Do You Actually Use Your Gear ? ?

James wrote:

"Then you have the gear freaks who I heard one describe their fixation with "Some people spend money on cars, sailboats and other luxury items. My splurge is on shelters." So kind of a functional hobby of sorts to do with technology. Not all that uncommon for adults these days."

People have collected and surrounded themselves with objects since time began. We are surrounded by techno-toys of all kinds and we collect everything under the sun. My pet theory is that it is part of our hunter-gatherer nature. I sold cameras in the early 1970's and I saw many who bought cameras like they were jewelry and even some who wore them the same way. It doesn't surprise me that hiking gear would be the same.

Art,

Your post brings up a point.

Maybe it is not the number of days out, but the distance traveled into the backcountry?

Isn't the point of all this shiny gear to allow us to get outdoors and enjoy.

Whether you travel super fast or slower, point is just getting out there and enjoying.

Maybe the number of miles hiked in the backcountry to see more stuff vs. the number of days?

Either way, as long as you get out and enjoy the outdoors, the gear is secondary….just a means to an end.

-Tony

I do use my gear, although I have multiple sets of some things. That's because I often go out with the grandkids, requiring larger pot, bigger tent, etc. I acquired a tarp last spring for fall camping, but haven't I yet used it because of our late snowmelt and (so far) warm fall–the bugs are still bugging, and I'd rather use a tent when it's buggy (tarp plus ground sheet plus bug net big enough for my dog and me weighs as much as the tent!). As soon as those bugs go away….

However, I do have a few surplus things I've replaced with items I like better. A few items have become "loaner gear," but a few are just taking up space and I do need to get rid of those. I also still have some of my old heavy 1980's stuff, which I need to give to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. I can't carry it any more!

Craig
Re crash and burn …
basically my back went out on me, couldn't stand up any more.

I use all my gear. If not, they go on gear swap.

I've only done UL/SUL for a year and a half, so I still consider myself a newbie. I wasn't around for the spinnaker revolution, and just came in for the silnylon/cuben stuff.

But thanks to this forum and articles(when i was a member), I was able to hone my gear list down. Luckily for me, when I was a TRAD backpacker, I never used a tent, water filters, or stove. It was an easy transition for me to get into tarps, aquamira, and esbit.

And James in an earlier post made a great comment about gear that gets unused, and swapped around. I love the comment, and totally agree.

"My gear is now sadly out-of-date. I don't even think I can claim UL status anymore."

Does gear get heavier as it ages? I sure hope not or I've got a lot of new gear to buy :)

I dont exactly meet the criteria as my trips are all weekend excursions with my ten year old son. We did one this past weekend though that consisted of a long grueling 3/4 mile hike in to the river :)

I came home and built a caldera cone knock off complete with pepsi can stove and a gram cracker esbit stove knockoff to get the correct height for the esbit to use the new system as well. I tested the alcohol and the esbit and it was soooo much easier to get a boil even with the winds kicking up as a cold front moved in. I was in love! So, the next thing I tried was everclear…and of course it worked great too, so I've got a new multipurpose item to carry the next time I go out without my son ( i never ever ever drink around my kids, not even a shot) The new system weighs an ounce or two more, but those ounces are so worth not having the hassle I am willing to add it in.

So, I used my gear this weekend, came home and refined some of it, and had a great time in the woods with my son catching crawdads and wading the river.. I also refined the sleeping pad Im using for a framesheet, but thats something Ive been thinking about for a long time so it doesnt count for what I learned this weekend :)

I don't meet the criteria set out by the OP. I have not had a chance this year to take trips more than a long weekend on the trails. However, I will say that as for "do I actually use my gear…" the honest answer is: most of it. And most of what is extra is intentionally kept as loaner gear.

A lot of the time I spend camping is one-night trips, taking people who have never been before (or who have never enjoyed it). I love introducing people to the outdoors, and for better or for worse, part of doing that is usually having the gear available to make it enjoyable for them If that means there are extra 2# sleeping bags on the shelf, then so be it.

People who have never been backpacking don't have the gear that would make it enjoyable — 5# sleeping bags, Jansport daypacks and 6-person Coleman tents aren't meant to be carried up a mountain … not even the little 3000-4000-footers we have here in VA.

As for me, I'm still well in the learning process as far as simplifying gear. Living in the city, I don't have a yard for testing gear, so all tests must be on the trail, so I look at a lot of our trips out as a chance for testing equipment and refining setups that I hope to use soon for longer trips.

My wife and I also have a gap in our fitness/comfort levels that we are working on. I'm comfortable with less … and she is slowly moving that way (I'm proud of her), but when we met a little over three years ago, she had never slept in a tent before. So she's come a long way. We bought a tarp recently on the gear swap here, and are probably using Christmas as an excuse to buy bivies for one another.

As I've been simplifying, I've been doing what most people here do, and getting rid of extra/heavier gear. Three years ago, my only tent was a 9.5#, 4-person Kelty; that was replaced not long after by a pair of Mountain Hardwear 2-3 person tents in the 4-6# range when I found a good sale (need the extra space for taking friends).

Now we've got a Tarptent Double Rainbow, and are eventually hoping to have that and a tarp/bivy setup as our primary/secondary shelters. And so the camping shelf gets lighter and more functional over time… and gear either gets used or sold.

I agree with others that for many of us who don't have enough free time to spend on the trail (not nearly as much as we would like), gear talk helps us live on the trail in our minds, despite our bodies being trapped at home or at the office.

It also helps us be ready to go, so that when we do have a free week or weekend — or even just a weeknight where we don't have to be in early in the morning — we can take off without having to think too much about what we need: we have the "Go Box" ready and waiting.

Two 8 day trips in the Upper Kern Basin and Kaweah Basin this year. About par for the course the past few years. UL but not SUL. Base weight 9.3-10.3 depending on how late in the season I go in. Food is 19.3 oz/day, so I'm carrying less than 20# when I start. I don't do trip reports as a general rule. Only one to date, back in 2009, but I figured that was a trip worth sharing. I'm not much on the shorter trips, but will throw one in occasionally at the end of the season if I have enough left in the tank and the weather cooperates. Gettin' old, I guess.

Perhaps this should have been posted in the SUL forum, since it seems to be focused on SUL gear.

That said, I disagree with the initial premise that you don't "need" UL gear for a short trip, which I'll just take to mean that there's little benefit. Why not? Most of my trips are short, one-, two-, or three-nights, and a small, light setup works great. Even on short trips, it's much more comfortable to carry a lighter pack. Also, an UL setup is nice for short trips, because there's less of a barrier to entry.

What I like best about being UL is that I can turn any dayhike into an overnight if I just feel like I'm in the mood to stay out. It seems like one of the biggest risks when day hiking is spending an unexpected night outside. If your overnight pack only weighs 6 or 7 lbs, you can use that pack for any trip regardless of weight.

Overall, I don't really care about the length of a trip in terms or miles or consecutive nights, I just try to get as many nights out as possible, within the confines of my schedule. If I get out of work at 4:00pm and it's a nice evening, I might throw on my pack and hike two or three miles into the woods, wake up early and hike out, and be at work at 8am.

Tom,

I sure wish you would quit talking about the Upper Kern Basin. You are going to encourage more people to go there, and I think we should keep it to ourselves ;

I am pretty fortunate to get in a lot of trips of varying duration every year… and the past couple of years my tent trailer camping has suffered with a greater focus on BPing. But my wife is not liking that. I rarely take a camera or take pictures when I do hike. Just too much work. When I do a trip that my kids may enjoy or I would like them to keep for after I die, then I write them a story and usually post it here. Typically one per year… I don't want to bore them either… not too mention the BPL members.

You bet I do! I'm able to do more short – 2 night – hikes than longer, but got in one week long trip this summer. I use my light weight gear on all of them. I can't think of any reason not to!

"I sure wish you would quit talking about the Upper Kern Basin. You are going to encourage more people to go there, and I think we should keep it to ourselves ;"

That was my policy for many years, Nick, but I think the word has already gotten out. Of late I have observed with considerable consternation, maybe grief is a better word, an increase in visitors of the wrong kind. I have spent considerable time and effort cleaning up after them. Maybe I'm starting to think that a small influx of the right kind of people, like the good folks here on BPL, might be of benefit. Hopefully they would help with the clean up. In any case I don't think there will be a stampede, as there isn't any easy way in. As for me, I've had the place pretty much to myself for the majority of my 38 seasons down there and I guess I couldn't expect that to go on forever. If I were you, I'd make it a point to get back up there sometime soon. Things are changing fast, and the Upper Kern Basin isn't going to be the Upper Kern Basin you knew and loved much longer. To give you an idea of how far and fast the rot is spreading, I even found a mylar candy wrapper up in Kaweah Basin this year to go with a plastic ground cloth I found up there two years ago. It literally reduced me to tears. As I remarked to my partner, a devout Catholic, it was akin to pi$$ing in the Baptismal. He just shook his head and squeezed my shoulder. But, yeah, I understand what you are getting at.

I signed a pretty intense job contract that precluded getting out beyond a Sunday dayhike, it was a conscious choice.
In the process I gave nearly all my SUL stuff away to see that it got used.

Let's see…a total of five trips, twently days on the trails, about 150 miles all told. Most of those were in Yosemite, but we also hit Mono Creek out of Lake Edison, and Machu Picchu.

Do we have equipment we don't use? Yeah, but we keep it around because that way we can loan it to people like our daughter and future son in law, who joined us in Peru…

Dude – I even use mine to get away from the kids by going to the back yard. I use it to eat lunch at work, I use it to backpack, and believe it or not, I loan it and am teaching a class at my kids middle school focusing on the ten essentials, LNT, MYOG, and BPLing it.

"Hi, my name is Jason, and I am a BPL-a-holic!" Everyone say hi Jason!!!

Hi, Jason!
I was told that I must be the only guy on the planet to "get away to the backyard". That make two of us now… a 100% increase!
Used my MYOG woodgas stove to hold an alchy burner and rehydrate lunch at my old job. My new boss said "no" to the burner-on-the-desk-thing, but I do keep a 1.3 l ti pot at the office to make quick lunches on their gas stove.
Really? Some people DON'T use their gear? I don't own much gear but it does get out on weekends and gets used during the week at home. Either I'm using it or my sons are.
Now if I could only walk into the neighborhood thrift shop and find a UL courier bag made from dyneema gridstop with padded shoulder strap or maybe even one made from cuben for those daily bike commutes to the new job. THAT would make my life pretty much perfect!