Trail Tested, by Justin "Trauma" Lichter

My wife was in the kitchen when I opened the mail.  She saw the package.  “What’s that?” she said.  “It’s another backpacking book”, I replied.  She politely didn’t roll her eyes this time, but my expression apparently caused her to require a bit more dialogue.  “What’s wrong?” she asked.  “It’s beautiful.  I mean look at it.  For a backpacking book.  Wow.  Someone spent a lot of time making this one.”

And that was my introduction to Trail Tested, a new book by Justin Lichter ($20).

First and foremost, and I’ve definitely never said this about a book, but man…this thing is gorgeous!  Lichter (Trauma) obviously invested a lot of time and energy on the aesthetics of his first book.  Great layout and design, tons of pictures, full color, very nice fonts and graphics, ….just wow.

So why care about another backpacking book.  Well for starters, Lichter has hiked over 35,000 in just the last 10 years.  He even hiked the Triple Crown (AT, PCT, CDT)…around 10,000…in one single year.  Impressive.  He also never seemed to be someone who pushed the obsessive boundaries of lightweight backpacking.  Simply, he wanted to go as lightweight as possible, but with functional and comfortable gear.  With his mainstream pack being one from Granite Gear, that’s really of no surprise.

Lichter’s book is a how-to manual for new backpackers and I’d argue for someone looking to work at REI.  He covers a lot of very valid, but fairly well known points.  Course, I personally gathered this knowledge from a multitude of sources over a long period of time and I suspect that having it all in one place will have a solid following.  There are very few stories as he focuses mainly on how to use gear or types of gear and the benefit of using one type of gear over another, versus specific manufacturers of gear or his preference towards particular models.  He answers a lot of questions about the AT, PCT, CDT, Hayduke and even backpacking in Africa.

If you’re new to backpacking, looking to work in the backpacking industry perhaps at a retailer like REI, if you enjoy looking at great photos of outdoor scenes, or if you’re inspired to financially support a fellow backpacker successfully avoiding a desk job, consider buying this book! 

Cuben Hybrid Bivy

Another wonderfully righteous dude who doesn’t get enough air time on my blog is Ben from Goosefeet.

Ben jumped on the scene a few years ago with a product I had been looking for over the years and never liked what the market offered – down booties.  Ben’s, unlike others, was the exact minimum I wanted for backpacking – down + lightweight fabric and nothing more.  I didn’t need a lug sole, heavy duty fabrics, or any other bells and whistles – just something to keep my feet warm.  I was one of his first customers and I still use them regularly.  In fact, he is making a pair for my wife right now.  There is nothing I’d rather have on my feet in the backcountry while sleeping than his down booties which offers more warmth for minimal weight.

Ben reminds me a lot of Brian over at Outdoor Equipment Supplier.  Both take their business very seriously, treat their customers extremely well, are willing to do custom work, and offer top notch products.  Consequently, both are Undergrads or Grad students in Engineering.  I’ve learned to value the opinion of both as each offers tremendous insight and can make nearly anything you dream of come to reality.

Ben has been kind enough to be my sounding board for a few projects and ultimately put together items that no one offered.  For example, a cuben jacket (vest + removable sleeves).  There is nothing I own which offers a better warmth to weight ratio and is as tremendously flexible.  He has also been my go-to guy to repair gear where other cottage vendors had fallen short or didn’t quite do the same kind of competent job he does.

The latest project he took on for me was a cuben hybrid bivy.  A bivy is a sack that goes over a bag or quilt.  The intent is to protect the bag/quilt from moisture, but it also adds a few degrees of warmth and can offer mosquito protection.  It is ideal for tarps and also good for groundless shelters or shelters like the Zpacks Hexamid where the ground material is mosquito netting.  For those people who use bivy’s, they love them.  Most people shy away from them though because they don’t understand them.

A bivy to me part of my sleep system and a direct result of my growing understanding of lightweight backpacking and how to best take care of my gear.  It offers me the most flexibility and greatest protection for my down quilt which I must keep dry if I want to have a successful trip.  The bivy’s I’ve owned in the past have all been made of various silnylon or Pertex products and have been fine, but they were all fairly snug.  At 6’5” and 285 with a 54” chest, I’m not your average fit.

Knowing I’d be making one bigger than average, I didn’t want that to impact weight and I also wanted to make mine more durable than sylnylon.  So, we agreed to make the bottom of waterproof 1.0 cuben with a 6.5” bathtub floor, the head and foot end of breathable waterproof cuben sold by Zpacks, and we used green Pertex Quantum on the top which is wonderfully soft, highly water resistant, and lightweight.  It has a 3/4 zipper which goes over my head so that I can fold down mosquito netting over my face if I wanted to.  All four corners have a tie-out as does the face.  It weighs slightly over 7 oz and is significantly bigger than my other bivy’s for only 1-2 ounces more.  And the best part, and the whole point to the endeavor, it fits me.  I'm confident in saying that the same kind of bivy for an "average-sized" person would likely be in the 5 oz range.

Ben has been, and continues to be, great to work with.  He’s a one-man shop which great capabilities and a real understanding of being good to deal with.  I highly recommend him for any unique projects you have in mind.

"I Hike"

I enjoy reading books about backpacking.  Whether they are about experiences or technique, and as long as the material isn’t something I’ve heard a couple dozen times already, usually I buy it.  I think in a simple way, I enjoy sharing experiences that I likely may never experience on my own. 

I first heard of Lawton "Disco" Grinter when I stumbled across The Walkumentary a few years ago  It’s a great movie on hiking the Continental Divide Trail (DVD).  I think one of the things that drew me to the movie was the fact that it was well organized and didn’t come off as a bunch of spliced together still photos or bad videography when in reality it probably contained both.  It was just more polished than others who made similar efforts. I watch this video at least annually principally because I like the personalities, photography and personally think it’s the best backpacking video on the market.  It also motivates me to hit the trail.  For those you haven’t seen it, I strongly encourage you to take a look.  After all – it’s free for download or a mere $5 for purchase. 

After watching The Walkumentary, I reached out to Lawton to answer a question that I honestly didn’t really care about but was intrigued about at the time.  Considering all the topics I could have asked, apparently my little mind merely wanted to know if he and his hiking partner (P.O.D. – Princess of Darkness) were romantically involved.  I guess I felt like the story was never adequately explained in the video despite sharing a tent, the obvious inside jokes, and the general exchanges that goes along with being a happy couple.  Lawton said the answer was that they were dating, and according to the book, they are now married living in Denver with P.O.D. working as a teacher and Lawton as a full-time forester.  Lawton graduated with a Masters Degree from Virginia Tech.  Being from Virginia and having worked on my own Masters at Virginia Tech (I never finished), I guess I felt a bit of a kindred spirit (and jealousy that he was able to progress in his backpacking and professional career more than I have been able to accomplish).  Lawton is also taller than average (he’s 6’2” and I’m 6’5”) and embraced the “lightweight” side of backpacking which is obviously another commonality.  As a Triple Crowner, I figured most things he had to say about backpacking were probably worth listening to – that – and he had an honest humor about him.

Lawton put what could easily be described as the greatest hits from his backpacking experiences into a new book called “I Hike”.  It is available several places.  If you want an autographed copy for no additional charge, go to Gossamer Gear.   Lawton is a GG Trail Ambassador and carried a minimalist pack on his adventures.  You can also get a copy of his book at Amazon.com or Barnes and Nobels.

This weekend I read it cover to cover.  This should speak highly of the book because I wouldn’t describe myself as a “reader”.  Consequently, if whatever I’m reading doesn’t flow well, I normally get distracted from the content and focus instead on composition which makes reading in mass undesired.  On Saturday I was supposed to run in my first 5k since tearing my meniscus over a year ago which required surgery, my first run of any kind since this time.  Unfortunately, as happens more often than I’d like, my diabetes decided to remind me that I’m on a different playing field than many others and there was no chance I would run (or walk) the race.  First, I was up all night Friday with hourly trips to the bathroom pondering how it was possible to pee so much.  All of Saturday was spent feeling like I was in a coma where I couldn't simply sleep it off.  Saturday night was similar, and Sunday was only a little better.  This is what happens when glucose (energy) gets stuck in a body and can’t be processed correctly causing it to be 3 times more, or less, of what it should be in a “normal” person.  To me, if feels like a build-up of toxins and my whole body hurts much like the feeling after running a marathon.  The act of moving, no matter how small (a walk from the bedroom to the bathroom) is not just challenging, but painful.  Needless to say, I was pretty incapacitated and decided to read.

Lawton writes very well.  According to the book, the grammar was largely a reflection of the influence of his mother, a Librarian.  In fact, his grasp of solid writing jumped out at me as I reflected on a youthful generation where broken English thumbed out on an iPhone is becoming all too common and an actual understanding of basic English is slowly evaporating.  Just this week I had to explain to a youthful college-degree toting coworker that St. Louis was the destination of a meeting as to clear up her confusion voiced widely in a business e-mail to several where she wondered aloud about the identity of St. Luis, apparently a quite religious Puerto Rican with an exciting nightlife worthy of being visited by business persons.  Everything in the book flows nicely and Lawton paints a nice picture.  Bill Bryson is a little more illustrative, but I’d say Lawton was on par with Bill “Skywalker” Walker who consequently had a Masters in English and taught it for many years as best I can recall.  While Bryson continues to hold the unchallenged top spot in outdoor adventure books when it comes to hiking and related humor, I think Walker and Lawton definitely have something to contribute.

Lawton’s book is a collection of stories and observations from his time spent on the CDT, PCT and AT in addition to other shorter journey's.  I would argue that there is a lesson in each, whether it be about making smart decisions, recognizing limitations, respecting weather, understanding gear, being moved by the loss of a friend and helping prevent the loss of another, accepting lower mileage days in the face of adversity, the positives and negatives of Trail Magic, the positives and negatives of a good map and technology, etc.  These stories cover the real possibility of getting hypothermia or Giardia and the discomfort and variety of bugs and relentless bears.  There are several great comical sections of the book which I think Lawton handles with ease.  One of my favorites is a story about a Great Blue Heron being struck by a car whose occupants lack of reaction seemed to imply that hitting a 4 foot long rare bird was normal in that area (Lawton was in the backseat merely trying to hitch a ride).  Hands down, my favorite character from “I Hike” or “The Walkumentary”, and I trust this is of no surprise to anyone who is familiar, is a German engineer named Speedo.  If Lawton valued making money from his writing and videos, I would tell him that he has a virtual cash cow in all things Speedo and should strongly consider a greatest hits version of his escapades, and well, all things Durf and how American soap is not adequate for everything.  You’ll need to read the book to understand that reference.

So, get the book whether for the enjoyment of the stories, the experience of someone tested, or to support a fellow hiker.

Woolpower 400 Vest

Hendrik, the righteous dude over at Hiking in Finland was kind enough to share with me some information on a vest he was wearing in one of his Ultralight A-Z videos. 

The Woolpower 400 vest is a really wonderful option for backpackers who are looking for a flexible insulating layer in cooler weather, but don't want a jacket.  It is made of 69% merino wool, 29% polymide and 2% elastane offering the best properties of wool, yet in a durable, soft and tightly woven option.

The product is made in Sweeden which means zippers are on the opposite side for men and that these garments aren’t the easiest to get their hands on.  After some research, I learned that one of the few reliable U.S. dealers was Grand Forest Inc.  I’d recommend Grand Forest over others because I learned they are a direct distributor of Woolpower products which means while others have an extremely tough time with stock, Grand Forest generally has it or can get it far more easily.  I learned this quickly after waiting for 7 weeks from another dealer who also refused to accept a return if I didn't like it.  Consequently, Grand Forest also communicated well and shipped quickly.

Sizing runs small.  I normally wear an XXL in everything and needed to size up to an XXXL which isn't normal for me at all.  But, it fits, and quite honestly it looks nice enough in appearance that it is plenty suitable to wear as part of my business casual attire at my office or around town in addition to backpacking.  It has no pockets, only a front zipper and good collar.  I purchased the green, although the black is nice too.

If you want something extra that will allow you to breathe, won’t catch fire, will insulate even when wet, is eco-friendly, is less than a bulky puffy, and is comfortable to wear full time, consider this option.

Little Backpack

My wife and I have an outing planned this summer to an amusement park where we’ll be joined by our kids.  Because of their young ages, we will still need to carry some kind of bag to support their needs.  Rather than bring the conventional over-the-shoulder bag or encourage my wife to inflate the size of her already big-enough purse, I wanted to go with a lightweight, small volume backpack.

The pack I was looking for needed to be durable and space-age fabrics weren’t a requirement.  It also needed to be affordable.  Several came to mind.

• ·         Gossamer Gear Big Bag ($39.00 / 2.9 oz / 1100 cu/in)
• ·         REI Flash ($34.50 / 11 oz / 1100 cu/in)
• ·         REI Stuff Travel Pack ($29.50 / 10 oz / 1340 cu/in)

I ended up going with the REI Stuff Travel Pack because it was the largest volume, least expensive and the second lightest.  It couldn’t compete with the 2.9 oz Gossamer Gear Big Bag, but at 10 oz weight wasn’t going to be even a slight issue.

Made of ripstop nylon with a top zippered pocket, a drawcord for access to the main body and two side pouches for water bottles, it proved to be the right choice.  It also packs down into itself in the form of a small pocket.

The size of the pack really hammered home the point that size matters when it comes to conventional backpacks.  All too often I see people pushing their "lightweight" limit by trying to use an 1800-2000 cu/in pack.  Personally, I can’t imagine it.  Maybe it’s because my stuff takes up more room being that it is oversized to fit me, but very small volume packs work only in the most specific and definable circumstances.  Consequently, I think this may serve as a good first backpack for my son, but it could likely only handle his sleeping bag and that’s about it which is why I have a hard time imagining an adult using something even close in volume.

BUT…it will sure enough work for our needs at the amusement park and the price was right.

EPIPHANY: Heavy is GOOD!!

Sometimes “heavy” isn’t so bad.

When I was a kid, every now and then my parents would take me camping.  Our gear was likely the very best Montgomery Ward offered within the last decade or so.  We had two matching tents, both equally adequate at holding water as well as an aquarium.  My parents slept in one and my brother and I slept in the other.  Each night while my brother and I tried to think of new and innovative ways to annoy one another causing our mother to be quite creative with her empty threats, we’d overhear exchanges between my mom and dad.  Usually it started with sounds of tossing and turning followed by general discomfort.  My mom would attempt to remedy the situation and my father could be heard telling her he was fine.

In as much as I’d like to avoid all thoughts that they were working on giving my brother and I a sibling, I know the truth was that my father was uncomfortable sleeping on the ground.  While my mom, brother and I had old foam GI mats, my father had an early edition inflatable.  But, as someone over 300 pounds, the mat proved to be more of a test of his patience than a welcomed hope for a night of restful sleep. 

I always remembered those moments because the one thing I took away from camping with the family was that it was uncomfortable.  Whether it was the obvious difficulty in the middle of the night or the “I slept in a tent last night” facemask we all wear from time-to-time, it wasn’t an ideal situation.  Now with my own family, this retrospective is helpful as family camping is meant to be an enjoyable activity.

 

The first few times I went camping with my family, I brought my lightweight gear and we all huddled under an old cramped tent.  My kids and I were sleeping on foam at a public campsite that was overly loved, and my wife was sleeping on a women’s Thermarest Prolite Plus (something I had purchased for her along with a GoLite Jam with the hopes of motivating her to go backpacking with me).  I learned the same thing my dad did at those moments – this is uncomfortable.

Flash forward to our modern world where the number of choices for nearly anything is only outweighed by the number of places it could be purchased.  My goal was simple, to find the biggest most bed-like sleeping pad on the market.  I knew I couldn’t get an inflatable mattress because those never worked well for me, or more importantly anyone else sharing it with me.  While I squashed it to the floor, my partners were raised to circus heights only to eventually slide into me.  Realistically, there also wouldn’t be enough room for kids and I really didn’t want to lug around a giant inflatable mattress anyway as it would no doubt turn into the tent trampoline for anyone under the age of 6.

I ended up with the Thermarest Dreamtime - an inflatable pad with memory foam on top within a sleeve.  Now I’m not a fan of inflatables to begin with, or memory foam, but put them together on a hard surface which would be challenging in most any situation….and….oh my. 

With an R-value of 9, a 30” width and 78” in length, it was wonderfully big.  Pushing nearly 8 pounds, it was every bit of heavy I was willing to lug from the car to the tent.  It took all of one trip for my wife to remind me that I was buying another.  I used it over the Easter weekend despite my back reminding me that moving 11 cu/yds of mulch and dirt is an activity best left for more graceful youth who accept cash to help me avoid the suffering.  It was a great success.  I’ll be backpacking for an overnighter this weekend and will hook up with my family for a second night.  You can bet your sweet cheeks that my UL foam will be left in the car when I arrive and the Dreamtime will be making another tent appearance.

Find one on sale, use a coupon, and consider your REI dividend, and your wallet won’t suffer as much.

Dad would have been proud.

Shhhhh. Zpacks Hexadome Tent

 

You know you want it – a 7’ long cuben dome fully enclosed tent with 5” bathtub floor secretly under development by cuben wizard Joe at Zpacks.  Roomy for one, adequate for two.

Known as the Hexadome, a prototype, with a cost of perhaps around $549, just enough to make sure you don’t get that set up implants you wanted or that your kid misses his first semester of college.

The seams are taped.  The floor is sewn in.  There are two entrances.  Beaks can be dropped lower for extra rain protection.

It is 7’ x 42” wide on the inside.

The tent with taped seams, guylines, sewn in floor and stuff sack are a mere 16oz. 

Two poles are 4oz and 6 titanium stakes are 1.2oz. 

Total weight – 25.2 oz.

Say it with me.  Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Now buy me one too.

Andrew Skurka: The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide

I have a tendency to write my blogs several in a row and weeks in advance, releasing them on set dates to spread them out.  Regrettably, the time I once had to devote to this blog on a daily and weekly basis has been snatched out from under me by the demands of a very challenging professional position and the welcomed personal position of being a father to two wonderful sons.  With that said, this week my review for Andrew Skurka’s “The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide” book was supposed to release ($13.29 from Amazon).  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there are so many reviews about his book as it just came out to the masses even though I got an advanced copy a few weeks ago.  Guess I should have timed my release better.

Most of the lightweight backpacking community is aware of Skurka who really came on the scene only recently.  In a very short time he’s logged more than 30,000 miles principally on long-distance hikes of the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail and several other trips which are lesser known or that he essentially named himself like the Alaska-Yukon Expedition.

Skurka’s book rehashes many of the same sentiments that other lightweight backpacking books already covered quite thoroughly.  I think the difference is that Skurka seems to be a little more genuine and transparent.  For example, most of Ray Jardine’s books make it sound like he never got sweaty, never got wet, never had bad weather, never had a poor campsite, never had failures or injuries, etc. and that he had everything figured out long before his journey started.  I also found that Skurka's book focused more on the type of gear he used to be successful and he didn't unnecessarily throw out too many gear specifics because he knew full well that anything specific mentioned today would likely be nearly irrelevant tomorrow (the Achilles's heal for many backpacking gear books) .  Skurka’s book is written in the same spirit of experience, but his words carry less of an attitude, less of a “my-way-or-the-highway” mentality, and instead he seems to simply be telling readers what he’s learned.

I’ve personally never met Skurka, although I’ve read a lot about him and watched many virtually unknown videos of him.  I find him very likable, passionate, trustworthy and creditable.  My personal impression is that writing this book was likely a bit out of character for him, although a means to continue to thrive as a professional backpacker and guide.  From my observations he’s a fairly quiet guy, someone who keeps to himself to a certain degree.  He seems to prefer hiking alone which although solitude is helpful in many aspects, for him I suspect it as much out of convenience and schedule as it is out of the real fact that few people would be able to keep up with his super-human-backpacking-Olympian-pace.  His professional speaking engagements are cheerful, but reserved, and I’m guessing they weren’t his first choice to fill his schedule as I've never felt like he needed to seek attention to find solace in his choices.  He speaks reservedly, but with a clear Duke education and a matter-of-fact tone that is neither snobbish nor judgmental.  Simply, he speaks to what he knows and his book isn’t much different.

Few things jumped out at me from his book principally because many of the techniques had already been mentioned elsewhere to a certain degree.  But to his credit, I didn’t get the sense that he was trying to force-feed the “light is right” mentality.  For him, it was a matter of practicality.  He wanted to move fast (and was quite successful at that), so he simply carried the gear he thought he needed and was the most reasonably affordable option with decent performance.  It was clear as his experience grew, he wholeheartedly admitted that knowledge and skill was far more important than anything in his pack.   As someone without a conventional job, it was clear he was mindful of gear choices as it relates to his income.  He purchased what he could and attempted to get gear provided by sponsors for everything else which is distinctly different from being a biased and compensated spokesman.  He didn’t bathe himself in cuben fiber, nor was he concerned about saving ounces here and there by making things less functional than they could be if he felt he needed them.

Skurka started off his book by trying to define two types of hikers:  those who seek to cover a lot of ground to experience as much as they can and those who infuse the hiking experience with other desired activities such as camping, bird watching or backcountry cooking.  He easily admitted to being far less concerned with camping, sitting around, and doing much of anything other than getting up early, hiking as far and as fast as he could comfortably, and bedding down only at the last minute.

I appreciated how he unconventionally embraced fleece in certain situations because it remained somewhat warm when wet (a very likely occurrence for sweating backpackers) and that it was significantly less expensive and more widely available.  I liked how he championed the fact that there was really no ideal rain garment on the market as backpackers exert too much effort and will eventually soak themselves from sweat even if they are able to mitigate outside elements.  I always get a chuckle when I see debates about eVENT, Gore-Tex, Hyvent and others as it all seems so senseless to me because none of it really matters.  I’ve spent entirely too much money coming to this reality.  Skurka talked about some details that others rarely do, such as the importance of swapping out shoes and even CCF pads because they do retain their crushed position after a period of time and don’t perform as well.  Like others, Skurka supported the use of tarps in most conditions as they offered the most function and breathability, not to mention they were lightweight.  For those who haven’t seen Skurka’s video on making a cat food can alcohol stove, it is well worth the watch and of no surprise it was his stove of choice more often than not.  I personally usually use Esbits which is more costly but lighter and smaller for someone like me who isn’t looking to trek 3,000 miles.  Sure enough, when I do use alcohol I use a cat food can I made myself based off of Skurka’s video.  Skurka was unashamed to admit that chocolate had become one of his principal food fuels and I got a kick out of his honesty when he said he wanted his spoon to resemble more of a shovel considering his need for food (fuel) and the fact that he made camp so late that eating was a last minute priority which required a very little amount a devoted time.  He too was a supporter of liquid water purification, but used tablets in winter because they wouldn’t freeze even though they were more expensive.

I view books like this as a bit of a novelty because the lightweight backpacking movement is still fairly new.  I intentionally financially support backpackers like Skurka and others who make videos as it both helps me mentally travel to places I’ve never been and I enjoy having some minor influence of fueling the passion of those willing to push away from a desk and do something other than waste their lives away.  Hopefully you will have a similar experience.

Happy reading.