- Joined
- Feb 8, 2004
- Messages
- 4,172
Well, we survived a quick trip to Florida to see my wife’s family. Had a nice time, but made it back so my son and I could do a little backpacking trip we had planned. It was just a two-night/three-day trip out at Mistletoe State Park in GA. It was just over 2 miles in to a nice spot right by a small creek.
Lessons Learned:
Calculate how much food you REALLY need! I packed in about 4 pounds of un-used food. When we backpack as a family, I usually carry the majority of the food. I way over-estimated for just my son and myself. I almost wanted to stay another day just to use it up so I didn’t have to pack it out, but the weather turned pretty foul and I’m glad we made it out in time.
Dogs can carry their own food/water bowl! Our new addition to the family, Marley (yellow lab mix) carried a few pounds of food and gear…I like it!
Synthetic clothing dries quickly…avoid cotton! My son wore some regular cotton hiking shorts and T-shirt. After a small fall into the creek, I wrung them out and hung them up. For a day and half, they were still damp. They might have dried faster if we were in the sun or in an area that received more of a breeze, but not where we were camped. I’m getting my son some synthetic convertible pants and a quick drying T-shirt.
Use a backpacking checklist! My son’s old pack is getting to small, so he used my wife’s 60 liter Osprey. All was good initially, but when he transferred his gear, he accidently left out his sleeping bag! Fortunately, I brought along my Kifaru Woobie to use if the temps dropped as expected. He used it and loved it…some of my extra weight was redundancy and it paid off without me having to hike a 4-mile trip back to the truck and 40 minute round trip drive home!
550 cord is handy! We always discuss the use of such cordage and often carry a good amount in our day kits, bush kits and backpacking kits. I was surprised at how much I used for my rain tarp (used a large 10x12 foot Equinox), gear and clothing lines, lashings and even a dog-run line for the pooch. I easily used 50 feet (various pre-cut lengths) and glad I had my son pack an extra 50 feet!
Most used gear was of course 550 cord; my titanium long-handled spade; BRKT Golok; new Martin Knives BT and my often carried Spyderco Para-Military.
My Ti-spade was great for maneuvering coals around the fire, digging simple drainage runs around our hammock camp site and of course the essential cat-hole digging implement. I’ve often thought about ditching it for the lighter plastic Fiskars trowel I have, but it really comes in handy when I’m out.
I’m really pleased with the gravity water filters. I packed in the extra weight of the Sawyer 4-liter and my new Katadyn Base Camp filter. The Katadyn Base Camp holds twice as much water and I couldn’t see any distinguishable difference between the two with regards to flow rates…although I honestly didn’t do any timing comparisons. The stream water was tea colored, most likely due to the tannic conditions; not a lot of detritus, but some smaller particles. I filled up water using the outstanding 10 Liter http://www.rei.com/product/782973 Sea to Summit folding bucket (highly recommended for transporting water for filtering, putting out the fire, etc.). Hanging up the filters was simple and I used a 2 quart hard Nalgene water container, 3 quart collapsible Nalgene container and a couple of 1 quarter water bottles. I did use a little piece of tin foil to cover the container openings with the hose inserted. I also had to rig up a support holder for the larger collapsible container. I’m sold on these types of filters for backpacking. The first thing we did was set up the filters and then started setting up camp. By the time I had the hammock site up, my son collected firewood and we both downloaded our sleeping gear, I had to stop a couple times for the smaller containers, but I had both small containers and 2 quart container full, and the large 3 quart was about half full. This is perfect for setting up before you go to sleep or in the AM after breakfast and as you go off on a short hike. Do note that you if don’t monitor the filter, they will overflow. I used the large container for longer tasks/short hikes.
I finally was able to really use my Martin Knife – BT; kind of a US-version of Baylay’s Bear Grylls knife. There are some distinct differences, but the design size is quite utilitarian. I originally ordered it in 1095, but Ed sent me a S30V version. I was going to return it, but figured I give the S30V a shot for this type of knife. It was hell trying to re-profile it to a more Scandi-grind and removing his secondary bevel; it’s now more convexed. It held its edge quite well and is really a hefty little blade. His horizontal sheath carried well, even with my pack’s waist belt. I added a Fallkniven DC4 sharpening stone and Going-Gear’s large fire steel with the storage handle for tinder. I additionally used a couple of large rubber tubing bands to add a little more security and keep everything in place (I’ll post pictures of the sheath later).
Well, anyways, my son and I had a good time and did a few bushcraft skills…making figure four traps, made a tripod styled chair (directions came out of my “12 Ways in 6 Ways Out” manual). We ate some great chow and the pooch loved the trip. I really like the larger 10x12 siltarp for my hammock set up (I used a Warbonnet); it made enough cover for our gear and an area I could have used the stove to cook under if we were rained on pretty hard.
The only issue was the massive amount of pine pollen on the ground and in the air. My sinuses are still a little screwed up, but the pollen coated everything!!!
ROCK6
Lessons Learned:
Calculate how much food you REALLY need! I packed in about 4 pounds of un-used food. When we backpack as a family, I usually carry the majority of the food. I way over-estimated for just my son and myself. I almost wanted to stay another day just to use it up so I didn’t have to pack it out, but the weather turned pretty foul and I’m glad we made it out in time.
Dogs can carry their own food/water bowl! Our new addition to the family, Marley (yellow lab mix) carried a few pounds of food and gear…I like it!
Synthetic clothing dries quickly…avoid cotton! My son wore some regular cotton hiking shorts and T-shirt. After a small fall into the creek, I wrung them out and hung them up. For a day and half, they were still damp. They might have dried faster if we were in the sun or in an area that received more of a breeze, but not where we were camped. I’m getting my son some synthetic convertible pants and a quick drying T-shirt.
Use a backpacking checklist! My son’s old pack is getting to small, so he used my wife’s 60 liter Osprey. All was good initially, but when he transferred his gear, he accidently left out his sleeping bag! Fortunately, I brought along my Kifaru Woobie to use if the temps dropped as expected. He used it and loved it…some of my extra weight was redundancy and it paid off without me having to hike a 4-mile trip back to the truck and 40 minute round trip drive home!
550 cord is handy! We always discuss the use of such cordage and often carry a good amount in our day kits, bush kits and backpacking kits. I was surprised at how much I used for my rain tarp (used a large 10x12 foot Equinox), gear and clothing lines, lashings and even a dog-run line for the pooch. I easily used 50 feet (various pre-cut lengths) and glad I had my son pack an extra 50 feet!
Most used gear was of course 550 cord; my titanium long-handled spade; BRKT Golok; new Martin Knives BT and my often carried Spyderco Para-Military.
My Ti-spade was great for maneuvering coals around the fire, digging simple drainage runs around our hammock camp site and of course the essential cat-hole digging implement. I’ve often thought about ditching it for the lighter plastic Fiskars trowel I have, but it really comes in handy when I’m out.
I’m really pleased with the gravity water filters. I packed in the extra weight of the Sawyer 4-liter and my new Katadyn Base Camp filter. The Katadyn Base Camp holds twice as much water and I couldn’t see any distinguishable difference between the two with regards to flow rates…although I honestly didn’t do any timing comparisons. The stream water was tea colored, most likely due to the tannic conditions; not a lot of detritus, but some smaller particles. I filled up water using the outstanding 10 Liter http://www.rei.com/product/782973 Sea to Summit folding bucket (highly recommended for transporting water for filtering, putting out the fire, etc.). Hanging up the filters was simple and I used a 2 quart hard Nalgene water container, 3 quart collapsible Nalgene container and a couple of 1 quarter water bottles. I did use a little piece of tin foil to cover the container openings with the hose inserted. I also had to rig up a support holder for the larger collapsible container. I’m sold on these types of filters for backpacking. The first thing we did was set up the filters and then started setting up camp. By the time I had the hammock site up, my son collected firewood and we both downloaded our sleeping gear, I had to stop a couple times for the smaller containers, but I had both small containers and 2 quart container full, and the large 3 quart was about half full. This is perfect for setting up before you go to sleep or in the AM after breakfast and as you go off on a short hike. Do note that you if don’t monitor the filter, they will overflow. I used the large container for longer tasks/short hikes.
I finally was able to really use my Martin Knife – BT; kind of a US-version of Baylay’s Bear Grylls knife. There are some distinct differences, but the design size is quite utilitarian. I originally ordered it in 1095, but Ed sent me a S30V version. I was going to return it, but figured I give the S30V a shot for this type of knife. It was hell trying to re-profile it to a more Scandi-grind and removing his secondary bevel; it’s now more convexed. It held its edge quite well and is really a hefty little blade. His horizontal sheath carried well, even with my pack’s waist belt. I added a Fallkniven DC4 sharpening stone and Going-Gear’s large fire steel with the storage handle for tinder. I additionally used a couple of large rubber tubing bands to add a little more security and keep everything in place (I’ll post pictures of the sheath later).
Well, anyways, my son and I had a good time and did a few bushcraft skills…making figure four traps, made a tripod styled chair (directions came out of my “12 Ways in 6 Ways Out” manual). We ate some great chow and the pooch loved the trip. I really like the larger 10x12 siltarp for my hammock set up (I used a Warbonnet); it made enough cover for our gear and an area I could have used the stove to cook under if we were rained on pretty hard.
The only issue was the massive amount of pine pollen on the ground and in the air. My sinuses are still a little screwed up, but the pollen coated everything!!!
ROCK6
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I really, really like the idea of these gravity bag filters. Take a look at the Sawyer; I've only used one other time and it's another great filter.
