Over the past year I have put a lot of time into designing and making my own lightweight backpacking gear. I recently took a 2.5-day trip using many Make Your Own Gear (MYOG) items to cover 60 miles in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The trip began in my head nearly a month before the first trail day. I usually start by pondering what I want to accomplish. This might be something like explore a new backcountry area, set a new daily distance record, achieve a new lower base weight, take fantastic pictures, test out new gear, or try out a new technique. The objective for this trip would be to see a new region of the Great Smoky Mountains using my own MYOG big three (shelter, sleeping bag, and pack). After several canceled trips because of work, I finally had firm dates of May 5 through 7, 2010.
# WORDS: 3430
# PHOTOS: 14
Member Exclusive
A Premium or Unlimited Membership* is required to view the rest of this article.
* A Basic Membership is required to view Member Q&A events
Discussion
Become a member to post in the forums.
It would be good to get these items on measured drawings, for MYOG!! It really looks like a winner.
We can't always get the hightech materials over here, but even with "middletech" textiles, this would be good stuff!
Thomas, Norway (just west of Sweden ;-)
Nice write up Jaime. I've done parts of that hike in winter and summer. One of the best in the park. Good job!
id love to see how the gear will work in some more hostile mountains … like rockies or cascades scrambling …
Become a member to post in the forums.