This second review of components in the GearPods Wilderness system looks at the included GearPods Health kit. GearPods offer “modular, lightweight adventure and survival gear to help the outdoor enthusiast to prepare for the unexpected.” In all their systems, they combine interconnecting, “waterproof” containers with survival kits. Because the system is modular, I’m reviewing each component separately. I’ll wrap-up the reviews in a final overview and opinion of the products with a separate post.

Because a first aid kit is only used when an injury occurs, I’m looking at the parts of this kit without having to use them. The kit is contained in a small nylon pouch inside of a GearPods Medium container (3.25” diameter, 3.25” height). It includes:

• Ibuprofen – 200mg (2)
• Aspirin – 325mg (2)
• Burn Cream with Aloe Vera
• Cleansing Wipes (2)
• Insect Protection Cream
• Sunscreen Lotion – SPF 30+
• Insect Sting Relief Towelette
• Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac Cleanser
• Lip Ointment
• Hydrocortisone – 1%
• Iodine Wipes (2)
• Antibiotic Ointment
• Moleskin – 2″x2″ (2)
• Cotton Swabs (5)
• Medical Tape (0.5”x2.5yds)
• Tweezers
• Alcohol Prep Pads (2)
• Butterfly Closures (3)
• Knuckle Band Aid (2)
• Small Bandages (5)
• Large Bandages (5)
• Gauze Pads (2)
• Stuff sac with drawcard and fastener
• Contents Sheet

Because I’m a Wilderness First Responder, I like to customize my kits to suit the situations that I anticipate encountering. My personal lightweight first aid kit weighs 8.3 ounces and is designed for 2 to 4 people on a 10 day trip. I typically beef up the medication on longer trips based on the people coming along. The GearPod kit weighs only 4.8 ounces including the container. If I were to use this first aid kit on a trip, to make it acceptable, I’d add to it. Most importantly:

• Latex or Nitrile gloves
• More medicine, including Acetaminophen (Tylenol 500mg), Antihistamine (Diphenhydramine 25mg), and Diamode (Loperamide HCI 2mg)
• More and larger gauze pads
• Co-hesive, Elastic Vet Wrap, 2″
• Triangular Bandage
• Syringe with 18 Gauge Tip, 10cc

A few items, I’d remove. Most of the following, I’d be carrying as duplicate items elsewhere in my kit.

• Insect Protection Cream
• Sunscreen Lotion – SPF 30+
• Insect Sting Relief Towelette
• Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac Cleanser (I don’t run into these too often and train those I’m with to look out for it. Only on one trip did someone I was with get Poison Ivy. She wiped with a leaf.)
• Lip Ointment

It’s hard to find a commercially available first aid kit that’s perfect, so I end up building my own. In the case of the GearPods Health kit, I’d have to restructure it significantly to take it to my standards. For about the same price both of Adventure Medical Kits’ UltraLight / Watertight .7 First-Aid Kit and their UltraLight / Watertight .9 First-Aid Kit offer a more complete kit that is just as watertight. As a separate component, I give the GearPods Health kit a pass. Included in the Wilderness system, it’d have to be beefed up to make it worth carrying.

On a side note not specific to the Health kit, I’ve found that the containers leak slightly. I let a container float in a sink full of water. After four hours, I wiped off the outside of the container to make sure no water splashed in and opened both ends. Inside each end, water beads were creeping up the threads and into the container. Not a ton of water, but a bit. Looks like my tests are concurring with Derrik’s tests.

My Other Reviews of the GearPods Kits

• GearPods Shelter Kit Review
• GearPods Health Kit Review

Back in April, Kayalu sent me a Kayacam camera mount to test out on my kayak. I decided to give it a go on a calm day (check out the video below). The Kayacam mount attaches to your kayak or canoe by hooking into an existing deck fitting with a stainless steel clip. The stainless clip is attached to a bungee cord, which you tighten until the mount is secure. Kayalu recommends that you use cameras weighing 7 ounces or less when used on a kayak, canoe or other boat subject to rocking.

You can use to link to Kayalu’s website to see the specifics of the camera mount. I’ll say that I found every component of the mount high quality. The only problem I had was I wanted to mount the camera in the center of my kayak, which has a ridge. Because the surface wasn’t completely flat, it made the mount slightly wobbly. I managed to fix the problem by carving out a flat foam platform for the mount to sit on. A friend of mine, who is just about to finish paddling up the Inside Passage, has been using one on the trip to shoot video. It’ll be interesting to see what he comes back with.

If you’re looking for a way to mount a camera onto your kayak, the Kayacam or Kayalu’s RAM Locking Suction Camera Mount with Toughbar are two great and inexpensive ways to do it.

GearPods, a company based out of Polson, Montana, manufactures “modular, lightweight adventure and survival gear to help the outdoor enthusiast to prepare for the unexpected.” Their gear systems combine interconnecting, waterproof containers with pre-built survival kits. Users combine any number of containers and gear to arrive at a customized kit, something like my emergency ditch kit. I’m currently testing out GearPods Wilderness system, which includes first-aid, survival gear, a lightweight stove, and the GearPods Shelter. Because the system is modular, I’m reviewing each component separately. I’ll wrap-up the reviews in a final overview and opinion of the products with a separate post. Because, I travel in lightweight style, I prefer gear that functions double-duty. I much prefer gear that functions in normal camp as well as in an emergency.  With that in mind, I set out to test GearPods Shelter system.

The GearPods Shelter system includes a one-person ripstop nylon tarp, 25 feet of nylon cord, 6 Line-Lok® Line Tensioners, and a hypothermia/thermal space blanket. The tarp is double coated with silicon for maximum water protection and features 9 fabric tie loops including a reinforced center loop. A large container (3.25” diameter, 4.75” height) holds the kit. The tarp itself is bright orange. The orange is a great color for emergencies, but for blending into the woods, it’s not that great. Considering that this is sold as an emergency tarp, it’s hard to fault the orange.

Includes:

• GearPods Adventure Tarp: Ultralight one-person silicon-coated ripstop nylon tarp (4.5′ x 6.5′)
• Thermal blanket
• 1.4 mm Nylon Cord – 70lbs breaking strength (25ft)
• Six (6) line tensioners (1-2mm)
• Printed instructions (PDF)
• GearPods Large Container (3.25” diameter, 4.75” height) with sticker on outside designating the contents
• Stuff sack

Weights:

• Tarp w/cord and tensioners – 5.7 ounces
• Stuff sack – 0.3 ounces
• Space blanket – 1.8 ounces
• Large Container – 3.3 ounces
• Total: 11.1 ounces
• Extras (not included): Four stakes – 1.9 ounces

Set-Up on the GearPods Shelter

To prepare the GearPods Shelter for use, you must decide how to cut-up the supplied cord. I’m a big fan of using tarps to camp under, and my typical system is to use two 10-foot lengths for the ridge line, four 5-foot lengths for the corners, and 3.5-foot lengths everywhere else. With only 25 feet of cord to work with and such a small tarp (4.5′ x 6.5′), I decided to cut the cord into four equal lengths and using bowlines tie a length to each corner. This set-up allows me to pitch the front with my kayak paddle (shown in the picture), and I can vary the height of the shelter’s back to gain more usable space in light rain. If GearPods included 40 feet of cord, I think the tarp would be more versatile. Luckily, it’s easy to buy more cord, and if you’re so inclined, GearPods sells a 40-foot length of paracord. Because the tarp doesn’t come with stakes, I threw four into my boat for testing (1.9 ounces). I recommend preparing the tarp before using it in the field, because during an emergency, the quicker you can complete chores, the more you can take advantage of adrenaline. Fiddly knot tying on small diameter cord slows work down.

Testing the Tarp

After preparing the tarp, it’s easy to set-up. Stake the rear corners out taut at 45 degree angles to the tarp, wrap each front line around the paddles shaft, and stake out the front two lines. Then adjust the line tensioners to make the tarp taut. The tarp itself is small. At only 4.5′ x 6.5′ it’s a tight squeeze to fit completely under while lying on the ground. With any rain splash, to stay dry, you must use the included space blanket to cover up with. In a survival situation, you’re going to remain in one location until rescue. While waiting for rescue, you’ll be able to shore-up the sides with sticks, etc. to help prevent rain from coming in. For day-to-day use, I’d much prefer a slightly larger tarp. A 5′ x 8′ tarp doesn’t seem that much bigger on paper, but in use the extra length allows for different and drier set-ups. I’d like to see another option from GearPods that provides a larger tarp with their kits.

If I’m going to carry a piece of gear, I want it to perform double duty and this tarp does do that. Using a slightly higher set-up raising both the front and back provides just enough room for two people to comfortably cook. If I’m using a tent for sleeping, I’d be tempted to bring along this tarp just to use as a cooking shelter. On several trips, I’ve been windbound under tarps for days at a time. With just two people, this one would probably work as a place to get out of the wind.

On the medical and first responder front, the tarp is just big enough to package a hypothermic victim. Combining it with the space blanket and any insulation you have on hand could make a nice response kit.

Repacking the Shelter System

The hardest part about using the GearPods systems in general is repacking the contents after use. They’re stuffed into the containers tightly. I’ve found that practicing replacing the items at home significantly increases the speed of repacking in the field. The Shelter System is no different. The space blanket works best if wrapped around the outside of the container (if you use the blanket, all bets are off, because they are near impossible to fold back into to small package). I found that folding the tarp and then rolling it so it’s the same height as the container works best for stuffing it into the sack. Once it’s into the sack, getting it into the container takes some force.

Additional Comments

Space blankets have their uses, but for a slight price upgrade, GearPods offers the Shelter Pro. It includes Adventure Medical Kit’s Heatsheets Emergency Bivy. If you’re expecting to spend the night out with just a GearPods kits, the bivy upgrade is worthwhile. Plus, the Sherlter Pro includes a poncho.

Overall

Although I’d prefer a slightly larger tarp and more cord to rig the set-up, the GearPods Shelter system packs a lot into a small container. Considering that this is included with the much larger GearPods Wilderness system, I’d say that it provides the necessary function. As a piece of emergency gear, you’d be hard pressed to find anything as functional in a package the same size and weight. For adventurers looking for a small kitchen tarp, the price seems right. For guides looking for an emergency shelter to hold an injured person before evac, it’s about the right size. If you’re looking for a small tarp, check this one out before you buy; for the price, it’s a good deal.

My Other Reviews of the GearPods Kits

• GearPods Shelter Kit Review
• GearPods Health Kit Review

Get GearPods Now:

• GearPods Wilderness at Amazon.com.

There’s a new player in town for Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness maps, and it’s National Geographic’s excellent Trails Illustrated Maps. The current players in the BWCA map field include McKenzie Maps, Fisher Maps, and Voyageur Maps. Each of the current vendors follows the philosophy that more detail is better. To cover the entire BWCA, they require 25, 32, or 10 maps, respectively. Trails Illustrated does it with 2!

Trails Illustrated Boundary Waters maps are printed on double-sided waterproof and tear resistant 27″ x 39″ paper. When folded, the maps reduce down in size to approximately 4 1/4″ x 9 1/4″. They weigh 3.3 ounces each. The scale of 1:70,000 (1” = 1.10 miles) provides more than enough detail to navigate and plan trips. Contour intervals equal 50 feet, so elevation is easy to discern. The colors are high contrast and easy to read. Campsites, portages, and portage lengths are shown. Like Voyageur Maps they include information that includes contact info for local regulator agencies, permit info, and BWCA regulations. They also include info on Leave No Trace outdoor ethics, Tread Lightly! info, watercraft horsepower restrictions for the few remaining lakes that motors are allowed on, and a nice conversion chart for rods. Missing are contour lines for lakes.

During a quick comparison between the Trails Illustrated maps, McKenzie and Voyageur Maps, I’ve noticed differences in portage lengths–almost no portage is listed as the same length, but the variation seems minor with most in the under 10 rods difference. Some are alarmingly different. For example, Voyageur Map 6 and McKenzie Maps #6 show the portage from Sea Gull Lake into J.A. Paulson Lake (JAP Lake) as 515 rods. On Trails Illustrated, it’s shown as 410 rods. A 105 rod difference equals just under 6 football fields. That’d be a huge surprise for unaware canoeists. An other example is the portage from Missing Link Lake to Tuscarora. Voyageur Maps shows it as 428 rods, McKenzie shows it as 366 rods, and Trails Illustrated shows it as 363 rods. For both portages, I have GPS data. The Sea Gull Lake to JAP comes in at 422 rods on the GPS, and for the Missing Link Lake to Tuscarora, my data comes in at 362 rods. You can find the data I have here: BWCA GPS Portages and Campsites. Your call on accuracy of the various maps. All the maps show campsites in similar locations–close enough to find them without issues.

What I like about the Trail Illustrated maps is the compact form and lightweight. On my longer trips into the BWCA, I’ve ended up carrying a ton of maps. Each night I like to look at the next day’s travels when using McKenzie Maps, I’ll often have to lay out multiple maps to see where I’m going the next day. Voyageur Maps ease the concern somewhat, and Trails Illustrated practically eliminates it. As an example, on one extended trip into the BWCA, I carried 16 different McKenzie Maps. For that trip, I would have carried 6 Voyageur Maps, and only 2 Trails Illustrated Maps. Looking at weights, a McKenzie weighs 2.6 ounces each. Voyageur Maps weigh 3.6 ounces each. Trails Illustrated weigh 3.3 ounces each. For that trip, in maps I carried 2.6 pounds of maps. With Voyageur Maps, I would have carried 1.35 pounds of maps. With Trails Illustrated Maps, I would have only carried 0.4 pounds of maps. The difference in weight alone is a significant Thermarest upgrade.

Then there’s the cost. A complete set of McKenzie Maps costs $165. A complete set of Voyageur Maps costs $99.50. In contrast, you’ll only pay $23.90 for Trails Illustrated Maps. The coverage is the same.

Over the years, I’ve asked via email the various Boundary Waters map makers to come up with a two map set that covers the BWCA entirely. It’s something that I’ve dreamt about for over 10 years. It’s nice to see that a company is willing to try it. I only wish it would have been one of the Minnesota companies that had tackled the project. From now on, when you see me in the Boundary Waters, you’ll see me using National Geographic’s Trails Illustrated BWCA maps.

Get yours here:

• Trails Illustrated (National Geographic) Map Of The BWCA – Eastern Half
• Trails Illustrated (National Geographic) Map Of The BWCA – Western Half

Jetboil’s Personal Cooking System, now called the Flash Cooking System, includes a compact stove, windscreen, bowl and pot. When combined with a 100-gram fuel canister, the components create a small cooking system for one person. Jetboil designed the stove and fuel canister to perfectly nest into the pot. This creates a system that when packed is about the size of a Nalgene bottle. The compact nature of the stove drew me to it, and about a year ago, I received one from Jetboil to use on an expedition. Over the course of a year, I’ve used the stove for over 50 days, and feel confident in reviewing it.

Using a Jetboil Stove

Using the Jetboil couldn’t be easier. Once assembled, you open the plastic stove lid, pull the stove out, remove the plastic bowl from the bottom of the pot, attach the stove with a simple twist, fill the pot with two cups of water, turn on the fuel feed, and click the ignition. About two minutes later, you get boiling water. The pot is covered in a neoprene sleeve that protects your hands from the hot surface. It also has a built-in fabric handle that makes it easy to hold.

The small pot size works best for cooking soup, coffee, or freeze-dried meals while on solo trips. I found eating a meal directly out of the pot difficult. Towards the bottom of the pot, my knuckles and fingers tended to hit the side making it, depending on the meal, a somewhat messy affair. The provided bowl alleviates messy hands, but use it makes an other item to clean. If you normally eat freeze-dried, dehydrated, or Freezer Bag Cooking meals, the size of the pot and my issue with messy easing won’t be a problem–just cook your water and pour into your food’s bag.

Because of the ease of use, the stove excels at quickly serving up a hot cup of brew during a break. I found myself cooking a warm cup of soup for lunch on cold days. Normally, I wouldn’t bother pulling out the stove, pot, assembling the mess to get something warm at mid-day, because, I typically find cooking a chore to be avoided at mid-day and would prefer to only have to eat food bars. Jetboil’s ease of use has redefined what I carry for lunch and now soup often makes it into the pack.

On that same note, one of my favorite parts of using a Jetboil stove is not having to deal with the fuel canister until fuel runs out. Once the fuel canister is attached to the stove, it remains attached until you run out of fuel. Although, the saved labor from screwing on and unscrewing a canister, doesn’t save a lot of time when compared to stoves that you have to affix the canister for each use, the convenience of having the canister always attached to the stove makes using the stove a more pleasant experience. This feature alone endures the stove to me. The only disadvantage to leaving the canister attached is any water that remains inside the pot after you finish cooking will cause the canister to rust. Normally, I wouldn’t think this an issue, but because the stove is so efficient fuel canisters last a long time and they rust. A permanent rust coating rings the bottom of my pot.

Fuel Usage

Incredible. I didn’t perform any specific test to see how much fuel it takes to boil two cups of water, but I’ve seen numbers on the Internet ranging from 4.38 grams to Jetboil’s claim of 4.17 grams. This means about 24 two-cup meals. I found this consistent with the fuel usage that I experienced.

Weight

The Jetboil system weighs in at 14 ounces. A full 100g canister weighs 6.7 ounces. So, at the start of the trip, the system weighs 1 pound and 4.7 ounces. At the end of the trip,  if all the fuel is used, the system weighs 1 pound and 1.17 ounces.

Compared to my lightweight Red Bull photon stove system the Jetboil is heavy. My Red Bull stove system, including the pot, custom wind screen, and stove, weighs about 6 ounces. I figure for about 24 meals, I’d need about 16 ounces of fuel. So, the starting weight of the Red Bull system runs 1 pound 6 ounces. And the end weight,  is 6 ounces.

You can calculate the daily weight average over 24 days, and you’ll find that the Jetboil weighs about 19.53 ounces and the Red Bull system weighs about 14 ounces. For longer trips or trips with two meals a day, the Jetboil gets better, but on shorter trips, the Jetboil gains in weight. For a more detailed comparison visit, PMags.com and read his comparison between the weights of different stove systems.

Many paddlers don’t care that much about weight, but I do, because every ounce you add to your boat, increases drag, which slows you down. Even if you’re not looking for speed, extra ounces make it harder to paddle your kayak at whatever speed you’re traveling at. So lighter gear, means less work for the same distance traveled. Read more about this.

(Note: I understand the momentum argument, but there’s a point at which the momentum that carries speed between paddle strokes and the increased resistance meet. At this point, the increase in weight drowns out the gain from more momentum. Based on rough calculations, which need tank testing to confirm, for a lean and efficient paddler with no extra fat, the dead weight (including boat, gear, paddles, etc.) should weigh around 20% of the person’s body weight–anything more just slows the paddler down.)

Accessories

Jetboil offers many accessories for use with their stoves. The most interesting to me are the 1.5 liter pot attachment for the stove, the coffee press, and the hanging kit. The 1.5 liter pot makes the system usable for two people. The coffee press fits right into the standard pot and works as a French press. This is great of coffee lovers who are looking for an easy and light solution to the morning habit. I’m not sure what I’d ever use the hanging kit for, but if I was still into climbing, it’s such a geeky item that I’d have to figure out how to use it.

Conclusion

There are very few products that I keep using when a lighter and perfectly functional alternative is available. For solo trips or even tandem trips when we’re cooking freeze-dried or dehydrated meals, the Jetboil is one product that I now default to. The convenience, efficiency, and ease-of-use outweigh all of its deficiencies. This product is a winner.

That said, I’d like to see just a few changes in the product. The main one is weight. If Jetboil could get the system without fuel down under 10 ounces, I feel like it’d be a better product. The second is the lid, it’s hard to remove and when taken off after boiling and it’s easy to scald your hand from the escaping steam. It’s a winner now, but there’s always room for improvement.

If you’re looking for a simple cooking system for solo travel, this is one of the best. Highly recommended!

I was walking through an REI store, and I noticed that they offer a plethora of different camping cups. They caught my eye, because when I’m traveling lightweight, I tend to just carry along lightweight platypus bottles, but I like to drink a cup of hot chocolate spiked with a little Baileys Irish Cream and in the morning, I like to start the day with Java Juice. I hate using my platys for this type of drink, because the bottles end up tasting like whatever you put in it, so I considered buying a lightweight titanium camping cup.

I just couldn’t stomach the titanium options, because they were so expensive–they ranged in price from $25 to whopping $40. They ranged in weight from 2.4 ounces to the 1.9 ounce MSR Titan Mug. Although I liked the weight, the price was just too high.

I was about to walk away when I ran across the REI Polypropylene Cup. This lightweight camp cup weighs 2.5 ounces and costs $1.95. At only 0.1 ounce heavier than the heaviest titanium mug and only 0.6 ounce heavier than the lightest, this mug is a bargain.

Then I remembered that I already have a cup similar to REI’s plastic cup, so it must be close to the same weight. I went home and put my GSI Camping Cup on the scale and found it weighed only 1.7 ounces. It’s a full 0.2 ounce under the 1.9 ounce lightweight MSR Titan Mug and a $38 less. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Sometimes the lightest and best isn’t the most high-tech and expensive.

Know any items where the less expensive version trumps the high-tech high-end version?

Canoeist and kayakers should start off the new year and a new decade by resolving to read a few books. In the past I’ve done round-up reviews of boat building books and paddling books, but it’s about time for a new round-up. These 10 stand out as the paddling books you should read in 2010.

Kayaking Books

Sea Kayak Rescue, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Modern Reentry and Recovery Techniques (How to Paddle Series): First published in 2001 and updated in 2007, this guide presents the most up-to-date rescue, reentry, and recovery techniques for sea kayakers. The book is well-written, easy-to-understand, and laid out in a progression that instructors could easily follow when teaching sea kayak rescue. Photographs accompany each description, which helps you visualize the rescues. If you’re a sea kayaking guide or instructor, you should own this book. If you’re an avid sea kayaker venturing more that 20 feet away from shore or on open water, you should definately check it out.

Sea Kayaker’s Pocket Guide: This book is one of the better reference books for sea kayaking that I’ve seen. Almost every topic is covered in a quick and easy-to-understand way. It falls short in the paddle stroke areas, but covers everything else, like weather, packing, repair (including drysuit gasket field repair), and navigation perfectly. Some great tips that I got out of it include rounding the edges of duct tape used for repairs will prevent the tape from snagging and peeling off, and marking the location of your skeg’s jam loop on the kayak’s seam will help your partner to quickly find it and unjam your skeg. Something to have sitting around for a quick reference when needed.

Canoeing Books

Canoe Trip: North to Athabasca: I loved David Curran’s Canoe Trip: Alone in the Maine Wilderness, and he follows up that book with this one. The previous book focused on solo trips in the Maine wilderness and what he learned, how he failed, and what he enjoyed. He takes those themes into an adventure into the Canadian wilderness, and this time he brings a partner.

The Canoe: A Living Tradition: A history of canoes, a tome of everything canoe, the perfect canoe book. It’s hard to describe this coffee table book about canoes, other than to say, if you canoe, and you see this book, you should buy it.

Boat Building Books

Canoe and Kayak Building the Light and Easy Way: How to Build Tough, Super-Safe Boats in Kevlar, Carbon, or Fiberglass: Not only does this book include the plans for one of the ugliest canoes in existence, it also contains information on a unique way to build one-off chined fiberglass boats. I can see this building method used to quickly produce fiberglass Greenland-style kayaks, and if I was building another semi-replica of Ken Taylor’s 1959 Illorsuit kayak, I’d be temped to build it with this method.

Umiak: An Illustrated Guide: I feel a little bad linking to this book, because the lowest price for a used book in 2010 was around $200 on Amazon. I bought it on a whim at a kayak store’s going-out-of-business sale for $5! This book covers some of the history of the Umiak, a skin-on-frame rowboat, as a craft of exploration and as a work-boat. It then launches into how to build one. The book makes me want to build one.

Camping

Lightweight Backpacking and Camping: A Field Guide to Wilderness Equipment, Technique, and Style (Backpacking Light): A book of distilled wisdom from the web-pages of Backpacking Light Magazine. Paddlers will find the sections on Protection from the Elements, Eating, Drinking, and Hygiene, and First Aid enlightening. The Lightweight Solution section includes chapters on Superultralight travel, which is traveling with less than five pounds of gear, and Advanced Tarp Camping, which covers using a tarp as your only shelter. A few sections, like the Risk Management chapter, are disappointing, but overall, this is worth reading for the wealth of knowledge, experience and difference of opinions offered within.

Photography

National Geographic: The Ultimate Field Guide to Landscape Photography (National Geographic Photography Field Guides): I like this book, because it teaches the basics of landscape photography. For a paddler looking to learn how to capture the landscapes seen on a paddling trip, this book teaches you everything that you need to know. The guide itself is small in format, so it’s easy to carry along on a trip to keep you focused on capturing pictures. The digital section is rather small, so I’d ignore it, but the rest is pure gold.

David duChemin’s Craft and Vision ebooks: These inexpensive ($5) ebooks cover a range of photography subjects. The two I like the most are Drawing The Eye and Chasing the Look. Drawing the Eye introduces the concept of visual weight, which is a topic that is rarely covered elsewhere. Chasing the Look includes 10 simple concepts–some I teach in my photography classes–to use to improve your photography. I’ve seen these techniques work for the students in my photography classes. I’m interested in the new Growing The VisionMonger, so if you buy it, let me know how it is.

Just Because You Should Try It

Haiku: A Poet’s Guide: Haiku is a simple poetry form that is hard to master. It’s based on nature and almost anyone can learn it. Lee Gurga’s guide is one of the best on the market. It covers the basics of the craft. For paddlers, haiku offers you a way to increase your enjoyment of nature, and it will spice up your journal. You should just try it.

J.J. Kelley and Josh Thomas built a couple of plywood kayaks. Then they paddled from Alaska to Seattle via the Inside Passage in the plywood kayaks that they built. During the trip, they filmed everything. After the trip, they whittled all the footage down to an 80-minute movie. Everyone from Paddler Magazine to Outside Online is raving about this new movie. You’ll see why after watching the trailer.

Paddle to Seattle

What intrigues me is that they took the time to build their own kayaks, invested the extra work into filming the movie, they got sponsorships, but they come across as just a couple of guys on an adventure. They seem very humble. For me it’s a fresh change from recent paddling movies, like Jon Bowermaster Ocean 8 series–it seemed overdone and preachy to me.

Although Thomas and Kelley have fantastic filming and editing skills, they make the movie seem like it’s something that anyone could do. To me that’s much more inspiring than watching a paddling film that looks professionally produced. The film is screening in select locations, including Minneapolis on Dec 6th, 2009.

Don’t miss this film.

Pedal to the Midnight Sun

It’s not the first time the team filmed their adventures. In 2006, Thomas and Kelley completed a 1,200-mile bike ride across Alaska. They made a movie about that bike ride. Pedal to the Midnight Sun is available on Amazon.com

• The team’s website: Dudes on Media
  
• More Inside Passage Action: Check out Dave Freeman and Amy Voytilla’s North American Odyssey.

Part of the Nessmuking philosophy is being proficient in fire starting in all conditions. Many products attempt to address the need for this skill, but none are as interesting as ChemFire Fire Starting System.

The Reaction

ChemFire uses a combination of potassium permanganate and glycerin. When these two chemicals are combined they react to produce fire. These items were/are often found in military survival kits and in many emergency kits sold in Europe. Back in the day, potassium permanganate was used to treat water and as a disinfectant, but it’s messy and stains skin and clothing purple, and if mixed incorrectly it can lead to death or violent illness.

The Product

The Ohio based company that manufactures ChemFire packages the potassium permanganate into small pill capsules and provides the glycerin in a small eye dropper. The weight of the kit they sent me for testing was 0.8 ounces for 10 capsules and one dropper bottle. So, it’s pretty light. This package is a unique way of providing the two chemicals and it seems like the capsule helps in producing the reaction.

The Test

To make the reaction work, the capsule is opened and two drops of glycerin are added to the capsule. The capsule is closed and placed under the tinder. A few seconds later the magic begins with instant fire. The reaction produces fire for up to 30 seconds, which with a good dry tinder pile should get your fire started with no problems. I found that sometimes the reaction would only last around 10 seconds.

During my home testing, I found that often excess potassium permanganate would be left over after the reaction finished. And as shown in the following video just emptying the capsule and adding glycerin doesn’t work nearly as well as using a capsule. After testing the capsules on cement at home, I cleaned the pad with a hose and it turned everything purple. My only concern when testing was that I didn’t want to hold on to the capsule too long after the chemicals were mixed.

When lighting a real fire, I first used dry cedar tinder, and it burst into a hot flame very quickly — much more quickly than if I had used just a lighter. With birch bark, this produces a very hot and fast fire, but I didn’t think it was significantly faster than using a match or lighter. In wet weather, which I didn’t get to test the product in, I think this product would produce enough of a flame to start a well tindered fire.

The Conclusion

ChemFire is a fun light product that is easy to use. Starts a fire quickly. I found that I couldn’t be sloppy with my fire building; I still had to gather good dry tinder. For campers with kids or scouts this product would provide entertainment and a science lesson. The weight and size is small, so it’d take up little room. If I were to carry this on trips, it’d be more for fun than as a replacement for a lighter or matches, but it might just come in handy on those wet cold days were I want a fire to warm up, and the tinder is just damp enough to make fire starting a hassle.

This is a product worth trying out.

Product’s Website: ChemFire Fire Starting System

Tarptent’s Double Rainbow, introduced in 2006, received consistently good reviews on the Internet, so late in 2007, I decided to purchase one. During 2008, I used the tent exclusively. This tent has some good and bad points.

Initial Thoughts Upon Receiving the Tarptent

When I decided to purchase the Double Rainbow, I noticed a waiting list, so I exchanged emails with Henry Shires, the owner of Tarptent. He quickly answered all the email I sent to him before the purchase, so I made the assumption that the customer service would be quite good. Settled on a long wait, somehow my Double Rainbow showed up at the door a little earlier than I had believed it would. The waiting list for this tent was long, but, maybe, his production was faster than expected. This was a good as I’ve often believed in the concept under-promise and over-deliver, but I was slightly disappointed with the product right out of the box.

Upon initial inspection, I found several problems. The worst was a hole between the tarp and the bug netting. It looked like during production, the seamstress forgot to sew about a 1″ section of the netting into the seam. This was also noted as a problem in another online review. It was also missing a small bungee required to engage the bathtub floor. Having found several problems, I decided to look the product over more extensively and ended up finding overall bad stitching and loose threads. Now, I understand that silicone nylon is extremely difficult to sew, but I expect better in a $250 high-end product.

Double Rainbow’s Bug Protection

One of the reasons that I decided to try a Tarptent instead of just a tarp, which is what I’ve been using outside of the bug season, is because in the BWCA and the Northland, the bugs are unbearable for much of the June through August summer camping season. I love camping under tarps, because of their openness, but a tent has always seemed to me to offer much better bug protect. The product seemed to offer the best of both worlds. A tarp with the protection from bugs.

Unfortunately, with the hole in the netting it wouldn’t provide bug protection until I fixed the hole. Luckily, I live with an expert stitcher, and she fixed the hole. (Note: I contacted Tarptent twice about the hole and never received a reply.)

Problem solved until I found a “design feature” that allows bugs into the tent. At the point where the pole exits sleeve there is a section of bug netting which isn’t stitched into the tent. This allows no-see-ums, black flies, and mosquitoes to come into the tent as they please. It’s a very small hole, but non-the-less is there and could allow bugs in.

Setting up the Double Rainbow

The Tarptent Double Rainbow tent can be set-up in two ways, either freestanding via the use of trekking poles or by staking out the corners. The freestanding way is interesting for those that hike with trekking poles, because it allows you to set the tent up quickly and easily move it around if you have to. Unfortunately, I tore out one the pockets the trekking poles fit into. The stitching looked to be backed up upon itself, but very little force caused the whole row of stitches to fail. I emailed Tarptent for a replacement, and they quickly sent it to me.

That wasn’t a huge setback for me, because generally, I’m a paddler and not so much a hiker, despite that fact that I’ve thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1996. So, for me, set-up hasn’t been negatively affected by the loss of the trekking pole pocket. To set-up this tent, you thread a pole through a very tight pole sleeve, it gets hung up at the center when the sleeve runs under the permanent pole in the center of the tent. After fiddling with the center pole, the main pole threads out to a confusing jumble of stuff at the grommet. The pole is then inserted into a grommet on each side and the four corners are staked out. On rock beaches, you must tie rope extensions to the tent’s corner to tie around rocks.

The main pole’s sleeve is made from a silicone nylon and isn’t very durable. Somehow, before the seventh night out, I ended up putting a hole into the sleeve.

There are several options for set-up that I haven’t tried. The most interesting is the ability to have one or both of the vestibules propped open and upright using trekking poles or paddles. This allows a more breezy set-up for days without rain or with rain that is falling straight down. I like the concept and it reminds my of the way I can set-up my old Sierra Design tent. The problem with the set-up is the extra flap of material required to make it work is constantly getting in the way when the set-up isn’t used. There is a ribbon that is suppose to tie it back, but the ribbon doesn’t seem to hold a knot. A minor problem, but annoying. Plus, if you dump water onto this flap, the water comes into the sleeping area, so it’s unlikely to get used during heavy rain when more ventilation is needed to reduce the condensation issues this tent has.

Generally, set-up is relatively quick and except for the center pole bind up and the confusing mess of “stuff” at the grommet it is painless. If you’re not a fan of tents that require staking out to set-up, then this tent isn’t for you.

Tarptent’s Livability

The Double Rainbow has much going for it livability-wise. It’s roomy and long. It has plenty of headroom – enough to allow two people to sit-up and play cards. It has two doors and two small vestibules. Great for storing shoes and other small items. The double doors are wonderful for getting in and out of the tent during the night without waking up your partner. The width is just right for a couple. It’s a bit tight for two friends. My significant other describes it as “cozy.”

The Tarptent is also very breezy on windy day, but on calm damp days it fails to breath. This failure combined with the lack of a double wall creates the perfect situation for major condensation problems. We found on typical Minnesota calm all night soakers the walls and ceiling of the tent become so saturated with condensation that when the rain picks up and starts pounding on the tent, the drops force the condensation back into the air in the form of a light mist. During one of the nights on which this occurred, I contemplated going out to the cooking tarp and sleeping under it. Some people may note that what we experienced was silicone nylon leaking through under pressure, but my cooking tarp is made from the same silicone nylon material, and the underside was completely dry. The problem is associated with a lack a ventilation, IMO.

We also noticed that the Tarptent Double Rainbow seemed to be warmer than sleeping under a tarp, this came in handy on a surprise sub-freezing night kayaking on Lake Nipigon in Canada. I only had a 30 degree bag with me, so I enjoyed the extra warmth the tent provided.

A last livability issue deals with the floor. It’s twofold; first, the floor is sold as being a bathtub. This bathtub floor should keep rain from running under the tent and into the living area. The bathtub is created by pulling bungees attached to the ground cloth out around the stakes. It’s a nice idea, but any inside pressure from a sleeping bag, book, pillow, etc… cause the bathtub to collapse. It doesn’t really work with two people. With just one, it seems to hold up better. The second issue is that the floor is made from silicon nylon, which is very very slippery. Despite following instruction to caulk lines onto the floor to help stop mattress pads from slipping around, they still do. Set-up on any slight incline and expect to find yourself at the other end of the tent shortly.

A little nit-pick is the size of the zippers, these are extremely small and hard to pull with gloves or cold hands. The small size also leads me to believe that they will fail at some point sooner rather than later, but I haven’t seen a failure yet. I’ve seen it in other items using a similar sized zipper.

Rainproof?

Overall, the Tarptent Double Rainbow is waterproof, but is is rainproof? I’ve found a couple of faults. The first is that this tent is extremely difficult to seam seal correctly. The instruction mention that it should be done twice, which I did, but still in the field the seams would eventually end up dripping. Expect to work on seam sealing much longer than you’d have to with a normal tent or tarp.

A second is the way the tent’s canopy ends above the ground at the narrow ends of the floor. If there is a lot of splash coming from the rain, it comes in the ends. I woke up one night to a soaked hat!
And the condensation issues mentioned above make this a wet tent on some nights. Much wetter than a traditional double walled tent or a 8′x10′ tarp. Tarptent sells a condensation barrier. They claim this solves some of these problems.

In the Wind

On several occasions, I’ve had the Double Rainbow in strong winds including a wind storm with sustained 20 knot winds gusting up to 30 knots. The larger trees were swaying around us and I set up the campsite, so the Tarptent would take the brunt of the winds and my friend’s Hubba Hubba would be the most sheltered. Impressively, the Double Rainbow withstood these winds without much collapse on the windward side. With the pole facing into anticipated winds, I suspect that the tent could withstand stronger than Gale force winds. Especially, with a line attached to the guy point.

Take Down and Packing Away

One of the reason that I love camping under a tarp is that when I’m ready to pack up, I can stuff all my gear into portage packs, dry bags and remain dry while doing it. The ground cloth even remains dry on one side when I pack it up. The tarp comes down last and if soaked stays outside the waterproof seal of my pack. If it’s a sunny day, the tarp can come out a lunch and sway in the wind for 15 minutes and get dried.

The Tarptent, on the other hand, doesn’t retain any of the goodness of tarps. You can pack your gear up, but the ground cloth is attached to the tent, so it’s going to get wet when you pack up the tent. Combine this with the sticky when wet pole binding sleeve, the snake like stuff sack and it feels like your trying to stuff a wet slipper snake into a hole too small for it. During the process the entire tent gets soaked. Then at lunch, to dry it, you have to spend time setting the tent up, which takes too much time, so it doesn’t get done. And if it rains all day, when setting the tent back up, it’s soaked and primed for a misty night. Even with a sponge or towel to wipe up the water, it is a wet affair.

In some regards, the packing away of the Tarptent is worse than a standard tent. With a standard tent, at least, you can separate the wet rainfly from the dry canopy. And I’ve never seen a tent stuff sack so oddly and oblongly shaped. It only works well if you tightly roll the tent around the poles and stuff the tent into the bag rolled up.

Overall and Conclusion

I have formed the general opinion that the tent is flawed and not worth the $250 that I paid for it. The general stitching and quality problems plus the failure of the trekking pole sleeve and the pole sleeve leave me wondering and waiting for the next failure. The condensation issues and wetness of the tent had me often regretting I just didn’t take a tarp or something else like my Big Agnes Seedhouse 2 SL.

The comfort, ultralight weight and livability of the tent for the perfect conditions and the strength in the wind are pluses for this tent, but not enough to keep the tent in my closet. I traded the tent for a Tarptent Cloudburst 2 early in 2009. After putting the Cloudburst 2 through some impressive conditions including sustained Gales with gusts to 50mph, I’ve concluding it is a much more impressive tent. If you’re looking to buy a Tarptent, skip the Double Rainbow and get a Cloudburst instead.