2013 Staff Picks

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Backpacking Gear: Being thankful for what you have

I've got a great kit that works together well, so it's hard to pick any one standout item. Notables that haven't changed in years include a Patagonia Houdini, cocoon pullover, BPL vapr bivy, MLD burn pack, Javan Dempsey quilt, firelite 550 pot, and some cutdown foam. In truth though, any of these could be easily interchanged with a similar item and my experience would be just as good. I think the search for the perfect gear sometimes detracts from just enjoying the experience.

Outdoor Gear: An alternate mode of transportation

Be it packraft, skis, snowshoes, or bike, it's nice to see parts of the wilderness that may not be accessible by foot.

Lifestyle: Lake Superior

I never planned on living in the Midwest, but the Lake Superior shoreline has made it worthwhile, transforming Michigan from being just another Midwestern state into a premier backpacking destination. I've spent the last 3 years exploring it, and feel like I've only scratched the surface. The ice formations, caves, and cliffs have to be seen to be believed.

Wishing you all a happy holiday season. Thank you for the 2013 inspirations. Here's to 2014!

"Ryan, are you ever going to respond to my many emails to you about the grandfathered forum membership?"

Ummmmm…

No.

I picked up this GPS a couple of months ago as well and I should have given it honorable mention. So far it's been the perfect GPS for me as I've found that the option of maps, GLONASS, and WAAS with the newer GPS are unnecessary (at this time) for my purposes.

Tim, I appreciate your comments. This is an issues you're going to hear more about here later in 2014. To preview that and further the thread drift:

Wilderness (lower case) biking is for me mountain biking well away from pavement on paths not built for cycling and not traveled often by people via any mode of transport. Finding legal routes in the lower 48 where a bike is an enhancement to travel rather than a hindrence (with respect to both speed and enjoyment) is a challenge.

I live near one of the few remaining large chunks of national forest in the lower 48 which has wilderness trails open to bikes. The social side is pretty insignificant as outside hunting and CDT season you don't see anyone back there. In other areas prejudice against bikes can be a pain but it's just that, and something to be dealt with.

Game trails are another matter. Even when such activity is legally unproblematic, its the rare game trail which is bikeable. In the mountains and forests they're almost always too steep or thick. Locally, I ride game trails to cross islands and link up sloughs and gravel bars while riding river courses at low water in the spring. The areas are public land, get flooded every few years, and receive almost no human traffic.

Again, the issues here are almost always social, as opposed to environmental.

I guess I'll add to the diversity… even though mine aren't diverse as other's:

UL packing stuff. Zimmerbuilt pack/ Gregory 3d belt. Best AND simplest pack I've had ever. Light, right volume for me, simple with one external pocket, tough (Dimension), comfortable. (yes, Eric, comfortable:) )

Outdoor Activity: I understand that I'm not cool cause it's not a flashy activity, but I just really love to be in the wilderness and walking is slow so I can smell the roses. -Never been cool anyway why start now?

Lifestyle item: I don't understand what "lifestyle item" means. Doug put a juicer. We just got a juicer and its pretty cool. Oh! Disc Golf! Yeah been into that lately! Pier Park in St. John's is Sweeeeet! But in a fit of uncoolness I carry my 3 discs in a little bag from a record shop, like a book bag sort of thing. I guess that Golf itself falls under "outdoor activity" so maybe I'll make the bag be my "lifestyle item" My buddy carries his discs in one too and when we play through other groups its fun to carry our douchy little bags and throw just as well (if not better) then they do with their 18 discs in a big ol bag and stool. Especially since we are both left-handed finger-poppers. We feel like cheesy black sheep. Its a gas.

EDIT: OK Vitamix isn't a juicer- its a blender. Take it easy, Doug. LOL Smoothie maker… whatever. :) Must be line helluva blender.

Thank you for the clarification, Dave. I look forward to reading more either here or at Bedrock. Both social and environmental consequences seem to always be at stake here in CO.

Stopping threads instead of derailing them is usually my speciality so I feel honored to be in new territory.

Roger Caffin once ridiculed me for suggesting he review the Hoka One One shoe. I suppose instead of saying talk to the hand I should say talk to Kevin Sawchuk. And i write this with a smile on my face, because I admire Roger.

And for Mary D above, the ultimate mountain bike encounter for me is having to jump out of the way of a speeding mountain bike on a trail where bikes aren't allowed as happened to me today on a day hike at Lake Natoma near Sacramento. Oh well, at least I get to practice my jumping skills and yell "POG MO THOIN!" like my Irish grandfather used to do.

Getting into the spirit of the theater of the absurd (a shotgun?) for a internet site titled "Backpacking" Light my favorite gear for 2013 was the Transatlantic Sessions youtube of Eric Bibb singing "Don't Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down." It is spiritual and yet has backpacking applications as well as it is concerned with slipping, sliding and falling. It embodies my attitude of life.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and remember that Christmas represents an important person's birthday.

"my favorite gear for 2013 was the Transatlantic Sessions youtube of Eric Bibb singing "Don't Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down.""

Good stuff John, thanks for mentioning it. I'll add Mavis Staples, Have A Little Faith [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d39JBXsh0R0]

I once met two mountain bikers a couple miles into the Pecos Wilderness. I asked them if they knew they could get a ticket for being there (I was bluffing I assume the FS would ticket them). They seemed surprised (or faked it) and headed out by the quickest trail. I didn't personally threated to turn them in but I sort of implied that the area was being monitored for hunting season and lots of people would be waiting to turn them in.

I have to agree, I looked at this post hoping to find some replacements / upgrades, like a sleeping pad. I haven't seen any gun totin hikers!!

"I haven't seen any gun totin hikers!!"

That's because I conceal carry Tony

(flame war in 3…. 2…. )

I realize there are some on this site (hopefully a small minority) that have a fetish like attachment to their killing toys.

But killing toys are not about the outdoors … they are about killing.
and isn't this an Outdoor site ?
and if you really want to "Backpack Light" well, a gun doesn't cut it.

Could you, especially the staff, show the courtesy to tout your prowess in this area on hunting sites and spare those of us who truly love the outdoors the pain of having to listen.

my 2013 gear pick is a gun that animals can use so they can shoot back.
oh right … it hasn't been invented yet.

This list is just about as useless as me sitting at my desk on NYE. Like a tree falling in the woods, who even cares if it happened. Maybe next year someone will put the Sawyer Mini or something remotely relevant (no ill meant to the Rab puffy or Patagucci rain jacket) on the list. Yep. This year's sucked.

Why are y'all mad for people posting their opinions?

Its opinons! Sheesh

why are you mad about people posting their opinions about the opinions?!

they're opinions!

I'm starting a thread "2013 Reader Picks" so we can show how it's done :)

"Why are y'all mad for people posting their opinions?

Its opinons! Sheesh"

I think the issue is quality and appropriateness. People come here looking for the answers and this article falls short. It smacks of being thrown together at the last minute rather than pointing the readers to quality, useful information. Shame shame.

Art, I'm not going to change your mind. Past evidence makes that pretty clear. I would however submit that your above comments suggest that on a root level you do not know what you are talking about.

Dale, I'm not clear on what questions you're looking to have answered by something like this. I am genuinely curious.

I don't direct content for this site, but as a writer my personal answer to what seems to be the implicit question here is that there is only so much that can be said about plain old walking around in the woods. Take lightweight rain jackets: the only thing worth noting in the 2 years since I wrote a SOTMR is the same laminates on new materials with new names, and that Haglofs discontinued the Ozo. Sleeping pads? Ridgerests work. Thermarests work. Neoairs work but are fragile and stupid expensive. Everything else is variations on a theme or white noise.

I'm shocked no one has admonished me for forgetting my helmet on that Waterton trip and riding anyway. Only went two for three this time around.

I like this years picks. It seems to me there is only so much you can say about std backpacking gear that hasn't been said before. So for me it's good to hear about a diverse range of kit. Without Bpl I wouldn't know about packrafting and there wouldn't be surly ogre in the garage ready for a trip in the next couple of weeks.

People come here looking for the answers and this article falls short.

I'll probably hate myself in the morning for stepping into this squabble but …

This reader comes here for information, not answers. Information helps me formulate my own answers.

I'm not sure any of the annual staff picks articles has ever filled that need for me. But member interests are varied enough that I'd expect few articles or threads to be useful to all readers.

Story time kiddies… gather 'round. A lot can be learned from the relationship I have with Nickelback.

I don't like Nickleback and would rather staple my face to the floor than listen to them. Sometimes the local hockey arena plays Nickelback over the loudspeaker. Sometimes I hear Nickelback on the radio. There are even times when I'm walking past CDs in a store and I see a Nickelback album.

Despite my desire to start screaming at the top of my lungs, rip off my clothes, and flee the establishment sobbing violently……

I just take a deep breath…. count to ten…. and chant "It'll be ok. It'll be ok."

And then I move on with my life. If you have a magazine you subscribe to and are happy with every article ever written, then good on you but it seems unlikely.

The inclusion of only 1 BPL item on each staff members list seems to have left many of us wanting for a little bit more insight to the kit of the pros. In past years, the 'lifestyle' item was balanced by 3 or more conventional BPL gear pieces (+1 for Sawyer mini function and price)

That said. +1 on Dave C.'s use of BPL gear and philosophy to make outdoor pursuits of ALL types safer and more accessible to us. I've yet to pull-off a planned packraft/turkey hunt/fat bike loop on the northern edge of the Navajo reservation but thanks to BPL and Dave's inspiration its coming. I did however take my zpack zero, foster can/starlyte, quilt,and roclites on numerous walks and overnights with my A5 this season. That's (Browning A5; 8 heavy lbs.) a shotgun and I guess it could be called…. hunting. But to me and many of us its just backpacking lighter, outside.

I do look forward to the other months of the year when my SUL and UL base-weights aren't dwarfed by blued metal or rabbit-hole rims. HYOH!

David Chenault – BPL Staff – said "my personal answer to what seems to be the implicit question here is that there is only so much that can be said about plain old walking around in the woods."

and therein lies the rub, or in this case the difficulty in writing essays for a backpacking magazine-website year after year.

The point is: who cares what their opinions are. They are just some folks that work for some website. They may do thing differently than you so their picks dont apply to you. Why be mad?

Don't hunt? Ignore the part about the gun. The people who do hunt (the intended audience) may get an idea from it.

I hike with people so all of the solo shelters don't apply. I just skip em. I don't bike, i don't raft, i don't -who cares what i don't do.

Whats your favorite piece of gear? Well it sucks! My x is better!

See how ridiculous?

Dave t made my point.
Who gives a rats ass about any opinion!?!?

… This is just my opinion