3 pieces of gear for $400 or less....

[Sampson]

Heading over to REI or perhaps EMS to purchase three pieces of gear. I need to buy a 3 season sleeping bag (mostly summer), a sleeping pad and a set of hiking poles...all for $400 or less. I'm willing to exceed that if I need to, but I think its a decent baseline. Heading up to Franconia's notch to do a section hike on Sunday and I'll need to do this asap so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am relatively new to hiking, but after doing 3 sections with borrowed gear it's time I start my own collection. I'll just put it next to the mountains of ski stuff I have . And no, I am not taking a set of ski poles in lieu of hiking poles. I'd like to be able to put my poles in my pack if choose. Thanks!

[Buffalo Skipper]

I can offer some ideas (see disclaimer at the bottom).

Look at the Black Diamond poles. I have the aluminum flip lock ergo corks, while my son bought the carbon flip lock straight corks. Both are lightweight, and we each love ours. We paid right at $100 each at REI.

EMS has a 20° Solace sleeping bag on sale for $99. Can't see the weight (something wrong with the EMS website?), but reviews claim it is "light." I started with a Kelty Light Year 25° bag that I got on sale for $75. Though I have replaced it with summer and winter down quilts, I still regularly loan this one out to my son or friends. The Solace will be a good 3-4 season bag for you, and appears to be a good bag.

With a $400 budget, this leaves a **utt load of cash for a pad. I hammock camp, so I don't use a pad. However, I have spent the past 10 months pad shopping with my son who was looking for a light weight comfortable pad for his Philmont trek, so I have read and re-read stats, prices and reviews of almost every product out there. For my son, we picked up for him a Therma-Rest NeoAir Xlite, which is a 2.5" thick pad. He got a small (8 oz!) and supplements the short length with a small foam pad for his legs/feet. These pads are expensive, but he loves the weight. If you get a medium or large, it will hurt your wallet, but so long as you keep the bag and poles reasonable, will be in your budget.

Disclaimer:
These opinions are mine, and may not reflect your priorities. You need to determine what are the important features you need with each of these products, and balance your priorities. Lower-Mid grade quality bags are more likely to be available to be on sale, prehaps giving you some more room elsewhere.

Good luck. Keep us posted if you get the chance. I would like to see what deals you may be able to find.

[Zippy Morocco]

Maybe consider Golite.com for the bag. The prices look reasonable and are popular. I haven't used their bags so I can't speak to performance.

[4shot]

I am a fan of Sierra Trading post.You can get a pair of Leki poles and a Marmot bag (both are high quality brands. I am a hge fan of the marmot bags, have 2 of them and their comfort rating exceeds their claims imo). for about $200 - $250 leaving you the balance for a pad.Depending on how you sleep on the ground, your age, etc. you may be able to get by with a closed cell foam pad. At my age, that doesn't work. I am a huge fan of Exped mats, the model 7 symmat is one I carried. It's durable and comfortable. you do see a lot of neoairs on the trail but I prefer the exped which REI carries (I believe). This setup (Leki, Marmot, Exped) would give you high end gear that you would never feel the need to upgrade. Mine have been on a thru and several section hikes and still perform like new (poles are a little scratched up and have had a part replaced - for free, as they have a lifetime warranty).

given your time frame you may have to pay for expedited shipping. STP is very customer friendly and have a hassle free return system (as does REI - I like them as well, just pointing out some options to consider).

as poster above said, gear is very personal and what works for one may not work for another.good luck.

[jbsbestfan]

You are lucky you have been able to borrow some gear to date. I ended up buying a bunch of cheap stuff until I knew whether or not I liked backpacking...then I had to replace everything with light, quality gear. My best advice is to buy light gear. If you don't, you may end up wanting to replace everything with lighter stuff later. That said, get a neo-air mattress for your pad. I got 3 different ones before deciding which one I like best. I usually carry the 25 inch wid, 4 foot long one. (If you end up getting a Big Agnes bag, get a 20 inch wide mattress). These things are always on sale somewhere...check spadout.com for best prices. I love my Black Diamond Z poles.....super light. I probably can't help you with a sleeping bag, but let me say Western Mountaineering bags are worth the money. Most bag makers make bags wih a shoulder girth of 60-62 inches. I like wiggle room so I have Big Agnes and Western Mountaineering bags. Try out any bag for fit before buying. The BA Yampa 45 degree bag is nice for summer, and I love my WM badger 15 for winter. Good Luck.

[1azarus]

i agree sierra trading post is the way to go. i suggest you just buy ski poles, not cheap adjustable poles... and get them about 2" shorter than you would buy poles if used for skiing.

[1azarus]

sorry i missed it -- you want adjustable poles. Now that i've actually read your post i'd suggest you don't spend a ton of money on these first purchases. if you have a mountain of ski gear it means you are in the habit of "reassessing" your purchases, so if you get mid-quality stuff now, you can see how hooked you become on hiking, and upgrade to the crazy expensive stuff later.

[Tom Murphy]

REI
http://www.rei.com/product/731789/ma...o-sleeping-bag EU rated for 30*F $200.[on sale]
http://www.rei.com/product/830684/th...n-sleeping-pad $150.
http://www.rei.com/product/830470/bl...ing-poles-pair $80.

I have three MARMOT bags, SAWTOOTH, COL, ATOM. Very happy with all of them
I have the NEOAIR ALL SEASON and it is the best pad I have ever used. Others I own, z-rest, prolite 4, BA insulated aircore.
I use EMS mountain staffs, similar to these:
http://www.rei.com/product/745686/re...ck-light-staff [the knobs unscrew for a nice camera mount which helps me stabilize my point and shoot for zoomed photos]

[Tom Murphy]

EMS
http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp...326791.3705267 $300.
http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp...326791.3705268 $150

Keep saving for poles....

[1azarus]

...now there's some good advice if you are looking for great quality stuff. perfect, in fact.

EMS
http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp...326791.3705267 $300.
http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp...326791.3705268 $150

Keep saving for poles....

[fredmugs]

I just bought a Sea to Summit bag from basegear.com that is out of your price range but I wanted to let you know I got a 20% discout for joining their e-mail group and that saved me almost $75.

http://www.basegear.com/sea-to-summi...eping-bag.html

[Energizer Bunny]

I found a great summer sleeping bag at an Army Navy store for less than $50. I found some wonderful poles on eBay for about $40 and I got the sleeping pad from a hiker selling them on WB. Think outside the box - you have more than enough $$.

[Pumba]

I think some of you might be missing the fact that his hike is THIS Sunday. REI is his best bet at this point.

[gunner76]

If there is a Wallmart near by get a pair of their hiking poles for $20, that will leave you with more $$$ for the other stuff.

[Sampson]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. With my work schedule and this hike fast approaching, I need all the help I can get.

After reading through all of your responses I've determined where my priorities should be with regard to these purchases. I'm in my upper 30's and a good nights sleep is very valuable after a hard days work. I'm going to put more emphasis on the pad and the bag. I can always use an old set of ski poles this trip and upgrade if and when I want to. I did my first three sections without any poles and had a blast so why not see if I even like the damn things. The only issue I had was not getting a good sleep so that's where I should spend the money, although I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up getting all three and increasing my budget. I was officially hooked on this hiking thing after my first hour on the trail so I think resistance might be futile.

Again, thanks for all of your input. Part of the reason I'm became so interested in hiking is the great community of people it attracts. Everyone seems to help eachother out whenever possible and that's hard to find these days. I'll probably head over to REI and EMS tomorrow (they're right next to eachother) and I'll let you know how it pans out.

[theinfamousj]

Heading over to REI or perhaps EMS to purchase three pieces of gear. I need to buy a 3 season sleeping bag (mostly summer), a sleeping pad and a set of hiking poles...all for $400 or less. I'm willing to exceed that if I need to, but I think its a decent baseline. Heading up to Franconia's notch to do a section hike on Sunday and I'll need to do this asap so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am relatively new to hiking, but after doing 3 sections with borrowed gear it's time I start my own collection. I'll just put it next to the mountains of ski stuff I have . And no, I am not taking a set of ski poles in lieu of hiking poles. I'd like to be able to put my poles in my pack if choose. Thanks!

I am going to just attach my standard dirt bagging gear advice list to this post. It is a work in progress and I first started writing it over 5 years ago. I've lived every bit of advice I offer and while it isn't the most XUL or SUL of options, it also doesn't leave you with a pack weight of 70 lbs. And a lot of it is FREE, but simply requires an investment of time to turn trash into usable backpacking gear.

[leaftye]

Too bad it's too late to order from Golite. To order online you'll need someone that ships the same day via overnight or Saturday delivery, and that's EXPENSIVE.

I'd put the vast majority of your funds on your sleeping bag. Pay more to get something light and honestly rated. I'd spend by far the least on trekking poles, and I'd even suggest going to Walmart for these. You might even consider getting a $7 foam pad while you're there.

The reason I say this is because a great bag can last many years, even decades. An inflatable pad will probably leak within a year, if not within a couple weeks. Trekking poles are something you might grow out of.

You might even consider renting for this trip so that you don't end up spending a lot of money on something you wouldn't have bought if you had more time.

[Sampson]

I got all three items about an hour ago at REI. Total price $472.00. There were some issues as far as selection was concerned and being 6'3" and in need of longer sleeping items didn't help much. Regardless, I like to think I did pretty well all things considered. I ended up spending too much on the mattress but it was pretty much my only option and it was pretty darn comfortable. The sleeping bag selection was pretty limited for my length and temperature requests but there was one that seemed to work for me. The poles were more than I planned on but I really just dont have time to shop around so I compromised in my own sick and twisted way. Here's exactly how it went...

Mountain Hard Wear Lamina 35 F $170
Exped Synmat UL 7 LW $175
REI Traverse Powerlock poles $89.50

The total was $435 before tax. If I add my 10 percent member discount it comes down to around $425. I guess I did ok but only time will tell and maybe a few of you guys too.

[Drybones]

Have a great hike...nothin like testing out new gear...Christmas does come early sometimes.

[4shot]

I guess I did ok but only time will tell and maybe a few of you guys too.

Looks like you got what you wanted and it's good stuff. Now that you have got that out of the way, ignore what others tell you you should have bought and go enjoy your hike.