Boots or Shoes?

In my last blog I mentioned that due to my busy schedule I've been really inactive the last couple months. Well, that wasn't entirely true. I've been writing steadily for The Mountain Blog at Mountaingear.com, and I wanted to share one of the stories I wrote last month on some of the benefits of switching to shoes from boots. Check it out!

http://www.mountaingear.com/themountainblog/2013/06/boot-or-shoe-whats-for-you/

Gear Review: Solo Stove

Cooking with the Solo Stove

I find the idea of a wood burning stove very appealing. Maybe because it feels like it brings me closer to the wilderness travelers of yesteryear, cooking as they did... I think fire in general can conjure up those primal feelings in people, and in a way, that's also why we hike. To connect not only with nature, but our past as well. 

You can bet this nostalgic affection for fire played a part in my impulse purchase of the Solo Stove a couple months back. The notion of cooking over an open flame compelled it. I pictured myself, not just a backpacker, but a mountain man... I know, that's really stretching it, but I'm feeling very romantic as I write this.

The stainless steel Solo Stove (according to Solo Stove) is a "natural convection inverted downgas gasifier stove". The double wall design "channels" air through the intakes at the bottom to the fire box, and sends warm air up between the walls, and out smaller holes on the top, and back into the fire box. I know, it all sounds very technical for a wood stove, but what it all means is that it burns and heats very efficiently. 

The Solo Stove is two pieces, the stove, and a removable cooking ring. The ring flips upside-down and fits inside the stove for easy storage. The whole thing is very solid, and seems to be built really well, all thanks to what Solo Stove calls "one piece construction". Which basically means that the stove is built from a very few solid pieces of stainless steel, with the smallest amount of welds and seams as possible. It makes for a very durable piece of equipment.

For a stove, I guess you could say that its big when compared to a canister or alcohol stove, but keep in mind, with the Solo Stove you don't need to carry fuel. That was a big selling point for me. The idea that I not only don't need to carry fuel, but I don't have to worry about running out of fuel either. The Solo Stove will burn just about anything too, especially after its lit. A lot of my hiking is done in the Sonoran Desert here in Arizona, and I found that cactus wood burned just as well as wood from a tree. The firebox in the Solo Stove gets so hot, that just about anything that fits inside will burn.

The Solo Stove is supposedly designed to fit in most cook pots for easy storage. Since I only own one pot, my Solo Stove rode in my GSI Pinnacle Soloist pot, and it was a perfect fit. Although I would recommend against using this pot, as the large flames from the Solo Stove has the potential to melt the plastic lid and rubber coated handle of the Pinnacle Soloist pot. What I did was just adjust the position of the pot on the stove if I saw a flame getting too close. I didn't have any melting, but the orange rubber coating on the handle did turn black in places.

Firing up the Solo Stove is really easy. First, collect some wood and/or other organic materials from around your camp. You need a lot less than you think. To start it, I found the best way is to take off the cooking ring, place a layer of small sticks on the grate, and place your tinder on the sticks. Once the tinder is lit, put the cooking ring back on, and start feeding it smaller sticks. If you have fire building experience, this process will be quick and easy. Once you have a good flame, place your pot on the cooking ring. From here on out, its just a matter of feeding the stove to reach a boil, but you have to pay attention. The Solo Stove is not a stove you can light and walk away from. It needs to be fed. The firebox gets so hot, that neglecting the stove even for a couple of minutes can result in the fire going out because the wood inside has burned up. At the opposite end, overfeeding the stove can smother it, but once you have it figured out, keeping the fire burning is easy. My first use with the Solo Stove, I reached a boil in 5 minutes. I have cooked for 2 with no problem, and have sustained a boil easily for 15 minutes... All using fuel that I found on the forest floor. 

That is really the best thing about this stove. Its easy. Its simple. Its minimalist.  No mechanical, or electrical parts. No gas lines or fuel cans. In short, nothing that could fail, because as Murphy's Law states, "what can go wrong, will go wrong", and when you're in camp after a long day on the trail, you want your stove to work.

Not that everything is perfect with the Solo Stove. For starters, its relatively heavy at 9 ounces. For me, the weight is fine, but for the ultralight crowd, its probably too heavy. Clean-up can be a pain too. You'll have soot build up at the bottom of your pot that will need to be cleaned before you pack up (unless you want soot in your pack). I would recommend carrying a small camp towel for this purpose. Since its an open flame, you wont be able to use it in some places (like Glacier National Park for example) that don't allows fires in the backcountry. There may be some places in the backcountry where you just cant find any fuel. I don't know where those places are, but I'm sure they exist. Finally, in a very wet environment  you will probably have difficulty with this stove just like you would building a fire. To what extent I don't know, since all my tests were in dry conditions (I live the desert remember?).

Overall this as badass little stove. Its easy, simple, efficient, and fun to use, and will work excellent for your backcountry cooking needs.

Solo Stove set-up. You need a pile of small sticks... And notice no smoke coming from the stove.

Lost and Found

Last July I went hiking with my friend James near the Mogollon Rim in Arizona. He took me to a really secluded spot; to this pretty little creek that flowed at the bottom of a dark, rocky gully. We found a perfect little swimming hole, and since the temperature was hovering around 100 degrees we decided to take a dip. I stripped off all my clothes except the shorts portion of my convertible pants, and jumped in. When I got out, after a very refreshing swim, I noticed I couldn't find my knife. I knew I had it, because I always carry it, not just into the wilderness, but everyday around town as well. After an extensive search I concluded that I must have jumped into the water with the knife in my pocket, and it came loose from my pocket and sank to the bottom. I vowed to return with snorkeling equipment.

Benchmade 530 serrated Knife

Normally I probably wouldn't have fretted too much, but this was no ordinary knife. This was a Benchmade 530. The nicest knife that I ever owned. I bought it at REI a couple years back with my dividends for around $90.00, and I love it, at least about as much as a person can love an inanimate object. It's just so perfect for backpacking and as an everyday knife. At only 1.8 oz it's so light you don't even notice it's there - hence, why I jumped in the pool with it in my pocket. It's super sharp too, and the locking mechanism is so easy and fluid...

Anyway, for the last couple months I've been really brooding about that knife. I fantasized regularly about buying snorkeling gear or some type of high-powered underwater magnet so I could go find it. I've reached for it, absentmindedly, only to find my pocket empty. I prepared myself never to see it again.

Fast forward to yesterday. I pick-up a couple stray articles of clothing from the closet floor to do laundry, and what do I find sitting on the floor of my closet under a pair of shorts? My dang knife! I couldn't believe it. I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Don't ask me how it got there because I have no idea. But I sure am glad I got my knife back. Woohoo!

The swimming hole where I thought I lost it.

Budget Gear Review: Suisse Sport Adventurer 30 Sleeping Bag

The Suisse Sport Adventurer is a 30 degree synthetic sleeping bag that the manufacturer describes as "ultra-compactable". I purchased this bag really as an impulse buy due to my obsession with gear, because frankly, I didn't need it. I had been eye-balling it on Amazon.com for a couple years, drawn to it's relatively light weight, supposed compactability, and low price. Somehow it wound up in my "Shopping Cart", and before I knew it, it was at my front door. I actually purchased this bag for $40.0 about a year ago, and I know that it's been as low as $30.0, though currently  (on Amazon) you can only buy it from a third party seller at $79.99. After reading this review, if you're still interested in purchasing this bag, hold out until it's sold by Amazon, as I'm sure the price will drop. Or shop around the web, I'll bet you can find it for a lower price than what it is currently listed on Amazon.

Suisse Sport Adventurer 30

The Suisse Sport Adventurer is a plain looking bag. Nothing fancy. No bells and whistles. The first thing I noticed about this bag when I pulled it out of the stuff sack, was how flat it looked. It doesn't have much loft. After feeling the bag, it seems that there is just one long thin layer of MicroTekk insulation (which Suisse Sport describes as "down like"), sewn into the bag.  

It makes for a very light sleeping bag for the price. On my scale the bag weighed 46.2oz (2lb 8.8oz), and the compression sack weighed 3.4oz, for a grand total of 49.6oz (3lb 1.6oz). Now, that wont be considered "ultra-light" but it's not bad for 30 or 40 bucks. The best part about this sleeping bag is how compactable it is. In the provided compression sack you can get the bag down pretty small, and won't have any problem stuffing this thing into your backpack.

This is the part where I go against the grain. If you look on Amazon this bag has an overall 4 star rating out of 458 reviews. That's a a whole lot of good reviews by people that bought this bag, and I imagine most of that has to do with the price.

The first night I used this bag I ran into 2 problems, and they have been plaguing me ever since to the point that I have decided I am not going to use this sleeping bag any longer.

1) Cheap zipper - It's stiff, and it snags worse than any zipper I've ever used. In fact every time I've used this bag the zipper has snagged. "Pay attention when you zip up the bag" you might be saying. Well, I do, and it doesn't do any good. It is a source of constant frustration.

Compressed in the stuff sack.

2) Narrow cut - I am a broad shouldered man. Not big by any means, just wide shouldered. I've never had a problem fitting in a sleeping bag, until now. The first night I could barely zip the bag up passed my shoulders. I struggled and squirmed and fought with the zipper until I finally got it zipped all the way up. Boy was it uncomfortable. My hands and arms had virtually no freedom of movement, and I had to sleep with them pinned to my body. I actually felt like a mummy. Well, this same night after I somehow managed to fall asleep despite how uncomfortable I was, I awoke in the middle of the night cold. After feeling around in the dark as best I could, I discovered why. The zipper had actually split, and from my shoulders down to my waist were actually protruding from the bag, exposed to the chilly night air. Oh, the actual slider body was still clasped in place, but the teeth had somehow came apart. I had actually burst out of the bag! Then of course I had to squirm my way out, find my headlamp, and fix it, which was a total pain in the ass. 

Since then I quit trying to zip it up all the way, afraid that I would burst out again in the middle of the night. Luckily it was summer in low country, so with a baselayer on I slept okay. Until my last backpacking trip to the White Mountains in north/east Arizona, where the temps can drop into the 30's and 40's at night in summer. The second night of that trip I awoke cold, and decided to zip the bag up all the way. After all, for a sleeping bag to perform to it's temperature rating (in this case 30 degrees) it has to be used properly. While trying to zip it passed my shoulders the zipper snagged, and it snagged so bad that I couldn't get it unstuck. Finally I lost my patience, and slept exposed from my shoulders up. Luckily my girlfriend was next to me (sound asleep in my good sleeping bag) to share some body heat, or I would have been even colder than I was.

Which brings me to the 30 degree temperature rating. I couldn't accurately test it because I couldn't get the zipper passed my shoulders. But I will say other than the Whites, where the temperature dropped into the 40's, I slept warm, even with my arms and shoulders exposed.

Lastly I want to comment on the quality of this bag, and that is to say that there's not much of it... Quality I mean. Other than the piece of junk zipper, I can see stitching coming out in various places already (especially around the zipper), and I've only used it 5 or 6 times. The compression sack it comes with is already splitting at the seams, despite my gentle treatment.

Bottom Line: If you are broad shouldered do not buy this sleeping bag. For everyone else - As long as you can get it for under $50, it may be worth buying as a back-up, or a loaner, but personally I would not trust it for your main 3 season sleeping bag, and I doubt it will stand up to prolonged use.

Gear Review: Therma-a-Rest Z-Lite Sleeping Pad

Therm-a-Rest Z Lite

This foam mattress is one of the most popular sleeping pads for ultra-lite backpackers, and for good reason, it only weighs a scant 14 ounces. I bought this last year while planning my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, which I had to cancel do to a back injury (see I Wake Up ). I wanted something to sleep on that I didn't have to blow up every night, and wouldn't ever go flat. Other than the weight, that's the best thing about this pad. You reach your campsite for the night, unstrap it from your pack, toss it in the tent, and you are done. You don't even need a tent either. Set the pad on the ground, it won't damage it in any way. Need a chair to sit by the fire? Fold it up, it works great. It's durable with multiple uses, and compared to the inflatable pads, it's very inexpensive, just 39.95 on Amazon.

The problem is that the ultra-lite weight comes with a catch. The first, and most obvious, is that it's bulky. Unless you have a really big pack, you'll have to strap this to the outside, which in itself presents a new problem, how to protect it from the rain. Therm-a-Rest does not sell a stuff sack sized for the Z-Lite, so you'll have to either find one that fits, or make one yourself if you want to go that route. The other option is to buy an over-sized pack cover, or a poncho that will cover both you and the pack. Even if it get's wet, in my experience it did not soak or retain any moisture, so wiping it down with a camp towel or a piece of clothing could work too.

My biggest issue with this pad is comfort. Through my youth and even as recently as last summer, I slept on the bare ground while out in the wilderness. Hard ground never bothered me. As I've gotten older however my sleeping style has shifted to more of a side posture, which is just fine in a bed. On the ground or the Z-Lite however, I've found myself waking up in the middle of the night in pain or with a dead arm, which sucks. On my back or stomach I sleep fine. Ground selection is something to really consider when using this pad. Unlike the Big Agnes Air Core, you don't want to lay the Z-Lite on hard or rocky ground, because you'll feel it in the middle of the night.

I can't really comment on the insulating qualities. I've mostly used this pad in Arizona in Spring and Summer where the nights rarely get below 50. I used it for a 5 day 50 mile trek around the Seven Devils in Idaho last August, and with my North Face Orion 20, I never slept cold into the 40's.

Summary: 

If you don't mind trading comfort for light-weight simplicity then I would recommend the Therm-a-Rest Z Lite. It's easy, durable, and you don't have to worry about it going flat in the middle of the night. I've read plenty of cases where this pad lasted an entire 2,000 mile-plus thru-hike. But if you're a side sleeper, or need the comfort of a soft bed, then you may want to reconsider.

Hells Canyon Wilderness with my cousin Jesse. Z-Lite strapped to my backpack.