Me and the ol' battle-ax went up camping for our 4th anniversary last week up past Cottonwood creek. Had a good time, most of all it was just nice to get the hell out of town and away from work for a bit. One of my favorite things about camping is testing out sweet new gear!
So this time around I had a bitchin Brunton FireStorm lighter, Esbit stove (which I've fired up before but never actually used to cook anything and the sweetest pants on the planet: RailRider VersaTac lights!
First the lighter. Very sweet due to it's light weight body, slender construction and it's wind and water proofness. The flame is definitely strong and hot. The downside though is that is has an adjustment under the bottom cap to adjust the flame but the lighter doesnt seem to work unless I have it cranked almost all the way up. I'll do some researching on this, maybe mines messed up.
Second is the Esbit stove. Lightweight, compact makes it good to go and a huge plus is that the fuel is light and packable to. I figured out a way to cram 4 tablets in the stove for storage while still in there plastic wrapping (for those who may not know, the Esbit fuel tablets stink like a rancid fish and shit salad) so keeping them packaged is definitely the way to go. One tablet will burn for about 7-9 minutes which is more than enough to get a good boil going for any Mountain House meal or oatmeal pack. Downsides? Not much really, fuel stinks, and it leaves a black residue on your pot but it can be easily wiped off and one can of fuel for my Snowpeak Giga Titanium (w/ piezo lighter of course
) will last a week and a half. That would be a lot of tablets for an Esbit, but I think the Esbit is perfect for short trips, BOBs or the trunk of the car.
Third is the RailRider pants. I do a good deal of hiking and backpacking and one thing that has always irritated me is that it's a pain in the ass to find good pants! The lightweight, quick drying material is all over out there, but I always wear my 5.11s, BDUs or Woolrich pants because the hippy companies cant seem to find it in their tofu loving, lightstepping hearts to put REAL belt loops and good cargo pockets on their shit (Read this Mountain Hardwear, Marmot, Arc'Teryx, REI, Ex Officio, and others!!) Enter RailRiders!! Apparently these guys have been making good stuff for the adventure racers for a while now and have recently decided to jump into the 'tactical' side. These pants rock! Super lightweight, quick drying, real belt loots, excellent cargo pockets and thicker, reinforced material on the ass, knees and cuffs that seemed to be pretty tough. They are spendy, but I figured I'm only buying one pair so it's not like buying jeans. One pair for my outings should be enough, I'll definitely put them to the test! These things will be with me on my ascent to Mt. Bora as well as the Enos Lake Adventure 2007 so I'll be posting a longevity report throughout the summer. Check out militarymorons.com for a better, sweet ass review of these pants.
On to the pics!
Esbit!
How I pack 4 fuel tabs in there:
Just add water!
Lighter:
In action:
Never mind the trash...it was a 'used' campsite:
Ready for a bitchin cheddar dog!!
Holy shit that looks good! I'm about to chow down with my sweet ass titanium folding spork...every geardo should have at least one.
And a pic that kinda shows the pants, although not very well. Better pics to come of the sweet pants:
Enjoy!
Thanks to:
TAD Gear for the Brunton lighter, Spiff for the Esbit stove, Shortmag for the pot, and RailRiders.com for the pants.
