Gear Tidbits

Last month concluded the moto camping trip of the year. I doubt I will do anything that grand for some time to come. The trip highlighted a few gear issues. One, the bivy tent although light and relatively comfortable is no place to spend a lot of time because you can do nothing buy lay there. Sitting up is a challenge, and changing clothes is impossible. I think my out of doors wardrobe changes embarrassed a few of my neighbors. Another issue is that there is no indoor storage for my gear, including tank bag, moto-zipp bag, or panniers. Had it actually rained on us all of this would have sit partially exposed on the vestibule or just placed in the open wrapped in a tarp. I could never shake the thought of a peccary (javalina) destroying my new moto-zipp tail pack.

This has been remedied by the purchase of a CHEAP bass pro shops 7 X 7 dome tent scored on sale for 50% off at $29.99. Moto camping seems to be hard on tents, as evidenced by the wear on the REI bivy. This is in essence the disposable rain poncho of tents. I should be able to get all of my soft gear in this tent. Reviews are stodgy, but if I seal the exposed seams, along with the pre taped rain fly I should be okay in bad weather. I do not like the plastic floor, but it was $30.00, and I always tote an indian blanket anyway so I will never feel it.

The other MAJOR problem I had was no pillow! I was miserable for 6 days over this problem. I only slept moderately well on the last night, and only because I knew I would soon be able to buy a pillow. The very day I returned home I went to the Walgreens I had passed up the perfect pillow at a few weeks before and spent $4.00 on a pillow. The event was so traumatic that I am still looking for spares in the event I am ever without a suitable travel pillow.

The last gear tidbit I wanted to mention was my new Coleman LED lantern. I am still looking for a reading/tent light for my trips. I picked up the Coleman micro-hiker lantern ($20.00 at amazon) for this purpose. It is a great lantern but the light is uneven and there are hot & dark spots witch don’t work very well to read by. Having said that, this lantern is a step in the right direction. The major drawback is the switch. I routinely unpack this lantern to find that the “press to operate” switch has been triggered in the pack. I traveled with the batteries removed after the second incident. I am really interested in the Brunton Glorb sold on the Aerostich website, but for $35.00 I am passing for now.