I find it helpful to evaluate my gear starting with the most important question: how well does it do its job? How well does this mattress help me sleep? How well does this stove cook my food? All other concerns about weight, durability, cost, style, etc may be important, but their importance diminishes if the item in question is really good or really bad at what I need it to do. It doesn’t matter what kind of great deal I…
I recently took Amtrak from Cleveland, Ohio, to Portland, Oregon. Even though this is an incredibly long journey by train, taking Amtrak allowed me to make multiple stops for the same price as the direct journey. For $235, we were able to stop off in Chicago as well as visit Glacier National Park for a couple of days before ending our trip in Portland. After completing the journey in coach on Amtrak, I have to say that I would happily…
If you’re just tuning in now, you’re missing all the backstory. Click here for parts one, two, three and four! Now if you’ve read this far into my odyssey, first of all, thanks. Give yourself a pat on the back. You probably think at this point that I’ve settled on the BA system and we will live happily ever after with lots of good sleep, no pinhole leaks, and many more happy camping nights ahead of us. Remember what I…
Click here for parts one, two, and three of our saga. Now I’m well on this journey. I have moved off of the hammock as a regular use item, I liked the thickness of the NeoAir but not the durability. I also discovered around this time that I really did not enjoy having my feet confined in the bottom of a mummy bag. After many nights spent out camping in a few different bags over the years, I came to…
Click here if you missed part 2! So what’s a fellow to do? I now had two different Therm-a-Rest mattresses sitting around, neither of which suited my needs adequately. Well if you guessed doing away with mattresses entirely and trying to achieve a good night’s sleep by suspending myself between two trees, you guessed right! Behold, my brief foray into hammock camping. After reading and researching a bit in to hammock camping online, and discovering that there was a shop…
Click here for Part 1! Knowing that I needed more thickness to handle the reduced surface area of my side sleeping profile, I sprang for the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Xlite. Persuaded by the images of good looking smiling campers louging in supreme comfort on their NeoAir mattress in and out of their tents, I justified the cost to myself. This would be the last mattress I would ever need to buy, one mattress to rule them all. In many ways it…
As with most things gear related, the process of finding the right sleep system when out camping or cycle touring usually takes a fair amount of trial and error. Taking recommendations from blogs, faceless forum contributors, or friends can help us narrow down our search, but we can still end up purchasing something that ends up not being quite what we want. And so that item gets sold on, passed on, or hidden away in the basement, we consider what…
As I am on the road currently, I thought it would be a good idea to list my progress (or lack of progress) in one spot for easy tracking. I’ll include links to any relevant articles about the locations I cycle to and through. Washington, USA Day 1 – Spokane to Chewelah Day 2 – Chewelah to Canyon Creek Campground in the Colville National Forest Day 3 – Canyon Creek Campground to Republic Day 4 – rest day Day 5 –…
When I started looking into going to Glacier National Park in Montana, everything I saw said to avoid going there in June. This mainly has to do with the weather. As this is basically the beginning of the summer season for Glacier, not all of the services and lodges are fully up and running, Going to the Sun road will still probably be snowed in until later in the month, it’s the rainiest month of the year at the park,…