One night, June 2 – 3, Afton State Park, campsite #8 [pdf].
I had some unexpected free time and made a spontaneous decision yesterday morning to camp for the night at Afton State Park, about a half hour drive from Saint Paul on the St. Croix river between Minnesota and Wisconsin. I had some gear to test, mostly my new campstove. Here are the main pieces of essential gear I brought, and my experience with them so far:
The photo is from a trip a few weeks ago, which was the first time I’d used the pack, which I’d bought just the day before from Midwest Mountaineering.
The pack is adjustable to different torso lengths, but I didn’t know that before leaving, and so didn’t adjust it at all. The top of the pack bent into the back of my head a bit as I hiked and was pretty irritating, but I also had my sleeping bag strapped to the top of it, which could have contributed to the problem. N00b move on my part to strap the pack to the top of my pack, I know. A note about the strap: a piece of the plastic clip that attached the strap from the back to the front over the pack cover snapped quickly after being pulled too tightly. It kind of worried me that the clips are so fragile, and I’m considering picking up some metal clips from Axman and replacing them at some point. Remind me to write about my experience recently at Axman – I picked up a ton of great camping and hiking gear.
I also didn’t know how to pack everything very well. I stuffed my tent into the bottom without a problem, but it took up half the pack’s space, so fitting everything else in proved to be a challenge, specially considering the inverted shape of the lumbar area of the pack, which is designed to allow airflow to your back while your hiking. A great, comfortable feature that requires a little creative thinking when it comes to loading the pack.
I adjusted the pack before I left for Afton yesterday, and I stuffed my sleeping bag into the bottom compartment that I discovered was actually intended for sleeping bags, and although I got it to fit eventually, my borrowed bag was a big larger than the compartment was built for. When I packed it out, I unclipped the barrier cloth from the compartment and just stuffed the bag freely into the bottom of the pack, which allowed the bag to spread out a big more freely and evenly in the bottom. Much better.
While I didn’t have the issue of the top of the bag or an ill-placed sleeping bag bonking me in the head, the hip belt felt too tight. I can adjust that separately, I just didn’t bother to do it then, because I’m a lazy person.
I do wish the pack had more compartments, as I’ve found my stuff sack stuffing method is rather lumpy and ineffective, especially when navigating the inverted lumbar area. I’m sure I’ll get better at that after a few trips loading and unloading it.
Marmot Limelight 3P tent
This is the second time I’ve used the tent, which I received as a birthday gift from my boyfriend, Kevin, last August. Took me long enough to finally use it!
I’m in love with this tent. Before this tent, I was using one of those giant, two-room family-sized 40-person tents with the built-in screened porch thing that my mom bought years ago for family camping. She decided she was probably ready to graduate to cabin-style camping, and passed it down to me. Now, don’t get me wrong; it was a great tent, especially if you had several people with you, or as your home base during festivals. I’ve even used it before on a solo (car) camping trip and can set it up in the dark alone, but it’s definitely not my favorite thing to do. Solo-camping into backpack sites just wasn’t going to be a possibility with that tent. The thing must have weighed at least 10lbs on its own.
The Marmot is about 6lbs with everything included in the stuff sack, but it can be pared down to reduce the weight to around 5lbs. It’s not the lightest thing in the world, and it’s probably not what I’d choose for a solo extended trip like an AT thru-hike, but it’s great for two or three people, or for a few nights out in the woods alone. There are only three poles, two of which are attached to each other with a plastic piece in a cross shape, making it really only two pieces to keep track of, total. The shorter, orange pole is only needed if you use the rain fly, as it extends the fly out further. It really doesn’t seem to serve any other purpose without the rain fly.
The magnetic poles are a huge plus, decreasing the time it takes to screw everything together. I haven’t timed myself setting it up yet, but it was remarkably quick both times, and the first time, I hadn’t actually taken it out and used it at all yet, even to test set-up at home. Definitely an awesome tent. Highly recommended for the uses mentioned.
Esbit 3-Piece Lightweight Camping Cookset, using solid fuels tabs
First time using the stove, and I definitely had some difficulty with it. First, I tried to boil water for ramen. I used one fuel cube and laid it in the holder in the stove as directed, lying flat in the shortest position. I forgot to time how long the flame lasted, but subsequent timings were between 10-12 minutes, depending on wind.
The water did not boil during the time it took the first cube to burn out. For reference, it was about 70-75 degree Fahrenheit, and while it was a little windy, it wasn’t anything too crazy. I touched the water, which was definitely warm, but not anywhere close to boiling.
I remembered reading a review of the stove that suggested turning the cube to its tallest position, on the small side, so that the flame was closer to the cookpot, so I tried it. Halfway through the burn, I became impatient and just dumped my crunched-up noodles into the water, put the cover back on, and waited. By the time I noticed the flame was out, it had probably been out for a few minutes, at least, and the ramen still wasn’t done. I added a third cube to the stove and, finally, halfway through the third one, the ramen started boiling and it was completely cooked.
Later in the night I decided to try instant mashed potatoes, but I was distracted reading and forgot to really write anything down or pay attention to the process. Eventually I stopped caring whether or not the water ever boiled and just dumped potatoes in and ate them.
This morning, my cookpot was full of dried mashed potatoes, but I didn’t really care that much and just dumped in some water to the top line for breakfast ramen. In a moment I’m still shaking my head at myself for, I thought I’d try cooking in the vestibule of my tent with the door open, but the zipper on the rain fly still down. It was supposed to rain, and I thought I’d read about people doing that somewhat frequently, so I gave it a shot.
This time, I set the cube back to the recommended way, and lit it. The water got hot very quickly, and I once again jumped the gun and added the ramen before it started boiling. It still didn’t start boiling before the cube burned out, so I added another, and the ramen boiled over when the cube was about halfway burned out. Better success this morning than last night, using 1.5 cubes instead of 2.5 for the same thing. The only problem is that I effectively used 2 cubes, not one, because I couldn’t figure out anything to do with the still-ablaze cube in the stove once I removed the cookpot. Depending on how easy they are to cut or break, I think I’ll try halving them and re-storing them in lighter, waterproof containers. I’ll have to look into the safety issues with carrying it around and how it should be stored – I honestly have no idea yet. I’m completely new to camping stoves. Car camping, and even the last camping trip I went on in Afton, I brought foods that I grilled on the provided grill thing on the fire ring at the site.
But back to cooking in the vestibule, do not do this, it’s smelly an gassy and hot, and there is zero airflow in a tent with a rain fly secured to it. It isn’t smoky, per se, but I finally had to escape the smell and gassy fumes by unzipping the rain fly and eventually just taking the whole thing off. I left the stove right in front of it, because I didn’t want to move it because I figured it was hot. I don’t know, sometimes I do dumb things. It’s a finely-tuned skill I have.
The potatoes I used were just standard instant potato flakes, but not having any butter or milk or anything to add to it to make them a more palatable texture and flavor, I added a bunch of other spices like copious shakes of garlic salt, red pepper flakes, fake bacon bits, and parsley and stuff like that. They actually turned out pretty decent, although next time I’d probably add dehydrated onions and other veggies to it to make it a more filling and satisfying meal. I’m interested in experimenting more with dehydrating my own foods. I’ve read around 10 thru-hiker memoirs about the AT, PCT, and CDT, and it seems the trend is that you eventually hate your food. I would like to see if I can creatively work around the limitations to make that part easier on the trail.
At around 10:00pm, I was nearly out of firewood, so I figured I’d get ready to get to bed. I walked down to the water pump to fill up a liter to pour on the embers in the fire pit, and was startled to see another person carrying a big armful of wood from the area, equally as startled. We chatted for a minute, and he invited me back to the campsite he was staying in with his wife and daughter close to mine for a beer.
I brought my water back to my site and grabbed my phone and headlamp and walked down to the site, expecting to see a couple of happy, buzzed people around the fire. It was just Justin there, though, who said his wife had just gone to bed, and offered me a beer. We spent about 5 minutes talking about camping and getting away from real life and their kids when the tent unzipped, and an extremely irritated female voice asked, “Justin? Who are you talking to? Who is there with you?”
“This is April, she’s camping nearby and we met at the firewood spot. Come have a beer and hang out!”
Sheila was not at all impressed with Justin’s decision to invite a random campfire guest to her family camping trip, though.
“I have to pee. You seriously just brought some random chick to our campsite? Seriously?” Sheila went on, Justin attempting to intervene in defense of just having fun, geez: “Like, we come out here for a family trip, and you seriously just invite random chicks here. Why would you even do that?”
So I quickly hightailed it out of there, thanking Justin for the beer and apologizing to Sheila, who adamantly ignored me, and walked quickly back to my campsite, where I had my last cigarette before pouring water on the fire. I reached in my pocket for my phone, which was not there. I checked the table, shining my headlamp’s light all over the table and the benches, my hoodie pocket, and then finally my tent. After not seeing it anywhere in the tent, I dumped my purse and my pack, growing more panicked that I’d left it at Justin and Sheila’s campsite and not wanting to go back for it and disturb her more. As I was throwing stuff around the tent, I head footsteps and “April?” It was Justin! He must have my phone! And so he did. I offered him some of the teeny bottle of brandy that I had and he apologized for the situation at his site. It was definitely an awkward time and a little silly that he thought it’d be cool with Sheila (I assumed she was awake and that my presence would be expected), but because I also make dumb decisions, I’ve been in weird situations like that many a time and told him not to worry about it. He went off to his angry lady and large campfire, and I put out my fire, went into my tent, and went to bed.
Speaking of bed, I was using the EMS LT20 sleeping bag, which I borrowed. It was quite warm and cozy, although I had never slept in a mummy-style bag before, so the narrow foot area is taking some getting used to. I like to stretch around. I hear good things about quilts, but I’m always very cold and think I’d prioritize maximum warmth over maximum comfort. I think for my own bag, I’ll go with a 0-degree mummy-style synthetic fill bag. I don’t want to have to worry about not having a warm place to sleep if a down bag gets wet. Hypothermia terrifies me.
Last time I camped, I brought a yoga mat as a sleeping pad. It didn’t seem to make a difference at all and mostly just slid around, so I didn’t bother this time and was perfectly comfortable on the ground without a pad.
Overall a fun, short trip. I was a little rusty at being in the woods alone, having only really done that once anyway, and I was hardly in the woods so much as I was surrounded by retirees in giant RVs, but that’s a story for another time. It was great to have a little solitude in the woods again.
I’m a little disappointed with the fuel cubes and think I’ll experiment with a tin foil wind screen, halving the cubes, and possibly alternative fuel sources that I’ve read a little about. But other than that, the cookpot is a great, compact size, and it’s light. It’s definitely usable.
Some things I discovered I need to think more about, or buy, or do, or:
- Pay attention to the existence of deer ticks, because you really don’t want Lyme Disease.
- A future purchase: a lighter, less-clunky headlamp with a red setting
- Cloth for cleaning the cookpot and whatever else
- Microfiber/yoga towel, doubles as sleeping-bag-pillow stuffing at night if dry
- Odorless food containers
- More liter-sized water bottles
- Rain cover for my pack
- Figure out how the hell to efficiently pack a stuff sack and how to organize them
- Better containers to carry and store dehydrated foods
- Tent sealer! Gotta get some of that asap.
Lirpa Strike 