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Showing posts with the label Backpacking

Review: Using a Cheap Down Sleeping Bag as a Liner for Extreme Cold Weather Camping

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My quest to find a comfortable sleep system for restless side sleepers who want to go camping in the cold continues.  How's that for a hyper-specific target audience?  I am publishing this post for the dozens (probably?) of others out there like me who are not served by the mass-market reviews of gear because we have unique needs that our sleeping bags must meet that are usually overlooked.  We flop around like a fish out of water.  We spread our arms like outriggers on a Polynesian canoe.  We spread our legs like, um, never mind, that one.  My point is, bags that are critically acclaimed in reviews and ratings, don't work for me. Quilts have been my salvation for most trips.  See my review of the Enlightened Equipment Revelation and Zenbivy Light Bed for details.  However, the comfort of these solutions starts to become problematic as the mercury drops below freezing.  My latest attempt to solve this problem is to get an inexpensive, lightweight rectangular sleeping bag to u
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Review: Omnicore Multi-Down Mummy -10F Sleeping Bag

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The quest to find my perfect back-country sleep system continues.  I think this is officially part 3 of the series.  The Enlightened Equipment Revelation quilt remains my primary "bag" but I need a supplement for sub-freezing weather.   After striking out with the Zenbivy Light Bed , I went in the opposite direction and got something relatively inexpensive, the Omnicore Designs Multi-down Mummy -10F sleeping bag .  While this bag is a mummy bag, the shape looked roomier than the typical backpacking mummy bag. My Expectations Based on the specs, I had high hopes for this bag.  We'll start with the price.  At $130 it is slotted in between the cheap car-camping bags that weigh 6+ lbs and the expensive name-brand bags.  It achieves some of the cost savings by using a combination of down and synthetic insulation.  The result is a bag with a -10F rating that weighs a little over 4lbs.  While that isn't super light, it is acceptable for a cold weather bag.  I take the -10F
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Review: ZenBivy LightBed

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This is part 2 of my series on cold weather backpacking sleeping gear.  Part 1 reviewed the Enlightened Equipment Revelation quilt that I have been using for the past six years that I have been happy with but struggles to keep me warm when temperatures drop below freezing.  This week I am relating my impressions of the Zenbivy Light Bed 10 degree sleep system that I recently tried out.   There are plenty of reviews on this Zenbivy bed out there, and I read a bunch of them, but none of them had any info about the performance as it would relate to me as a side sleeper who tosses who rolls over many times a night.  I'm going to rectify that here and now! I have Facebook algorithms to thank for introducing me to ZenBivy.  Ads for their sleep system started showing up in my feed.  Relentlessly.  I checked them out initially and quickly dismissed them due to price.  As I started searching for a better sub-freezing option this Fall, I revisited them.  I really liked some of their design
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Review: Enlightened Equipment Revelation 0 Degree Quilt

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  In an effort to lean into my strengths, I'm starting a short series covering my experiences with assorted backcountry sleeping gear.  I've been putting readers to sleep for more than a year with this blog, so I consider myself well qualified to weigh in on the subject 😜.   For years I struggled to get a good night's sleep when out camping or backpacking.  I can't really pinpoint exactly when it started, but at some point I became a side sleeper and that ruined everything.  Side sleeping is now fully entrenched and I cannot go to sleep on my back no matter how hard I try.  This is a real pain for camping as most sleeping bags are mummy style and designed for sleeping on your back with your legs together and arms at your sides.  There is no room for rolling over or stretching out, both of which I need to sleep well. About 6 years ago as my kids were getting old enough to go camping and backpacking and all of us were ramping up our involvement in scouting, I decided to
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Backpack Counterpoint: Teton Sports Explorer 85L

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  Once again, I find myself with an unpopular opinion and feel the need to create a post explaining why everyone else is wrong 😁.  This time it is regarding design trends in backpacking packs.  It seems ultralighters are in control of the market and pack designers are catering to their wants and desires, or rather singular desire for extreme low weight and nothing else and ignoring the functionality rest of us would like in a pack.  This all came to a head a few months ago when I decided I needed a larger pack for some of my trips after struggling to fit all the gear and food needed for a 3-day weekend trip with my family in my 65L Osprey Atmos AG.  I struggled to find a new pack with the features I wanted.  Almost all of the options out there are just big sausage tubes with no external pockets or organization. For example, this Hyperlite 85L pack weighs only 2.7lbs but has almost no functionality or convenience features:     Every major pack brand apparently aspires to this target an
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What does a post-growth society look like?

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  A recent article in The Morning newsletter from the New York Times rekindled a smoldering ember of thought that resides in a corner of my mind.  It has never burned hot enough to inspire me to serious study on the subject, but this time it has at least motivated me enough to write about it.  The topic is growth; how our society and economy are dependent on it, why I think that is problematic, and how it can change.  My thoughts on this subject are not well formed at this time and, unusually for Wisdumb, I offer no answers, only more questions. The Times article covered the aging population of Japan and showed the chart below projecting other major economies and the world as a whole being on the brink of a rapidly aging populous. The article primarily focused on the social impacts of this aging population, in particular that Japan is running out of workers.  It posits the only solution is to bring in more immigrants.  This is what bothers me and stokes that ember in the back of my min
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Dolphin S200 Pool Cleaning Robot Drive Motor Repair

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 I've spent the past two weeks doing battle with my pool cleaning robot and want to share what I've learned so others can fix their own if they run into the same problem. My robot is a Maytronics Dolphin S200.  The internals are probably very similar or identical to other models, and I think there are even rebranded versions, so the details below likely apply to a fair amount of the population.  These robots are pretty expensive to buy, but they are, in my opinion, the best way to clean my pool.  My pool is surrounded by pine trees and they are always dropping stuff in the water, so I keep my robot in the pool and it runs daily on its timer with little intervention from me and uses much, much less electricity than my previous pressure-side pool cleaner. Rant on Robot Manufacturer Greed There is a lot of markup on these robots.  The S200 I got for $600 in 2017 (and its equivalents) now sell for more than $1000.  The exact same design.  No new technology in it.  No new R&D to
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Car Shopping in 2023: The Exciting Conclusion!

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  If you recall my August post on starting a car search, I presented a list of requirements that I wanted my new car to meet.  If you don't recall, go ahead and reread it.  I'll wait.  I had to do that to remember what I wrote as I can't remember what happened yesterday, much less four months ago! As expected, I had to compromise on some of my requirements.  After test driving most of the cars on my list of options, I ended up buying a 2018 Nissan Pathfinder Platinum, shown here after hauling a bunch of scouts up to Vermont for a backpacking trip just hours after I drove it off the lot.   Incidentally, this photo has an easter egg for a future backpacking product review. Now that I have had the car for a month or so, let's check out the score card and see how I did: Good Highway Gas Mileage (7 out of 10) Reliability (7 out of 10) Good towing capacity (10 out of 10) Cargo Capacity  >40 preferred. (10 out of 10) Wireless Android Auto (3 out of 10) Heated and Ventilate
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