foil, which I find comical. You can go straight from boiling to holding and eating by using thin gloves of some kind. I used surplus wool US glove liners, which keep the hands very warm, and also insulate you from the somewhat hot to the touch handles.
To purify water I used iodine tablets. I let it sit in the canteen for 30 minutes, then throw in the neutralizing tablets (which are 100 percent vitamin C, you can make them yourself to save money) and let it sit for 5 with the cap loose so it can degass. This neutralizes about 80 percent of the taste, and nearly all of the nasty mothballs aftertaste, also turning it slightly milky in appearance. Anyway, I had no problem drinking the neutralized water, and you could get used to drinking non-neutralized iodine water eventually. Next time I might try liquid chlorine just because.
The canteen covers are... furry on the inside (and 100 percent nylon), for several reasons. One is to insulate the canteen from heat and cold, the other is to absorb water. When that water evaporates, it cools the canteens. Nifty.
I had an Opinel which is always as handy as hell. I fashioned a few fishooks out of wood in the way the US Army survival manual recommends to pass the time but didn't use them. With a little work these babys get very sharp, and as long as you don't do an insane amount of wittling, will keep a sharp edge for days on end. As Cliff Stamp mentions, everything loses its crazy sharp edge quickly, but takes geometrically longer to lose all reasonable sharpness. With an Opinel and normal use (IE not fashioning survival shelters out of hundreds of pine boughs) it will be nice and sharp after days of camping.
In conclusion, I highly recommend everything I used, with the exception of the space blanket. With this combination (excepting the 6 pound entrenching tool), you can backpack for 3 days with a 20-25 pound load as long as it does not drop below zero at night. With a 20 degree bag you would easily survive, though be a little cold inside at zero with skivvies and a t-shirt like I had. Comfort zone could be reached again if you wore long underwear and a Snugpak jacket or wool sweater in the bag. Yes, its not for everybody, but the suspenders/belt/buttpack system fills a niche between massive backpacking backpack and daypack. A daypack will barely even hold the average sleeping bag to give you an idea. Then you've got fannypack backpacking, but thats a level that I'm not at yet, I would love it if someone could do a little report like this one on their experiences with fannypack backpacking. Feel free to use this thread too!
Good luck in all of your adventures!