Recently I decided to try my hand at hiking and camping after a twenty year hiatus. Now in my late 40’s, I actually brought a whole bunch of gear last year, but didn’t manage to pluck up the courage to actually use it until this week. Somehow I had brain lock about something I used to love. Not sure of the psychology behind that, but finally got out. This first trip was more of a test to check my gear, my knowledge, and my ‘old-age’ abilities. Turns out I’d forgotten a lot, but also remembered more.
This trip was to Round Valley, NJ. Quite civilized, not wilderness camping by any means, and at $17+ per night not a great deal, but it was nice enough (for reference I scoped out the sites, and 16, 26 38, and 54 are probably the nicest sites). Stayed two nights, with a 7 mile hike to the site on the first day, a 14 mile hike on the second, and then an easy 6 mile on the way out. I packed up my stuff and went to another site for the second night just to get the hang of things. Thought I’d share a few observations. Oh, and gear list here for anyone interested.
Trip Notes
- Weight: My base weight was 13.4lbs, but plenty of water and food for two nights knocked that up. Water in particular was a major weight factor, since each day I used 4 litres (hiking 1.5l, dinner/evening 1.5l, breakfast 1l). Seems like that’s a lot of extra weight to carry around. Is that typical, or do folks just tend to get to a place where there is filterable water?
- Hygiene: Not a real problem since only 2-nights, but what do others do about personal hygiene, cleaning up after a days hiking? I ran the ZPacks towel in some water and wiped down, which helped, but not a multi-day solution.
- Lunch: For this trip some pre-made sandwiches worked okay for both days. But longer trips this won’t work. What low prep lunches work well?
- Dehydrated meals: Surprisingly good. Pasta is odd and had something which stuck to my spook which was gross, but tasted good. Chicken Teryaki was better.
- Sleeping pad: I don’t recall ever having trouble sleeping before, but I could not catch a wink the first night. Perhaps just not used to sleeping on an air pad (Exped SynMat WinterLite), but I felt like I was continually sliding off. Not good. May need to re-evaluate sleeping pads. Maybe foam? Maybe need to change sleeping technique?! I did notice that letting some air out of the pad helped me stay put a little. Any other suggestions?
- Pot cozy: Made one from some insulating material. Excellent idea. Held the dehydrated meals upright whilst they were re-hydrating. Recommended.
Next Time
- Smores or evening treat: Would have been really nice to carry some light cookies, or evening treat. Nice morale booster, and makes for a nice night snack.
- Evening snipple: Just a shot would have been nice with the camp fire.
- More tea bags: Brought one per night, but for the weight should have taken more.
- Bear sling: I didn’t use a stove bag, really no point as it sits inside my pot. However, next time I’ll use it, and then use the bag filled with stoned/dirt as a weight for a bear sling. Tying a string around a rock was not onerous, but a sack would have made it easier. In hindsight, I could just use a spare zip-lock. What do others use to sling a rope over a branch?
- Sitting pad: Sitting on rocks became tedious way quick. Unfortunately my REI Flash 45 doesn’t have a removable back-rest that can be used as a pad. I ended up using the fly-sheet in a zPacks stuff sack. That worked okay, but need to get something better next time. Actually maybe just use my fleece layer inside the stuff sack.
- Pillow: The original idea was to use my Exped Schnozzle as a pillow. Put air in it, stuff it into my empty pacl, and use that combo as a pillow. Unfortunately the stupid thing doesn’t hold air very long, which is disappointing. May need to rethink bringing it. Although it was very nice not to have to blow up the bed-pad after 14 miles.
- Rubber band for bite valve: Okay. This was the biggest error on my trip. I use a Platypus Hoser bladder. It has a bite valve, with no closing mechanism. Given the failure of the Schnozel as a pillow, I just used my pack. Which had the bladder inside. That would have been fine, except at some point the pack sat on top of the bite valve and relased about a litre of water into the tent. A fact I discovered during my first sleepless night. So in the wee hours of the morning I was soaking up water with my awesome ZPacks towel. Not fun. So next time I’ll bend the bladder tube into a ‘z’ and use a rubber band to prevent accidental valve openings.
- ZPacks Towel: This thing deserves an award. It soaked up the pillow-escapade-water-event so well. It was used as a neck sunscreen with my hat. It served as a wash cloth, and a pot cleaner. By far the best bit of kit on the trip. Highly recommended.
- Hat clip: Hats are good for shade but suck for ventilation. Used the chest strap on my pack to hang my hat from when in shade, but a caribiner off the pack would have been better.
- Oatmeal: Turns out it’s not so bad. I used 1-cup oatmeal, 1-teaspoon sugar, and some dried blueberries. But 1 cup is probably too much. Next time 1/2 cup. That would save on water too.
- Smaller pot: I have a EverNew 0.9l Pasta Pot. Thing is too wide for my pack, and too big for the add-water meals. I’ll switch to an EverNew 650
Anyway, lots of random thoughts. Trip was fun, and I’ll be doing it again soon. Once I can work out where in NJ it’s actually legal to wilderness camp. Thoughts and input welcomed.
