Hiking/Camping

Good God, how much does all that weigh?? I hope you're hiking on flat ground and not the mountains. That's more like a base camp set up.

You don't need a fixed blade, a big folder, or a multi tool (ie. Leatherman). The smallest size Swiss Army knife you can get with scissors is just fine. I usually cut off the fingernail file.

You don't need a pillow. Just roll up your spare clothes.

A cookset is also not necessary. All you need is one lightweight 1 quart pot.

Something to consider before you invest in a BioLite stove for backpacking. I've seen a number of these little wood burning furnaces come and go over the years, although this is the first one I've seen with a battery charger, and they all have one thing in common - they need wood. That's fine and dandy...until you have two or three straight days of rain and the woods are saturated. Sure you can carry dry tinder to get it started but you'll have to add wet wood which will slow everything down to a crawl and get smokey real fast. Burning wet wood is always a bitch. They're also useless if you go alpine or hike in deserts. Trust me, I learned the hard way. The last thing you want to do when you're cold, wet, tired, and hungry is fuck around with your stove. They're probably ok for a camp stove where you can cache enough dry wood the first day you set up (why not just start a fire instead?) but I wouldn't take one backpacking. I'm not sure why you would need the charging ability anyway?

Just my take on things. Everybody does it different.

 

I love this take, and im glad you expressed it...

I've been researching the Appalachian trail.... towns are five or six days apart(hiking 20 plus miles a day).. those small cans of fuel only last for maybe two days... thats a ton of fuel to carry... not to mention food... carrying dry tender pellets would weigh less, NO?

I'm really interested in the biolite... but your comments give me hesitation on exactly what i was thinking was the downside, carrying dry pellets in case of rains... and the fire starters i'd have to make beforehand...

kinda talking off the cuff... but the biolite on a 2K mile walk seems to be the best way to go about long distance camping, unless like you say it rains...

 

[quote name='"HotDish"']Invest in a hammock.. much better way to sleep.. and much lighter... also sure vibrams "look cool" but have NO ankle support.... which is critical for hiking.. especially with all that on your back..[/quote]

I have completed various hikes in my fivefingers. Including a thru-hike of the foothills trail in northern SC which is about 76 miles in 5 days. Plus I run all the time in them, and I've completed a half marathon in mine. It's all about building strength on your feet you can't jump on the trail immediately with a new pair of five fingers, but if you take the time to build up strength in your feet you can definitely do it. Although for I don't know if I would do a multiple-week hike in mine.

 

it also depends on which pair of five fingers you have... they are not created equal... I have the cheapest, thinnest one's... great for short runs and day travels... not good for ten mile walks with 40 pounds of gear when you have not long hiked or camped in two years....

but good post

 

You're right i'm not so sure about their new styles, but I have the old trek sports which have been very durable. Although the original classics that do not strap on are more for day to day activities you might do in a pair of sneakers.

 

I tried a very similar stove years back but it used small replaceable batteries to power the fan instead of self chargers. I hated it. After a long day, having to find twigs and sticks, coaxing them to burn, feeding in more and larger ones to maintain the fire was more hassle than it was worth. A small campfire would have been easier. And that was when the wood was dry. Multiply the headaches by 10 when everything including you is wet.

A couple blurbs directly from Bio Lite's website:

"It’s most important to choose wood that’s dry. Avoid wood that’s green or rottenz, and use twigs that are dry enough that they snap cleanly. 

Use dry fuel whenever possible.

Avoid damp/wet wood as this creates prime conditions for smoky fires. Same goes for leaves. If a twig bends instead of snaps, chances are it is from recent breakage and the internal moisture will create smoke as well."

...and they're putting it nicely.

I've tried quite a few stoves but for almost thirty years, I've always gone back to the
MSR Whisperlite. A 20 oz. bottle of fuel lasts me about a week using it twice a day for breakfast and dinner and I'm cooking within minutes of taking it out of my pack.

EDIT - About weight, the BioLite weighs over two pounds. More than a Whisperlite with a full 20 oz. fuel bottle and cooking with alchohol is much cleaner than cooking with wood, no smoke and no sooty pots to clean.

 

To the op, nice set up! Do you know your base weight?
 
In regards to shoes/boots, unless you're going over really rough terrain, or have horribly weak ankles, I'd say boots are over kill, they weigh way more than trail runnning shoes or five toed shoes which is what you're really going to notice when you're doing long distance hikes. A pound saved on your feet is worth 5 saved on your back, that's science.
 
In regards to stoves, the biolite is really not worth it, it's a cool idea, but as others have pointed out the fuel is unreliable and in many places completely unavailable because you aren't allowed to gather any vegetation. If you need to charge your devices while out there, you can get small solar panels that attach to your backpack and charge your devices on the trail, or just choose devices that run on batteries and pack some spares.

 

Vibrams work fine you just have to build up feet strength.
 

 

The socks make a HUGE difference. Its crazy how much padding a pair of socks adds.