Hike it All : MattPacker
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I'm 26 years old and live in Kentucky. My wife and I just started getting interested in backpacking recently and are making the move from car camping to backpacking. We are fortunate to live near to a National Forest and frequent it as often as possible (which isn't nearly often enough).
Gear:
We're slowly acquiring our gear as we go along. A piece at a time, here and there. It's a bit harder on a college budget, but we're not in a big hurry. It also appears that the vast majority of our gear is going to be home-made. I love making things, don't mind spending the time, and love saving the money! (Our packs weigh in well under a pound, cost maybe $15 for the two, and took a couple of weekends to make!)
Jet Boil PCS
We purchased this on sale and saved $10-20 on it. Loved it so far, even when I managed to make it into a fountain! (Don't forget, this thing will BOIL and if you leave the lid on, that pressure has to go somewhere!)
For Christmas we received a Jet Boil pot, which makes it easier for us to cook for two at once. Eventually we'll be getting the fry pan as well.
We decided on the Jet Boil because it seemed to cost about the same as a comparable stove, it's super simple and fit needs. To quote terceiro from Backpacking.net "JetBoil PCS. I know it's heavy, but it's stable, fast, and foolproof. Being a fool, I appreciate something being proofed against me." Some might argue that the PCS costs more than another stove, but I disagree (at least for our needs). We were looking at MSR's Pocketrocket, which sells for $39.95. We also wanted to get a pot and had decided on MSR's Blacklight Classic Cookset, for $44.95, for a combined price of $84.90, not including a fuel canister. The PCS sells for $89.95 and includes a stove, "pot" and fuel canister. While we ended up with one less pot for a similar price, we got the functionality that we needed in one unit.
(Of course, I received the Jet Boil pot for Christmas, and also the Blacklight Classic Cookset, so we can pick and choose what we want to use.)
Stove
I'm in the process of making some alcohol stoves, notably the Penny Stove. They're still in the works, and laying in pieces on the coffee table. More later.
Spork
Just picked up a Light My Fire Spork recently and am loving it! It's light-weight, bright-colored and won't scratch up any of our pots. *However* I did find out that it will melt if allowed to rest on the JB pot for too long, however. The tips of the fork tines are now mis-shapen, but not enough to affect eating in any way. I'll have to run to Wal-Mart to pick up another one. Something that works great, is light-weight, and costs under $3!
Ridge Rest
We started out with some Wal-Mart blue CCF pads and they were a vast improvement over nothing. However, it didn't take us long to realize that the move up to a Ridge Rest by Therm-a-Rest was the way to go! First time using them outside it got down to about 35° and we stayed warm enough (the sleeping bags did help!)
tent
We're actually in the process of getting rid of the tent, replaced by hammocks.
hammocks
I have always had a hammock of some sort, and have tried to sleep over night in them a few times, never very successfully. Recently I stumbled upon www.hammockforums.net and found the information that I had been missing. I have constructed some lightweight hammocks (about $40 for the two of them) for use when camping. The hammocks weigh approximately 1.5 lbs each. They are double layered so that we can place our Ridge Rest pads inside the layers, providing bottom insulation. Then we use the sleeping bags opened up as a quilt.
All that we need now are bug screens (I just have to get the material and make a tube with drawstrings on each end) and some tarps. I'm scrounging for materials to make the tarps, or we might break down and buy some.
Bug screens have been acquired. It ended up that I already had some screens, one specific to hammocks, one for a tent. We used them and they worked wonderfully, especially at keeping that bee trapped inside with me. They work much better if you make sure the biting/stinging bugs are outside before you close it! :D
packs
I made a couple of packs. They cost maybe $15 for the both of them, and would be less than $30 if I had to buy all of the materials (I had some laying around for these two). They have about a 2700 CI capacity and weight less than 1 lb each. Mine weighs 11 ozs, with my wife's a couple of ounces more. They held all of our gear, rode comfortably and were fun to make. We've only used them for about 15 miles so far, but there seems to be no wear-and-tear on them at all. For some practice packs, that need a few changes made (I want to add a few extra features to mine and my wife's is a touch too long), they are more than satisfactory. I expect to be using the basic design for years to come.
Gear:
We're slowly acquiring our gear as we go along. A piece at a time, here and there. It's a bit harder on a college budget, but we're not in a big hurry. It also appears that the vast majority of our gear is going to be home-made. I love making things, don't mind spending the time, and love saving the money! (Our packs weigh in well under a pound, cost maybe $15 for the two, and took a couple of weekends to make!)
Jet Boil PCS
We purchased this on sale and saved $10-20 on it. Loved it so far, even when I managed to make it into a fountain! (Don't forget, this thing will BOIL and if you leave the lid on, that pressure has to go somewhere!)
For Christmas we received a Jet Boil pot, which makes it easier for us to cook for two at once. Eventually we'll be getting the fry pan as well.
We decided on the Jet Boil because it seemed to cost about the same as a comparable stove, it's super simple and fit needs. To quote terceiro from Backpacking.net "JetBoil PCS. I know it's heavy, but it's stable, fast, and foolproof. Being a fool, I appreciate something being proofed against me." Some might argue that the PCS costs more than another stove, but I disagree (at least for our needs). We were looking at MSR's Pocketrocket, which sells for $39.95. We also wanted to get a pot and had decided on MSR's Blacklight Classic Cookset, for $44.95, for a combined price of $84.90, not including a fuel canister. The PCS sells for $89.95 and includes a stove, "pot" and fuel canister. While we ended up with one less pot for a similar price, we got the functionality that we needed in one unit.
(Of course, I received the Jet Boil pot for Christmas, and also the Blacklight Classic Cookset, so we can pick and choose what we want to use.)
Stove
I'm in the process of making some alcohol stoves, notably the Penny Stove. They're still in the works, and laying in pieces on the coffee table. More later.
Spork
Just picked up a Light My Fire Spork recently and am loving it! It's light-weight, bright-colored and won't scratch up any of our pots. *However* I did find out that it will melt if allowed to rest on the JB pot for too long, however. The tips of the fork tines are now mis-shapen, but not enough to affect eating in any way. I'll have to run to Wal-Mart to pick up another one. Something that works great, is light-weight, and costs under $3!
Ridge Rest
We started out with some Wal-Mart blue CCF pads and they were a vast improvement over nothing. However, it didn't take us long to realize that the move up to a Ridge Rest by Therm-a-Rest was the way to go! First time using them outside it got down to about 35° and we stayed warm enough (the sleeping bags did help!)
tent
We're actually in the process of getting rid of the tent, replaced by hammocks.
hammocks
I have always had a hammock of some sort, and have tried to sleep over night in them a few times, never very successfully. Recently I stumbled upon www.hammockforums.net and found the information that I had been missing. I have constructed some lightweight hammocks (about $40 for the two of them) for use when camping. The hammocks weigh approximately 1.5 lbs each. They are double layered so that we can place our Ridge Rest pads inside the layers, providing bottom insulation. Then we use the sleeping bags opened up as a quilt.
All that we need now are bug screens (I just have to get the material and make a tube with drawstrings on each end) and some tarps. I'm scrounging for materials to make the tarps, or we might break down and buy some.
Bug screens have been acquired. It ended up that I already had some screens, one specific to hammocks, one for a tent. We used them and they worked wonderfully, especially at keeping that bee trapped inside with me. They work much better if you make sure the biting/stinging bugs are outside before you close it! :D
packs
I made a couple of packs. They cost maybe $15 for the both of them, and would be less than $30 if I had to buy all of the materials (I had some laying around for these two). They have about a 2700 CI capacity and weight less than 1 lb each. Mine weighs 11 ozs, with my wife's a couple of ounces more. They held all of our gear, rode comfortably and were fun to make. We've only used them for about 15 miles so far, but there seems to be no wear-and-tear on them at all. For some practice packs, that need a few changes made (I want to add a few extra features to mine and my wife's is a touch too long), they are more than satisfactory. I expect to be using the basic design for years to come.
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