Tent Results

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/220 sec, ISO200
 “Cozy” Cedar Park, 2019

Well, the test of the new tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad went well! The temperature dropped to the low 50s but I was nice and warm in the Marmot Trestles 15 sleeping bag. In fact, I was asleep only a few minutes after crawling in. 😊

I’m planning on heading back out to Big Bend National Park next month so I want to see how everything works: setting up the tent, seeing how much space I have in the tent with the pack inside with me, how the zippers/cinch strings on the mummy tent work, etc. After the dry run, I think I have everything worked out, at least for down to 50 degrees. This coming week a cold front will arrive so perhaps I will try out the sleeping bag in colder weather. We’ll see!

またね～

Camping Dry Run

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/20 sec, ISO6400
 “Curious Dog” Cedar Park, 2019

I’ll be testing out the new tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad tonight out on the backyard deck. Temperatures should be getting down to the low 50s so not too extreme. Can’t wait! Lani is interested too, but I’m gonna guess she’ll prefer to be inside the warm house. 😆 🐶 ⛺

Updated Backpacking Kit

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/17 sec, ISO3200
 “Packed Up” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。How’s it going?

So I’ve been organizing my backpack kit a bit more, and focusing on weight so that the hiking is as comfortable as possible. It’s definitely not an ultralight kit, but I think it is a reasonable combination of cost, comfort, and weight. It works out to be a ~21 lb. base-weight, which is not too heavy.

It seems that there’s a point (differs from person-to-person) where the price of the ultralight gear takes off and it becomes too expensive, especially for someone who doesn’t camp/backpack often. For a through-hiker who is spending months on the trail, every ounce saved is very important so they are more willing to spend the money to save weight. But for me, I fall somewhere in the middle. There are always chances to save weight in the future as the wallet allows. 😊

I made a spreadsheet in Google Sheets to track all my camping gear, but I also have my stuff on Lighterpack.com which makes it easy to swap pieces of gear and create lists for each trip, scenario, or however you want to group your gear together. It’s really convenient! I’ve embedded my “Solo Pack” below: