1 post tagged “camping”
Now that the good weather is heading south for the winter and my touring is sidelined till spring. It is a good time to evaluate what gear is working and what could be better. There is always room for improvement and stuff just wears out.
Lets start with the old bag, the sleeping bag that is. I am using a well used Coleman backpacking sleeping bag. The thing must be 20 years old. It is fairly compact and lightweight but on our motorcycle trip around Washington this year, it became clear to me that maybe it was time to start looking for a more modern bag. I would like to find one that is either more compact or if it stays the same size then it will have to be warmer. I froze my buns off a couple times this year.
My Eureka tent is also another relic from years past. It has served me well. It is strong, compact, lightweight and goes up fast. With all it's good points I am seeing room for improvement here as well. On a trip to Eastern Oregon Ed Patton and I got caught in a pretty severe storm and my tent could not hold back the water anymore. It might help if I sealed the seems but this bad weather revealed other weaknesses. The entrance to the tent is from the end which forces you to crawl into the lowest point, this is not that big of a deal accept when it is wet outside. My next tent will be a side entry. The vestibule is also to small to be of use when conditions are bad.
My flashlights worked pretty well this year with no major failures or complaints. The LED lights that are out these days put out a good amount of illumination for their size. What I have noticed is that my lights have different power sources. I would like to streamline my choices to all running on one size battery.
I am sure I will come across other areas that I will need to improve. As usual it is the lack of funds that makes it easier to live with my gear. Hopefully there will be some upgrades in the future.
