Hey everyone, it's Friday and I just feel like posting something rambling and incoherent while goofing off on the company's dime, so please bear with me, or not.
I'd like to begin with this quote, familiar to many: “Who has not felt the urge to throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." - John Muir
As one of my favorite quotes of all time, it causes me to reflect on just how much gear is out there to choose from these days, and to realize just how spoiled we very well may have become, as members of the modern hiking community. It's not such a simple thing anymore to make the "right" gear selection. Many times I'll think to myself that I've "got it down" when it comes to my gear list, then all of a sudden something "better" comes along.
All those different "D's" of rip-stop nylon, cuben fiber aka Dyneema in a half-dozen thicknesses, sil-nylon, LiteSkin, eVent, Gore Tex aluminum, titanium, stainless steel, goose down, water-resistent goose down, Hollowfill and a zillion other different synthetic fibers, lithium batteries, regular batteries, a hundred different manufacturers of tents, backpacks, shoes, headlamps, quilts, knives sleeping bags, what size pot should I use, alcohol stove, canister stove, tuna can stoves, Jet Boils, Pocket Rockets, Nalgene, CNOC, Platypus, Camelback, Smart Water liter bottles, Tyvek, polycro, cottage industries, mainstream manufacturers, tarps vs. tents vs. hammock vs. bivy sack - a veritable dizzying cyclonic, tornadic, whirlwind of information and choices, choices and MORE choices!
Enough already I say! Curse you REI and Patagonia and the other early starters who launched an outdoor gear revolution! How do I wean myself away from all of this? A rhetorical question, but feel free to answer anyhow, as it is always good to gain other perspectives on topics like this.
OK, now that I have that out of my system I'm going to sneak off to YouTube and look at gear reviews - I don't want to miss out on anything. Have a great Friday everyone!