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Thread: old gear lists

  1. #1
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    Default old gear lists

    So what do you remember about your gear list from long ago? Say 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s ?

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    I remember not dying. Cotton didn't kill me. Spring water didn't poison me. Bears didn't eat me, even though I didn't bear-bag or carry a weapon or spray.
    Teej

    "[ATers] represent three percent of our use and about twenty percent of our effort," retired Baxter Park Director Jensen Bissell.

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    Registered User Hikes in Rain's Avatar
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    Have them hand copied from old books in several notebooks. I remember I carried a whole heck of a lot of weight for an overnighter, most of which didn't get used.

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    Late 60's early 70's - Bright orange Camp Trails Horizon pack, old brown Campmor 20°F down bag, Optimus 8R stove, beat up aluminum pot, soup spoon from mom's kitchen, cotton twill work pants or jeans, wool sweater, Gerry down vest, yellow raincoat, Dunham waffle stomper boots, aluminum canteen, Lipton freeze dried meals . . .

    Water filter? - What's that you say? Oh, you mean pour it through your sweaty bandana to get the dirt and bugs out.
    Hiking poles? - Oh yeah, Stashu and Aleksy, two guys from Warsaw and Gdansk. We found a suitable stick the first day out, whittled on it during breaks and in camp, and fire hardened the tip in the campfire.
    Last edited by 4eyedbuzzard; 01-29-2016 at 21:46.
    "That's the thing about possum innards - they's just as good the second day." - Jed Clampett

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    Camp Trails external frame pack
    Eureka Solitaire tent
    Hermans' down sleeping bag
    Fabiano Trionic leather boots
    MSR Whisperlite stove
    massive "First Need" water filter
    Nalgene bottles for water stowage (x2)
    no cell phone
    no trekking poles
    no LED headlamps

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    Quote Originally Posted by rafe View Post
    Camp Trails external frame pack
    Eureka Solitaire tent
    Hermans' down sleeping bag
    Fabiano Trionic leather boots
    MSR Whisperlite stove
    massive "First Need" water filter
    Nalgene bottles for water stowage (x2)
    no cell phone
    no trekking poles
    no LED headlamps


    Rafe, do you by chance recall if the Herman's down bag was sold under a brand name? I still have the winter bag I got for scouts around 1992 (it still gets used sometimes!) and I'm wondering if it was a Hermans special.
    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

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    I would not dare to show my photos...

    Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    Woo

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    Hollofill II, peak 1, timberline 2, I'm in orange:
    image.jpeg
    Damn we had fun!
    Plaid is fast! Ticks suck, literally... It’s ok, bologna hoses off…
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    I need to see if my parents still have my peak1 lying around, the I need to find if I can get an O-ring/serving kit for it. Would be kinda fun to get it back in action for winter trips.
    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

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    I just did my o rings on my lantern and stive. Easy to find in bulk on eBay.
    Oring geekery: http://www.colemancollectorsforum.co...antern-6124545

    Quote Originally Posted by Sarcasm the elf View Post
    I need to see if my parents still have my peak1 lying around, the I need to find if I can get an O-ring/serving kit for it. Would be kinda fun to get it back in action for winter trips.
    Plaid is fast! Ticks suck, literally... It’s ok, bologna hoses off…
    Follow my hiking adventures: https://www.youtube.com/user/KrizAkoni
    Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alphagalhikes/

  11. #11
    Registered User Kaptainkriz's Avatar
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    Plaid is fast! Ticks suck, literally... It’s ok, bologna hoses off…
    Follow my hiking adventures: https://www.youtube.com/user/KrizAkoni
    Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alphagalhikes/

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sarcasm the elf View Post
    Rafe, do you by chance recall if the Herman's down bag was sold under a brand name? I still have the winter bag I got for scouts around 1992 (it still gets used sometimes!) and I'm wondering if it was a Hermans special.
    Yeah, the tag says "High Adventure." Heh.

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    Quote Originally Posted by rafe View Post
    Yeah, the tag says "High Adventure." Heh.
    Hmm, mine says "Frieds"

    image.jpgimage.jpg


    I had a High Adventure pack all throughout scouts. The experience of using it allows me to appreciate how comfortable my ULA Circuit really is.
    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kaptainkriz View Post

    Awesome! Thank you. Now I need to stop by their house tomorrow and locate it.
    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

  15. #15

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    Wise Old Owl---Very good pic. Sadly, my "glory" years of backpacking were mostly done without a camera and so I have hundreds of trips from 1980 to 2001 unrecorded. Dangit. I do have one from 1963 with a canvas Yucca pack but that was a fluke. Here are some---


    Here is a pic of my old 1957 flannel lined sleeping bag which I used as part of my Tipi floor in 1985 until it disintegrated shortly thereafter.


    Back in the early 1980s the best backpacking light you could get was the Mini-Mag as shown here with Johnny B setting up his tent in Pisgah NF after a night hike. We all routinely drooled down the shaft of these flashlights.



    I carried this sierra cup for years in the late 1970s---thinking it to be a vital component to serious backpacking. Not.



    My first serious backpacking tent was this North Face Tuolumne A-frame from 1977---Check out the snow tunnel door and above door vent. It's shown without the tent fly of course.



    I was living out of this backpack back in 1980 around Boone NC and hitchhiked from Boone to Greensboro NC to see my folks and they took this pic as I arrived in their home. The pack is a North Face BackMagic external. Check out the old style water bottle. Inside my wool blanket on the back was my North Face blue anorak rain gear. The below bulge was my North Face tent.

  16. #16

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    I gotta add some more vintage shots. Here is Lindal Newbius with her unknown-name external pack and her vintage sleeping pad. Remember these egg shell crate pads??? Take note of the little kid's pack on the ground---With the original ensolite pad from the 1970s. This was taken on the Upper Creek trail in Pisgah NF.



    This is what we used to wear for backpacking while being dirt poor---except for the excellent tent. It's a North Face Westwind set up on Laurel Creek by the Falls on the AT. Back then we all wore blue jeans. I even liked my jungle boots and lightweight fatigue jacket green liner.

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    Back in the 70ies the only resources for backpacking stuff were military and Boy Scouts.
    The Scout's cotton tents were way too big and heavy to carry so we ended up using some WWII camouflage tarp/poncho and inflatable rubber mat for our first overnighters. My military service in the late 70ies added at least some nice near-waterproof boots.
    The next huge step was the introduction of foam pad type sleeping mats, but they were so expensive that for some years I continued using a huge PE plastic foil as a tarp&groundsheet, without a dedicated mat.
    Then I was lucky to get a dome tent (a very crappy one, unfortunately), finally a foam pad and, yippeee!, a down sleeping bag - all this bought from my first salary.
    This was when real travelling and backpacking started.
    I have to admit that in these days I seldom did more than 1-2 consecutive nights outdoors, due to traditional bad weather and lack of good equipment.
    Also, at this time I was more travelling with the motorcycle and was heavy into rock climbing.
    Soon, in the early 80ies, I bought a huge backpack (Lowe Cerro Torre) and a new dome tent (Salewa Sierra Leone), both items I still have in use. Carried both on a long trip to the USA in '86 and started to get to know "your" way of hiking.
    Only since 5-6 years I'm really back to backpacking, still using a lot of my old equipment.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leo L. View Post
    Back in the 70ies the only resources for backpacking stuff were military and Boy Scouts.
    Not exactly. We found a hunters' supply store, a little hole in the wall, deep downtown (Rochester, NY) that had some excellent, quality gear. Stuff you'd never find in the usual suburban retail outlets.

    For example (yeah I know I'm dating myself) -- a down sleeping bag, filled with 2 1/2 pounds of down, for $45. Which I still own, though I haven't used it for some time.

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    Kelty BD5 expedition pack with unpadded hip belt
    Holubar Sawtooth Mountain zero degree sleeping bag with liner
    Browning Sawtooth Mountain tent bought at nearby gun shop
    Eastern Mountain Sports down parka and 60/40 parka
    Poncho and rain chaps
    Sigg tourist cook set designed for use with the
    Svea 123 stove
    Space blanket ground sheet
    Closed cell foam sleeping pad
    Hiking staff made from sapling cut in my favorite squirrel woods. I still have that staff, but in the 40+ years since it was cut it has seasoned into a “C” shape.
    And a Sierra cup, because back then no one had heard of Giardia and it was so easy to fill the cup from water running off rocks along the trail.

    The currently planned long hike will see changes to a much smaller and lighter pack, a quilt instead of a sleeping bag, and a one pot cook set with an alcohol stove. The rain gear will be pretty much the same, substituting a Columbia lightweight rain jacket for the 60/40 parka. Instead of a staff, it will be trekking poles. The jury is still out on whether shelter will be a Six Moons tent or a bivy sack/poncho set up. I have experience with the tent. I haven’t tried the bivy yet.

  20. #20
    Registered User 4eyedbuzzard's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leo L. View Post
    Back in the 70ies the only resources for backpacking stuff were military and Boy Scouts.
    The Scout's cotton tents were way too big and heavy to carry so we ended up using some WWII camouflage tarp/poncho and inflatable rubber mat for our first overnighters. My military service in the late 70ies added at least some nice near-waterproof boots.
    The next huge step was the introduction of foam pad type sleeping mats, but they were so expensive that for some years I continued using a huge PE plastic foil as a tarp&groundsheet, without a dedicated mat.
    Then I was lucky to get a dome tent (a very crappy one, unfortunately), finally a foam pad and, yippeee!, a down sleeping bag - all this bought from my first salary.
    This was when real travelling and backpacking started.
    I have to admit that in these days I seldom did more than 1-2 consecutive nights outdoors, due to traditional bad weather and lack of good equipment.
    Also, at this time I was more travelling with the motorcycle and was heavy into rock climbing.
    Soon, in the early 80ies, I bought a huge backpack (Lowe Cerro Torre) and a new dome tent (Salewa Sierra Leone), both items I still have in use. Carried both on a long trip to the USA in '86 and started to get to know "your" way of hiking.
    Only since 5-6 years I'm really back to backpacking, still using a lot of my old equipment.
    Before becoming Campmor in 1978, Morsan in NJ started selling military surplus tents after WWII, and then later sporting goods being manufactured specifically for the emerging backpacking market in the 50's thru 70's. They were one of the first mail order outfitters. Everybody used to look forward to receiving their cheap black and white catalog in the mail every few months. And they're still in business today.
    "That's the thing about possum innards - they's just as good the second day." - Jed Clampett

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