Super Light Weight – Make Your Own for an AT Thru-Hike

[Paul Luther]

Bill. Thanks for the pics. I’ll try to duplicate a cozy for an empty Fosters can. I’ll admit that I consumed the contents. I do it for product development;)
On the subject of neoprene material: Do you use a two side nylon neoprene or just one side. I have a wetsuit, with sections of supple 1/16″ neoprene, that has nylon on the inside and grippy rubber on the outside.
I wonder how this type of material will work for cozy?
Thanks, Paul

[Bill Fornshell]

Hi Paul, I used the 1/4″ all foam neoprene ($0.35 per inch- item #1303 at Quest Outfitters) vs the 2 something like you have on your wet suit. I can get that kind in red and black at 3mm/which I think is what your wet suit has ($0.99 per inch). I just went with the cheaper of the two.

The first neoprene cozy I made was a clone to what it looked like Snow Peak was using.

I need to empty my Foster cans and get a pot made to test with. Another Thread says the can is to flimsy to use as a cook pot. There is a reference to Rayn using a Fosters Beer Can Cook Pot and the web site showing how to make them. I would say treat it like any SUL piece of gear and you should be OK.

[Paul Luther]

Hi Bill, Thanks for your advice. I plan on substituting th

[Paul Luther]

Hi Bill, Thanks for your advice.
I’m going to the Winds in August, with a buddy, and we usually do corn pasta for dinner. We’ll have a common 1.5ltr MSR Titan pot, with foil lid, for cooking corn pasta. I plan on using the Fosters with cozy as a substitute for a, slightly heavier?, SP 600ml “bowl” w/o cozy.
What do you think?
Paul

[Bill Fornshell]

Corn Pasta, I have a box of that. I have eaten a lot of it, mostly the elbow type. I need a good sauce with mine. Seems I read about using it in some book many years ago. I had always thought about grinding up the corn pasta and making corn muffins or a corn pasta based cookie bar out of it. I also use a lot of instant Oatmeal but the kind that has a lot of extra vitamins added to it.

How will you make your Fosters Cook Pot? On my first one I will just cut out the lid. I think that way would be stronger than cutting out the bottom and using it for the top of the pot. My can is the 25.4fl oz version so that would give me 751ml full. The Fosters can will give you more volume than the SP 600ml “bowl”. I would test it before I go to the woods with it but I am sure a test is on your schedule.

[Paul Luther]

Hi Bill, Corn pasta. I got the idea from a Ray Jardine book. Corn Pasta keeps me on my feet better than regular pasta. I believe Ray calls it “a power food”. Although I’ve never done a side by side comparision, it seems to take longer to cook than regular elbows.
Your right about needing a good sauce. I just gag on the stuff without a sauce,or butter/parmesan cheese, etc. I typically use approx. 4oz dry for a meal within a 25oz/day food weight. Your idea about a corn muffin energy “cake” is a good one. Maybe we should all eat Lembas!(LOTR):)

I’ll use the 25.4fl oz.Fosters can as my “bowl”. I cut off the very top and folded over the edge, inside, to prevent cuts. The cozy will be made per your pictures. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the Fosters/cozy lighter than the SP 600ml cup.
Have a great Fourth.
Paul

[Bill Fornshell]

Ditto on the Corn Pasta idea. I have Ray’s PCT Book but have to say that by the time I tore all the pages out that I didn’t need (being polite) only about half was left. I did enjoy the part that was left.

I had never been able to “stay with” TLOR’s books so I never read them. Just before the first Book (movie) was about to come out I bought the unabridged version on CD. Then I bought the Hobbit on CD to get more of the background. I now have all three LOTR and the Hobbit on unabridged CD. They are great and I have listened to all 4 books about 12 times. I play them while I am working so I do have a life, sort of.

Anyway the idea of the Lembas generated a few recipts after the movie came out. I have three different Lembas recipes and one for Beorn’s Honey Nut Cake. I haven’t made any of them yet. My idea was to make something like them to eat for breakfast and a couple times a day while on a long distance hike.

The question reference to the weight of the SP 600 cup is answered in Ryan’s article: “SuperUltraLight: Breaking the Five-Pound Barrier” He list the SP 600ml cup as part of his “Kitchen” kit. SP 600ml – 2.8oz w/foil lid at 0.05oz.

So yes, the Fosters Beer Can Cook Pot at 0.85oz plus the cozy at 1.09oz or a total of 1.94oz is lighter by 0.86oz than the 600ml cup.

That said my “Luxury Kitchen” is a shade under 2 pounds.

[paul johnson]

Bill,

you wrote: “I have Ray’s PCT Book but have to say that by the time I tore all the pages out that I didn’t need (being polite) only about half was left. I did enjoy the part that was left.”

Some amazing escapades RJ’s been on. I’m just reading RJ’s Beyond Backpacking book now. Some parts are pretty good (that Grandma Gatewood – she was something; would’ve like to meet her).

What i want to know is can a person really say what you’re saying and not be committing L/UL blasphemy? Is thinking it even ‘ok’? Are there others who feel the same way as you? I’ve gotten the impression from things that i’ve read, that RJ’s word is pretty much viewed as gospel. Any thoughts on these thoughts?

If you/anyone care(s) to ans. me, another thread (in Chaff???) might be a better venue. However, having said that, i’m hoping that no one will respond & “trash” RJ there (“flame” – is that the ‘chat’ lingo for it???). That’s NOT the kind of response i’m looking for. Disagree with him & educate me – yes. Trash him – NO!!!

Since I’m pretty new to L/UL any info on anything in his book that is considered specious (and why) would be helpful to me.

For example, i did find his comments on sternum straps rather interesting, but not applicable to me, since from childhood i was taught (in Tai Ji Quan & other martial arts training) various ways to breathe deep into the abdomen w/o expanding the chest (“babies’ breath” as some buddhists & taoists call it). I still do this now – all day long. It’s second nature for me. If you’ve never heard of it, i know it sounds funny (i.e. deep abdominal breathing). It has some interesting (amazing?) benefits – especially to the athelete.

[Paul Luther]

Nice kitchen Bill. Your the chef, and I promise to do the dishes!
I will admit that I’m a LOTR addict. I have a set of paperbacks, incuding the Hobbit, that are 15+ years old. Although they are falling apart, I still read them.
I never read Ray’s PCT book, so I didn’t have the opportunity of using most pages as TP!
I have done several backcountry trips w/o stove and related debris. I rather enjoyed the freedom of no cooking, and not to mention the weight savings.
My “Lembas” usually is a batch sourced from an old recipe that is much altered from the original. The recipe is from a small book titled “The New healthy Trail Food Book” by Dorcas S. Miller, revised edition. I have the second edition from 1981. I don’t know if the book is in print. Dorcas called her recipe “Logan Bread” on page 36. My altered recipe usually is baked in 4 9×9 pans.
I can live off this stuff. It’s cheaper and tastier than OTC bought food. Finding the time to make it is tough.
I will tell you that baking in muffin pans did not occure to me. Thanks for the tip.
I’ll have to find my recipe. Then we can compare recipes.
Paul

[Chugiak Mountain Gear]

Where do you order your fabric from? Is that (on the pack) spinnaker material ? The pack looks great. Thanks

[Bill Fornshell]

I started out with a 200g can of Sterno. Some cans say 198g but the cans seem to be the same size. The can is about 2″ tall and almost 3.25″ wide. I have placed a black mark inside the SUL Sterno Can Cook Pot to show the 8oz fill line. The cook pot weighs .38oz. If you can get by with a cook pot that only heats 8oz of water at a time this is about as light as you can get. The pictures show the cook pot sitting on one of my Brasslite stoves but I think I would use this cook pot with the Esbit tablets. If my hiking goal was to be as light as possible I think I would support the cook pot with a few rocks but carry a Aluminum Foil windscreen. The windscreen weighs 0.22oz.

[Bill Fornshell]

I have finished my first SUL Cuben Poncho/Tarp. It is 48″ wide (that is how wide the Cuben fabric is) and 90″ long. If I made another one I could keep the weight under 2oz if it was a Poncho only. The extra reinforcement necessary to turn it into a tarp added about 1oz to the weight.

The 2.81oz weight is for the Poncho mode only. In the Tarp mode it is necessary to add guy lines and stakes. 6 Vargo – Ti Shepherd’s Hook UltraLight Stakes at .20oz each would add 1.2oz. 50 foot of AirCore Pro guyline and 6 tensioners would add another .98oz. This would give me a total weight when used as a Tarp of 4.99oz.

I plan to pitch the Tarp in different ways to see if it is big enough for my use. It sure looks small.

My plans are to do a short part of my Thru-Hike SUL and see how it works. The weather will play a big part in when I try it but it should be interesting to see what under 5 pounds would be like from Springer Mt. to Fontana Dam or so. Ideally it would be nice to start SUL and go that way as long as the weather didn’t get crazy. As the weather gets warmer SUL should get easier.

As each piece of my gear gets lighter and lighter 5 pounds is starting to look like a lot of weight play with. Smart selection and layering of my clothing, even watching the weight, should allow me to stay warm for short periods of colder weather.

[Ken Helwig]

the cat was a nice touch. they gotta always get into everything!!! nice poncho/tarp. I am jealous!!

[Richard Nelridge]

Just wondering if the cat is part of the make your own SUL gear?

[Ken Helwig]

great detail on your products. I am very impressed.

[Bill Fornshell]

Thanks, The cat is one of a few I take care of. I have 4 kittens that I took away from a stary female at 4 weeks old. They are now about 9 weeks old and ready for me to give away. They are so much fun to watch play and they are at the age where they want to see everything I do. My cats and the kittens are my therapy and support group. My oldest cat will be 19 years old this November. He had Giardia a couple of years ago and it wasn’t nice.

The cat goes along to catch my food. She also catches her own food so she only needs a little water from time to time. Mice are really good, taste just like chicken. I nice fat bird packed in mud and baked in a small fire is also good.

I just finished a water test of my new tarp. The stuff is amazing but as I said before it may not be for everyone.

[Richard Nelridge]

Bill,

Really great gear as I mentioned in my off line post some time back and hope you continue to recover quickly. I just hope the gear can stand up to the day to day use and punishment for such a long trip as the AT.

You will probably have a lot of requests at least for your plans here on BPL.

Rich

[Ken Helwig]

Bill cats are great I have 3. they’re always getting into my down bag whenever i am “airing” it out. your gear looks great. congrats on the water proofness

[Bill Fornshell]

I had a small piece of the Cuben fabric left over and decided to replace the Bag from my ULA H2O Amigo water filter. The ULA bag with the fittings removed weighed 1.96oz. The Cuben replacement bag weighed 0.57oz or a savings of 1.39oz. I will replace the ULA stuff sack with one made from the Cuben fabric as I have more scrap.

I will multi-use the tubing from the Amigo on my Platypus bottle and save another 0.23oz.

[paul johnson]

Good job Bill. Looks as good as a professionally made item, but then, it appears that you are a real “pro” at gear fabrication – so this shouldn’t surprise me any.

One question: how did you affix the yellow mat’l to the cuben?

Waitin’ to see your next “creation”, so to speak.

[Bill Fornshell]

Thanks Paul.
I decided to use a piece of my “Yellow” AirCore Pro Ultralight Dyneema “shelter guyline from BMW for the water bag cord.

The yellow stuff is 3/4″ grosgrain folded in half and pressed with a hot iron. Then sewn around the outer edge of the Cuben material. I then punched 16 holes in the grosgrain and strung the “yellow” AirCore Pro cord through the holes. I made the two Plastice Tube handles from two 4″ pieces of the tubing from one of my feeding tube food bag sets and was done.

[shannon stoney]

I have made a lot of sun hats, and the best brim stiffener I have used is just the stiffest interfacing that they have at the fabric store. I fuse it to both the top and bottom of the brim. In other words, there are two layers of it sandwiched between the two layers of cloth of the brim. Then I stitch through all layers in concentric rings, about 1/4″ apart. This seems to make a reasonably stiff brim.

The only “bad” brims I’ve ever made were when I tried to use linen instead of cotton, or heavy cotton. Those brims sagged, I think because the fabric is heavy. They sagged more when the air was damp. I can’t figure out how the tilley hat people make their hemp hat brims not do that. Maybe they have some really stiff brim stuff.

You are probably using a synthetic fabric though for your hat.

[Bill Fornshell]

Nathan Asks:

– your tarp looks great. i’m thinking of using 1.3oz silnylon to have something a _little_ more durable (i hike on trail, but they’re often really overgrown trails), so i was wondering whether you think the corner/guy-out pattern you used would still be necessary or be overkill. also, can you share the pattern you used for the hood?

I have two “bought” tarps. The lightest one is made from .5 spinnaker material that is a “for real” weight of a little over 1oz per sq yard. Both tarps have reinforcement sewn at the tie points. If you are going to use your Poncho also as a Tarp the extra reinforcement material should add very little weigh and will give you insurance against what might happen in a storm or high wind.

If you look close at the Roll-Top Collar on my Cuben Pack bag and at the Collar on my Poncho/Tarp (note: not a Hood) you should see that they are made almost the same way. I sewed a drawl cord around the top of the Collar on the Poncho/Tarp. For a pattern idea I looked at an old Army Poncho. The Army Poncho Hood opening was oval shaped and about 11″ long by 7″ wide. I made the opening on my Poncho the same size as the 11″ by 7″. The total Collar after seams is 8″ tall.

[Bill Fornshell]

I was looking at the mont-bell web site and found what they call a “Handy Scoop” this trowel is SS, weighs 1.4oz and is 6.25″ long.

How many SUL backpackers or even Light-backpackers really carry a trowel ??????

I am making a Titanium Trowel more or less the same shape and size as the mont-bell Handy Scoop.

I have the blank cut and ready to shape into a trowel. It will weigh 0.32oz. I should finish it this afternoon.

[paul johnson]

I have a 2oz trowel that i carry sometimes. Good when the soil is hard. Useful for catholes & shallow drainage channels around the bivy.

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