Bugaboo... Goofy name, awesome cookset

I got my Bugaboo cookset for Christmas a couple of years ago from my parents, per my request. I hadn't done a lot of research, but felt in my gut that this one would be a good choice. It's turned out to be a great choice.

As you see above, it has five main components: two pans, two pots, and one handle. All of the pots and pans have a nonstick surface.

I have taken my set backpacking and car camping, and it's performed well for both. Bugaboo is much larger than your typical backpacking cookset, but I'm ok with that. When we are packing for space and need the extra few ounces, we simply take our other fancy backpacking set (which I'll review later). Total weight is 1lb 7oz, so it's not designed to appeal to the UltraLight folks out there anyway. Occasionally I leave the larger pan and pot at home to conserve space, but really they fit nicely together thanks to their "nesting" design so that gets to be nitpicky.

The main advantage of the size is the cooking area: we've made pizza, quesadillas, and bacon on the trail with relative ease. (Just remember a tupperware for the bacon grease!) We also tend to eat a lot, and the pot accommodates a hearty meal for two ravenous eaters.

The other advantage for the size: I am able to fit my stove, a small can of fuel, lighter, matches, small spoons & cooking utensils, and a small towel inside the smaller pan/pot combination. This makes it so easy to know exactly where all of my cooking "stuff" is when it's dark, I'm tired, and we're scrambling to get set up and eat.

The cleanup is easy with the nonstick surface, and there has been little need to carry oil/spray/whatever to cook with because I've taken good care of the surface. When it starts to deteriorate I'll replace it (I'm not interested in eating teflon, thanks). As the manufacturer notes: Non-stick cookware should be used with heat-proof nylon or silicone utensils to prevent damage to the non-stick surface. In other words, don't grab your metal fork to cook with (just like at home)!

The main disadvantage with Bugaboo is my unwillingness to throw it on a fire as I would with an aluminum cookset. However, I bring heavy duty foil when I anticipate cooking on the fire and don't bother with my pans. The only other issue I've noticed is really a matter of user error: occasionally I screw up with the handle and drop things. Not fun.

Overall, I give this set an A. I've been quite pleased, and perhaps more importantly we've been the envy of many on the trail with the amazing food we've been able to whip up on the trail. Bonus points for being relatively inexpensive and widely available.

hello, autumn!

We're now officially into Fall, which puts us into my favourite time of year to be backpacking. There's something so magical about the amalgam of colours, temperature and smells of this time of year; I can't wait to get out there on the trail.

There are many pieces of gear you will find yourself with on any trek, but most will agree there are some basics you don't really want to go without. My sleeping bag is definitely one of those basics. I'll go tent-less before I'll go bag-less, for sure!

That said, I love my Big Agnes Crater bag and pad system. They don't appear to be *making* this particular bag anymore, so this is a more general review of the bag and its sleeping pad system; as you see I've linked to the google shopping options (outlet and others seem to still have it).

The Crater is a 15 degree, down-filled mummy bag—I've found that for most cases 15 is perfect in the Southeast. When it's hot outside, I simply leave it unzipped. When it's cold, I cinch it tight and happily roast the night away; I haven't found any drafts or leaky spots after a year of using it. When I'm traveling with my fiancé, we zip our bags together and I leech off of his heat. This bag is a win-win on the temperature for me.

As far as the pad is concerned, the Big Agnes is different from all of the other sleep systems I've owned. Namely, it doesn't have a bottom! You must purchase a separate pad that you inflate then slide into the underside sleeve of the bag. I've heard this isn't quite the best for *super* cold conditions, but I've yet to find myself winter mountaineering. (When I do, I'll consider my options.)

The pros for this bag and sleeping pad system are simple:

• You save on weight in the pad by having an inflatable pad.


• The inflatable pad is way more comfortable, to me, than my other sleeping pads.


• You save on weight in the bag by basically having half a bag (the upper portion).


• You potentially save on space with the option to keep the pad inside your bag when you pack it up for the day, plus bag and pad compress nicely.


• Best of all, you don't roll off of your pad in the middle of the night!

The cons:

• When I've been hiking all day, sometimes I really, really don't feel like blowing up my sleeping pad.


• You can't get too close to the fire. Not that I make a habit of sleeping close to fires, but some folks take these pads and insert them into fancy contraptions to make chairs out of them. Pop! goes a little piece of spark and pop! goes your sleeping pad.


• See aforementioned cold weather conditions (sleeping on snow) that I've heard about but not experienced with this bag/pad.

There are other sleep systems I look forward to trying, but for now I'm hanging on tight to my Crater bag.

no priming necessary

I learned to backpack with the WhisperLite International, and while it's generally recognized as a stellar backpacking stove for a variety of reasons...simply put, I hated that thing.

You had to prime it just right, the wind screen was a pain, it liked to clog up, and the whole thing was fairly daunting for a newbie backpacker. I recognize that there are many reasons one would want one of these, but when I went to buy my own stove many years later I looked at other options.

I went with the Primus Classic Trail stove and have been quite pleased. I realize there are other stoves that are lighter, better, or as fast as a jet engine (*cough*)—I still love and recommend my stove for several reasons:

• It's cheaper than the competition. At roughly $25 it's a veritable bargain. The pocket rocket weighs 5 oz less but is $15 more and is one of the "next cheapest" options. For someone trying to build a kit from zero gear that $15 can make a difference. Or you can jump up to $60 for a 2oz stove but then you're paying more than double and for a beginner that can be tough to swallow.


• It's so darned easy to use. Seriously, screw it onto the fuel canister, turn the fuel on, light it and go. No priming and no fooling around to figure out how to put it together.


• It's super stable. You simply screw it onto the top of your fuel canister and you've got a nice platform for your pot, assuming you haven't placed it teeter-tottering on a wonky surface. I usually dig it into the dirt just a little or find a nice flat rock as a platform. Sometimes I have wide pots with me and I've never worried about them tipping off (or worse, setting myself/others on fire as any klutz will tell you is easier than it sounds! :)


• It has a lot of power if you want it, and has a great way to control the temperature if you don't. We made pizza on the trail last year and were able to turn the temperature way down so that we could avoid burning the bottom in the initial heat-up stage.

I have not used it in extreme conditions (yet), such as extreme cold or extreme wind, but that's not the kind of backpacking we're typically doing in the Southeast on a casual weekend. I love my stove and I'll continue to point folks to it as budget-conscious, easy to use, and reliable.

Not the greatest bargain

From time to time we will offer guest reviews from trusted folks. We're proud and pleased to present our first, from AOC trip leader Pam W. on her experience with the 2-3 person Greatland tent from Target...Survey says, not worth the bargain price :-)

I enthusiastically bought my tent at Target on the advice of my car camping friends. Their cheapie Target tents made it through many car camping trips unscathed, so I figured I’d be fine. I plunked down my $30 for my nice roomy tent and set off for a 3 day canoe camping trip. The tent was easy to set up, and the rainfly worked well. I got a little nervous in the middle of the night for a bathroom break when I had to struggle with the door zippers, but all in all, night one was good.

Night two. As I set up my tent in our new spot, I noticed the poles had a little more flexibility than they had previously. I remember thinking “That’s odd,” as I moved the poles into position. When I bent the pole to attach to the little metal foot thingy, I really bent the pole. I mean, it just made this slow snapping noise, and then… I got to see what was inside one of those poles. Nothing! Just this weird, fibrous plastic that seemed to weaken or dissolve in rain. Major design flaw. Luckily, I was camping with experienced campers who a) brought duct tape and b) knew how to use a twig to brace a broken tent pole.

I returned it to Target the next week. The twig was still attached. The clerk asked “Was it defective?” Oh yeah.

My Home Away From Home...

...This is how I referred to my Eureka Solitaire backpacking tent, my loyal friend and companion for two years and close to 20 backpacking trips.

It took me almost a year to accumulate a good set of backpacking gear. Being lightweight can be expensive! This particular purchase encompassed weeks of searching catalogs, websites, etc. to find something that would be light enough for someone as small as myself while still falling within an appropriate price range. While I love REI with all my heart, they have neither when it comes to backpacking tents. Their tents are not light and they are quite pricey. I had seen the Solitaire in my Campmor catalog and on a few websites, and, at $80.00 and 2.5 lbs, it seemed about as close as I would get. They had it in Dick's Sporting Goods, so I went to the store and crawled in. Satisfied, I went home and did what I always do first with big purchases: entered the name of the product into such websites as Froogle and Pricegrabber. Finally, at $64.00, including shipping, from some outdoor store I had never heard of and couldn't tell you to this day, my tent was on its way!

Cons: Tall people beware! This is not the tent for you. However, as I myself am a whopping 5'4", it was the tent for me. The Solitaire is what is referred to in the backpacking world as a "coffin". It's tiny. You have to change your clothes laying on the ground. Gear can be a tight squeeze. Sometimes, when someone on the trip has a big tent for one person, I will coax them into keeping my pack in their tent.

In addition, it's not the easiest to put up. There are two poles which bend into half circles, and it will not stand without the stakes. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that bad, but I have to admit, I yelled at it on more than one occasion and every so often I pinched my finger between the stake and the hook.

Pros: Well, first of all, it's light and cheap. You are not going to find many tents out there in this price range that don't weigh 3-5 lbs. The last I checked, REI didn't carry a single backpacking tent under 3 lbs, even the $300.00 models! They also do not carry anything under $100.00. This rule typically applies even with sale items on their website...

The small size isn't just good for lightening your load on those long hikes. It keeps you warm when it's cold! I have slept comfortably in this tent on more than one 15-20 degree night in the winter. There is also a zipper underneath the built-in rain fly to keep you cooler when it's hot.

If you think the low price tag means low quality, think again! This tent is extremely durable, and, unlike, the Walmart tent, it kept me dry without seam sealer. (Caveat: I have found the one thing this tent cannot survive: ME! Just as the North Face pants cannot stay fully intact in the knee when I do a triple somersault onto a rock while hiking, the Eureka Solitaire tent poles cannot survive being beaten repeatedly by a trekking pole to remove ice from the outside of the tent after a night of freezing rain. Who knew?!)

All in all, I think this is a fantastic tent for a small person on a budget. For several months, I spent every weekend in this tent, and never wished for anything more. While the REI Crysalis (Price tag $50 higher, even on clearance, weight 8 oz. heavier) has been purchased as a replacement and is next in line to vie for my affections, I will miss my old friend and starter tent.

Grade: B+

How low can you go? Budget backpacking, Walmart style...Tents and pads.

A lot of people have told me they would love to get into backpacking, but they need time to buy all the gear. I understand this sentiment. It took me 8 or 9 months to accumulate the gear to go on my first trip, and that was with a budget. However, time and experience has taught me that, while you really do want to get that nice, expensive gear for the perfect lightweight experience, there are some corners that can be cut if you want to go now instead of waiting until next March.

Last fall, while packing our gear after car camping in Northwest Georgia at a caving weekend, one of the people in our group came over to a few of us and told us to feel his tent. It seemed like an odd request, but I picked it up and it felt lighter than my backpacking tent. "Walmart, $20.00," he said. I was intrigued, and, incidentally, at Walmart the next day after work purchasing the Junior Dome Tent from Ozark Trail.

This led to a battery of tests which concluded this weekend on a car camping trip in Bryson City, NC. How can a seasoned backpacker trust a $20.00 backpacking tent?

First, the weight test. It felt light in the store, but what would it be next to my $70.00 coffin of a backpacking tent? The Eureka Solitaire is approximately a 2lb, 9oz tent, both lighter and cheaper than anything I have seen at REI in recent days. I went through a very scientific process while comparing the weight of the two tents: I picked them up. The Walmart tent felt lighter. Grade: A+

Second, the space test. The Solitaire, while awesome in many ways which will be described in a subsequent post, is small. I refer to it as my coffin tent because you can't really sit up in it. It's that small. The Junior Dome Tent is 6' x 5'. I pitched it in my living room and laid inside this tent, which I should mention was recommended by a man who is 6'1" tall. It was like my own little backpacking condo. I could sit, stand (hunched over, anyway), hang out... The recommended way of sleeping in this tent, if used solo, is diagonally, however. It's a tad short otherwise. Beyond that, huge. Bonus: If you don't want to carry the stakes, the tent stays up fine without them, and you can save a few more ounces on the weight. Grade: A-

Finally, the weather test. This was where I was concerned. A thin-materialed $20.00 tent that weighs less than the majority of high rated backpacking tents I have researched? You can be sure I would not take it out in the winter. I won't lie about that. However, I decided to take it out this weekend for the final test, in a situation where I could just throw my stuff in the car if the tent was too leaky. I got my test yesterday morning, when it poured down rain on us for a solid 4-5 hours. I was not surprised to find that the tent leaked at the seams after 3-4 hours of heavy rain. What I was surprised by was how little it leaked relative to the amount of rain we actually got (and it should be noted that several others on the trip commented that their other tents leaked at the seams as well). The troubleshooting guide on the inside of the tent recommends seam sealer, which I purchased at the Nantahala Outdoor Center for $4.50. So, yeah, you get what you pay for, to an extent. My stuff was not completely dry. But it was dry enough that I would definitely use the tent again, on a real backpacking trip. Would I check the weather when choosing between that and one of my more expensive, slightly heavier tents? Probably, but if it were the only tent I owned, I don't think I would really hesitate. Grade: B-. Grade post seam sealer: TBD.

Budget option #2: The pad. While laying in my living room on my roommate's foam exercise pad (Walmart, approx $18, see example), it occurred to me that it was quite comfortable and might do as another budget backpacking option, so I brought it out with the tent for the second element of my experiment. I was not wrong. While it hasn't passed the winter test yet, the foam exercise pad was as soft as my thermarest with less slipping and sliding off the pad. It is also as light or lighter in weight than my Thermarest. Added bonus: no inflation and deflation! Any good backpacker knows how tedious the process of blowing up and deflating your pad can be. Grade: A.

For the beginner backpacker who is ready to let their cheap and lazy side shine through, this tent and pad option is a must-buy. The tent can be put up with two poles and no stakes, and the pad requires no inflation and deflation. The total cost is under $40.00, perhaps just over $40.00 with the seam sealer and optional water-proofing spray to protect the dryness of your gear in a torrential downpour.

Capilene 3 Baselayer.... It's not just for winter anymore...

From the first moment I wore my Patagonia Capilene 3 long underwear, I knew they were the most wonderful thing to ever happen to winter. This was in the heart of my incurable backpacking addiction, the fall/winter (November 2007-February 2008) where I slept in my backpacking tent more often than my bed. It was my first true winter trip, and I had made the splurge of all splurges by buying these for $44.00 per piece ($88.00 total). I justified this by telling myself REI's generous return policy would come into play if I didn't love them on our November trip to the Shining Rock Wilderness that weekend.

Their first test was the infamous 15 degree backpacking trip. The night the water in our Nalgenes froze solid even right next to the fire, the night more than one couple attempted to turn a one person sleeping bag into a two person sleeping bag...That was cold. When we got to camp, my hands were too frozen to help put up the tent. Considering the circulation problems in my fingers and toes, I can't say why winter backpacking became my sport of choice...it did, nonetheless. I gathered firewood obligingly and moved my fingers as much as possible until my tent was up, then went in to change into the baselayer that, at the time, I thought should have been made of gold for the price.

No one believes the next part of this story, but I will swear on it until my dying day. I put the Capilene 3's on my legs and my arms got warmer. Nowhere to lie. I felt almost instantly better. I was still cold outside of the tent. I mean, the water was freezing next to the fire. I gave away my wine because I didn't want to have to pull down my pants to pee. It was THAT cold. But the Capilene 3 baselayer made it bearable. At times, I could even feel my fingers and toes. For some, that was the last trip of the winter. For me, the first of four out of five consecutive weekends (it would have been five out of five but the other weekend was spent canoeing the Santa Fe River in Florida) of backpacking. Thank you, Patagonia! Best $88.00 I ever spent.

One would think though, that something that warm and delightful would not be useful in June, on a 100+ degree week, in the Southeast. That person would be wrong, folks!

Perhaps some of you have heard about the Nantahala River. The dam-released water is notorious for its coldness, staying at about 40 degrees F all the damn time. And the water is wild in a kayak, with its almost endless Class II wave trains. It is impossible to be on this river for five minutes without soaking your upper torso with water that would be bone-chillingly cold without a wetsuit. We had wetsuits, but the top of the wetsuit I was using was sleeveless. As an unusually cold person, I decided to wear my Capilene 3 top under the wetsuit.

While I did not flip on this run, the wave trains soaked my upper torso immediately. Each time I was immersed, I would be cold for all of five seconds. Why? Because Capilene 3 is awesome. The water soaked the baselayer but it refused to stay cold. Never during the entire 8 miles on the river was I given the opportunity to be uncomfortable. Yes, folks, it's that good.

As a final (unintentional) test of its fortitude, I stood by the highway in only my bathing suit and the Capilene 3 top in the cold, pouring rain for a solid 20 minutes. (As demonstrated last summer, yes, folks, hypothermia in June in North Carolina is possible in such rain.) Drowned rat I may have been, but cold? Hardly. Again, thank you, Patagonia. Yes, your prices are sometimes startingly high, but the quality of your products makes me think twice before throwing away your catalogs.

Final Rating: A resounding A+ on two of my favorite activities. These will definitely be seeing the inside of a wet cave in the future for their final test.