MISC Hiking / Backpacking stuff
Garmin II+ GPSA friend gave me a Garmin II+ GPS. It has an internal battery that had failed. I thought about opening it up and replacing the battery. It turns out thar Garmin has a 10 year warranty on the battery. I called them, and they gave me a RMA number. I mailed back the GPS. It arrived with a new battery, a revised battery charging circuit, the firmware was updated, the waypoints were saved, and the rubber plug which seals the power/data connertor was replaced. They even put a piece of protective plastic over the LCD screen. I am quite impressed with their customer support, as well as with their GPS's. Garmin StreetPilot GPSI bought this used a few years ago. It is designed to be used in a vehicle. It has a nice backlight display. It has all the features you would expect in a basic vehicle GPS. It does not route or talk. It does display direction with a compass display. It displays altitude and speed. It has a basic map of the USA. You can add street level maps using their add-on memory. This was before standard flash cards, so it uses special expensive garmin plug in memory. To program the memory you have to hook up the GPS to a computer via a serial cable. I don't mean a USB cable, I mean a 9 pin subminature serial plug. Needless to say, downloading maps into it takes quite a while. It does not display UTM coordinates, which I use for off-road driving and hiking. The newer StreetPilots have USB and/or standard flash drives so downloading maps is much faster. They also often have color displays, route directions, and can talk to you. I still use it, as a basic vehicle gps. Mio C310x GPSI bought this on sale recently. It is a vehicle GPS. About the size of a wallet, and considerably smaller than my Garmin StreetPilot GPS. It has a color display, it can route, and talk to you. It also can play mp3 files. It comes with a street level map of all of the USA. You can download other maps into its 1gb flash memory. You can add more memory with a standard SD slot. There are a variety of hacks on the net to make this also play video files, change the voice that talks to you, and more. It runs Microsoft Windows CE. It has an internal Lithium Ion battery that is supposed to be good for 5 hours. It also has a touchscreen for most of the inputs. I quickly read the owners manual, and started using it. There are a few things I still haven't figured out, but I can see where I am going, and the altitude and time. Color sure is a nice feature. This uses the SurfSatIII chipset which has 10 times as many correlators as the SurfSatII chipset so it is much quicker to find satellites. It also uses less power, and is more sensitive than the older chipset. The Fisher Space-PenI have several Fisher bullet space pens. When closed, they look sorta like a 4 inch long 'bullet', and the pen tip is concealed. When open, they look like a normal pen. The space pen will write upside down, underwater, and in temperature extremes that would kill a person (-50F to +400F). It will also write on surfaces that a normal pen won't. Very robust. One could easily drive a car over it. The optional clip can come off by accident. Their triple action pen, with two colors of pens and one mechanical
pencil is very nice. The body is metal, but the grip is plastic,
which is the weak point of the pen. It is not strong enough for
rough handling. $13 on up. The Pentel Sharp Kerry P1035 Mechanical PencilI have found exactly one mechanical pencil robust enough for backcountry use. It is a Pentel plastic pencil. It has an aluminum cap which when closed, covers the tip. This way, no holes are poked in the pack, and the tip isn't destroyed. About $20 (ouch). I have a different Pentel Pencil. It has a retractable tip and an aluminum body. Works fine, except the pocket clip has broken off. |
Nalgene makes several types of water bottles. There is one made of polyethylene and one made of polycarbonate. The polyethylene one is a has a milky, clear color, and is somewhat squeezable. The lexan one is much clearer, and is available in several tints, including clear. The lexan one is pretty rigid compared to the polyethylene one. The caps are available with and without the 'Loop-Top', which prevents the cap from getting lost.
I have had two polyethylene bottles fail in the same manner. They develop a series of cracks around the neck area. This really sucks, as the cracks usually aren't obvious until they leak. Therefore, I recommend only the lexan bottles. I tried to return the leaking bottle to REI, but I was told they simply wear out, and only the lexan ones have any kind of guarantee.
About 20 years ago, I tried on a friend's REI glacier glasses. They were very comfortable. I decided to get my prescription eyeglasses made inside REI glacier glasses frames. The frames are black nylon. The part that goes around the ear is curved plastic (also known as cable temples) that instantly adjusts to the shape of the ear. The temples are very comfortable. They also do a great job of keeping the glasses from falling off. The part that touches the nose is a built into the frame and is non-adjustable. It happens to fit my nose very well and very nicely distributes the weight of the glasses. The frames are not as asthetically appealing as some other frames. The temples have a tendency to break at the hinge. Since just the frames are cheap (20 years ago they were $10, and more recently they went up to $16) it isn't a problem. Then REI stopped selling the frames. Many have asked them to make the frame again, but the demand has gone unheeded. In reading about nylon frames I found that they dry out and get brittle with age. Soaking them in warm water every month is supposed to keep the frames strong. I am down to my last 5 frames. I do have more of the central part (where the glass goes). They even have removable side shields which keep stuff like light, snow, sand, dust, and the like from getting in your eyes.
Since REI glacier glasses were unobtainable, I decided to find other glacier glasses. I decided to get metal frames in a quest for durability. The Julbo Drus had cable temples, and a one piece nose support, so I bought them. The side shields are also removable. The frames were about $60, which is much more than the REI glacier glasses, but cheaperr than nost prescription frames. The cable temples have what seems like a metal core and is not nearly as comfortable as the REI glacier glasses, but they are much more comfortable to me than conventional temples. The one piece nose support is designed for someone with a broader nose than mine. I was able to heat it up and bend it a bit which helped. I had to add some nose pads in order to keep the sharp top part from digging into my nose. I called Julbo and told them they should sell several different width nose-pieces. They took it under advisement. There is a black plastic and rubber part in the middle of the frames that isn't the most asthetically appealing. Other Julbo models have adjustable nose pieces, but none have the support of the REI glacier glasees nose support.
Jack has some unusual ideas about quality control and customer service. Here are some letters between him and me, that should be read before anyone considers buying his products.
I have had a few conversations with Jack Stephenson, owner of Warmlite. He seems to feel that his equipment is flawless, and that I am an idiot. So I decided to list all the problems that I have had with his gear.
I have 2 of his tents. The first one had a pocket that failed. I repaired it. The second one had the pole sleeve fail the first time I used it in the field. I sent it back for repair, and they said that looked like I abused it, because there were abrasion marks. Now, the tent cost me $565, so you might imagine that I would try not to abuse it. I didn't really examine the area of failure carefully before it failed, so I suppose it is possible that it was scraped for a minute or so, before it failed. I do know I was setting it up for the first time outside.
As for the pocket failure, it is the first time I have had a tent pocket fail. I have had 9 tents over a 16 year period, and I have loaned many of my tents to others. The only other problems I have had with tents are some slightly bent poles, and one broken pole on my Sierra Design Super-Bivy. So 9 tents, 3 failures, 2 of which are on my 2 Stephenson tents. Do the math.
I also bought a pair of vapor-barrier socks. Vapor barrier socks are a very good thing indeed, and I highly recommend using some kind of vapor barrier socks when its cold (like when I spent 2 weeks in Fairbanks, Alaska with an average temperature of -20F).
The first pair I bought delaminated the first time I used them. They are made of a proprietary material, which seems to be a film laminated on both sides to some nylon like mesh. I was told that it was only a cosmetic problem, and the vapor barrier would still be fine. Nonetheless, they replaced them. As I recall, the second pair went 2 wearings before failing the same way. They sent me a third pair, and said to be sure to wear liner socks inside the VBL socks. This pair has worked fine.
I also have a vapor barrier shirt. It is very handy, since it is very thin, light, and keeps me quite warm. I used it during my Alaska trip with great success. There is a piece of velcro used as a cuff for the end of the sleeve. It broke, and I had to sew it back on.
My sleeping bag has had a few problems. When it first arrived, it was not completely sewn together. There was one area that was held together by a sewing pin. I sent it back, and they finished sewing it together.
Next, the velcro used to hold the top of the down collar to the bottom of the down broke. I sent it back, and they fixed it again.
After speaking with Jack, I sent the bag in to be repaired for this problem around 1995. The bag was returned unrepaired. Now that the company is on the Internet, I decided to try again. I have been exchanging email with Jack, and he seems to misunderstand at least half of what I am saying, and calls me an idiot. He maintains that I have abused the bag, and he will patch it up, without really repairing the failed Vap-R-Soft fabric, charging me money, and making my bag heavier. Now I'm not rich, and the bag cost me $685. Some people that know me think that I am in fact overprotective of my gear. For example, I don't like my tents to be out in the sun, because it weakens them. I have gone out of my way to treat my expensive gear very carefully (except for my McHale pack which is built like a brick outhouse). Perhaps I will include the letters that Jack and I have exchanged, but he won't admit the possibility that the bag may have been defective.
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