One of those days

Having started my day with a dog walk, followed by breakfast, shower, and shave, I went out to deliver resumes in hopes of finding a big-boy a job. After depositing said resumes, I decided to go have lunch with the wife (spoiler alert: I got married, hence the lack of posting due to lack of internet). Almost an hour I am still waiting for her to get her lunch break. Guess it just goes to show that while things may happen at the same time everyday, sometimes things can change on you. It is gonna be; me of those days.

So, Change of Plans

It would seem that for whatever reason, I cannot get around to posting on the schedule I had originally hoped to follow. As such, I will just post whenever I manage to corral myself. Sorry to any who are regularly watching for updates.

Stanley Adventure Camp Cookset

That's right, it is time for my first bona fide gear review. Sorry if my pictures are all indoor; I didn't have my camera with me when I used this in the field. So let us get started.

First off, this little bad boy is made of stainless steel. So as far as ultralight trips are concerned, this won't make the grade. I have found that it's niche is day hiking. It is compact enough to fit in a daypack, but large enough to whip up some good trail grub.

Secondly, it has two 10 oz. cups, made of insulated plastic. Those cups are comfortable, and keep the heat at bay. And therein is my personal gripe with anything insulated: I cannot tell how hot the contents are, and always seem to burn my tongue.

No more number-things. On the opposite side of the logo is a graduation (labels for how many ounces, like a measuring cup). It goes up to 20 oz. but can hold a full 24 oz. The handle is also made of stainless, and can get a tad warm near its attachment to the pot proper. It has a nice locking feature which is handy when the pot is full; no worries of handles falling off. The lid is also, of course, steel. It has multiple holes at one end to be used as a strainer, and a single (vent) hole opposite the others. On the lid is a plastic tab which is used to lift the lid off the pot. The choice of plastic is nice, as it remains fairly cool. However, it should be noted that if things get a bit heated the tab will melt/deform.

So that is the run-down of this handy little guy. My personal rating is 4.5 stars out of 5, only because of the lift tab. It has performed more than adequately, and handles a full pack of Knorr side dishes with ease.

Cup with to-be-reviewed meal

If you are looking for an affordable little cookset that you can feel confident in, then this is the one for you.

Oops, I did it again

Many thousands of apologies to those select few who actually follow this blog. I had gotten my Xbox running again, and it therefore consumed my life. But not anymore.

As I said, I will be laying down some reviews, and I think that tomorrow will be the first review post, with a few more sprinkled here and there as I get out and test/use more items. Hopefully I will have given you, the reader, a solid, inexpensive base on which to begin your adventures, either dayhiking or backpacking, for the summer.

So keep a weather eye on the horizon.

Once in a while

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday. In order for me to feel comfortable offering a review on anything, it must get tested first at home, then used in the field; as much of my gear is relatively new, the field testing/use is a tad limited, a problem I hope to correct. Also, as my wedding (sorry ladies) approaches, other things require my attention. As for yesterday, I just plum forgot. I have several items close to the review point, just need to embark on an adventure to get some final thoughts on each piece before posting.

Just so that you, dear reader, are ready when it comes at you, I will be reviewing C9 by Champion sportswear (as base layers) , a Stanley cook-set, and various Platypus Hydration items. Again, these are just a handful of things close to ready. There are some other items, such as tent upgrades, that need to be field tested before I will post. I intend to do some hiking this weekend, so fresh posts are on the horizon.

I may miss a day or two here and there, only once in a while.

Ground Rules

Ok, so I figured that putting up a few "boundaries" as it were is a good idea. First, nothing i post or review about should been seen as an endorsement by any company, group, or any other thing of that nature; all posts and reviews are of my own personal beliefs and opinions, no one else's. Second, I will post Monday through Thursday, and occasionally Sunday. The reason is because theoretically I will be in the field, hiking, camping...ya know, doing the whole review for blogging purposes thing (In reality I just don't wanna be blogging every day, and I doubt I could keep things fresh even if I did post daily). And thirdly, while the reason I started this endeavor is to help those who wanna backpack do it on the cheap, I will post my trips and tips to make gear work better for you, as well as some unrelated things such as whatever I feel like because this is MY blog, thank you very much. The predominate topic will be on outdoorsy type stuff, though. With the rules of the game in effect, let's PLAY BALL!

Up San Dimas Canyon

Yesterday I had the pleasure of bushwhacking up San Dimas Canyon with Mr. Enrique Polanco. And by bushwhacking, I mean bushwhacking. Half of the trip was spent slogging through branches over the creek or just in the way. The other half was on game trails that had seen light use by people. All in all, a quint little trip.

We started maybe half a linear mile down from San Dimas Reservoir, and dropped in to the creek, heading roughly NE. Our initial attempts to follow the creek were subdued by the aforementioned branches, so we picked our way across scattered trails, finding half the cleaned remains of some animal (I think it was a rabbit, Enrique is convinced it was a dinosaur). We came to the confluence of both a side creek, and the main creek (research shows the actual name for the watershed in SD Canyon is San Dimas River), and in the middle of this expanse was a sign. Upon closer inspection we discovered that any writing on this sign had long since disappeared  however, there were the remains of shattered beer bottles at the base of the sign, possibly thrown on anger at the immense let down hikers experienced upon meeting this blank monolith, an anger that was felt by my hiking partner and myself.

After deciding to head up the side creek, into the lesser canyon, we marched off on a small trail that followed the dry creek bed in a more northerly direction until we crossed the creek, now with a slow flowing of icy cold mountain water. On a small bluff we stopped and had lunch, planned our next move, and found cell reception. It is worth noting that while i was gathering water, Enrique heard a sheep and was determined to find it and befriend it.

Here I made Oriental Ramen, and filtered water with my Christmas present

View from our lunch spot

Hobo shanty...not really

A warning to those who drink Sprite

After we packed up, we headed deeper into the canyon, searching for faint trails to lead us to new discoveries  Most of these discoveries were beer containers, usually of the bland, inexpensive variety. After hiking again through branches, and crossing the creek several more times, we eventually ran out of trail and traversable land and had to turn around. And therein lay a problem. Getting back to the confluence was no problem, for we had a small trail we had followed up into the canyon. But because the confluence is just that, a meeting of two water sources, and trails that are made are washed out during the rainy season. So we wound up a bit farther off of our track, and made our final discovery: a long abandoned hobo shanty. Ok, not really, just a couple of boards leaning up against a jutting rock. But for those few moments when we thought it was the "door" to some boxcar riding drifters home, we were excited. Like all the things that initially seemed cool, this was a letdown. Only the trail itself, with its constant changing and new revelations, kept our awe and attention.

 We had a nasty time fighting through our dearest friend, branches, to get to a spot on the creek we could get up on to the main road. Which is where we saw the car, not more than 50 yards away. Thing is, down in the creek, that whole trek from the car to where we left the creek took 20 minutes. Go figure.