Camping Gear


Review:	Food Dehydrator - I didn't spend a lot of money on a dehydrator, but after researching made sure I got one with a fan to circulate the air as the food is drying -- it speeds the process and dries the food more evenly. Drying takes a while so this is a project to start well before the start date of the trip, but the dried food was light to pack, rehydrated well, and was a healthy, economical alternative to packaged meals.
Review:	Backpacking chef.com - Chef Glen at backpackingchef.com has dehydrating instructions, recipes for breakfast, supper, dessert, and bark, and cheerfully answers any questions you may send him by email. We even dried ground beef using Chef Glen's instructions and we able to use it until the end of our two month camping motorcycle trip.
Review:	Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe - great instructions, great suggestions, and great recipes for dishes to dry and pack. Each recipe includes how heavy the finished portion will be to pack.
Review:	Exped Downmat 9 & Exped Downmat Deluxe 9 - each are a little bit of a pain to inflate compared to the Thermarest self inflating, but oh what a difference. Properly inflated each is thick and comfortable and completely insulates you from ground cold. In Natashquan it got down into the 40's and with 35 degree sleeping bags we were warm and comfortable with the Downmats. Besides comfort they each pack easily back to original size (I felt the Thermarest took a lot of work to get it compressed to original size). Ditch the bag for the Downmat 9 and use straps to secure it (see picture). The deluxe compressed well with the compression bag that comes with it. Both take a little practice for both inflating and deflating, but I don't think I would ever travel with anything else.
Review:	REI Down Travel Pillow - unpacked size is 12" x 18" and comes with a stuff sack that packs it at 12' x 3.5". I made a compression bag for it that gets it down to 3.5" x 7". Still glad I took the pillow (we both ended up taking one) but it's not enough by itself. I would take off my fleece jacket every night, zip it up, insert the pillow, and wrap the sleeves around the back -- that was enough to make the pillow comfortable. The fleece was a lot nicer to sleep on than the taffeta shell. For the next long trip I think I will check out the Expend Pillow Pump to see if it works with the internal pump on my Downmat.
Review:	Mountain Smith Lumbar Pack - I got the "strapettes" that Mountain Smith sells to turn the lumbar pack into a back pack. It packed down small but I could pull it out and load it with stuff (camera, lenses, water bottle, etc.) and it was comfortable to wear hiking around for a long time. I will use this bag a lot in the future.
Review:	Overboard 90 Liter Waterproof Bag - 27.5" wide, 15" deep, 12" high with D-zipper opening with zipper flap, 4 compression straps, 2 internal mesh pockets. This is a really large bag that holds a lot of stuff and my riding buddy ended up carrying on his larger motorcycle. I would call it "waterproof" since the first time we rode through hard rain everything got wet inside. After that the contents were wrapped in a large trash bag to make sure they stayed dry in rain. Not for the faint of heart -- it holds so much weight I would recommend it for strong, experienced riders only.
Review:	Hydra II Duffle by Texsport - this bag has seen many miles and a lot of reliable use (no leaks), but on this trip it carried the sleeping gear (2 sleeping bags, 2 sleep mats, 2 fleece blankets, 2 pillows, Apollo lantern, fuel cartridges for Jet Boil) and it all got wet the first time we hit heavy rain. Everything went into a large trash bag and remained dry for the remainder of the trip. A minor inconvenience compared to the first night of sleeping in a wet sleeping bag (fortunately it dried out quickly).
Review:	Compression bags - After 12,000 mile my opinion is if you don't have everything possible in a compression bag, beg, borrow, or whatever to pack what you can compressed. Did you read that the little 23.5 x 12 x 12 Hydra II bag carried 2 sleeping bags, 2 sleep mats, 2 fleece blankets, 2 pillows, Apollo lantern, fuel cartridges for Jet Boil? No way this would have happened if the sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets weren't compressed. I made all the compression bags custom to fit what we were taking -- it takes a little ripstop nylon, webbing, and ladder lock buckles. I will never travel on the motorcycle without them.
Review:	The Black Diamond Apollo Lantern is a wonderful light to set on the picnic table or hang at the top of the tent. We were able to eat dinner, play cribbage, do dishes, all by the light of this little lantern. In two months of every night use the pack of 4 AA batteries had to be replaced one time. (Note: we both had headlamps so the lantern was not the exclusive source of light.)
Review:	I started out calling this the drying bag, but after running into rain and fog repeatedly decided "mesh bag" was a safer name. I thought this might be a dumb idea, but ended up using it all the time to dry towels, dry wet gloves, carry groceries, stow clothing layers (on nice days), stash wet stuff on rainy days. If there are 2 riders on a trip it's nice if one rider has something like this.
Review:	I already liked my Jet Boil for my single use, but we used it a lot on this trip. Boil water in the morning for coffee then put a pan on to make oatmeal. Boil water for tea and the boil pasta dishes for dinner. It does have it's limitations when a skillet is needed, but overall this is an easy to light, easy to use, efficient way to heat things up when camping. And I was able to find fuel cartridges along the way so I came home with 2 spares.
Review:	Bodum Travel Coffee Press - I wasn't sure these would even make the packing list but we ended up using them once or twice a day at least. They made great coffee in the morning and tea in the evening. After that they were great drinking glasses to mix an electrolyte drink.
	If you have any questions about the gear feel free to send an email through the contact page and I'll get back to you.