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backpacking gear recomendations?

Unimog

Unimog

Eric
Location
Stansbury Park, UT
I sleep every campout! The boys can stay up as late as they want as long as they aren't disturbing others outside of our camp. However, I am not above getting up really early and scaring the crap out of boys who stay up a little too late!

I remember a time s few years back on a camp when the boys wanted to sleep in the bed of a truck instead of setting up a tent. I got up about 2:00 am and crawled under the back of the truck and started scratching the bottom of the bed! It wasn't more than a minute before they were all nervously whispering to each other. When they finally worked up the courage to peek over the edge of the bed, I was ready to leap up and holler! I slept really well the rest of the night!
 
Houndoc

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
Thanks for all the great info thus far. Keep it coming!

Mesha, are you at Rec Outlet in Salt Lake or elsewhere?

Eric, I have seen your 'Mog at some of the Scout camps, with envy!

As far as stoves, will be cooking for 2- mostly heating water for dehydrated meals and drinks. Any real cooking on this trip will be dependant on fishing skills.

Tooele Cherokee, PM me your contact and I would like to check out some of your gear in the next week or so.

Steve, that blue pack from Rec. Outlet is indeed ugly- but good to know you have liked it.

The other thing I meant to ask about is water purification. We will probably try to pack a system for every 3-4 people. What do y'all recommend?

Thanks again!
 
DOSS

DOSS

Poker of the Hornets Nest
Location
Suncrest
Houndoc said:
Thanks for all the great info thus far. Keep it coming!

Mesha, are you at Rec Outlet in Salt Lake or elsewhere?

Eric, I have seen your 'Mog at some of the Scout camps, with envy!

As far as stoves, will be cooking for 2- mostly heating water for dehydrated meals and drinks. Any real cooking on this trip will be dependant on fishing skills.

Tooele Cherokee, PM me your contact and I would like to check out some of your gear in the next week or so.

Steve, that blue pack from Rec. Outlet is indeed ugly- but good to know you have liked it.

The other thing I meant to ask about is water purification. We will probably try to pack a system for every 3-4 people. What do y'all recommend?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

PM your way shortly :)

Water purification.. with scouts I would carry a pump or gravity filter and aquamira tablets [ Iodine tablets are so 10 years ago (should have switched then instead of last year I guess).]
The filter for when you need water right away and the tablets to take care of the larger quantities of water (tablets take up to 3 hours I usually just do overnight)
 
mesha

mesha

By endurance we conquer
Location
A.F.
If you are cooking food rather than just boiling water look for an adjustable stove with a wide flame cone. some stoves like the jet boil or pocket rocket will be difficult to "cook" with. Although the jetboil has a frying pan as an option it isn't the best. many options for you out there, come and light some up. Heck bring a fish and we can cook it.

Don't worry not all of the packs we sell are that ugly;).

Water purification is a fun one. you need to decide on chemical, mechanical, heat, or light. I usually take at least 2 methods on each trip. You will automatically have 1 since you are buying a stove. That will obviously take a lot of extra fuel and you have to wait for it to cool down sometimes. I like mechanical the best because it is the fastest. I have several filter options. Chemical will be the lightest option aquamira and other versions of chlorine dioxide ClO2 work, but require 4.5 hours of wait time for some strains of crypto. Iodine is more effective against crypto, but tastes much worse. I prefer Ca(ClO)2 or calcium hyperchlorite (don't confuse with sodium hyperchlorite or liquid bleach) because it works better and is much less expensive than ClO2. but you have to premix it at home. U.V. works very well and is fast, but can only handle a liter or so at a time and requires batteries. I have owned most of the popular filter systems on the market so I can tell you what I have liked and disliked about each. I would stay away from the bottle style filters unless you buy the really expensive ones. the 15 dollar ones are not that great. I can show you why when we can hold one. enough on water for now.


I am at the american fork store. A little bit of a drive for you. I bet I can make it worth it:). You can even get helped at the SLC or Ogden location and then let me know what you liked. Or check out the website and we can talk that way. my wife works more days a week than me so if the days I am there don't work she can help.
She is better than most at knowing her gear and has used all of the equipment out there. She is my most trusted camping partner. Either of us can get you taken care of.
 
Grim

Grim

Well-Known Member
Location
Roy, UT
Houndoc , do you know if you are hiking the highline trail ,(from the mirror lake hwy to kings) if so i can recommend some lakes to stop at if you are going to do some fishing
 
Houndoc

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
Not starting on the Mirror Lake Highway. As the trip gets closer I will post more details on the route we are taking (I did not plan it) and see what tips I can gather.
 
Houndoc

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
Time for another update.

I realized time was never going to allow me to get to the AF store- seems like always running somewhere!

But, picked up a used Gregory pack off ebay. Pretty good condition and all reviews on Gergory rave about them. Wearing it now when I walk each night-loaded with 25 pound bag of sugar- to help with my conditioning and seems pretty comfortable.

Yesterday hit Kirkhams and the Salt Lake Rec Outlet. Picked up an MSR PocketRocket stove from Rec Outlet ($40). Hopefully it will do the job well enough- it was about half the cost of the Jetboil etc.

Good bedroll and water filter still to come.
 
P

plaidfro

Active Member
Location
Provo, UT
Houndoc said:
But, picked up a used Gregory pack off ebay. Pretty good condition and all reviews on Gergory rave about them. Wearing it now when I walk each night-loaded with 25 pound bag of sugar- to help with my conditioning and seems pretty comfortable.

Yesterday hit Kirkhams and the Salt Lake Rec Outlet. Picked up an MSR PocketRocket stove from Rec Outlet ($40). Hopefully it will do the job well enough- it was about half the cost of the Jetboil etc.
Click to expand...

Looks like you picked up two good value items. Gregory packs will hold up well and if the size works to hold all you gear and it is comfortable on you back then you did well. My current pack is an ArcTeryx Bora 80 or 90... It has the cushiest hip belt I have every used... I love how comfortable it is.

The MSR PocketRocket is a great little cooker. Excellent value. I get nervous with the little canister stoves ONLY because its difficult to tell how much fuel you have left. For that reason I have the MSR DragonFly which I have really loved.

Good luck to you. I was a Scoutmaster for 7 years... and now I am a scout leader for the 16 - 17 year old boys. Have fun this season.
 
DOSS

DOSS

Poker of the Hornets Nest
Location
Suncrest
plaidfro said:
Looks like you picked up two good value items. Gregory packs will hold up well and if the size works to hold all you gear and it is comfortable on you back then you did well. My current pack is an ArcTeryx Bora 80 or 90... It has the cushiest hip belt I have every used... I love how comfortable it is.

The MSR PocketRocket is a great little cooker. Excellent value. I get nervous with the little canister stoves ONLY because its difficult to tell how much fuel you have left. For that reason I have the MSR DragonFly which I have really loved.

Good luck to you. I was a Scoutmaster for 7 years... and now I am a scout leader for the 16 - 17 year old boys. Have fun this season.
Click to expand...

I had the same issue with canister stoves until I figured out how much fuel they would use at 10k feet in a normal use environment to boil 2C of water.. since then it is all about the Net weight and how much you plan to use it on your trip :)

Good choices on gear i don't think you will regret them at all.. make yourself a nice windscreen for your pocket rocket out of a AL oven tray (the kind you put at the bottom to catch drippings and spills) and you will be set :)
 
Houndoc

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
Great idea on the wind screen.

I too have the 16-18 year old Scouts. A little rough at this point since our ward has never had a leader- trying to re-interest them in scouts (both finishing nearly complete Eagles and the activities & high adventure stuff.)

We should have some great things this summer and I will most certainly post up after the trip.
 
spencevans

spencevans

Overlander
Location
Farmington
If you're still looking for ideas on gear I think I can help you out. Even though I am still young, I have made over 70 week long trips to the High Uinta's over the past 26 years.I usually take my kids on there first back packing trip to the Uinta's when they are 4 years old. We try to keep it to a 8-10 mile hike each way when they are little. Kings peak is double that.

I have tried just about every type of setup over the years and I think I have it down to a science. I highly recommend purchasing a Brunton stove and a 1L light weight aluminum camping pot. I prefer a backpack with a Camelback or some other bladder system that sits between you and the pack. That extra cushion is really nice. I like external frame packs because of there ability to attach a large tent for the family, but that's just me. My favorite item I have is my bed roll. I use an ExPed downmat xl9 and a Campmor 20F Down rectangle sleeping bag. The Down mat air mattress is sooo warm I just unzip my sleeping bag and lay it over me like a blanket. Last year my six year old and I had our own mats and shared an unzipped sleeping bag in the middle of October. My whole bed roll weighs about 4lbs. I try to save weight wherever I can so I can pack my float tube, waders and flippers.

If you have any questions about back packing, the High Uinta's or fish the Uinta's feel free to shoot me a pm.

Spence
 
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