fuck a bivy bag, unless you’re going to be spending nights above treeline and you don’t want to haul a tent.
fuckin steamboxes
I have a SOL Escape Lite Bivy, and it’s not really good for anything other than not dying if you get lost on the trail over night.
I had one, and I used it for a night of summer lowland camping. Then I returned it to REI whence it came.
I have a Sierra Designs backcountry bivy for when I want to take a lighter setup. I run a tarp for protection against wind and rain when necessary. Often will hang a line from a tree to the toggle near my face region which keeps the mesh off my face at night–similar to how people wear a baseball cap to keep some space between face and mesh. It’s done the job, certainly isn’t as comfy/cozy as my double wall single person tent, but will keep the insects at bay.
I’ve spent over a hundred nights in bivy bags and I love them. I use them about 75% of the time, and I’ve used four different ones over the last 6 years or so. Here’s what I love:
-Perfect drunk shelter. Lie down on the ground and go to sleep.
-Very warm in mid-winter, and shoulder seasons
-No setup
-No setup
-No lines to guy out
-No stakes to put in the ground
-No setup
-Small packed size
-No setup
-The right bivy is fine in even torrential rain if you set up in the right spot with some tree cover.
-Really fun in the snow. Build a mini-snow cave!
I’m really lazy in the woods, except when it comes to firebuilding in which case I’m fucking Bill Gates. But when it comes to shelters I really loathe hanging, tying, tightening, etc.
Things I don’t like about bivy bags:
-Unusable above 60ºF, too hot
-You have to really invest or they don’t breathe. Baseline is 3L Gore-Tex, eVent, Neoshell, or similar. Mountain Hardwear Dry-Q doesn’t breathe enough.
-I’m claustrophilic, I love sleeping in an enclosed space. But if you’re even slightly claustrophobic, you won’t like sleeping in a bivy. Kelley is very adventurous and not claustrophobic and she just can’t do bivy bags, even though she wanted to.
The Outdoor Research ones are the best and the warranty is right. I’ve been abusing one for like three years now. If you want one Straws, PM me because I get a discount and I can hook you up (I can’t hook everyone up or they’ll catch on).
I’ve got that one too, and I did like it, but went for a tarp tent on the Tour Aotearoa and really wonder if I could have coped with my bivvy for getting my shit in order when prepping to sleep and get up. Having that room was great. * Protrail model Tarp tent.
Oh yeah, I should add that a bivy sucks for anything longer than 3 days. Longest trip I did with it was like 5? And I couldn’t dry my clothes. The longer a trip, the more precious a vestibule.
My Six Moon tent weighs less and packs smaller than my tarp + bivy setup so that was the end of that. Plus I can sit up, change clothes, hang out, etc.
[quote=mdilthey]Gonna push my all-time favorite tire again: http://teravail.com/tires/cannonball
Small Block 8’s were fun for mixed cruising, but they flatted easy for me. Never had them tubeless.[/quote]
510 grams? Are they made out of actual cannonballs?
Decided to try hammocklife on my trip this weekend for the first time. My cheap silver-x Eno hammock increases my sleeping gear weight by 25% but hoping it’s more comfortable than sleeping on the ground. Also shouldn’t care about weight since I am bringing my Alite camp chair
My Dad took me camping when I was 12 and I think that’s the last time he went. But he walked into an EMS and dropped $89 on an Alite and he uses it almost every single day. He looks for excuses to go places where there’s no chairs just to use it.
I know a dude who backpacks the Cascades with an Alite. Takes it everywhere, and is frequently laughing at us as we sit on the ground.
yeah, it’s a great chair. Here’s my favorite Alite experience:
It was on my last big trip, 10 days, 500 miles in the Cascades with Wesbarf and a couple other friends. My pre-dad celebration trip. Every night, I would unfurl my alite and post up with my beer and gloat over my dirt-dwelling buddies. I certainly enjoyed that experience.
On night four, we were settling in for our layover day at the Olallie Lakes basin. We were setting up a huge fire and I begin my nightly Alite routine and settle into it exclaiming how comfortable it is. Typical Doug.
Just then the pole snaps at the joint and I fall on my ass in the dirt in front of everyone. Absolute perfection! I ended up carrying the broken chair for the remaining four days up and down every fucking mountain pass.
To the brand’s credit they sent me free replacement poles that have been redesigned to eliminate the stress riser.
Also, my wife had one. Her first trip with it was the tandem trip we took in Canada and the San Juans. The first day she got it to use the wind blew it into the campfire and melted it to destruction. Also delightful because she used mine for the rest of the trip.
To be honest, this is the single best piece of camping gear that I own and it was a joke in my camp crew that I always carried a sit pad, until I got them all one for christmas, and now I own like four and they all have them too.
In this crue only mine is a cut up old foam sleeping pad from boy scouts 25 years ago. Gets used for gardening too.
In the messenger world a butt pad is standard gear. Stash it in your bag as extra back padding but the main purpose is so you can have a comfy place to sit on a wet wall or steps.
Just impulse bought one for the second time (I bought and returned one two years ago). Damn it I wish I could find my scraps from when I cut my foam sleeping pad down to size. $15 for this thing?!
I have one of these that I’ve had since I was like 10 years old:
I’ve never regretted not bringing a piece of gear more than I did on my NOLS trip as I sat in the fucking dirt every night for a goddamned month straight.
I bent the hell out of an Alite chair one time, admitted to them that I was probably 10 pounds over their weight limit, and they still repaired the frame for me. Cool folks.
Just picked up the lightest version of the Alite chair with two legs, I can’t tell if its comfortable or not comfortable since it distracts you with the fun game of balancing.