Solo backpacking I strip it down. Lotsa info on a minimalist pack out there.
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Solo backpacking I strip it down. Lotsa info on a minimalist pack out there.
Do you want me to post the picture?Quote:
Originally Posted by madmax
older folks need more comforts it,s not like when were 18 to say 35,yrs old
reminds me of the song by little feat(old folks boogie) the mind make promises that the body
can,t fill.
I've done a lot of backpacking. I've measured things by ounce. I'm a minimalist by nature so this came pretty easy to me. But the older I get, the lighter my pack must be but the more I like the little comforts that a back packer can not afford in weight. Hence my canoe purchase last year... I'm so looking forward to this summer.
Hiking!! no more than about a mile from my vehicle. let my 4WD do the heavy lifting:tank:
I always take my light weight jungle hammock with bug net and rain cover when I am alone. keeps me off the ground (snakes in Florida most of the year) and keeps the mosquitos and No-see-ums out. I also have a detachable waist pack that my wife can manage that is a basic/bare essential version of my full pack. I also use it when I want to go do some exploring without taking my camp apart and repacking everything. Attachment 10717. I am setup more for the longer term than day tripping and weekends. Great hobby if nothing else. I can't stress how important it is to actually practice hiking with the pack on. Don't just assume that you will be able to handle it. I wasn't. I weighed my pack and then used bench weights in another pack to train. A trick I discovered was to wrap the edges of the weights with pipe insulation and secure it with duct tape. It keeps the weights from rattling and provides some padding. It was pretty sad at first. After about 3 blocks with a full load I was ready to call a cab!! I also started on a level, paved road and then graduated to uneven terrain.
Bigskipper
Hunter63 saying Hey and Welcome.
There is an intro section at ....may want to stop in and say Hello.
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...-Introductions
I am not the big 5 0 yet but just 6 years away however a lifetime of adventure and stupidity have left me wondering why the mind says yes and the body says OH HELL NO! I was searching just today for a nice canoe on craigslist but also have over the years evolved into a minimalist system that works for me. Yes Rick being older and having a good job does help get better gear but I try to make as much of my gear as possible so its more specific to what I actually carry. I wont skimp in the sleep system nor on the use of a 1000D cordura coated tarp I made for wintertime so I can have a fire under it. Everything else seems to find its place and has been weeded out. Infact when I reflect back on it I would wager there were visual stages of learning I could point to as I continued to evolve.
Crash I have the same setup and with just a tarp it is great and very comfortable. If you ever want sleep near the fire you can lay a wool blanket or treated canvas over the bivy.
Everyone's idea of non-essential gear is different. There is one transplant from Canada who has lived here in North Texas for many years and in his late 60's. He will often take a great cedar strip canoe that is very light but has a cargo capacity of about 800 lbs. But he packs very little gear, not even a chair just a pad that doubles as an assist at one person loading the 17' canoe on the overhead racks of his truck to prevent it from getting scratched. Personally I want some weight so the wind does not blow my boat all over the water, but he loaded in and out very fast also that helps when you are older and a learned skill. So some jugs of water are an easier solution just drain at takeout or if you need to pull canoe over a log jam or portage around it.
Edit: found photo of Expat Canadian minimalist in his Cedar Strip Canoe shirtless paddling down Texas "Colorado" river below Austin between Webberville and Bastrop. As I recall he was using an iPad + solar panel to do some international day trading and communicating to wife and also daughter in California so, a relative minimalist... BTW google Webberville and you might see a photo of my friends paddling, Marc McCord et al.
Attachment 10823
He started out with a good looking wooden single blade paddle but then someone talked him into trying a cheap Mohawk double bladed 9' aluminum and plastic oar/paddle, possible to buy wooden 9' double blades but very expensive. Also Bending Branches makes some good shorter wood ones, very nice and light but need to be refinished every few years, not as extremely expensive, good if not a lot of rocks and rapids/riffles. I obsess about these details..., Aluminum dry box, not an ice chest BTW.
On the same trip this old timer took the opposite approach and packed so much gear that he needed to stand up much of the way to avoid rocks and logs. But his two large Dutch ovens cooked great pot roasts and deserts at the same time, enough first aid equipment to set up a military MASH unit or at least triage... That is a 5 day cooler you see there!
Attachment 10824
For those of us that have bad shoulders or are just old: One method I use to remove my pack, especially if it's heavy, is to toss a line over a tree limb. I slip one end through the top handle on my pack and tie a loop in the other end about two feet off the ground. I slip one foot in the loop and step down. This pulls up on the pack and takes all the pressure off me so I can just slip the pack off. Then I can lower it to the ground. to saddle up I just reverse the process. I've also been known to sit straddle of a log to remove my pack. Less stress on the shoulders is a great thing.
No don't there is much better software out there - VBulletin is not keeping up anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
Wow even I would not share that! You need a lighte.r pack or a goat. I prefer a donkey.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
http://blog.ounodesign.com/wp-conten...ksDonkey3x.jpg
I share everything. I have a cold. Want it? As for the bug (forum, not cold) that seems to be the only one. Everything else works well. We accept your thanks for that.
When you have space for your labrador retriever in your canoe it is not over loaded:
Attachment 10825
I got my lab a 18ft boat....he had a bad habit of diving overboard out of the canoe.... after ducks.....at about 100#....
Quote:
Originally Posted by TX
Sadly, that isn't true about guns. Sometimes all it takes is one to tip it over.
Here's a funny for you...I was reading an article that was pro-gun and lamenting some politicians' opinions. Then the author referenced that he had lost all his guns in a terrible canoe accident. I don't think I've ever heard or read of that happening except on this forum and that started a few years ago. I guess we're trend setters. LOL.
I don't feel so bad . . . I keep eyeballing a big wheeled garden cart.
I'm actually working on a cart. I'm waiting for some parts to come in so I can finish it then I'm going to post a thread on it. Some home brew engineering.
Look forward to seeing it. I seriously have considered something I can pull by hand but also robust enough to pull behind a 4-wheeler. I live within a mile of all trail walking to good fishing and piddling on a river. Would be nice to dual purpose something - use it gardening but also tow on trail locally.
My days of 120 pounds of stuff on my back are long over . . . and I have the knees to prove it.
I am 61 & can still pack 60 lb pack all day long, problem is I sometimes forget where I am going. Good thing my wife comes along she still has her memory & her looks.
Now that right there is funny - I don't care who you are.
Welcome to the forum.
I hear ya....I been walking 5 miles a day.....not real sure where I am right now......Quote:
Originally Posted by ShirleyDadams
Welcome aboard.
Now that's funny I don't care who you are. God bless them little lost pygmies down there in New Guinea.
Geezer BOB:
Toilet paper
Preperation H
Depends
Wet Wipes
Bag of prunes
Local map with huge letters and symbols
Bob Evans gift card
AARP card
Polydent
Tactical denture case
Jitterbug cell phone
Did I forget anything??????
Support stockings and heart meds!Quote:
Originally Posted by Wildthang
Tums
Spare glasses
Velcro closure "tactical" shuffling shoes
Walking stick/cane....for leaning, poking and swatting
You don't need spare glasses, you need a seeing eye Ruth in a hong. You just hang on to her leash and follow while watching the great scenery ahead of you.........LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by hunter63
Hunter try not to think about that all day, DW will start wondering why you are looking down and smiling so much:smartass:
......Well, you brought it up....Happy, happy, happy.....
Good lord! All this stuff. Is so true!
This is a great thread haha!
I'm getting on in my age, and my main pack is about 30-35 lbs. My knees are shot from all of the abuse in my teen yrs-. Shoulders not great either... However I do find (for myself anyway) that eating clean definitely helps. I try not to ingest too many foods with chemicals. I try to exercise and keep myself moving. After all, Survival starts with your body first. I'm not going to be climbing Mt Everest anytime soon, But i try to keep fit enough to be able to get up and out should I need to, and at least carry some comforts. I hike a lot on trails, and try to include my pack enough so that it's not a huge shock when I get it on.
Yep, went from backpacking to canoe. Now I can bring what ever I want. This was a 5 day trip down the Mighty Yukon River.
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...df&oe=5A90AACF
A canoe trip. No good can come of this I tell ya. I sure hope there is not a firearm in that canoe.
if when i was a much younger youth i would have not been so hard on my body.
when i was eighteen i never thought i'd live this long.
any how gizerdom sucks it just does. hense the old saw youth is wasted on the young.
truer words never spoken.
Hayshaker like you I keep stocked pack ready day pack 30# any longer a larger pack 60# that’s a little harder on the body at 61 years old but I manage okay gets lighter as the days go by. I carry very little water rely on hydrating morning /evening mainly which cuts down on weight
lets not forget gezzers tactical gel aka bengay.
Ahhh, yes....the scent of the gym....Ode to Bengay #2.......Quote:
Originally Posted by hayshaker
Suppose to be a scent free zone....LOL
30# pack....60# pack! I thought you guys were talking about fanny packs. If I've got something that needs packing and it's 30#, I put it in the Tundra.
When you sweat after walking a mile the BenGay starts running down into places it should not go!
Alan
My 30 # pack is in the F-250 along with the 60# pack.....and maybe a enough gear to restart civilization....Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan R McDaniel Jr
Remember the old African movies.....
Guys walked along with white suit, smoking pipe....piston belt and pith helmet...
Porters carried everything.for full camp every night.......
You just kicked back and lusted after the blond GF of someone.....
Yeah, that's the ticket...what happened to that.....carry your own stuff?.....Not civilized.
When my boys were young we'd go hunting and I'd pretty much do all the work except gathering firewood. I always thought that when they got older they would start taking on the duties of making and breaking camp and much of the work in between, and that I would do a lot of the sitting by the fire and ladling out sage advice chores.......
Well, y'all probably know how that worked out...
Alan
PORTERS PORTERS where are my porters, yeah i remember those movies,
thing is i was always my own porter.and as for thelinement one time in hawaii
i accedently got some capsasin creme on my junk by accident, it will make you
cry. a bar of soap and gallon of water was of little use.
That is the truth.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan R McDaniel Jr
Starting taking my nephew out at age 13 including Hunter's Safety...
Idea being....would bring him along...so he could carry the stuff....drag the deer, clean ducks. launch the boat, learn to cook, and drive me home from the saloons...
Add to the hunting area with HIS buddies, be taken to a good spot....All I had to do was show up.....
Well....is 25 now graduated from college, got a good job, married w/ 3 kids, nice house mortgage....and doesn't have time to hunt much.
So much for that plan........