Klymit 2013 Double Diamond Vest

June 11, 2013August 25, 2013 ~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 2 Comments

Author wearing the Klymit 2013 Double Diamond at Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California USA — Author wearing the Klymit 2013 Double Diamond Vest at Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California USA

Greetings Hikers,

For the past six months I have had the opportunity to use incredibly unique 2013 Double Diamond Vest manufactured exclusively by Klymit. This is a vest that stands apart from the rest of the hiking vest community. It does not have down inside of it, nor does it have synthetic material inside of it to help keep you warm. Rather it uses NobleTex insultion, which is the use of specific materials combined together with the noble gas called Argon. Klymit over the last year or two has perhaps become more known for its sleeping pads than its vests, which is all that Klymit originally offered when they got started back in August of 2007. They reminded the hiking world of the fact that they are also a clothing manufacturer in October of 2012 when they announced their Ulaar Jacket via a Kickstarter project.

For 2013 they also made a few changes to their flagship vest, the Double Diamond vest. It, like their sleeping pads and other garments, features their signature welding process for material – giving it that distinct tube style design. Just to put this out there as a disclaimer before I go any further, Klymit sent this vest to me for T&E and I was/am under no obligation to publicly share my thoughts on this vest. I was intending to return the vest within sixty days or so after getting it, but here I am almost 200 days later and I am still wearing, testing, and trying to find my full thoughts on this product. More and more I am trying to spend at least 200 days using a product before I write my thoughts about it. In the early days of my hiking and writing articles I had no problem pushing out an article with a product I only had for a few days or maybe a week or two. The internet is becoming flooded with gear reviewers who do articles after getting their product and maybe using it for a day or two, if at all.

Continue reading “Klymit 2013 Double Diamond Vest” →

One Year Review – ZPacks Waterproof Breathable Cuben Fiber Rain Jacket

May 23, 2013August 25, 2013 ~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 8 Comments

474435_198690060254825_1917764916_o — Author wearing the ZPacks Waterproof Breathable Cuben Fiber Rain Jacket in the Redwoods of Northern California. Photo credit: Brian Doyle

It was a little over 14 months ago when I wrote my first review of the ZPacks Waterproof Breathable Cuben Fiber Rain Jacket (allow me to just abbreviate that as “ZPWPBCF” from here out) and it continues to be one of the most asked about pieces of gear that I own. A few months later I proceeded to write a follow-up article on the jacket that helped to address some of the more popular questions that I received about the jacket. Over the last year I have continued to carry and use the jacket out on the trail and at home when it is raining – which is quite often here in the Redwood rainforest of Northern California.

Since my initial purchase of the ZPWPBCF rain jacket I placed an order for a second jacket with longer arms and a shoulder pocket to hold my wallet when I am in a trail town and all of my cloths are being washed. It has proven to be very useful both out on the trail and in-town, and my thanks go out to ZPacks for their continued efforts put forth to make custom modifications to gear that they sale.

All of us as hikers seek different features in our gear, but when it comes to a rain jacket the end result is whether or not it keeps us dry. There are of course two factors regarding this: external moisture (rain/snow/etc) and internal moisture (thermoregulation) and usually one of those does not come about without the other trying to mess things up. It is an important part of learning to be a hiker is to learn how to properly manage and control your thermoregulation – failure to do so can result in a lot of unnecessary suffering on your part. For example: sometimes when it is raining and very cold, you are better off removing a layer or two of mid-layer base clothing when wearing a rain jacket to prevent overheating – which can lead to condensation build up on the inside of the jacket.

In this article I am going to try to summarize the questions I have received over the last year regarding the ZPacks Waterproof Breathable Cuben Fiber Rain Jacket.

Continue reading “One Year Review – ZPacks Waterproof Breathable Cuben Fiber Rain Jacket” →

JetBoil Sol Ti

May 22, 2013March 6, 2014 ~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 13 Comments

Greetings hikers, climbers, adventure racers, bikers, and all outdoor lovers!

I have a rather long and unique history with the Jetboil systems – those who have followed my articles for any length of time know some of the good and the bad – but there is one thing about the JetBoil Sol Ti that keeps haunting me: I just really love this thing!

Now sure, talking about something like the JetBoil Sol Ti might seem totally out of place on a website that tends to focus on SUL/XUL hiking, but hopefully over the last few years I have been able to get across the point that a hiker can carry one or two “heavy” or “luxury” pieces of gear and still be a SUL hiker (BPW sub 5lbs/ 2.3kg.)

More and more one of mine has been the JetBoil Sol Ti, and here is why:

Using 16 oz of water, enough for a meal and coffee, I am able to get 22 uses out of a single 100g JetBoil JetPower canister. I am no great math genius like some of the guys at BPL who can figure out at what point in a long distance hike, or even a weekend hike, a certain weight of something becomes viable or nonviable, but from a few hundred days spent on the trail over the last few years, over 500 at this point, it would seem to me that if I can go 11 days and not have to worry about whether I am going to run out of fuel, well that is a very nice thing. And, if I decide to have a cold breakfast every couple of days I could easily extend that one canister of fuel well into the two week duration. On an ounce-by-ounce comparison, even my beloved esbit weighs more at those durations of being on-trail.

Continue reading “JetBoil Sol Ti” →

LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System – Followup

May 16, 2013May 20, 2013 ~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 6 Comments

Greetings hikers,

About a month ago I posted an article introducing the 2013 version of the LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System and over the last few weeks I have had a fair number of folks contacting me wanting to know my follow-up thoughts on it, after having put some trail miles onto the system.

My thoughts on the system at this point are that it is a great all-in-one-purchase setup for esbit users! There are ways that a slightly lighter system could be put together, but it would involve purchases from multiple companies, and that means additional shipping fees and your own time, and it would probably just not be worth it for the average hiker. I think as it stands right now, the LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System is the best all-in-one-purchase esbit system that I have come across.

The Cookpot:

The cookpot itself has proven to be awesome for my style of trail cooking. My previous Ti 600ml pot was 75 grams and this setup is 72 grams – and 54.71 grams by ditching the lid, which makes it a sub 2 ounce Ti pot!

Two factors with all pots… the pot itself and the lid for the pot.

The pot itself is wonderful. One of the issues I have had with my 600ml pot was I could not get a ziplock bag to fit into it. This 550ml pot holds a lunch/dinner size bag just perfect (ref: this photo) so that makes me happy. The pot fits on every pot stand I have put it onto. The handles are a good size, even with my large hands. The rolled lip on the top of the pot is good. The pot does have some flex to it – being a thin-walled cookpot – but you really and intentionally have to give it a good squeeze to get it to flex.

The lid is a good lid, but I have since switched it out to one I made myself out of a sheet of 0.005 inch thick titanium foil. As I see it, if a lid does not actually stay attached to a pot, its pretty much serves no real purpose beyond helping with the convection of heating up water, and any old thing might as well be used… aluminium foil for example – just something to help trap in the heat. Now, if you can get a pot with a lid that actually stays attached to the pot (thinking along the lines of the old snowpeak pasta pot and lid – now that was how a pot and lid should work!) that is an awesome thing and the weight can be worth it. But at 17.33 grams (0.611 ounces) just for the lid, I could not justify it. Some things I did like about the lid: the vent holes (I wish more companies would add a lot more vent holes, there are three on this lid… add another row of three, or preferably four, on the other side of the lid, would be really nice), and interestingly, the lid fits perfectly onto the top of a Jetboil Sol Ti, so I have now swapped out my Jetboil Sol Ti plastic lid with this one, and saved two grams off the weight of the JetBoil setup – and I would rather have a Ti lid than a plastic lid any day of the week.

I am not saying the cookpot setup it is not worth buying because of the lid, you should buy this pot if you need something in the 300ml (cup size) up to the 600ml pot size, or if you are a 600ml cookpot user and want to save a few grams, regardless of whether you plan to use the included lid or swap it out, the pot itself really is that good.

The Windscreen:

The windscreen worked out pretty well. I had a few times in really strong wind that I could tell it was suffering because of the low height of the windscreen, but this is unavoidable because the windscreen is cut to size to be able to fit into the pot. There is a nice cut-out for where the cookpot handles are at. It has vent holes around 50% of the bottom of the screen – good size ones too, considering that esbit requires a fair amount of air to really reach peak heat levels.

Durability of it might be an issue over the long run. I have around 15 to 18 days of use with it and it is already suffering a few hard wrinkles. I think they were caused by me stuffing the rest of the cook kit into the pot. To compare: I have well over two hundred trail days using the Suluk46 Ti Windscreen (disclaimer: Suluk46 is a sponsor of mine) and it has not suffered any serious damage or hard wrinkles. I think for the average weekend hiker or those doing short long distance trails (CT/JMT/etc) it should hold up fine, but I am a bit concerned, at this point, over whether it will hold up over the long haul. Only had it for a month, after all.

The Stand:

There is not a whole lot to say about the stand… you unfold it, put your esbit on it, light the esbit, and put your pot on the stand. These tri-wing esbit stands have been around a long time and they have more than been proven to be rock solid. They can eventually fail if you pound through a lot of esbit and do not clean off the build-up, but if that happens to you, well, you deserve to have it happen… take better care of your gear.

There is also the ground protector / reflector that makes up the stand system. It is something you should always use – watch this video for why.

The Stuffsack:

Going to have to admit here that I did not buy my cook kit with the bag – I bought each piece individually, because I did not need the stuff sack. The reason for this comes from a discussion that Chad “Stick” and I had back in November of 2012. In one of my messages to him, as I was typing the message, an idea hit me, it went like this:

Regarding the cuben fiber cookpot bag… I have actually been thinking of ditching the one I use and instead using a one gallon zip lock bag. They weigh about the same and I can get my 900ml evernew pot to fit into one with lots of room left over. I would much rather deal with esbit soot and stickiness within a throw-away ziplock bag than within an expensive cuben fiber bag. I usually have two or three ziplock bags with me anyway so adding another one would not be any big deal. Think I am going to have to give this a try.

So for the past 7 months that is what I have done… now I just stuff my cookpots right into a ziplock bag. When they finally get to a point where they are all nasty inside because of the esbit left-overs, I just throw the ziplock away and grab another one. Heck of a lot nicer to throw away a bag that costs a few cents than a cf bag that costs 13-15 bucks.

So all that said, there is one very sweet thing about the LiteTrail CF stuff sack… and that is the fact that it is a rounded stuff sack with a flat bottom. Not really sure it helps stuffing it into your backpack all the much easier, even for those of us that use outer pockets for putting our cook kit, but it is a nice change-up from how everybody else makes stuff sacks, and having a flat bottom makes it so you can use it for other things where you want a bag to stand upright.

Additional Thoughts:

Jon from FlatCatGear has been playing around with a “focussing ring” for esbit stove systems that in my own testing has proven to be highly beneficial. Because of the low height of the LiteTrail windscreen, anything at all that I can do to help increase heat from esbit is worth it, and this is an easy and very lightweight means of potentially gaining a few extra BTU’s from your cooking setup.

After using the tri-wing for one trip, and knowing that it worked, I switched it out and went back to my BGET esbit tray. Nothing wrong with the tri-wing, but I just prefer this little tray and a dedicated wire pot stand (such as this one) that I had made and is 4.03 grams, so with it and the BGET my stand system is 5.69 grams, compared to the 12.59 grams of the tri-wing stand. It is a more stable system and less likely to have the pot tip over in high wind or if the water is boiling really hard, plus it is a lighter method.

If you are a fan of the TrailDesigns Caldera Cone systems, for $35 bucks you could swap out the LiteTrail windscreen and Tri-wing and switch over to the much more efficient Caldara system. The downside, of course, is that the Caldara Cone will not fit inside of the LiteTrail 550ml pot, unlike the LiteTrail Windscreen. I asked TrailDesigns if they were planning on releasing a Sidewinder for the LiteTrail 550 pot and they said it could not be done, which is the answer I expected, but that would have been super sweet if they could have.

Final Thoughts:

In the world of hiking there are a crazy amount of cooking systems available for hikers.

In the world of SUL/XUL hiking those numbers decrease very quickly.

Most XUL hikers are cookless hikers so it is a mute issue altogether, but for those XUL hikers who still enjoy a hot meal or tea, there are not a lot of options. The LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System provides a great base system that with a few changes could be made into a sweet XUL cooking system.

For those who are SUL hikers, this is one amazing all-in-one-purchase esbit cooking system, and as I said earlier, probably the best option out there.

For UL hikers, this cooking system offers everything the beginner or skilled esbit hiker needs.

The current price for the LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System is $90 bucks – I have spent a whole lot more on a single cooking system, so this is a great price for a complete esbit setup.

+John Abela
HikeLighter.Com

In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services.
As of the day of publication of this article I am a sponsored hiker of Montbell America, Gossamer Gear, Black Rock Gear, Suluk46.

PROBAR Fuel Bar

April 26, 2013April 8, 2014 ~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 7 Comments

Greetings Hikers,

The other day I got some PROBAR Fuel Bars and I pretty much instantly fell in love with them!

A little over a month ago I wrote about my thoughts regarding the PROBAR Core Protein bars and while I found them to be good, they just did not really match up to the awesomeness of the PROBAR Meal bars that I have loved and used for a year or so – it is not that they were no good, they were just not my style of a bar, I like soft and gooey type of bars! If you are looking for a way to supplement some protein into your hikes, the Core bars are totally worth taking along and I intend to take them along on my future hikes, but they are just not going to replace the Meal bars for me.

I had this to say regarding the Meal Bars in my article on the Core Bars:

The texture, flavor, and size of the PROBAR Meals are something I simply cannot see myself letting go of.

Amazingly, I think the time has come for me to recant that statement!

Why?

Because I got some of these “Fuel Bars” and it was just one of those magical “omg – this is awesome!!” moments.

To keep this simple, here are the reasons I have fallen in love with these Fuel bars:

Soft & Gooey!
Half the size of a Meal bar – which makes eating them easier while hiking
Less large nuts inside of them (it seems a lot of the Meal bars have one large almond in them, and I do not like almonds – or walnuts – so I am always biting into a Meal bar, finding it, and spitting out the almond – regardless of how good they are for hikers)

To address the second issue of them being half the size. One of the things I have always done with the Meal Bars was to open a package and break off a third to half of them and leave the rest in the package for thirty or sixty minutes down the trail. Sometimes I forgot about them and they got kinda hard – all too common late at night on the trail. By going with a bar that is half the size, they just seem to be the perfect size to consume all at once. Granted this might result in a micro-amount of additional weight and waste due to the extra package material, but micro is really the right term here, when compared to the size of the larger Meal bar packages. Nit-picky issue and one that does not even warrant my scale being used and my time being wasted testing such matters. All in all, I am just finding that when I am hiking down the trail, I am reaching for the Fuel bar because it is a more manageable size and amount of food I want to consume at any given time.

On both a calorie and protein basis, I will have to consume two of the Fuel Bars to get about the same amount as I do from a single Meal bar, so given that I typically break my Meal Bars into two pieces, that is pretty much the same thing.

Economically they also seem to be about the same. A 12 pack of the Meal bars go for $35.48 on their website. Two packs of 12 of the Fuel Bars go for $35.20 on their website. Pretty much an even issue there too. Amazon.Com offers them as a “subscribe and save” for $16.99 per 12 pack, making two 12 packs of them $33.98, so that is what I plan on doing to save a couple of bucks.

PROBAR Oatmeal Raisin – breakfast in a wrapper!

From a flavors perspective, there are a lot more options for the Meal Bars, as there are only four (4) flavors of the Fuel Bars: Blueberry, Cherry, Cran-Raspberry, and Strawberry. The blueberry is by far my favorite, with Charry in second place. I pretty much hate watermelon and strawberries, so the strawberry got the down-vote from me, with the Cran-Raspberry taking third in my preference. Here is the thing though, regarding flavors: As Brian Green has said regarding the PROBAR Meal ‘Oatmeal Raisin‘ bars, “Can you say breakfast? This is the perfect morning snack bar. Like having a bowl of delicious oatmeal in a bar” – yeah, he is dead on right about them! I eat one of the Oatmeal Raisin Meal Bars every morning and have zero intention of stopping. He also said good things about the Superfruit Slam, which is probably my favorite PROBAR Meal.

While a bit off-topic, a couple weeks ago I was down at my local hiking store and they had some of the PROBAR Bolt bags, which are kind of like gummy bears, only packed with a lot of stuff that is suppose to be way better for you than gummy bears – giggle. Usually I like orange flavored stuff (it reminds me of the orange and vanilla ice cream bars I use to eat when I was little) so I bought a bag of the PROBAR Bolt Orange and they were pretty neat. I did not get any bolt of energy from them, but they made for a nice distraction while hiking on down the trail. For some of you they might be totally worth buying – if for nothing else than the flavor change-up in your mouth from the other PROBAR bars, they have a bit too much sugar for my likes. The PROBAR Halo bars are something I will likely never take with me either – for as Scott Williamson has said for a rather long time, “I avoid sugar on the trail because sugar highs and crashes affect my hiking“.

So I think my plan going out on my next hike is to take my usual Oatmeal Raisin bars for breakfast per day, one Superfruit Slam per day, and for the rest of each day I will be taking with me the Blueberry and Cherry Fuel Bars, probably three packages of each, to offset the PROBAR Meal bars that I would normally consume throughout the day. Anyway, that is the plan and I will update everybody later this year if this idea works out.

If you get a chance to try out some of these PROBAR Fuel Bars give them a try and let me know what you think! If you have already given them a try, likewise, let me know what you think of them!

By these at amazon: Blueberry Flavor, Cherry Flavor, Strawberry Flavor.

+John Abela
HikeLighter.Com

In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services.
As of April 2013 I am a sponsored hiker of Montbell America, Gossamer Gear, Black Rock Gear, Suluk46.

LiteTrail 550ml Titanium Cookpot Setup

April 18, 2013April 18, 2013 ~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 7 Comments

Greetings Hikers,

It has been fun to watch LiteTrail mature over the last year or so, Jhaura Wachsman, the founder of LiteTrail, has been investing a lot of time and money into sourcing some of the lightest gear available for SUL/XUL hikers. That alone makes them a company that is always on my watchlist.

About a week ago they announced a new set of titanium cook pots, that are suppose to be crazy light weight, so I ordered up one of their 550ml pots to give it a go and see how it compared to my existing setup, which is comprised of the hugely popular Evernew 600ml pot, and the always amazing TrailDesigns Sidewinder, and a DIY esbit stove/stand.

The order showed up tonight, and I am heading out on a hike tomorrow, so I wanted to get a brief pre-use article pushed out for those considering this setup.

Specs:

Pot: 54.71 grams
Lid: 17.33 grams
Screen: 4.48 grams
Groundsheet: 1.38 grams
TriWing stand: 12.59 grams

This totals up to: 90.49 grams (3.19 ounces).

Continue reading “LiteTrail 550ml Titanium Cookpot Setup” →

Trail-life Update & Updated ZPacks Belt Pouch

April 16, 2013April 21, 2013 ~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 5 Comments

Greetings Hikers,

I am home for a little over a week and then off for more hiking! Love this time of the year.

I just got home from a great 5 day 120 mile hike and a package from ZPacks.Com was waiting for me, along with a shipment of freeze dried food food from Honeyville Grain which I badly needed to get myself resupplied with fruit, meat and refried beans. Showing up later this week will be a shipment from MontBell America with a replacement Montbell U.L. SuperSpiral #1 (my prefered sleeping bag) and the Montbell Mirage Parka, a new pair of Dynamo Wind Pants, the updated sub-2 ounce 2013 Tachyon Wind Jacket and a couple other small things. I am also getting a resupply of Probar Meals, and some FITS socks to give a try alongside my Wigwam socks. Oh, and I ordered up a new LiteTrail 550ml Ti pot that should be here before I head back out onto the trail, which I am going to give a go with, and let my Evernew 600ml pot a rest.

As for my most recent trail. It was an interesting adventure. Saw some beautiful country, pushed myself pretty hard, broke some gear, learned a bit more about dealing with people who are sitting at home and suppose to be helping out hikers yet utterly fail to do so when the hiker actually needs something, got to test out my new ZPacks Arc Blast (my second one, all black with all the extras, nicknamed “Darth Vader”), experienced some weather that was waaaay colder than what it was suppose to be, and all in all had a great time.

The first day out I was moving along at a good rate and snapped part of one of my Gossamer Gear trekking poles. After hiking for a couple of hours I found a spot with a very weak internet connection and I contact the guy that was suppose to be the ‘new guy’ in charge of handling requests from Sponsored hikers/Trail Ambassadors for Gossamer Gear and long story short, that went over very very badly. It is as if people do not understand that some of us actually spend the vast majority of the year out on the trail and when we contact them to help out, it is because we actually honest to God need help. I got a run around from this guy and eventually just decided to say screw it and not even bother trying to get a new pole piece sent out overnight to the next trail town that I was going to be at in two days. So I just had somebody else overnight me my Blackdiamond Alpine Carbon Cork trekking poles from home. I love Grant and Glen from GossamerGear, but whoever in the world it was that made the decision to outsource their Trail Ambassador program to somebody outside the company, needs to rethink that whole idea. We hikers out on the trail have limited internet and phone connectivity, we should not have to play a go-around-game just to get the gear we need. This whole event was a nice reminder that when your gear breaks out on the trail, it is always a good and wise thing to have somebody back home, be it family or a friend, that can handle resolving an issue for you. I am very grateful to my family, my friends, and those at my company, for all that they do to allow me to keep being out on the trail so much. Beyond that ordeal, the first day was good. Did some nice elevation changes, and thankfully had a good amount of water with me when I started as it was a day with only one water source, and it was around 14 miles in. Eat a crazy amount of food for some reason. Stupid me for not pounding a bunch of high energy food before I left my truck. Set up camp in a really beautiful spot, and was sure to mark it on the map for future trips. It was one of those odd days when you do not see, or even hear, any animals. I enjoy the sound of animals and seeing birds flying around, but there was not a peep or feather anywhere to be heard or seen.

The second day was hard, as they usually are. Body was aching, still pissed off by the aforementioned events of yesterday, and my feet were bugging me as this was the first hike of any distance that I have done with sandals. So many hikers I really respect, hikers out on the trail right now hiking the CDT or who hiked it last year, have made the switch over to sandals and I figured it was about time I gave it a try, so I ditched my much beloved Inov-8 shoes and went with a pair of sandals. Taking some getting use to. A lot stiffer than the crazy light trail runners I am use to, and the straps on the top of the foot are kind of bugging me, but the freedom of stretching my toes, and the complete breathability factor, and the knowledge I do not have to worry about foot-swell, are all things I am beginning to see as really amazing reasons for making the switch. I was able to have access to a lot of water on day two, so that was nice. Put my Sawyer Squeeze to a lot of use. Having added the small section of tube (see my previous article) was totally worth the extra few grams of weight. It just makes filling up water bottles so much easier. One of those situations where weight for functionality is smart hiking.

The third day I was able to get into a trail town and get some supplies, but most importantly was getting the hiking poles. It was a very small town (one of those towns that is a store/postoffice) so not a lot to do there so I just grabbed my stuff and went on my way. I think one of the things I said about the Blackdiamond Alpine Carbon cork hiking poles when I reviewed them was something along the lines of them being heavy, but oh so worth it. The more I use these poles the more I love them. Yeah, they are heavy trekking poles (when compared to the Gossamer Gear trekking poles) but these are the most rock solid pair of hiking poles I have ever used. They also make setting up my shelter at night a bit faster and easier, because the locking systems on them is a lot easier than sitting there doing ‘the twist’. Yeah, I love the LT4 poles, but Gossamer Gear really needs to find a way to move away from twist locking mechanisms – please guys!! The end of day three turned cold and thankfully I had with me my Montbell Alpine Light Down Parka. It is my no means the lightest jacket out there, but it has saved my butt a few times. I am really looking forward to getting the Montbell Mirage Parka later this week! It has one ounce more down than the Alpine and weighs 1.9 ounces less! I was also seriously glad I had with me my Black Rock Gear Hadron hat and the Black Rock Gear Mitts. It thankfully did not rain but I had with me the ZPacks Waterproof Breathable Cuben Fiber Rain Jacket, at 4.7 ounces, it just makes sense to always carry it.

The fourth day was all about pounding the miles, and that is exactly what I did. Started off really cold, sub freezing and stayed cold pretty much all day. I hiked for about four hours in the dark until I was really tired and knew I would just go right to bed. Went to bed cold.

The fifth day I again started off cold but thankfully it warmed up a bit. Ended the 120 mile section of trail when it was almost dark and headed home. Made up some spaghetti and feasted.

My next trip out will be hiking the same exact section of trail, only this time in the other direction. One of the aspects of building a new trail is the joy of getting to hike the same trail multiple times in multiple directions, at different times of the year. It helps you make sure that you have enough GPS data to be able to properly build a map system that others will be able to use, and it helps you really learn where the water is at and when there will be a water source and when it will be a dry creek. I will likely be taking a camera with me on my next hike so I should have some photos and video to share. There is some really beautiful country up here in North Western California.

Gear Report:

Besides the already mentioned issue with the LT4 poles, this was a great trip to test out some new gear. My new ZPacks Arc Blast road like a champ. Really loving that backpack. It was way more then what I needed for this trip but I wanted to get some more miles on it. I also used the Lawson Ti-Hook Stakes for the first time. I gotta say I really enjoyed them over a traditional hook stake, the slightly more bent head really did make them noticeably better. I also took with me a Petzl TacTikka Plus for the first time. I gotta say that while it is heavier than any other light I have taken, it was kind of nice having a full power torch to use, it was the main reason I hiked for four hours in the dark. I also took with me the Klymit Double Diamond vest. I have been using one for a few months around the house and on short day hikes, so this was the first hike of any miles I have taken it. It is crazy heavy compared to my down vests/jackets, and it seems to suffer a problem of not drying out very fast, but I gotta say, it is really impressing me. Going to give it a lot more trail time before I make a verdict on it. I took with me the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm, size large of course. It is one beastly sleeping pad, but I gotta say, it is the most comfortable air sleeping pad I have ever used. Almost tempted to keeping lugging it around the rest of the year, regardless of the fact it is 570 grams – which makes it heavier than my entire shelter system, the Six Moon Designs Skyscape X, the Adventure Medical Kits Sol Emergency Blanket (groundcloth), and the 5 stakes that the SMD SX takes. For heating up water I took the TrailDesigns Caldera Sidewinder and the Evernew 600ml pot. For food I took mostly food I had made myself over the winter season, using the Excalibur dehydrator I got for Christmas, which all of my family pitched in together and got for me.

Anyway, I grabbed my camera a bit ago and decided to shoot a quick video on the updated ZPacks Belt Pouch, which I ordered while out on the trail.

I hope everybody out there is having an awesome, fun, and safe hiking season!

+John Abela
HikeLighter.Com

In accordance of USA Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the products mentioned within the content of this article were not supplied to me in exchange for services.

As of April 2013 I am a sponsored hiker of: Montbell America, Gossamer Gear, Black Rock Gear, Suluk46.