Brian's Hiking and Backpacking Blog

The L'Equip Dehydrator

2010-03-14T14:14:00.000-05:00

For Christmas this year I got a L'Equip 528 6-tray Dehydrator. I had been wanting to buy a dehydrator for a very long time but could never quite make my mind up on what make or model to buy. Based on the reviews and recommendations of Sarah and Philip I bit the bullet and bought the L'Equip 528 and can honestly say that I haven't regretted it. Sarah has a great article on her website title Dehydrating 101 and I would highly recommend you check it out, I know I learned a lot from reading it.

The L’Equip dehydrator is top of the line and comes with a 12-year manufacturers warranty, yet it’s very affordable (mine was $120 shipped from Amazon). It’s extremely easy to use, consisting of a base that contains an electric fan and heating element, and 6 plastic trays with liners. It's also pretty darn quiet which is very important as you begin to use it more and more.

Other than an on/off switch the only other control is a temperature adjustment that goes from 93 to 158 (F) - that's it! Here are the specifications:

550-watt dehydrator for drying food, flowers, and herbs
Adjustable thermostat with computer-controlled sensor
6 stacking trays for a total of 12 square feet of drying space
Instructional booklet with recipes and drying times included
Measures 17 by 11-4/5 by 10-1/2 inches; 12-year limited warranty

I recently made a full batch of jerky using lean ground beef. I prefer to use ground beef instead of a prime cut because it's much easier to marinate and mix, plus the resulting jerky is much easier to chew on because it breaks up in your mouth with a lot less effort. I also like the fact that I can use my jerky gun to extrude the ground beef mixture directly onto the trays in an even width, that makes it very fast and much, much easier to package after the beef is dried.

For this batch I used 4lbs of lean ground beef and added the following ingredients:

2 Teaspoons onion powder
2 Teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 Teaspoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste
8 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
8 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoon ketchup
4 Teaspoons kosher salt

I mixed the beef and all the ingredients in a large glass bowl, then cover it with plastic wrap and left it to refrigerate/marinate for four hours. After it had marinated I spooned the mixture into my jerk gun and began squeezing out lengths of the mixture directly onto the trays of the dehydrator using the fine mesh liners. The 4lb mixture almost perfectly filled the six trays that came with the dehydrator - lucky guess!

I ran the dehydrator for 6 hours at 125 degrees, then began periodically checking on the consistency of the beef to test if it was ready. I was looking for a firm but not fully brittle consistency. It took a total of 6 hours and 45 mins to get to the point where it was perfect. By the way, that was over six hours of the entire downstairs of my house smelling like beef jerky - yumm!

The final result was nearly forty 11" strips of delicious beef jerky that had a combined weight of 1 1/2 lbs. That may not sound like a lot, but it a heck of a lot of beef jerky! If you have any suggestions on different flavors or seasonings to try I'd love to hear from you.

The Sky's the Limit!

2010-03-04T15:31:00.000-05:00

I would like to share some news of my recent partnership with the OpenSky Project, an online community of shopkeepers. OpenSky is full of people like me who are passionate about their specific areas of interest and provide you with their "expert" opinion on items you may be looking to purchase.

This is just a sneak peak for now as there are only 3 items in my store at this time, but I have requested many more items that are being sourced as we speak. Through my new store, I get to recommend and offer things I personally use and can't do without. This is not just another online store selling whatever is currently popular. Each of the items in my store have been hand-picked by me as trail-tested pieces of gear that I feel comfortable recommending to others. I'm being pretty picky about what goes there as you can imagine. If I am going to endorse it, I gotta' love it.

OpenSky takes care of all of the sourcing and shipping through their extensive resources and vendor partnerships. I simply pick the items that I personally recommend and they go and find them - no substitutions. Of course I make a small percentage of the sale by doing so and use that to pay for my backpacking (habit) purchases so that I can continue to review and test gear to blog about for you.

Stay tuned for an official store launch announcement once I have completed setting up my store. If you want to check it out right now you can get to it here: Sneak Peak

I look forward to bringing you the best gear possible and hope that you find the reviews and recommendations useful.

The Gen2 StickPic

2010-02-22T19:34:00.003-05:00

A little while ago I wrote a brief review of StickPic and even created a video review of the same. Since that time the developers of this nifty little gadget (Rod and David) have been hard at work thinking of ways to improve on their original concept - no easy task after hitting a home run first time round. But in my opinion, after comparing the two versions, they have managed to make the StickPic even better!

Above is a photo showing my original StickPic on the right and the new and improved StickPic on the left. Other than the more clearly defined engraved logo you may not easily notice any of the other changes. Here are the changes that make the StickPic even better:

The hole that was precisely drilled to match the size of your trekking pole has now been given a very slight taper which improves the "wedging" of the StickPic on the end of the pole
The manufacturers now have a new machine shop producing the StickPic so the overall quality and fit and finish has been improved
As I already mentioned above, the logo is now deeply machine engraved into each StickPic instead of it being individually hand stamped using a metal die. The result is clear to see and beside being more durable it looks much more professional
By far the biggest improvement on this Gen2 version is the new eight-star locking nut which allows you to securely fasten the StickPic to your camera even when you're wearing gloves in the winter time (See photo below)

I had never experienced any problems with the original version of the locking nut, but have to say that the new shape really is much better when you have gloves on. If you haven't already checked out the StickPic for yourself, give it a try.

Update: This blog post is now featured on the Evolution of the StickPic Page.

Freezer Bag Cooking Vol I

2010-02-04T15:58:00.003-05:00

Like most of you ultralight backpackers, my trail cooking habits and methods have evolved to the point where I can carry a small amount of food yet still eat pretty well with minimal effort and equipment. For me, at this point in time, that usually means simple meals that I can easily re-hydration on the trail by heating up some water on my stove aka Freezer Bag Cooking.

Freezer bag cooking is a method for creating simple, yet delicious, meals by adding hot (boiling) water to dry ingredients that are usually in some form of plastic bag and allowing the time for the whole mixture to rehydrate and form your ready-to-eat meal.

The benefits of only having to boil a few cups of water to create a healthy, hot, and comforting meal are too numerous to list here, but some obvious ones would be less cooking time, less weight (dried food is much lighter), less fuel needed if I'm only boiling water, and much easier cleanup.

I've tried the pre-packaged freeze-dried meals that you can buy at most camping retailers, and for the most part they are easy to rehydrate and pretty tasty. What I don't like about them is the insanely high amount of sodium that they contain. Given that most of the freeze-dried packages are actually two portions and not a single serving, this is bad news if you're used to heating up a whole package and eating it.

For quite some time I've been packaging up my own dry ingredients so that I can control exactly what goes into each meal and make sure that I use more appropriate portion sizes. The results have been good and adequate to satisfy my hunger, but I wouldn't necessarily say my meals have been exactly "tasty" - bland would be more accurate. That's where my new book comes in...

For Christmas this year I was given a copy of Sarah Kirkconnell's excellent book on Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Easy. Sarah has been hiking and backpacking since she was a small girl and has extensive experience and expertise in this area. She created the first website dedicated to sharing her expertise and recipes (www.freezerbagcooking.com) which has since evolved into www.trailcooking.com - a comprehensive website providing all sorts of background and information about the subject as well as hundreds of unique recipes by her and submitted by readers. But, the book contains lots of recipes that you can't find on her website, and it's full of additional information like types of ingredients, gear selection, tools, and techniques.

The book is laid out very well and broken into sections for the main meal types; breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. I especially like that Sarah has chosen to discuss in detail the concerns that we all have around ingredients that are bad for us in excess; sodium and MSG for example. This is where the book really shines for me and it becomes clear that the contents and recipes within this book have obviously come from her own experiences through the years and her trial and error in developing things that work and discussing the things that didn't work. That sort of knowledge is not only hard to find, it's impossible to put a price on.

I've read the book cover to cover a few times now, but have only had time to try out a few of the recipes. Among my favorites so far are:

Cinnamon and Sugar Couscous
Fruit and Nut Breakfast Couscous
Cranberry Chicken Rice (you have to try this!)
Four Cheese Hamburger Rice

I recently splurged and bought myself a L'Equip food dehydrator (I totally blame Sarah and Philip for this) so that I can create my own dry ingredients and really begin to expand my home-made freezer bag cooking meal options. I'll being doing a review of the L'Equip later, but I'm excited at the opportunities I now have by combining the recipes from Sarah's book and the ability to create my own dry ingredients.

Even if you do not intent to use a dehydrator, I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. I learned a lot of new things from reading the first few pages and the recipes alone are worth the purchase. At only $15 it's a great book and a great price!

Great online gear deals

2010-02-02T15:46:00.004-05:00

I'm always on the lookout for good deals on backpacking and outdoor gear. Here are a few good current deals that you may be interested in.

Altrec.com: Winter clearance sale - Up to 60% off
Altrec Outlet: Save up to 70% off
Camsaver.com: Free ground shipping on orders over $50
Moosejaw: Free shipping on ANY order that includes a MJ brand item of $5 or more
REI-Outlet.com: Save up to 60% on outdoor gear and apparel

My Updated Trail Cooking System

2010-01-25T14:40:00.002-05:00

Back in April of last year, I wrote about my alcohol stove trail cooking system and the individual components that it comprises of. Since then I have been seriously rethinking how I cook while on the trail and the types of foods I tend to cook. My intent was to refine my system such that I could make some of the larger items serve double duty and thus extend my options and potentially reduce unnecessary weight.

One such consideration was the type of pot I carried and how I use my pot for cooking. Until now I had almost always used a stove of some kind, either a Snow Peak Giga Power stove or one of my many alcohol stoves. However, I had recently had very good success with my home-made Billy can and wanted to see if I could incorporate that type of simpler cooking into my overall system.

What I really liked about my home-made Billy can was the flexibility it afforded me so that I could cook in multiple ways such as; on top of a stove, pushed into the side of a burning or smoldering camp fire, and even hanging above a camp fire on a tripod. Being able to use my pot without the dependency of a stove or a particular fuel seemed very appealing, liberating, and somewhat more Green and trail friendly.

After a lot of online research into Billy cans, kettles, and lidded pots with handles, I settled on an Open Country 4-quart pot. I also closely considered the Zebra 14cm stainless steel pot from Ben's Backwoods, and the REI Ti Ware Nonstick Titanium Pot, but when I saw the Open Country 4-quart on sale at REI.com for $8.00 I had to get it (free shipping to the store, so I ordered two!).

What I liked about the Open Country pot (beside the price) was its size and weight. It has a 4-quart capacity which is easily big enough for two or more people to boil water or even do some slower cooking and being made of kitchen grade aluminum it weighs only 16 ounces with the lid. I also like its simplicity, a basic pot with a nice sturdy handle, a nice fitting lid that has a loop attached to lift it up easily. The handle has a neat feature that let's it snap in the upright position and at approximately 45 degrees on both sides, which is better than it flopping all over the place. A feature it was missing that I had on my previous GSI Soloist pot lid and have seen on other more expensive pots were drain holes in the lid that let you pour off excess water/liquid without you burning your fingers or having your food fall out onto the forest floor. This particular pot lid didn't have them, but with the aid of my pillar drill I quickly added some!

So here is my complete trail cooking system that all neatly goes inside my Open Country 4-quart pot. As you can see I am still carrying my Bud-Lite alcohol stove, primer pan, and wire mesh pot stand (which I remade to the width of my new pot) as my basic stove kit. I have the same windscreen, measuring cup and cleaning up sponge as I had before, but I have added an aluminum pot lifter and a Sea-To-Summit X-Mug to replace the cup that came with my Soloist kit. The X-Mug folds up flat and doubles as my water/liquid measuring cup. If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the measuring increments on the inside.

The new pot has definitely added some weight to my overall cooking system, but for that trade-off I am gaining the ability to cook in almost any situation and make hot water over a camp fire using my pot and a few branches as a tripod. I can carry alcohol (fuel) for my Bud-Lite stove and use it that way, but if I run out or spill it I can still use my pot and the rest of the system. To me that's a weight trade off I can live with.
I've yet to make a Reflectix pot cozy for my new pot, but when I do I'll turn that into a post to share here.

So, have you ever tried cooking over an open camp fire with your pot or are you a die-hard stove junkie? If you have, what was your experience like and what type of pot do/did you use?

Bud-Lite Alcohol Stove Raffle!

2010-01-19T09:48:00.003-05:00

Another month means another stove giveaway! This month instead of a Black-Ops soda can stove it's going to be one of my home-made Bud-Lite alcohol stoves. This is the stove that I carry with me all the time on backpacking trips and day hikes. It's reliable, efficient, almost indestructible, and super light weight. Note: the primer pan shown in this photo is NOT included, just the stove.

I make these myself using a one-ton arbor press that I have in my garage. It's my version of the well known Minibull BIOS stove - and as always, full credit is given to Tinny at MiniBullDesign for coming up with the original design. They're made from aluminum beer bottles and created from a single piece by inverting the walls. Below is a photo of my garage work bench showing my arbor press and a Bud-Lite stove about to be formed using the upper mold.

Okay, I'd like to keep these raffles really easy from now on. So to enter, leave a comment below listing, all of the following:

The make and model of your current backpacking/hiking stove
The type of pot you carry and why
Why you'd like to win a Bud-Lite alcohol stove

At the end of January, I will use Random.org to pick a winner from the list of people who've left complete comments (only one entry per person, please).

Update: And the winner selected by random.org is!

Nick
Adriftatsea
Dokument
Duncan

Congratulations to Nick (I'll be in touch via e-mail) and thanks to everyone else who left a comment.

Reusable Ultralight D-Ring

2010-01-15T09:20:00.000-05:00

A while back Jason Klass created a video showing how to add an ultralight D-ring to your pack using a nylon cable tie. I've used Jason's technique for quite some time with great success but I've always been disappointed when I've had to occasionally move/remove the cable tie for various reasons and didn't have another one handy to replace it.

I could just carry a few spare nylon ties around with me as part of my kit and that would probably solve the problem, but instead I went looking for an alternative solution to see if I could find something similarly light-weight but with better options for reuse. To my surprise I found what I was looking for within the aviation industry, proof that you have to keep your eyes open for opportunities outside of where you would think to normally look.

I discovered that A&P (airframe & powerplant) mechanics have been using little cable rings to keep their keys and other small tools neatly organized for a long time. They are made from very strong stainless steel aviation cable with brass screws and barrels. Searching online I was able to find a supplier of these nifty little cables (CountyComm) and ordered a few to test them out myself. They make for very handy and secure key chains too!

CountyComm stocks them in two lengths 6" and 12", I ordered the smaller 6" version which would be more than adequate for my needs. The 6" cable weighs a mere 0.125oz, probably a lot more than a nylon zip tie which my weighing scales were unable to detect!

Xmas backpacking goodies

2010-01-12T15:49:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share with you all some of the very cool backpacking and hiking related gear goodies that I received this year as Christmas presents from my family. Most of these were on my list of ideas as very specific items, but a few were well considered surprises. My family rocks!

Black Diamond Orbit Lantern
Super light weight lantern that kicks out a lot of light but doesn't weigh you downdown. It uses a 1-watt LED with frosted globe to create a bright, non-glaring light. You can even adjust the brightness with the built in dimming switch by holding down the on/off button to activate the dimmer.

It uses a collapsible design to save space in your pack and it also protects the on/off button from accidental activation. There's a clever double-hook hanging system on top that provides a simple and secure thread-through or clip-in attachment point for string, fabric loops or even branches. Small rubber feet stabilize the lantern when set on table or ground.

The part I like best is that it runs on 4 AAA batteries and is also compatible with the Black Diamond NRG2 rechargeable battery kit, sold separately. It weighs in at only 4.4 ounces and costs under $30.

Gerber Tempo LED Flashlight
I love this compact, lightweight LED flashlight by Gerber. It's small enough to carry anytime, anywhere. The compact size allows it to stow easily in a jacket pocket, backpack or on a key ring so that you have a light when you need it most.

It runs on a single AAA battery (that is included!) and provides up to 3.5 hrs of run time. The single LED throws a bright, white beam up to 30 ft. The body is made from hard anodized aluminum and is built pretty tough. I really like the operation and simplicity of the rear on/off button. Weighing in at 1oz with battery and costing just $10, this is a great alternative to those expensive LED flashlights.

REI Chefware Long Spoon
I've been looking for a longer spoon to be able to reach deep into those dehydrated food bags or my freezer bags for a while. The REI Chefware long spoon fitted the bill perfectly so I put it on my wish list.

It measures 8.5 inches and is made from durable Acetal plastic that's BPA free and dishwasher safe. A great deal for $2.00 and weighing just 0.5 ounce

Coghland's Water-Proof Matches

Approximately 45 wooden matches to each pocket size box. Ideal for all those damp and bad weather conditions. These are still safety matches that cannot light accidentally. They need to be struck on waterproof striker surface on the edge of each box.

These are great little matches but I still prefer my home-made waterproof matches because they're made using Strike Anywhere matches so I don't have to carry around a piece of specific striker material.

Several places have stopped stocking these matches so you may have a little trouble finding them. My local REI store no longer sells them (not sure why), but if you search online you can probably find then for sale at a reasonable price. if you have time, I'd recommend trying to make your own :)

Adventure Medical Kits Heatsheets Blanket

This may be an emergency survival blanket, but I can see all kinds of other uses for it. How about an ultralight ground cloth, tent footprint or tarp? I've had several of the common Mylar space blankets over the years and have tried to get some use out of them, but they are just too fragile and tear too easily and usually ends up just sitting there doing nothing in my pack - extra weight/bulk.

As I said, I usually carry a standard Mylar space blanket (now replaced by this version) in most of my packs for emergency purposes, but I like to carry gear that can perform double duty wherever possible. The fact that this blanket is more robust than a standard space blanket and can be used as a folded sheet to provide a dry place to sit down or cook on greatly appeals to me. My blanket weighs a mere 2.5 ounces, measures 86 x 54 inches and costs about $4.50.

Sea-To-Summit X-Mug

This was something that wasn't on my wish list, but I'm really glad I got one. The X-Mug is a flexible food-grade silicone container that has very clever collapsible side walls allowing it to be squashed down to a slender 0.5 inch thick package that takes up very little space in your pack.

The silicone walls and base can withstand both hot and cold liquids. It has a very handy harder plastic rim that provides good stability of the top edge so that it maintains its form when filled.

At first I didn't notice, but the inside of the mug has measurement markings for fluid ounces and cups, with the full mug holding exactly 2 cups of liquid - BTW 2 cups of liquid is commonly the amount needed to rehydrate those freeze dried food packs. Very handy. Dishwasher safe, weights just 2.4 ounces and costs about $10.

North Carolina Trees and Wildflowers: An Introduction to Familiar Species

I've been looking for a simple guide to the trees and flowers of North Carolina for quite some time, but have typically run into larger more comprehensive books that I definitely wouldn't want to carry around in my pack - especially for multi-day hikes. This pocket-sized folding guide is small, lightweight and laminated to make it extremely durable.

It's written by James Kavanagh and beautifully illustrated by Raymond Leung in full color. It measures 8.25" x 22" and folds to approximately 8.25" x 4". I have the North Carolina specific version but it's available for most states and comes in three variations; Trees & Wildflowers, Birds, and Wildlife Species.

I also like that the guide provides measurements given for the average height of each of the trees and plants and only costs $6.

Geomate.jr Update Kit

2010-01-03T14:06:00.000-05:00

Well today I finally got round to updating our Apisphere Geomate.jr using the very cool little updating cable kit. The kit is a separate purchase and costs around $25 depending where you buy it from.

When I purchased our Geomate.jr several months ago it was running the firmware that was pre-installed from the factory, so all of the geocaches were current as of that time (April 2009). As new caches are being added every day we were potentially missing out on new opportunities to get outside and go "treasure hunting" with the kids. So we wanted to be able to stay as current as possible. The caches are updated using the latest Geocaching.com database.

The updating process is extremely simple (I'll explain the only glitch I experienced a bit later). You go to the Geomate update website (www.mygeomate.com/updates/), download and install their update program, plug in the cable, connect your Geomate.jr and click on the large 'Update' button on the screen - that's it! When I plugged in my Geomate.jr it was running firmware version V1002 RE X2 and database version DB USA All 4/19/2009. After the update (which took about 2 minutes) I was running firmware version V1004 RE X2 and database version DB USA All 1/3/2010.

The instructions for the updating process are very clear and easy to follow. the download and installation of the Apisphere updating software went exactly as described. The only glitch that I experienced was when I first came to plug in the Geomate.jr device and click on the 'Update' button. The browser based software showed an error message saying:

The Geomate.jr detection failed.
Unit Firmware: Unknown firmware version.
Unit Database: Unknown database version

Guessing that the installation of the cable itself was the issue, I rebooted the computer and tried again. It recognized the cable and the Geomate.jr as soon as they were plugged in and the update process worked perfectly, taking about 2 mins to complete from start to finish. I think this was more of a failure of the Windows XP plug-n-play operating system than it was of the Geomate software/cable. Overall I was very impressed and pleased at how easy the update was to perform. If you have a Geomate.jr then I would definitely recommend that you get the update kit if you haven't already - well worth the money :)

And the winner is...

2010-01-01T22:04:00.001-05:00

The winner of my first alcohol stove give-away contest as selected using Random.org is... Russ! I'll have another monthly contest starting in a few days and anyone currently subscribed will be eligible. Not sure if it will be another Black-Ops soda can stove, or a Bud-Lite stove, or something completely different - but it will be free and there will be a winner.

Happy New Year to everyone and many thanks to all of you who entered the drawing and subscribed to my humble little blog. I plan to make 2010 a very exciting year for my hiking and backpacking, so stay tuned.

Three Days Left: Alcohol Stove Giveaway!

2009-12-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder to everyone that the deadline for the first of my monthly alcohol stove giveaways is just three days away (December 31st). As this is the first drawing I might include a special little something, but can't decide what just yet. To qualify for the free monthly draw all you need to do is any one of the following:

Subscribe to my blog via e-mail (see also the link in top right corner just under my profile)
Subscribe to my blog feed via RSS
Follow my blog using your own Blogger account (what is following?)
Follow my blog using NetworkedBlogs

At the end of each month, I will put all of the names of my blog subscribers/followers into a single list and use Random.org to pick a winner. I'll announce the winner after each drawing and even ship the stove for free. There's no need to enter the draw twice. I'll include existing subscribers into each subsequent draw, so that everyone continues to have a chance at winning until the very last drawing. All decisions are final.

As always, full credit is given toTinny at MiniBullDesign for coming up with the original stove design, for teaching us all how to make stoves for ourselves, for leading the way in light weight stove design, and for continually innovating!

Good luck everyone!

Stone Mountain, GA - Family Day Hiking

2009-12-03T13:12:00.000-05:00

This past Veteran's Day, we spent a long weekend in Atlanta, GA. We had never visited Atlanta as a family before and with such great combo deals on accommodation and tickets to local attractions we could hardly pass up the opportunity. We chose to spend time at two local attractions that interested us most; Stone Mountain and the Atlanta Aquarium. We had a blast at both places and I thought I'd share some of our pictures and video from our first day's trip to Stone Mountain, GA.

We stayed at a local motel right outside of the Stone Mountain Park and could easily see the mountain from our motel room, which isn't surprising as it's the world’s largest piece of exposed granite. We knew that the first full day that we had in Atlanta was going to be a nice sunny one, so we planned to go to the mountain first - and I'm glad we did because the next day it poured down with rain all day!

On one side of Stone Mountain is a large carving that depicts three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet, and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain.

We started our visit by taking the scenic Skyride to the top of the mountain so that we could hike back down, figuring that doing it that way would be much easier for Jack and Maggie than hiking up the mountain. Here's a little video snippet of the Skyride and the view from the top.

The view from the top was fantastic but a little obscured by fog that hadn't quite burned off at that early in the morning. As we left the Sykride station and headed for the beginning of the hiking trail down the mountain, Jack noticed what he thought was a coin embedded in the ground. It turned out to be a Geodetic Survey Triangulation Station Marker that indicated the summit of the mountain (DG2533) - as you can imagine Jack and Maggie were fascinated by this first encounter and had dozens of questions about what it was for and who put it there.

I'm very proud of the fact that both Jack and Maggie thoroughly enjoyed the trip to the top of the mountain and relished the idea of hiking down it. Maggie usually acts up and wants to be carried once she has determined that she's walked far enough - which is normally somewhere between 15 - 30 feet. But, to our amazement she walked it by herself. I personally think that she saw lots of other small kids doing the walk/hike and was darned if she was going to look like a baby being carried down, oh the power of 3-year-old peer pressure.

The hiking trail down the mountain was a little hairy in places due to natural erosion creating a very gritty and sandy surface in places. Several times we had to slow down and hold hands so that we didn't slip on the sandy ground. Then, about two thirds of the way down, we ran into a patch of the mountain that was covered with dozens of pieces of carved graffiti. Apparently graffiti carvers don't like to go too far up the mountain to do their handy work!

As we starred at them in a combination of surprise and disappointment, Jack pointed out one particular piece of graffiti that was remarkably different from the usual "Johnny loves Mindy" types of chicken scratches. At first I didn't see why he was so fascinated by it over all of the others pieces, some of which were very explicit and colorful (thank goodness he's still learning to read). Then it struck me, this was some very old graffiti. How could I tell? Well how many youths do you know who would take their time to scratch their name into a mountain using a beautiful serif typeface? I just had to snap a picture to share this with everyone else - how bizarre.

Overall we had a great time hiking on Stone Mountain. The Skyride didn't take very long at all to take us to the top and the hike back down probably would have taken us about 40 minutes had we not stopped to look at numerous little things along the way. But then that's the point of being outdoors and experiencing such things in my mind. We could have blazed back down the mountain like so many others we saw, but we never would have seen so many of the marvelous little oddities that we saw along the trail, like the graffiti, and that would have been a shame. It's exactly these small details that will stick in Jack and Maggie's minds and become indelible reminders of their first hike down a mountain.

If you're ever in the vicinity of Stone Mountain Park, take some time to stop by and go exploring. Besides the mountain, there are a ton of other things to do inside the park. We were able to spend the better part of an entire day there having fun and would highly recommend it to others.

DIY: Reflective Zipper Pulls

2009-11-26T14:19:00.000-05:00

A friend recently remarked on the brightly colored zipper pulls that I have on several of my jackets, and it reminded me that this would probably be a good subject and backpacking tip to share with everyone else.

The photo above shows three of my jackets with some of my DIY reflective zipper pulls made using short lengths of Kelty Triptease, a highly reflective and very strong cord used mostly for replacing tent guylines and simple plastic cord stoppers. The two zipper pulls on the right have AeroWave whistle cord pulls that I got from GoingGear.com and love attaching to my backpacking jackets as an emergency backup whistle - they're also perfect for putting on small children's jackets. You never can tell when they might need a whistle and what better way is there to always know that they have one handy?

There are many good sources for the zipper pull accessories online and check out your local REI which usually stock a fair selection of these types of smaller items in their bagged accessories section. Do any of you perform small mods to your clothing like me? If so please share with the rest of us by leaving a comment on this post.

Camping Classic - Waterproofing Matches

2009-11-25T15:37:00.000-05:00

This will expose both my technology geek side and my backpacking nerd side in one blog post. So, just the other day, I was reading my self-made eBook version of Horace Kephart's classic, "Camping and Woodcraft", on my iPod Touch when I came across a beautiful little nugget of camping wisdom explaining how to weather-proof matches using shellac and thought I would not only give it a try myself, but share my results with you all. Here's the full paragraph that I am referring to:

Matchbox. — Do not omit a waterproof matchbox, of such pattern as has a cover that cannot drop off. I prefer a flat one. It can be opened with one hand. The matches in this box are to be used only in emergency. Carry the daily supply loose where you can get at them. For this purpose I like a pigskin pocket with snap-button, worn on the belt. The matches I waterproof, before starting, by dipping them half-length in shellac varnish thinned with alcohol to the right consistency, which is found by experiment, and laying them out separately on a newspaper to dry. This is better than using paraffin, because shellac does not wear off, and it is itself inflammable, like sealing-wax. Matches so treated can be left a long time in water without spoiling.

I didn't particularly like the way Horace dipped the matches and then laid them flat on newspaper because it seemed to me that one side would lose a lot of the shellac coating. So, instead I came up with a simple solution that allowed me to dip them in the shellac and then "hang" them up to dry. All you need to follow along at home (in true Blue Peter style) are some strike anywhere matches, shellac, a pair of tweezers, an old cardboard box, some double-sided sticky tape, and a little spare time.

As shown in the picture, attach a small strip of double-sided sticky tape to the edge of the cardboard box and remove the second layer of paper to expose the stickyness. Carefully hold each match upside down with a pair of tweezers and dip them into the shellac but not up all the way as far as your tweezers. Then lift them up, give them a gentle shake and push them against the sticky tape upside down so that they stick and can drip dry as they are. You'll notice that I placed a piece of kitchen towel underneath the matches to catch any rogue drips of shellac. That's it! Just let them dry and then store them however you want.

I've tried dipping matches in melted candle wax before, but found that it crumbled off or made such a mess that it rendered the matches almost useless. However, the shellac seems to make a crisp hard covering that protects the matches from moisture and leaves them easy to light with a normal swipe along a rough surface - what a great solution! I've kept a handful of my first batch of shellac-dipped matches aside to see just how long they survive in one of my backpack pockets, only time will tell. I hope find this useful and give it a go for yourselves. If you do, please leave a comment to let me know how it goes.

Contest: Alcohol Stove FREE Giveaway!

2009-11-23T14:07:00.001-05:00

As many of you may recall, earlier this year I went through what can only be described as an "alcohol stove making frenzy" where I produced dozens of slightly different alcohol stoves in an effort to refine the making process and produce a cheap and reliable stove for my own personal use. I learned a tremendous amount about alcohol stoves by building them myself through trial and error and would highly recommend that if you're at all interested in doing the same you try it at least once.

The flip side of my stove making "frenzy" is that I have a LOT of leftover stoves sitting around in my garage. Just to be clear, I've thrown away all the prototypes so none of the remaining stoves are by any means sub-par. But I see the darn things just sitting there in my garage every day and can't help thinking that they would be perfect to give away to other like-minded backpackers who want to try an alcohol stove for themselves, even if all you do is use it as templates to make your own.

So here's the deal. I'm going to be giving away an unused soda-can alcohol stove to one lucky reader, picked at random, each month until I run out of stoves to give away. According to my most recent inventory check, I have enough stoves to do this each month for at least a full year :)

To qualify for the free monthly draw all you need to do is any one of the following:

Subscribe to my blog via e-mail (see also the link in top right corner just under my profile)
Subscribe to my blog feed via RSS
Follow my blog using your own Blogger account (what is following?)
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Geocaching family fun with Geomate.jr

2009-10-28T13:08:00.003-05:00

Jack, Maggie, and I decided to spend our Sunday morning outdoors doing some geocaching with our newly acquired Geomate.jr kid-friendly device. I bought the Geomate.jr on a whim based on a recent Outside San Diego blog post that hailed it as the ultimate get out and go geocaching device - and after our fun this Sunday I have to say we whole heartily agree.

Geomate.jr is the first device I know of that is targeted towards kids and made specifically for geocaching as apposed to a full GPS device that can be used for many things including geocaching. It costs substantially less too, at $70 it's a fraction of the cost of a regular GPS device. The reason for this is that you are getting a single purpose device specifically made for geocaching and not a fully featured GPS topographical unit. But for us that's fine, all we wanted was to be able to go out wherever we were and start "treasure hunting" as Jack and Maggie like to call it - as it comes pre-loaded with 250,000 US geocaches the Geomate.jr is perfect!

When we bought the Geomate.jr from our local REI store last week and when we brought it home we were so excited that we wanted to give it a try immediately. We popped open the blister pack and read through the minimal instructions that pretty much just said: Go Outside, turn it on, follow the arrow and distance to your closest geocache!

The Geomate.jr takes two standard AAA batteries so we scrambled around in our kitchen drawers looking for some AAAs. We put them in and went outside. Jack was holding the unit and pressed the top button to turn it on.... it showed a welcome message, searched for GPS satellites to acquire and within 20 seconds was pointing the way to our nearest geocache! We walked around a bit to see how it responded and then familiarized ourselves with the other two (yes only two!) buttons. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go geocaching that day so we had to wait until the following weekend.

Fast forward one week... So after starring at our new little Geomate.jr for so long, we were finally ready to go outside and start treasure hunting. Armed with a pen (BYOP), a notepad and some goodies to share, Jack, Maggie, Coco and I set off in the direction of our first geocache.

GC1EF0W - Lake Park - One Degree of Separation:
We drove to Lake Park which is just five minutes from our house and parked up. I had a pretty good idea where the cache would be just by looking around, but wanted to let Jack and Maggie find it entirely by themselves using the Geomate.jr. Jack turned on the Geomate.jr, waited for it to acquire the satellites and then lead the way with Maggie at his side (constantly talking as she does, it's a girl thing), Coco and I following close behind.

We started out at just over 700 feet away and quickly narrowed in on the cache's location. The Geomate.jr has a neat little direction arrow that you can follow and watch the distance change as you go - easy for Jack to understand. It probably took us 10-15 minutes to find the cache by the time we stopped to look at colorful leaves and acorns on the ground. Here's a picture of Jack and Maggie standing just inches away from the cache that is hidden in the crook of the tree to their left.

I was amazed to see that the Geomate.jr got them to within three feet of the cache location. That's spectacular for such a small and inexpensive GPS device. Later at home I checked the online documentation only to discover that the Geomate.jr uses SiRFstarIII GPS technology. Ummm ‘so’? Well, SiRFstarIII is regarded as the best GPS technology available! Not bad for a $70 device eh?

Here's a picture of Jack being a goofball after finding his first geocache with the Geomate.jr. I could tell that after this first one he was hooked! Maggie is three and loves to follow us around outside, but she's not yet excited about finding things in the woods. Not yet...

The log file that was inside the cache container was wet and had become delicate to handle. As we had lost our pen anyway while poking around in the woods we simply put the log back inside and place the cached back carefully where we had found it.

GC1F7K0 - One Blind Mouse!:
Our second cache of the day was only a mile or two away from the first one, so we all hopped back in my truck and headed off in the general direction. Jack held on to the Geomate.jr as I drove and told me if I was getting closer or farther away - not to self, the Geomate.jr works fine in the truck.

The location of this cache was a little more overgrown than the first and we very nearly turned back because the ground was water logged. But Jack found a dry route through the head high grass and steered us in the right direction. This time it was Maggie (with help from Coco's acute sense of smell) who discovered the cache. I could see her jumping up and down yelling "daddy, over here, it's so cute come see."

It was another small cache which always disappoints Jack (he like the trinkets that are in the larger caches) but it was a fun one. Someone had hidden an old computer mouse in a small hidy-hole at the base of a tree. The mouse had little black glasses and whiskers painted on it, hence the name - One Blind Mouse!

We had planned on a third geocache but everyone agreed that we'd had enough adventure for that day and as it was starting to get cold we headed back to the truck and home.

I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the Geomate.jr. It was easy for Jack to use and was ready to go with the 250,000 preloaded geocaches right out of the box. Further more, I've just discovered that with the purchase of a small USB cable it can be synced up with the Geocaching.com database to update the device's built-in list of cache locations. I also read that you can see your longitude and latitude as well as your height above sea level and it's made in the USA.

If you're looking to get started with Geocaching and have been put off, as we were, by the complexity and selection of more expensive GPS units - give Geomate.jr a try. We were up and running in minutes and hunting down micro-caches under the direction of a five-year-old. I don't see how you could beat that!

Quick Update:
Just a few hours after posting this to my blog I noticed that Geomate.jr were following me on Twitter and re posting a link to my blog article via their Twitter account. Pretty cool and always amazing how fast things happen on the web. Thanks Geomate.jr Here's screenshot of their Twitter page.

Fixed Blade Knife Comparison

2009-10-24T23:53:00.003-05:00

I've noticed that my requirements for a fixed blade knife have changed over the years as my backpacking, hiking, and bushcraft skills have developed. I won't be getting into a debate here about fixed blade versus folding knives. I have both and love them equally for different reasons. What I will be doing is comparing my three favorite fixed blade knives and describing their good and bad points based on my usage and general observations.

The three knives I'll be looking at represent a good cross section of price, ranging from $10 to $100. They are (from top to bottom):

Let me start by saying that I am not a knife collector, for two very good reasons - I don't have the money to be, and I actually use all of my knives. The three knives shown here represent the gradual evolution of my knife skills and knowledge of knife design, as well as a more fundamental personal exploration of the true purpose of knife as a functional outdoor cutting tool.

Evolving Cutting Needs
As I said at the beginning of this review, my knife skills and usage have changed over the years as I have become more familiar with the right way to do things. The knives reviewed here represent three very significant changes in my use and understanding of a knife's purpose. For me, the most common use of a knife is for cutting wood.

There are many, many wood cutting tasks that get performed during an extended stay outdoors, but if I had to summarize them it would be: making feather sticks, carving tent pegs, cutting notches, batoning through thick branches, and sharpening points on sticks. These types of tasks crop up more than anything else. After wood cutting, the most common uses of my knife would be for cutting food and smaller items like rope or cord. Very rarely do I need my knife for gutting an animal or skinning a pelt - it just doesn't happen on a normal backpacking trip - at least not for me :)

The Seal Pup was my first purchase and was bought because of it's size, reputation, and price. The Pup is a well tested and reliable 'survival' knife that has earned an amazing reputation and respect from many - what could be bad? Well for me it turned out to be the serrated edge which was in exactly the wrong place for many wood carving activities. After many months of persevering I started to be on the lookout for a better knife.

My next purchase was the Fallkniven F1 - arguably one of the most well known and sought after knives in the world. Eight intensive years of research went into this knife, and resulted in it being selected as the official survival knife of the Swedish Air force - the rest is history as they say. The problem I had almost from the start with the F1 was that despite the convex grind it would get stuck or pinched tight when trying to make deep cuts in wood, making it less than ideal for heavy duty bushcraft activities. I also started to become more concerned with the knife than it's function - being overly cautious not to damage the knife because it was not cheap.

The Eriksson Mora 711 is my latest (and I hope last) acquisition. I had read so many good things about these knives that I simply had to get one to try it out. The high carbon steel, the classic bushcraft Scandi grind, the comfortable rubberized grip, all had lead me to want to see what all the hype was about. Let me tell you that despite the low price (1/10th of the F1) it has very quickly become my favorite fixed blade knife. It has a razor sharp edge that genuinely will shave the hairs on my arm, it's very comfortable to hold, and the Scandi grind seems to make every wood cutting activity a complete delight.

So let me break this down into the individual components of what I think are the most important considerations when buying or selecting a knife.

Sheaths:
To me, the main purposes of a sheath are to protect the knife, retain it securely, and to allow me to carry it with the confidence that it can't easily get separated from my person. If it can't do any one those three things then it probably has been designed properly and isn't worth considering unless you plan to make your own sheath or know that you will be getting or using one that will.

In my opinion the SOG Seal Pup has the most functional and well made sheath of these three and here's why. The sheath is made from extremely strong high-grade ballistic nylon that will take considerable abuse without showing the slightest signs of wear. The blade section of the sheath has a hard Kydex inner liner that grips the blade very securely with a solid 'snap' and that protects the nylon webbing from getting cut by the razor sharp blade. In addition to the secure grip of the sheath liner, the upper handle snap fastener is perfectly placed and just snug enough to hold the handle in place without being hard to snap closed. The SOG's sheath also has a extra front pocket for carrying a sharpening stone or some basic survival kits pieces with an oversize Velcro flap to keep everything safe inside.

A great feature that I make use of are the webbing Molle straps sewn to the back of the sheath that attach to standard 1" Molle webbing or easily allow you to wear the knife in a horizontal fashion on your belt - which is my preferred way to wear this knife.

The sheath of the Fallkniven F1, while well made, just isn't to the same highly functional standards as that of the SOG. When I purchased my F1 I chose the Zytel sheath over the leather version and somewhat regret that now. At the time I thought it would be more robust and longer lasting than leather, but I found that although the rigid Zytel bottom section of the sheath is very rugged, the top belt loop is made from rather flimsy ballistic nylon webbing that makes the whole sheath/knife wobble around on my belt - even when I use a cord through the bottom two holes to fix it to my leg.

Another downside of the floppy belt loop is that the knife handle moves very easily against my hand as I reach to my hip to grab it. There's no resistance or firmness in the sheath to keep the knife exactly where I want it. This may be perfect for some people, but for me it is a continual annoyance. I am planning to purchase a hand-made JRE leather "Cricket" sheath made specifically made for the F1 that mimics the SOG horizontal carry functionality to some extent and looks very much like the sheath that comes as standard with the Bear Grylls knife.

The Eriksson Mora has most simplistic and somewhat minimalist sheath of the three, born out of cost reduction and the demands of mass production more than anything else I'm sure. That said the Mora's sheath performs extremely well which is proof that it doesn't have to be expensive or overly complicated to work properly. The Mora's sheath is a one piece, injection-molded, thermoplastic sleeve with what looks like a very slim/narrow belt loop sticking up. In fact it's not a belt loop at all, it's actually designed to snap over a button attached to your pants and then your belt goes over the top of the plastic loop keeping the sheath securely snapped on to the button. I read a lot of complaints about the belt loop of the Mora sheaths simply because the intended purpose is misunderstood.

Another important feature of a sheath is a drainage hole, especially sheaths made of non-porous materials like the two plastic ones here. Both the Fallkniven and the Mora sheaths have large drainage holes in the bottom to let water out. This is especially important for the carbon steel blade of the Mora that can rust easily. The picture below illustrates this nicely with the Mora sheath at the top and the F1 sheath below.

The Blades:
There are some significant differences in the types blades represented by these three knives that justify a bit of a deep-dive here too. The blade of the F1 is a full-tang slab of laminated VG10 stainless steel hardened to 59 HRC. The blade length is 3.8" designed in a classic clip point style. The grind of the F1 was something of a new experience to me. Initially it looked like a full flat grind, but after closer inspection I could see that it was actually a full convex grind. (Blade grinds explained)

Full convex grinds are extraordinarily simple and inexpensive to maintain which may disappoint those with a love of blade sharpening gadgets. In fact, if a full convex ground blade is not allowed to get too dull, stropping will usually restore the edge to full sharpness and you can probably make an excellent sharpening kit out of an old mouse pad and a couple pieces of wet/dry paper.

I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the beautiful satin finish of the F1 blade as you can see for yourself in the picture above. But more than that, the convex ground blade has proven to me that it cuts better than a hollow ground blade and is much less likely to snag or pinch up in deeper cuts.

The SOG Seal Pup has a full-tang AUS-6 steel blade hardened to 57-58 HRC and finished with a 440A non-reflective powder coating. The overall blade length is 4.75" with a 1" serrated section near the handle. At first I thought the serrated part of the blade was very clever and it still may be for some people, but for me it has ruined what was very close to being a perfect knife.

The annoying serrated section of the blade close to the finger guard is in exactly the wrong place on the knife. It’s positioned just where a sharp plain edge is most useful for fine work. I guess the serrations help give the Seal Pup that tough ‘tactical’ look, but for me they ruin the blade so much that I'm seriously considering grinding them out. It's probably great for cutting small cord or even sawing through thick rope, but the serrations are practically useless for bushcraft purposes like cutting notches and making feather sticks, two tasks I perform frequently when outdoors. You could argue that this isn't a knife intended for bushcraft tasks and I'm sure that it true, I'm just disappointed that such a well made knife let me down because of such a minor thing.

The Mora has a .098" thick, high carbon 4" long blade hardened to 59-60 HRC. The blade has a full Scandinavian (Scandi) grind which is a wide flat bevel that runs to the edge of the blade. There is no significant secondary bevel as seen on the Pup. The angle is engineered to match the quality of the steel and intended use. The result is a keen edge, which can easily be sharpened to be razor sharp.

Another advantage of the Scandi grind is that it can be resharpened until the blade is worn away, without changing the angle of the edge. No jigs or other gadgets are required. All that is required is to lay the bevel flat on the stone, and work the entire surface of the bevel. It's significantly wide enough to forms it's own guide. The Scandinavian grind also gives excellent control in woodcarving. If you carve wood, you will probably find that the flat bevels give you better control of the cut.

Unlike the F1 and the Seal Pup, the Mora's blade isn't as well finished which can easily be seen on the back spine of the blade which is somewhat rough and shows the marks from its manufacturing. From what I see on the spine of the blade, I'd have to say these are cold pressed steel blanks. But don't let that fool you, the high carbon steel blade has a razor sharp edge from the factory and performs superbly for every task. It is a knife designed purely for function and will not let you down. As you can see from my other two knives, I have some very high quality ($$$) knives that I really do like, but this cheap ($10) little Mora has grown on me since the day I received it in the mail. Every single cutting task has become a delight when performed with this knife and the edge qualities of this blade put the other two to shame.

The only regret that I have about this knife is that it does not have a full tang blade. As you can see in the x-ray photograph below, the stick tang of the Mora's blade stops about one inch short of the full length of the handle.

However, the tang does extend through the handle to the point where your little finger is holding the handle, which is pretty much the entire length of your grip - so it's not terrible by any means. I've also put this little knife through hell and it has never failed or shown any signs of damage. I've used it to baton through 3" thick branches with no trouble at all and of the three knives shown here, the Mora continues to be the best knife for feather stick making, something I attribute to the quality of the edge and the Scandi grind.

One word of warning about high carbon blades. They are prone to rust and discoloration. You sacrifice the non-corrosion qualities of stainless steel for the superior quality edge retention of high carbon. that's fine with me because it takes less than a minute to use some slurry from a whetstone to polish up the blade like new. A regular wipe down with light oil will easily protect the blade from rust. Just be aware that it can tarnish and treat it accordingly. If you do it should last you your life time.

Below is a photograph of all three knives showing their relative blade thickness. you can easily see that the Fallkniven F1 on the left has a massively thick blade at 4mm thick. The Seal Pup in the center has a substantially thick blade that certainly feels up to any task you can think of. The Mora on the right is significantly thinner than the other two and at first glance you might think that it is too think to be effective, but it's not at all. The Mora's blade is extremely strong and doesn't show any signs of bending or movement even when being used to pry with the tip. I thought it would make for a great comparison photo at the very least.

Handles:
All three of these knives have injection-molded handles made from various materials. The F1's handle is made of a material called Thermorun. Themorun is a high performance Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE) that's lightweight, rock-hard, protective, and weatherproof - making it ideal for use as a knife handle. The blade tang of the F1 runs through the entire handle and extents out the end to provide a hitting or smashing surface. There are no visible handle rivets, just a single lanyard hold that is finished with a nice polished tube.

The Pup's handle is made from Zytel that has been reinforced with glass fibers. The handle is injection molded around the entire blade. This provides a solid, secure feeling as well as making it nearly impossible to separate from the metal. Of the three knives, the SOG has the most comfortable and secure grip of the three. The diamond shaped checking on the handle provides truly excellent traction even with wet hands. I also liked the flared finger guard which really helped when making thrusting cuts into hard materials.

The Mora has a very wide rubberized grip handle that feels very comfortable to hold. The harder red plastic, that can be seen at the finger guard and on the pommel, runs through the entire length of the handle and is used to encase the blades stick tang. The black rubberized coating is perfect for wet or sweaty hands and thankfully doesn't leave any black residue on my hands even after prolonged use.

I've seen several handle mods for the Mora 711 many of which include grinding down the finger guard to make it less pronounced. Be warned, the finger guard is the part of the handle that snaps the knife securely into the plastic sheath, if you trim it down you'll most likely find that the knife no longer snaps in firmly - why would you run the risk of the knife coming out and being lost? Leave it alone, it's just fine the way it is :)

Weight:
For me the weight of a knife is of little consideration. Obviously I don't need or want to be lugging around a Rambo style knife, that's totally unnecessary, but as I typically carry a knife attached to me and not my pack I don't factor it into any base weight calculations for my pack. As it happens these three knives are all within a few ounces of one another so there really is little difference, but in an effort to be as complete and thorough as possible here are the weights (including their sheaths). The Fallkniven F1 weighed in at 6oz, the SOG Seal Pup weighed in at 5.4oz, and the Mora 711 weighed a mere 4.25 oz.

Price:
As I said at the beginning, these three knives represent an interesting price cross section. The Fallkniven F1 will set you back about $100 depending on where you order it. There are some fantastic deals to be had online right now with free shipping, The SOG Seal Pup typically sells for $50 - $60 and can be found at most of your local sporting or hunting stores. Mine was given to me as a gift, but I'm pretty sure it came from our local Dick's Sporting Goods store. The Mora is an exceptional deal at $10. That's right, only ten bucks! Don't let the low price of the Mora fool you though, the high carbon steel knife has a razor sharp edge and performs superbly for its price. It is a knife designed purely for function with no frills.

Conclusion:
Choosing a knife is such a debatable topic and it really depends on the individual's preferences and needs. The majority of people reading this blog wouldn't be caught dead with something as heavy as a Fallkniven when for their needs a Swiss Army knife would do the trick. But for those of you that do want to carry something a little more robust I hope you find this helpful.

The SOG Seal Pup was the knife that I really wanted. It spoke to me and made me think I could do anything with a knife like that, and for the most part I can as long as it doesn't involve a lot of wood carving. It has a superb sheath that I still really like, but in the end the darn serrated edge killed it for me.

The Fallkniven F1 was the knife that I really liked the look of. The history and pedigree of this knife made me believe it was perfect for what I needed, and to a large extent it still is. I just wish the same blade came with a Scandi grind - then it would be amazing.

The Mora 711 is the knife that I wanted to debunk. A cheap, no frills work horse that had a loyal following in the bushcraft world. To my utter surprise I loved the knife from the minute I got it. As I've already said, don't let the cheap price tag fool you. This is an excellently made knife with a high quality carbon steel blade that holds a razor sharp edge. For my purposes it performs flawlessly and costs a fraction of the price of other knives. This has become my got to knife for backpacking trips. And if it breaks or get's lost, I'll just buy another one. For $10 I'd recommend that everyone should give a Mora a try and see what they think. Who knows, like me you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.

I'd love to hear about what knife, if any, you take with you when backpacking. Leave a comment or response on this post and I'll do my best to follow up. Thanks!

Karate Demo at St. Luke's

2009-10-20T21:45:00.000-05:00

A great photo taken by Mrs. Mateo during the Peaceful Warrior School's karate demonstration at St. Luke's Church Fall festival in Mint Hill, NC. In the photo you can see me throwing Mr. November to the floor as part of our self defense routine. Ouch! Sorry Mr. Nov. See more pictures here >>

Home-made Billy Can

2009-10-05T07:58:00.002-05:00

I spent the best part of my day yesterday (Sunday), hiking through out local woods with my buddy Andy, so that I could practice with and test out some of my gear and take a few photographs for some blog posts that I had in mind. As many or my regular readers know, I am a die-hard ultralighter, always looking to shave a few ounces off the weight of my pack and gear. However, yesterday instead of taking along my favorite alcohol stove and cooking kit, I thought I'd try a new approach based more on bushcraft skills than ultralight backpacking.

A few weeks ago I made Billy can out of an old Oatmeal can, a wire coat hanger, and a $1.00 wooden handle I had lying around. It's pretty crude but it seems to work just fine. I drilled two small holes on either side of the tin towards the top, then cut and bent the wire coat hanger into a handle shape and poked both ends inside the can. I bent the wire inside the can so that it couldn't pop back out. Next I drilled a small hole in the center of the lid and screwed on a small wooden handle that I had left over from another project. The result is a relatively light weight Billy can style cooking container that can be hanged above a fire as shown.

After clearing a good sized patch of ground of leaves and lighting my fire, I got to work making a stand for the Billy can. Off to one side, away from the fire, I made a simple bushcraft adjustable tripod out of three long branches and tied them at the top using a clove hitch. To make the pot holder, I cut a shorter branch with a small arm that could be used to hook over the top of the tripod and then cut a notch to hold the handle of the Billy can towards the bottom of the holder.

The result was a tripod that held my can firmly but which could be easily adjusted for heat/height by simply spreading the legs apart or pulling them together. Despite taking a few minutes longer than setting up my alcohol stove, this set up was very easy to do and boiled my 2 cups of water very efficiently in about 7 minutes. What I like about this approach is that I used materials that were readily available and only had to carry in my home-made Billy can and food.

I'm now thinking of investing in a small commercial Billy can like the Zebra Cans or Tatonka Cans that I can use just like my home-made one for cooking along the trail. Of course the downside is that in order to cook I would have to start a fire, but my fire making skills are pretty good and I can usually get one going quickly even in damp conditions. There's also the issue with soot on the outside of the can, but that's easily cleaned up - just a pain.

I'm not sure whether I'll completely abandon the alcohol stove just yet, it's more likely that I'll just swap out my GSI Soloist pot for a small Billy can and have the best of both worlds.

Quick update: Here's a few seconds of video just for fun :)

So what type of trail cooking pot do you use, and have you tried using Billy cans with open fires? I'd love to hear from you.

Rite in the Rain and a No. 2 Pencil

2009-09-28T20:03:00.001-05:00

I've carried a small notepad with me wherever I go for the longest time, usually a small lined or grid pattern Moleskine that fits into my back pocket. The main reason for doing so is to have some paper on hand the instant I think of something interesting or that I would like to get around to doing at some point in the future. You see, if I don't write it down right away it's usually gone from memory shortly thereafter. Being on the trail is no exception, in fact great ideas jump into my mind on an even more frequent basis while hiking, it must be the fresh air that provides more clarity of thought.

The trouble was that my Moleskine and other small notepads were tough enough to be carried around and abused for the most part but couldn't withstand hardly any damp at all, yet alone an accidental splash or drop in water. Like many others backpackers plagued by soggy paper woes, I solved the problem by turning to the amazing all-weather writing products from Rite in the Rain.

Since the 1920s, Rite in the Rain have been producing special all-weather paper and a wide range of notepads made specifically to shed water in any weather condition. I also like that it's made in the U.S.A. and costs no more than a regular small pocket notepad from wally world (mine was under $4.00).

Rite in the Rain offers a wide range of paper products and notepads to choose from, including spiral bound, flexible covers, copier paper, loose sheets, kits, and even index cards (hmm, heads up to all the HipsterPDA users out there!). I opted for the classic, bright yellow covered field-flex 3 1/2" x 5" pocket notepad (374-M). It's small and light weight and the bright yellow cover means that there is little to no chance of me not seeing or finding it if I drop it or put it down on the ground while I do something else. It has 112 pages (56 sheets) and weighs only 0.15 lb.

The Rite in the Rain product development team have also used their heads to provide some really useful features on the front and back inside covers of the notepads too, like small rulers in both inches and centimeters, linear and metric conversion tables, and map reading scales - pretty hand eh?

I tend to use a standard No.2 pencil (HB for my friends back in the UK) instead of an ink-based pen, not because I don't like writing with pens or that I have concerns about the ink fading or getting washed away, far from it, I just like the simplicity and way the pencil "feels" while writing on this type of special paper - it has a very smooth surface that takes pencil very nicely and doesn't smudge at all. A pencil is also easy to sharpen and works well in the wet.

If you're looking for a notepad or paper to take with you on the trail, or if you just looking for a well priced, high quality pocket-sized notepad, be sure to check out the Rite in the Rain product line. I've been a fan quite some time and know that you will be too as soon as you start using one.

Manufacturer: Rite in the Rain (http://riteintherain.com/)

Jack Karate Sparring

2009-09-08T15:07:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of Jack practicing his karate sparring at class on Saturday in preparation for his first karate tournament. Go Jack!

Bushcraft skills for kids

2009-08-28T12:12:00.001-05:00

Good article in today's Daily Telegraph newspaper about encouraging small kids to get outside and become more interested in nature through some fun Bushcraft skills and projects.

Make a catapult using a live Y-shaped branch, then scraping the bark off until smooth. Make a notch at the top of each V, then tie a strip of bicycle inner tube about 60cm long and 2cm wide, securing it in the notches. Use small stones as missiles, but don’t fire them at your parents.

Nalgene Duct Tape Mod

2009-08-11T13:54:00.000-05:00

Here's a photograph of my favorite Nalgene OTG bottle that as you can see I've slightly modified. I've been carrying short lengths of duct tape on my backpacking drinking bottles for a long time now, it comes in very handy in a pinch and my water bottle is typically always within easy reach unlike carrying one of those a little rolls of duct tape in with my first aid kit or goodies bag somewhere deep inside my pack.

The great thing about this simple little mod (you really just wrap duct tape around your bottle) is that the tape stays put no matter how long you leave it on your bottle and doesn't even come loose with multiple washings - which is good and bad. I typically cut the tape into different widths (see the narrow white strip at the bottom) and use multiple colors to have extra options. Great for all manner of emergencies!

Alcohol Stove Demo (Video)

2009-07-21T06:51:00.001-05:00

Here's a short video showing me lighting up one of my home-made aluminum alcohol stoves during a three-day backpacking and canoeing trip near Fontana Dam in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The stove is ultralight and reliable, boiling two cups of water in about 5-6 minutes. Please leave any comments below.