Camping equipment advice wanted

In My Humble Opinion
21

My .02:

My most expensive equipment:

Backpack - Arc’terx (sp?) It’s awesome. I’ve been around 1000 miles with it and it looks brand new.

Bag - Marmot with DriClime. Don’t know if they still make the DriClime stuff but it’s awesome.

tent - Wal-Mart. I bought it because I was in a tight place and needed a tent really bad. It serves its purpose but as soon as I can afford it, I’m getting a The North Face tent. (btw, I believe everything TNF makes is good stuff)

Filter - I have a SweetWater filter that has been ok. It’s starting to slow down, so you might want to check out the Pur.

Somebody mentioned a chair. If you get a Therm-a-rest (which you should) they sell a cover that converts the Therm-a-rest into a chair that sits on the ground. Lightweight and useful. If you’re car camping, just bring a real chair.

22

That Therm-a-Rest chair converter is great and easy to store/carry. Count me in as another vote for a sleeping pad. Story: Went camping with Mr. Peg-to-be who did not have a sleeping pad. Somewhere in the middle of the night, I found myself squished up against my side of the tent because he was stealthily edging me off the pad and himself on. Not funny. OK, maybe a little.

Only thing I can think of that hasn’t already been mentioned is some rain-proof/wind breaker clothing. Weather’s a weird thing and it never hurts to have some rain proof pants/jacket, especially the kind with velcro on the hems and cuffs.

Because I’m a REI junkie,

10 Camping Essentials

Other camping info.

Also: I have an older Half Dome (circa 2000) and love it. I only wish that (1) I had sprung for the next model up w/ 2 doors & zipper window flaps and (2) that the rainfly were a little easier to set-up.

23

I love CampMor, but their selection can be limited. May I add Cabelas to the list (they even have Iditarod gear ! ! !) - - -

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/category/category.jhtml;jsessionid=IVQOCCTJNRICMCWQNVECFFAK0BWUOIV0?id=cat20075&navAction=jump&navCount=0&parentId=&parentType=&rid=5000103022802

24

Your tent depends on whether you’ll be doing any winter or mountain camping. If not, a “three-season” tent is fine. I highly recommend one with two doors, even for a single person. Two doors let you get a cross breeze.
And I second the led headlamp. My PrincetonTec is indispensible.

25

Flare gun? :eek:

Go camping pretty much anywhere in the west, use one of these and you will be explaining to the forrest service why you burned down half the state. This lady was only trying to toburn a letter from her boyfriend. She is facing up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.

You might as well carry a flame thrower.

26

[sup]EMPHASIS ADDED[/sup]

Key Word: UNDERWING

This means you use the wing of your airplane as a minor overhang or shelter.

Unlike kayaks or bicycles, aircraft can sometimes have the nasty habit of landing in fantastically remote locations. These spots often include a complete lack of:

  1. Roads, be they dirt or paved.

  2. Trails, be they animal or blazed.

  3. Man made landmarks (i.e., power lines or pipelines)

  4. Other people or domesticated animals.

If your aircraft is downed in the middle of BFI, a flare gun, squawk transponder and GPS unit are all extremely useful when it comes to staying alive for more than a few days.

The OP inquired about +$50.[sup]00[/sup] items related to camping under the specified conditions. While most modern airplanes have crash activated automatic satellite link location squawk transponders, many older ones do not. These devices do not cost a lot and routinely save people’s lives.

Sitting and waiting for someone to come looking for you is not always an option. Ergo, a GPS system can help orient yourself and assist you in navigating your way out of deep wilderness. (Planes have frequently been known to crash in such dreadfully inconvenient locations.)

If you are injured, expediting a rescue party’s ability to locate you can easily mean the difference between life and death. A flare gun the size of a fountain pen (and weighing very little more) can draw the attention of search and rescue teams for miles around.

Perhaps this lends some perspective to my list of suggestions.

27

Screw the sleeping pad, get an inflatable that works off 12 volt or batteries. (I say this as a mid 40’s person who needs a real bed).

Having survived heavy storms at Sun-N-Fun I would recommend a tent with auxilary hold downs. I’ve been in heavy winds that collapsed my tent. Luckily I had additional rope and hold rings so I could tie the windward side.

If you’re cooking then you will might be surprised at the meals available at a camping store. The equipment is self explanitory.

Sam’s usually carries a large tent that is pretty cheap. Don’t know the quality but if you’re not using it alot then it doesn’t matter. Don’t forget to cover the ground with plastic to keep the tent clean and always use a fly. I was next to someone at S&F who had a steel pole tent with no fly. When the tent got wet it imploded.

28

You can kayak to as remotre a place as flying (ex:The Pacific Ocean)

Aren’t planes pretty much required to have a 121.5 MHz ELT?
(S 91.207). All the planes I fly do.

If I do underwing camping, it will be at general aviation airports. While I centainly could have an emergency landing while going camping, I could also do it when just flying around. I doubt many people take tents every time they fly. Tho a flare gun isn’t a bad idea to caary in your flight bag.

Maybe I’m missing something, but BFI is Boeing field, which has a (24hr I think) tower, and a couple dozen buisinesses on field. If I had an unsheduled landing there, I’m pretty sure someone would notice.

Brian

29

Put together a basic survival kit. I made mine to fit into one of those new disposable tupperware containers. Include a space blanket (some people go for unwraping their space blankets and refolding them not as densely because in near hypothermic situations it is VERY hard to undo the damn things, altough you will lose the compactness of it), duct tape (wrapped up around the container to save space), gauze, safety pins (attached to the gauze to keep them from getting lost), lighter, waterproof matches (take them out of the box and break a little off the non-business end so they’ll fit into a film container and remember to stuff in the striker torn from the box), a cheapo one time use rain jacket (about 75 cents), a small knife, razor blades, a few cotton balls covered in vasaline (sp?) and stuffed into a film container (great firestarter, set up a good group of small twigs to tinder above it and you’ll have a fire going quick), paper, pen or pencil, fishing line (with a hook), one of those really small bobbers (if you have the space), band-aids, hydrogen peroxide, small flashlight, extra batteries, toothpicks (they’re just useful for a lot of things), red food coloring (great for making signals in snow for the emergency workers looking for you), water purifying tablets, extra gloves (a really thin pair of the spandex stuff works great), surgical gloves (doubles as a water container), a couple of plastic bread bags (put on feet, walk through water), fun-size candy bars, hand warmers, a compass (learn how to use it, it will save you one time or another, believe me!), and a laser pointer (kinda optional, I took mine out because it took up too much space).

Even though this has band-aids and gauze as well as a few other first-aidy type things it is not a substitute for a good first aid kit. BRING ONE.

Remember to identify the survival kit with large red letters that say “survival kit” (when you’re in need of one god knows what mental state you’ll be in, best to label everything you can).

I’ll go look through mine in a few and see if I missed anything.

I apologize for the many typos, long day.

30

Just as a clarification, when I say “underwing camping”, thats shorthand for “pitch a tent in the vicinity of the airplane”.

I was thinking a cheap air mattress is more compact than a sleeping mat.

Brian

31

Skip the cheap air mattress, and spring for a high-quality, textured-surface mattress instead. Your bag won’t slip off, and you won’t have to reinflate it every morning. For that matter, Cabela’s has a variety of high quality folding cots available.

Nothing beats the Coleman Peak 1 for an all-around camp stove.

32

I just picked up a Seirra Designs Meteor Light Tent. It’s a bit heavier than most backpacking tents(7 lbs.), but it has quite a bit of room for a two person(40 sq. ft.) and the 16 sq. ft. vestibule was a godsend Memorial Day Weekend in the White Mountains. It kept all my gear dry despite the heavy rains. That said, I would also pick up some rain gear. I bought an Eddie Bauer rain suit but unless I was hiking, I would just wear my wal-mart issued poncho.

These are a few things I brought that I was so glad I remembered to pack. Fire Starter Sticks, some type of coffee maker(I bought a small filter that makes one cup at a time and fits right in the mug when not in use), rope and knife(we set up tarps), and ditto on the therma-rest(The thicker the better).

I would also reccomend spending at least $100 on a sleeping bag. You say you’re a three season camper but it would be a good idea to pick up a bag that’s rated for 20 degrees. 40 degrees might be enough, but I would bring some long underwear and wool socks just in case.

33

I’ll recommend getting a tent a good deal larger than a 2 person, even if you’ll be alone.

The marginal extra time to set up a larger tent is more than outweighed by the benefits of the extra space. My wife and I prefer a single room 6 person tent for just the 2 of us.

Of course, if you’re going to to a lot of hiking, less gear (i.e. a smaller, lighter tent) may better for you.

34

Yes, but the landings are usually a lot softer.

I doubt they grandfathered it in for all pre-existing aircraft. You did not specify what sort of plane you were flying. Therefore, I listed the transponder as a worthwhile investment.

Glad you agree. Such a small thing can make the difference between life and death. Not all emergency landings are soft nor in the vicinity of civilization.

You are most definitely missing something, old chum. BFI is standard American slang for Bum Fu*k India. As in the middle-of-fricking-nowhere.

I’ll say again, that even though an inflatable air matress might save you some ounces or a pound, a Therm-a-Rest is self inflating and provides superior support. When you take the time and spend the money to go out camping, waking up with a sore back or cold joints (from contacting the ground) is a monster waste of time. Arising well rested can make or break a camping trip.

35

**

So let me see if I have this straight. N9IWP is asking about what he should take camping and you come up with a list of things to have with you when crashing, and WE need reading comprehension lessons?
Perhaps you should go back and read the OP yourself. There is a difference between camping (no need for emergency location equipment) and crashing/getting lost when such equipment is very handy indeed. While I am not a pilot I do spend a lot of time in the forest hiking and on my mountain bike. Lost is lost, it doesn’t matter if you are five miles in or fifty you are screwed if you don’t have proper equipment.
I don’t have any quibble with taking equipment into the forest with you in case you get lost. I carry stuff my own self when I go into the backcountry. (food, a good first aid kit, cell phone, and if I am really going into the weeds a locator strobe)
What I do disagree with is a suggestion to take a pyrotechnic device, which if used could easily cause a major forest fire. The fire I mentioned in my last post burned for about a month, consumed 137,760 acres, burned 133 homes (600 total structures), and cost the taxpayers $39,100,000 to fight. This was all from a lady who was trying to burn a letter from her ex. Using a flare gun in an extreme fire danger area is a very stupid idea. It will get you found there is no doubt about that. When the fire fighters go to the origin point of the fire they will find you there looking very stupid.
A much better all around choice would be a emergency strobe visable for miles, last up to 40 hours on one battery, and WON’T BURN DOWN THE FREAKING FOREST!

btw BFI is Boeing field. If I am lost/ stranded there I will walk over to the Boeing museum and use the pay phone out front. :smiley:

36

Forget the space blankets, they are essentially useless. A sheet of plastic is much better in an emergency. Milar space blankets are too flimsy to be of much use, really don’t reflect any body heat compared to the effects of some insulation, and can’t be used for a shelter. If you have room, a real tarp or bivy sack is even better, but just thin plastic sheeting is much more useful.

I highly recommend taking a wilderness first aid course. It is really helpful if you plan on hiking or doing anything where you are away from immediate help.

37

Yeah, and everywhere is always a forest in a condition of extreme fire danger, even in the middle of winter. Bite me.

Strobes do not have the visibility of a flare. You must have line of sight with the ground position of the person deploying it. Flares do not require this.

This thread’s papa agreed with me and that’s sufficient.

38

I’m just up the road from you in Plesanton this week. I can look out the windows and see that the local hills are turning brown. I assume that you can see the same thing. Checking the CEFA website most of California is at medium or above fire danger already. According to their maps some of the hills to the west of Bakersfield are already at Extreme fire danger, and the entire southeastern corner of the state is listed as high. And we aren’t even into the middle of June yet.
Furthermore I assume that you understand that most people go camping in the warm months. Is there a forest fire danger in the Sierras during a blizzard, of course not. But this is not when most people go camping, which was if I recall the OP on this thread.
Taking a flare gun into an extreme fire danger area is a really, really dumb idea. If you don’t believe me, go ask a forest ranger.

39

Just wanted to chime in with a different opinion. I’m 42 yrs old and also the proud owner of a not-so-good back. However, all my camping and outdoor gear is WW2 or Korean war vintage and it still holds up better than your fancy-schmancy Outdoor Magazine aluminun-titanium-realign-the-main-deflector-dish stuff. Oh sure it weighs 4 or 5 times as much but that just means I look tougher than I really am. Plus it’s cool to use a good 'ol K-Bar knife to open up a can of ravioli. Helps me contemplate what the older generation went through. Plus it’s usually dirt-cheap at yard sales and surplus stores. I’ve got a 1950’s leather ammo belt from Sweden that holds everything. A leather dispatch case from WW2, a set of WW2 gaiters and lots of Khaki.

"Qui-Hi!.. Mogamba! My elephant gun… Quick!!

40

Shayna sent me a link to this thread, and I thought the fires here in So. Cal. makes a comment on flare guns appropriate.

The Cedar Fire in San Diego is said ot have been caused by a lost hunter who used his flare gun to signal for help. A “really, really dumb idea” indeed!

Better to use a signal mirror. Unlike a flare gun, you can aim the light directly at an aircraft.