Gear Envy

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 Yesterday I wrote about how I stole my sons Thermarest I bought for him.  Now that I am comfortable with taking his gear (OK, he didn't want it in the first place), I was thinking about getting a Thermarest trekker chair.  This is kind of like a sock thing with some straps that converts your Thermarest into a seat.  Then the straps help fold the thing into a backrest and a bottom.  Then when you go to bed you just take your Thermarest out of the trekker chair and sleep on it.  A real nice way to get more functions out of one piece of equipment.  The only thing is after backpacking all day, setting up camp, and cooking dinner you want to sit and relax a little.  You might even want to sit while cooking dinner.  Well this trekker is nice but you are just sitting on the ground.

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This past weekend while backpacking we get to camp around 5ish and set up tents then my buddy Paul pulls out this NRS roll-A-stool.  Now lots of kids bring small stools and chairs to sit on and they all do an OK job but usually weigh more than they are worth.  I just sit on Julian (my Thermarest) and relax.  This NRS roll-a-stool is unique because it has extremely light weight legs, stands 18" and has a 14" seat.  So it is light, has a comfortable seat size, and the right height to keep your legs from cramping.  I instantly had gear envy and have been scouring the Internet to find one.  Come to find out I was searching three legged stool and I should have been looking for roll-a-stool.  I finally had to break down and ask Paul where he got it and he told me www.campmor.com where they run about 30 bucks.  A great website but still 30 bucks is a bit pricey to just buy without searching for a coupon or a discount.  I am so full of gear envy though, this stool is absolutely high quality and fits the backpacking parameters perfect.  Now the cherry on the top was Paul showing us how fast his Jet Boil stove works while sitting on his roll-a-stool.  I think that is about half the fun of camping, is seeing all the cool gear others bring and use so a little gear envy is good.

Julian and I

I bought this Thermarest for my son.  He has one of those military ground pads that are maybe one step better than sleeping on the ground.  Well as it turns out he loves that military ground pad and he lets me use "Julian." 

As everyone knows I am always looking for a deal and when camping I always use my cot.  Now that I am getting older and carrying more crap in my backpack I had to shed some pounds which resulted in my cot.  This past weekend while we were backpacking McGee Creek in Oklahoma I brought Julian on her maiden voyage. 

I am usually willing to sacrifice a name brand for price any day but when it comes to ground pads I stick to what I know.  That either means Ridgerest or Thermarest (OK, so then there are the military ones).  The reason is that first I had my Ridgerest as a kid for seven years with no issues and it worked great.  Then the reason for Thermarest is they have a lifetime warranty and you can replace and repair them.  My dad had replaced the air valve twice on his and it looked like a porcupine slept on it because all of the repair patches.  The thing is it still worked and it was nice.

I am not sure what model Julian is but she is at least a regular thickness and definitely a long because I am six foot tall and she is a couple of inches longer than I.  Now I have been wanting to buy a Thermarest for at least five years now and what has held me back was the price.  These things run from a low of 69 bucks up to 150 bucks and that is alot of green in my world. 

One day I was scrounging around the corners of my local Army and Navy outlet store.  Looking for some interesting used military stuff for my son.  He loves anything of old military that is still useful.  These Army and Navy stores rotate their stock often and get great items for cheap.  I bet after we start winding down these wars there will be a surplus store on every corner but, back to the story at hand.  While searching the dollar bin at the Army and Navy store I come across this used Thermarest behind the table.  I asked the gentleman how much it was and he did not know.  So he asked the manager and come to find out they wanted 15 bucks for it.  Now that is a great price but since this thing looked like they did not know what they had and I am diabetic and keeping every dollar in my back pocket is not just a goal it is a way of diabetes life.  I offered them 10 bucks for it and they could not have said yes any faster.  This was a true win-win situation.  Now of course you can see in the pictures why I refer to her as "Julian."  The previous owner or someone had written Julian on it in black permanent Sharpe.  So now lets hear all the jokes, such as yes I sleep on Julian at night, and yes I have to blow Julian up to use her.  Ha, Ha and oh how easy these jokes go on and on but, at night I know I have the best ground pad on the market at one of the best prices ever.

Here is the money shot of Pete the Chicken eating dog food right out of the dog bowl.  I figured out what my problem is when trying to photograph her.  She is scared of the flash on the camera.  We have a routine now where the dogs go out in the morning to do their business.  Then the dogs sit and watch Pete-vision and that is when I know to let them in.  Last I let Pete the Chicken out and now she runs over to the dog bowl to see if any food is left then she hits the water bowl.  She loves those dogs, only if they would stop trying to eat her when they are both out at the same time.

Duct Tape

OK, lets just keep the comments to a minimum.  I know I wear whitie-tighties and If I were any paler I would be a ghost.  So anyway last weekend we did a weekend backpacking trip at McGee creek.  Yes, I know I was just there a couple of months ago.  The gentleman in charge of this trip wanted something familiar and close, since I did not volunteer to lead this trip so I was supportive and assisted the leader on the trip.  Good leaders need good followers.

Recently I have been having a little bit of a rub on my waist belt while hiking.  I am trying to figure out if  it is the belt on my pants getting in the way, or am I packing too much, or could I just be a wuss and should man up and stop crying about it.  This weekend the rub was real bad and once I put my leg in a two foot deep mud hole I decided to tape the hot spot (I had to change my pants anyways).  How you tape a hot spot is you get some duct tape and just put it over any area you see redness or feels tender to the touch.  You can do this with any part of your body from your toes to your mouth.

Now, everyone is saying "what does the duct tape do?"  What the duct tape does is takes away a point or spot of friction and replaces it with something that glides and creates a barrier just like oil in your engine.  I wore this duct tape the entire weekend and now I have a beautiful red circle where the duct tape was not and it is nice a white where the duct tape was placed.  With diabetes any ulcer or sore can prove to be dangerous (lets just remember back to my foot and the foot warmer) so when on the trail we need to do small adjustments so that we don't have big problems down the road.  My hip hurt a little the rest of the trip but did not get out of hand.

My next step is to asses the situation of why is this happening now.  Could it be my waist belt needs adjusting or I need to re-think how I pack my backpack and where the weight goes, maybe my pack is not the right size for me and I need to think about a replacement.  Any way a weekend backpacking trip will help you prepare for those week long or longer trips.  Every Backpacker should have duct tape in their emergency kit.  I would also recommend a small sewing kit.  I was once backpacking and one of my friends shoes had a blow out and lucky someone stuck a sewing kit in their bag.  That was a life saver and the trip was rescued because of a small needle and thread.

Last, I am sorry to say but Pete the Chicken was too fast for me this morning and all I got were butt pictures and blurry running pictures.  I still want to get a photo of her chowing down on dog food.  It cracks me up everytime.