Adjusting Gear

I bought new tent stakes. I really liked my old ones, but I wanted to try something new. The old ones are hollow aluminum, the new ones are solid titanium. The old ones didn't bend or break nearly as often as previous tent pegs I'd owned, but they still bent and broke on me. I haven't tried the new ones yet, so I don't know how durable they are. The new ones are much smaller than the old ones, and I'm hard pressed to decide if that is good or bad. I think most of the dirt here is so hard that it won't matter. The new ones weigh 2g more than the old ones. That surprised me. I didn't succeed in reducing weight, but I reduced size and I might have increased reliability.

My new guycable weighs 38g for 15m. My old parachute cord weighs 42g for about 6m. My old parachute cord could be cut with a knife. My new cord is surprisingly knife-proof. I succeeded in reducing weight by quite a bit, and I now have easy to see orange guycables instead of olive drab and hard to see parachute cord.

My old hammock weighs 810g in the stuff sack I kept it in. My new hammock weighs 610 grams in its attached stuff sack. The carabiners on my old hammock weigh 64g each. The carabiners on my new hammock weigh 62g each. But the new ones suck, so I'm swapping them. The new hammock is significantly smaller in terms of pack-size, but appears to be about as big hammock-wise. My old hammock was bought as a replacement for my original hammock. My original hammock was a well made hammocking machine that eventually gave up the ghost after a decade or more of use. The replacement was poorly made junk. I lost 200g of weight, and hopefully I have upgraded quality.

My 9.5 foot by 12 foot Outdoor Products traditional tarp weighs 1024g. My 5 foot by 8 foot silnylon tarp weighs 200g. The traditional tarp has size as an advantage, and costs $350 less than the closest sized silnylon tarp I could buy. Big is nice, but so is light. I have an OR Advanced Bivy, so I really don't need either tarp. They are comfort dwellings. People say that silnylon is durable. I'll find out eventually. My previous Outdoor Products tarp held up for years.


I haven't done much outdoors yet, but I'm feeling very prepared for when I do start doing stuff outdoors!

The surgery is next week. Once I'm cleared for hot springing, I'm headed to Turkey Creek. I need to get in good enough shape to make the hike between now and then. I should make it.