Obviously when backpacking all cooking is done outside. The number one challenge with outdoor cooking is windy conditions. Although this post will focus on the modifications I made to our Camp Chef Pro 60 stove, the same principles apply to backpacking stoves.
Yesterday I wrote about the Best Camping Chair Ever.
Today I’ll take a look at some of my favorite backpacking chairs.
“Wait a minute,” you may be thinking and you will probably want to point out I consistently
Advocate taking the lightest gear possible to stay warm, dry, and safe. This mindset would preclude anything not absolutely necessary and such things as a backpacking chair are superfluous extra weight.
It happened. My faithful dedicated backpacking watch, my Timex Expedition Resin Combo died. I wrote about this watch a few years ago in this backpacking watch dissertation that provided a lot of mostly useless information that for some reason does interest people seeing more than 2,000 people have bothered to read it.
This watch was a little over 6 years old. It lived a good life and is survived by a ‘70s military watch and an original ‘80s Swiss Army Watch. No services will be held and it will be interned at the Riverside County landfill on Edom Hill.
No autopsy was performed. It is an inexpensive timepiece and when a new battery failed to revive the heartbeat of its digital/analog innards, no one was interested in repairing or bringing it back to life – the victim of a throwaway item in a throwaway society.
Over the past week or so there has been a firestorm on a popular Internet backpacking forum due to a gear review by a well know blogger, who posted a link in the forum to the review on his blog. What the gear review did not include was a disclosure that the blogger has a relationship with the manufacturer of the item being reviewed, and he is “sponsored” by the manufacturer. Of course, no one knows the conditions of the sponsorship, but many felt an ethical review should include a statement revealing if the gear was purchased for full price, was obtained at a discount, or was given to the blogger for free.
About three years ago, in The Business of Backpacking, I warned people about gear reviews that might have a bias when the reviewer has a relationship with the manufacturer…
Keep in mind that there are Reviewers, Ambassadors, and Sponsored hikers with integrity who write unbiased gear reviews. It is up to you to determine who is who.
Ethically, gear reviewers should disclose any consumer/manufacturer relationship and apparently there is even a Federal Trade Commission regulation requiring this disclosure, even for reviews on a personal blog. To be honest, the FTC has over-stepped its bounds. More precisely, there should be no FTC, it should be abolished and replaced with personal accountability requiring consumers to think.
You may have read about my preference for the inexpensive Timex Expedition as my go to backpacking watch.
It occurred to me recently that my Timex won’t survive the impending climate change global melt-down, so a gear search was in order, because I know the Government supported climate scientists, who get more and more money proportional to how bad a picture they can paint about climate change can’t be wrong. And in the tradition of the new wave of modern technology focused backpackers, I want gear that will survive the Apocalypse, even if I will be vaporized in a mere nano second. Gear must survive, even if I don’t.
I found the watch I need! The HM6 ‘Space Pirate’ watch from MB&F. What initially drew me to this particular watch is the retractable shield that protects the watch from copious amounts of severe UV radiation.
Continue reading Best Backpacking Watch to Protect You From the Impending Climate Change Apocalypse