Loot

I guess we're only halfway through but I'm pretty excited about this month's gear purchases so I thought I'd kick things off a bit early: Massdrop x Dan Durston X-Mid 1P Tent I love my Lunar Solo and used it exclusively for the entire 2019 season but the X-Mid's simpler setup (four stakes in a rectangle) and double-wall-ness (better condensation management and summer stargazing) were intriguing enough to me to overlook the fact that it requires two trekking poles. From experience I'll always carry at least one trekking pole in case of injury but custom carbon fiber tent poles are [...]

Person B and I purchased a cabin near Lake Cle Elum (just east of Snoqualmie Pass and the Central Cascades and PCT in central Washington State) a couple months ago so I've been pretty heads-down with home improvement stuff. So, this month I'm not-so-proudly presenting the saddest Loot! post yet with only a single, lonely (but potentially very important) purchase: Salomon XA Pro 3D Wide After giving up on flimsy Altra trail runners due to their lack of cushion and uselessness off trail I've been rocking Oboz Sawtooth Low hiking shoes for the entire 2019 season and I've really enjoyed [...]

Now that I'm not out and about every weekend I've had time to do some research and make some late-season purchases. Unfortunately due to early snow in Washington I don't know whether I'll be able to really put this stuff through the paces until next year but here's hoping: Kuhl Airspeed Long-Sleeve Button-Down Shirt Paul Magnanti's recent Northern New Mexico Loop summary mentioned his love of cotton-blend thrift store hiking shirts. I was raised in a strict "cotton kills" household so I've always written off cotton blends as lifestyle wear with no practical application. His writing inspired me to re-evaluate [...]

Hoo boy! Every quarter or so I like to browse around the various ultralight gear vendors and see what's new. This time I bought a bunch of stuff from Litesmith to help shave some grams off of my upcoming Enchantments trip. Without further ado: Nylofume pack liner (not pictured because it's a clear bag) 28g | $2.49 | 12g saved | 4.8g/$ I'm currently using the Gossamer Gear pack liners which, in addition to being made out of polyethylene, are a penny dearer and 12g heavier. I have no complaints about the GG liners but wanted to see if nylofume [...]

Another month, another giant pile of crap in the mail as I try out new things. Here's what's cooking: Instant Thai Tea I don't recall where I heard about this but apparently you can get instant Thai tea packets off of Amazon. Now that I'm back on the cooking wagon I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting drink mixes and this one seems like a winner. Testing it out at home it tastes great but doesn't mix well in cold water (the label says to use hot water so this isn't exactly a surprise). Update: took this out [...]

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 [...]

Left: new cap. Right: ye olde cappe. On April 2nd I received an email from CNOC Outdoors saying that they were now offering tethered replacement caps for pre-2019 Vectos. 2 dollars and 6 days later I'm pleased to announce that my replacement has arrived. In addition to the tether you'll note that the threads appear to be much deeper and that the ribbed closure on the outside of the cap is also deeper and more widely spaced. The new cap weighs 4g whereas the old cap is 2g. Don't know how much more there is to say about a cap, [...]

Q1 was huge for upgrades! I'm now at the point where the only thing I'm unhappy with is my pillow, the Sea to Summit Aeros ultralight. I'm thinking I might just eat the weight and volume penalty and pick up a small foam pillow, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. First, let's start with things I have yet to try out: Picked up a Gossamer Gear shoulder strap pocket. It only comes in size large and it's, well, large. Much bigger than is needed for my phone, and it looks silly on my Osprey Levity's skinny [...]

Person B and I went on a bit of an ultralight shopping spree, here's what we picked up: Gossamer Gear Joshua Tree Mini Lip Balm (4g) replaces my Sun Bum SPF30 Mango (11g)Acurite 00316 Digital Window Thermometer (34g). Provides a 24 hour min/max temperature which should help me correlate gear and comfort with overnight conditions (previously I was checking my watch, which I hung from a loop at the top of the tent, whenever I woke up but I don't feel that that's representative of actual outside temperatures)Gossamer Gear Warm Sak (22g), Person B's new pot cozyGossamer Gear Long-Handle Bamboo [...]

After I got the chills on a Lila Lake backpack using my Mountain Hardwear Down Flip sleeping bag I decided it was time for an upgrade. Well, that time has come: I picked up a Sierra Designs Backcountry Quilt! This is my first quilt - I've been meaning to give them a whirl for a while and this particular one is EN rated (because it has a hood) and oversized so I think it'll be a good introduction. I've been looking for a beanie upgrade - I'm currently using a Smartwool Merino 150 beanie which is as thin as thin can [...]