Backpackin'

Imagine the luxury of a rectangular shaped, 72 inch long, 3.5 inch thick sleeping pad. Ahhhhh, how terrific that would be at the end of a 20 mile day. Oh, alright, at my age, a 10 mile day.

Anyway, now imagine that deep cushion with an R-value of 6, better than the Exped Downmat 7 Deluxe and more than a pound lighter.

A pound!

In fact, this mat is only 2 oz heavier than the much-vaunted Neoair and more than twice its warmth.

If you're like me, right now you're probably going gimme, gimme, gimme.

You get these custom made by Bender at www.Kookabay.com. I don't know how much they cost. I didn't ask. I don't care. I'm getting one. No, two, for when we thru-hike the AT.

Basically, as Bender told me in an email, he can make just about any design sleeping pad, with down or synthetic insulation, that you can dream up.

And keep it light in the bargain.

(Joe Valesko runs Zpacks, a very cool cottage business building incredibly light backpacking gear. His site is at http://www.zpacks.com/)

Dear Joe,

Granite Gear is supposed to debut these incredibly light dry sacks in February. They’re made of Cuben Fiber and will be about ½ the weight they would be if they were silnylon. You can see them here http://www.trailspace.com/blog/2009/07/24/outdoor-retailer-granite-gear-uberlight-ctf3-drysacks.html.
 

Granite gear already has these nifty very light silnylon dry sacks that are also airvented – they’ve got some eVent fabric on the bottom - so you can really compress these babies and have a teeny tiny waterproof package. Very cool for a down sleeping bag, for example.

They also sell a heavy duty model, similar to the Sea to Summit ventable dry sacks (http://www.seatosummit.com/products/display/64) we bought a couple of years ago at Mountain Crossings in Georgia that have worked very well for us.

Here’s the weight comparisons for a 13 liter bag, the size we’re using for our down bags.

Sea to Summit                    2.4 oz

Granite Gear heavy duty    1.9 oz

Granite Gear Silnylon        1.5 oz

And the Uberlight 13 liter dry sack weighs .67 oz – but it doesn’t vent air like the other three.

Now it seems obvious to even a dufus like me that having a sub-one oz ventable dry sack would be extra super cool so I wrote to Granite Gear and told them so.

You know what they said? They sent me a very nice email explaining that they don’t use ideas from customers because of legal issues.

I understand the point. You know, law suits. Some guy sends in a quick note with an idea, the company uses it and makes a gazillion dollars, then the guy sues for a chunk of the loot and some jury awards it to him – plus pain and suffering – even though he clearly offered the idea for free.

So I’m writing to see what you think of the idea.  I probably should have done that first, since you began innovating with Cuben Fiber long before Granite Gear, but the idea just sort of sprang up while I was reading about their new dry sacks.

Anyway, I think they’d sell like Snickers bars. What could be better? Ultra-light, ultra-compressible, completely waterproof.  I’d really like to have several for our eventual AT SOBO.

And I promise I won’t sue.

Thanks for your time.

Richard Brownkatz

A smart person learns from their mistakes.

A wise person learns from the mistakes of others.

I on the other hand...

I’m telling you, don’t buy a backpack online. Fit is everything, even more important than weight, capacity, features and trail fashion. It is critically important to go to a really good outfitter where they have staff that knows what they are doing, preferably because they are highly experienced backpackers, who can properly fit a back to you specifically.

I’m telling you, just as I have been told and have read and have told others.

You know where this is going. I bought a pack online. I didn’t even go to an outfitter and go through a fitting and find what is perfect for mine and then order it online, mostly because I could not stand the guilt I would feel putting a working person through all that when I have no intention of buying from them. It’s also a long drive to the nearest outfitter I trust and I’m lazy.

I wanted a Granite Gear Nimbus Merdian as soon as I saw one in a catalog. It's a 3800 cubic inch, 3 pound 8 ounce internal with a removable top lid. The story goes that the people at Granite Gear built the first one for a guy trail-named Trauma (real name Justin Lichter) who used it to hike 10,000 miles in one year. The pack looked dirty but otherwise perfectly servicable after all that. Plus, the top lid is a big pocket that converts into a fanny pack, there are two hyper-stretchy pockets on the sides and a neat sort of yoke thing that make it very easy to attach stuff like a tent or sleeping pad quickly and very securely.

I had to have it. Granite Gear sells it for $269.95, a fair price as far as I'm concerned but too rich for me at the time. No dealers in my area carry them. Then I saw one from an outfitter in like Colorado somewherwe for I thinkl it was $150. Caution to the winds, get out the Visa card, the pack is on its way. Wrong hip belt. Wrong shoulder straps. Wrong size pack.The outfitter didn't have either the shoulder straps or the belt, I forget. So I spent I don't know how much of what I saved and a whole bunch of weeks sorting this out.

Still, I really love that pack.