Golite gear

[TollerMom]

I ended up with the W Adrenaline 800. 3 season. 1lb 15oz. With a liner and a good pad, and warm base layers, I'm good to go. Will arrive in the mail soon. Also bought my Kelty Salida 2 man tent and a footprint, bear spray, bear food bags, and teeny tiny super light cookpot. Next I'll obsess on the water treatment system and sleeping pad. Almost there! All of your advice has been enlightening.

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

That looks like a really nice bag at a great price - Let us know how it works out!

[tmountainnut]

if you're interested in a water treatment, i have a steripen traveler mini that was just tested by steripen and is in perfect condition. im replacing it with a steripen freedom, so if you'd like it, make me an offer. i'll include 6 or so new batteries to go with it too

[TollerMom]

How many L have you filtered with it? I read some reviews that the mini bulb life is shorter.

[tmountainnut]

its life is the same as the other lamps that use the CR123 batteries. i know on their website it says adventure has a longer lamp life, but if you compare the specs on the website and if you call them, you'll find out they actually use the same lamp. i bought mine new and has probably been used for ~100 treatments, maybe a little more, but nowhere close to the 3,000 treatment rating.

i'd be willing to take $40 for it shipped.

[TollerMom]

I might pass for $40. Thanks for the offer though. EBay is selling the mini brand new and free shipping for $49.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Steripen+mini+traveller+&_trksid=p5197.c0.m627

I saw the UV pen during a hike last summer and thought it to be the coolest thing though. I read several reviews and forum threads on the Sawyer that Stick mentioned and that is likely the way I'll go.....unless the mini was offered up at such a ridiculously low price that I would be foolish not to bite. :-)

[TollerMom]

My new Kelty Salida 2 tent with the new GoLite Adrenaline bag is set up in my front yard. Figured 30 steps from the front door was a good jump off point to make sure my gear was warm and comfy. Would have done this Friday night but we had SNOW again...and I chickened out.

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

We had a late spring snow Friday here as well. Hope the test works out well...

[TollerMom]

Happy to say my GoLite Adrenaline sleeping bag kept me quite warm in the front yard. Temps dipped to the low 30's as did the dew point. As a side-sleeper-type, the mummy bag took a bit getting used to. A thick sleeping pad would be a must. My husband gave me his old Thermarest, circa 1990, to use. Pathetic piece of equipment! I don't know how he fought wildland fire all those years with his sad sleeping bag and pencil thin pad. Maybe one gets so doggone tired, it doesn't matter if you're covered in just a newspaper. I'm now looking at the Neo Air for my pad.

My Kelty Salida 2 Tent was awesome. I did notice condensation on the walls when I woke up. I read this can alleviated by either leaving the rainfly off, or unzipping the vestibule door...or by not sleeping on the grass in the front yard. I would imagine sleeping on the forest duff would be a drier environment.

I took my pack out for a trial jaunt last Thursday in the hills surrounding my house. I watched the REI video about 10 times to make sure I had all the straps adjusted in the right sequence. I had it packed to about 17 pounds, which is pretty normal for even my CamelBak that I take everywhere that is packed with everything but the kitchen sink. It felt really good, even with the 30 mph winds buffetting me about as the front blew in. I would hope to keep my pack not over 25 pounds. That should still be do-able.

Sleeping in the front yard does have its challenges. For one, the traffic noise from the nearby highway is quite pronounced and the millions of birds that live in the neighborhood trees are very, very early risers. They wake up about 4 or 4:30. The paperboy comes by about 5 and I surrendered to the coffee that I knew was set to auto-brew at 5:30 am. Don't think that'll happen in the woods.

[Stick]

Nice, and I hear ya about the front yard camping...I do a lot of that...my neighbors are used to it though... But the traffic really does suck the most! I kinda like all the birds chirping though...

Anyway, IMO, back/front yard camping is important too. Especially for new cold weather gear. It is much safer to find out that something does not work out at all like you thought it would while in your yard rather than on top of a mountain. However, there are some things that you just don't find out until you are on top of that mountain. But, with at least some use and familiarity of your gear before arriving some things can be corrected enough before hand to offset the severity.

As far as moving around in the sleeping bag, I am the same way. But I found out that it is just easier to move the bag with me (as if it were just another piece of clothing) rather than to try to move within the bag. If I want to draw my knees up, I do, but I take the entire foot end of the sleeping bag with me. It works well and it makes sleeping in the bags much nicer/easier, at least for me.

And yes, a good pad is important. Of course thermal efficiency is the most important aspect of a pad (a sleeping bag does not help at all in insulating beneath you - the pad does this), especially for use in cold weather, and comfort is secondary. I use and absolutely love my original NeoAir. But, I know how low it will take me on it's own. Past this point, I use a thin ccf pad on top of the Neo to further boost the insulation between me and the ground. This works well for me since I use the ccf pad as a frame for my backpack (multi-use items rock) so I already have it.