Comments on: Brief Gear Reviews

By: Chris Lowe

Chris Lowe — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:22:56 +0000

I”ve tried a hammock in the past. I sleep on my side and found it wasn”t as natural feeling as sleeping on a flat surface. On the other hand being up off the ground means no hard ground to sleep on and no rock sticking you in the side. Somehow I always managed to slide off my sleeping pad and find a rock. Would like to try a Big Agnes bag that has a sleeve for a pad – seems like it would be a good fit for a hammock. When in doubt, buy the Hennessey at REI and you can return it if you don”t like it.

By: AlexWetmore

AlexWetmore — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:26:33 +0000

Kelty did fine in light rain, but we haven”t tried heavy rain with it. It’’s a pretty standard design (the fly isn”t on in that photo) so it should work fine.

The JetBoil PCS isn”t too tippy, but I have the support legs from a GCS which I usually use with it. They clip onto the bottom of the fuel tank. It’’s fine with the little PCS pot, but not really ideal with larger pots like the GCS one.

I toss and turn a bit while sleeping and haven”t had trouble with that in the hammock. I think it’’s good to borrow one before buying though. I was also unconvinced and borrowed a hammock from a friend before purchasing my own.

By: Jimmy Livengood

Jimmy Livengood — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:52:53 +0000

How does the Kelty do in the rain? How is the Jetboil PCS for stability- it looks tall and tippy in pictures. One thing I like about that Primus stove is the serrations on the pot supports. With my MSR Whisperlite pots are always sliding around whenever you touch them, which can get dangerous with boiling water.

We added a cutting board to our camping kit a year ago or so (just a round piece of acrylic that fits in a pot) -I don”t know how we got along without it before.

Do you move around a bunch when sleeping? That’’s been my only reservation about trying a hammock, well that and relying on having trees.

By: AlexWetmore

AlexWetmore — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:57:59 +0000

The JetBoil is awesome. It is what got me back into carrying a stove while camping. Previously I was using a Whisperlite and later home-made alcohol stoves. Both worked fine, but were a pain to operate so I rarely used them. The JetBoil is really simple, you just pull the stove out of the pot and put it under the pot and press a button to light. The fuel canister and stove stay attached. It is very efficient with fuel too, on last summer’’s bike tour 2 fuel cylinders lasted 5 days for 3 of us. That was with us cooking at every breakfast and dinner.

Ti pots are nice, but I”m currently in the market for a larger pot for car and maybe kayak camping so I don”t really need the light weight. It’’s a lot of extra money to pay. I might just end up buying a cheap kitchen pot and cutting off the handle and using a pot lifter.

alex

By: mike

mike — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:39:21 +0000

Ahh, and for camping pots, I”ve had good success with the SnowPeak gear. I have a solo kit and a larger set. Yeah, its Ti, but so is my bike.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:37:42 +0000

Thanks for the reviews. I”m a fan of the Trangia for cooking solo, and I have a jet engine whisperlite for group camping. I just started using a Hennesy. Love it – not sure about their undercover system – I”ll probably make a diy quilt system for mine – but I”ve been comfy down to 30 or so with just a thin pad and good clothing choices.

Do you like the Jetboil?