Bare Boxer Contender 101 Bear Canister
First off, I picked up a Bare Boxer Contender 101 bear canister for about $70. It’s a little over half the weight of the Backpacker’s Cache (707g vs. 1238g) because it’s much smaller – it only holds up to 3 days of food for one person. Fortunately I do lots of 1-2 night trips on the Olympic coast where hard-sided canisters are required so this actually made a lot of sense for an upgrade. Unfortunately, the locking mechanism is pretty annoying – instead of the circular devices having a slot which fits any coin you have two divots which expose the ends of a rocker switch. Pushing down into the correct hole moves the switch into the unlocked position which then allows you to pivot the device, moving a large hunk of metal underneath the lid out of the way of the rim. The problem is that the metal used seems like a soft aluminum and just using the nail file/screwdriver on my Swiss Army Classic SD deforms it pretty significantly. After just two nights on the coast the edges of the divots were shredded. The divots are also shallow which doesn’t give a lot of purchase for turning them. Finally, unlike the Backpacker’s Cache there’s no button or other way to easily open up the lid once it’s unlocked – half the time I had to turn the canister upside-down and shake it to get the lid to come out. For the weight savings it’s tolerable but I wish they’d just release a half-sized Backpacker’s Cache with the good ol’ easy to use locking mechanism.
Well, that was more of a mini-review than I intended but I guess it’ll just make the long-term review at the end of the year that much easier.
Shoe Goo Shoe Repair Adhesive
Next up: Shoe Goo. My Oboz Sawtooth Lows (no link since Oboz changed up their website, grr) are starting to lose one of the toe caps, and I hear Shoe Goo is the way to go to get that sucker secured in place again. I’ll keep you posted…
Neewer Photo Studio Kit
Detouring into photography, I picked up a Neewer photo studio kit and I couldn’t be happier. A white, black, and green background cloth with hanger, reflectors, and adjustable lights (and more) for about $150 is an absolute steal. I went from taking super-sad product photos on my coffee table to making professional-looking photos like this one:
That’s hot!
GSI Outdoors Spoon
I’ve been unhappy with my Gossamer Gear bamboo spoon for a while now. It’s got a pitted texture, doesn’t feel good in your mouth, gets (and stays) dirty easily, and the spoon part is too shallow and narrow – I spend just as much time spilling and re-scooping food than I do eating it. So, I picked up a GSI outdoors spoon for a whopping 75 cents and saved myself 3 grams in the process. Sure, it’s about an inch and a half shorter, but the bowl is wide and deep and I like the texture a lot more.
Powdered Peanut Butter and Freeze Dried Berries
I picked up some powdered peanut butter and freeze-dried berries to add a little something extra to my breakfast cereals. Got a chance to try it out on a two-nighter this past weekend and dang, that is a serious improvement. I actually think I need to cut back on the amount of cereal I’m packing since I get a little too stuffed in the mornings…
Tifosi Seek Brown Lens Sunglasses
After driving across the state for a family thing I ended up with the same kind of headache I get when I get too much sunlight in my eyes when I’m out hiking. I thought, that’s weird, I have my sunglasses on in the car, what could have caused it? Turns out that my hiking sunglasses (Tifosi Seek FC with gray lenses) are photochromic – they darken in response to UV light – but the glass in cars blocks out the kind of UV that the glasses need so they don’t work! Or, at least they’re letting in about 50% of the light as opposed to the usual 15%. So, I picked up the same pair I already have but in a fixed-VLT brown lens. Much better. They’re only for driving, but I thought this was worth mentioning since I have to drive multiple hours to get to most of the trailheads I’m interested in.
AlpineAire 7-day Variety Box of Dehydrated Backpacking Dinners
Got myself an AlpineAire 7-day variety box of backpacking dinners. After borrowing one from Person B I really enjoyed it so I’m hoping to try out all of the flavors.
Coppertone Sport Clear SPF30 Sunscreen
I’d recently heard about clear sunscreen and as a person who has apparently never learned to properly rub in sunscreen I thought this would be worth looking into in order to save myself some embarrassment. After some research I came across Coppertone Sport Clear SPF30 which should be arriving tomorrow just in time to test out this weekend at the coast.