Quite a milestone. Who would have thought six years ago that I would have written so much – well over a million words on this blog and nearly 45,000 photos apparently! I’m sure this would have been more than a life’s achievement for many people, though for me it has been a hobby, one which has perhaps taken too much of my time away from more important jobs – but I hope you have enjoyed it so far. Judging by the considerable feedback I have had, I gather most people have, so I will try to keep it up.
Every hundred posts or so I have summarised the highlights of the previous hundred or so – which tradition I will continue here. It has taken me a little over a year to write the last 100 posts; a bit of a slow year, the covid year, and I have only spent a bit over a couple of weeks sleeping on the ground during it instead of my more normal more than a month – but next year may be better. We will hope so though I know that most people my age are astonished that we ever sleep on the ground. Worse luck to them, I say. Of course I don’t always post about every camping trip – only if I have something new to say.
Of course over the years I have been improving my tenting/camping out strategies and experience enormously. My new DIY tent, The Grey Flyer can also be pitched as a (double) hammock tarp (using this strategy) which is an enormous asset. I will be making a bathtub floor for it soon which will velcro in (so it can still double as a floorless tarp).
I have already cut it up but I am, pretty busy at the moment fixing fences and cutting up trees etc on account of the huge storm/flood we just had here in Gippsland – but soon it will be finished and I may even manage to get away in it for a couple of days before the sheep begin lambing at the end of July.
The roof of this tent will weigh around 200 grams when I make it in the .77 oz/yd2 material; likewise the floor will weigh only about 100 grams. I will need to add approx 60 grams to that for pegs and a bag, so the total weight will be about 360 grams. That is for a huge two person tent which we share with two dogs and lots of gear spread out. There is nothing like it out there for sale.
We have been away a few times in the (grey) prototype of it whose roof weighs a shocking 310 grams including tie outs and guys! It worked very well. I could easily add insect protection (which would only add a couple of ounces), but I usually find such gee-gaws unnecessary. For example this trip: Forbidden Wilderness or this Wilderness Hut.
I want all the ‘wrinkles’ ironed out of this set-up before we next set off on the Dusky Track hopefully next autumn – and me with a new (half) knee so I can once again walk that wonderful track. I have still not given up thoughts of obtaining photographs of the very rare moose which live here which have not been shot/snapped since the 1950s so that will be quite an achievement for me if I can pull it off! See my post The Lure of the Moose.
I live in hope. I have a (new) strategy to achieve this which may well work. ‘The best laid plans’, as they say.Della has never walked the track so it will be a wonderful eye-opening experience for her. You can get some idea what this will be like from this series of posts beginning: From Dawn to Dusky.
The 1401st post was this one on May 31 2020: A Lazy Man’s Guide to Hiking and Hunting in which I tried to explain the energy expenditure to be saved by ultralighting. If you want to hike/hunt more easily and more enjoyably you need to begin your strategy change here. This post Mastering the Hiking Energy Budget was another attempt at this difficult concept.
A companion piece to it was the post Ultralight Ultracheap Deer Hunting – and a Ripping Yarn or Two where I outline a kit which will only weigh a couple of kilos – anyway less than you probably carry as a day pack – but for multi-day hiking expeditions. A kit which will not cost you an arm and a leg. Even if you are not a hunter you should read the post because the gear advice has relevance to shedding weight on the trail. Here is a rare photo of a young Steve – you see I was, once:
I have continued the theme about wilderness survival with posts about Small Game (hunting) to complement the post about Ghost Shrimp and Other Small Fry and The Ultralight Fisherman so that in Ultralight Hiking #102 I point out that “if you can just supplement your protein needs with some small game and/or fish you can easily reduce the weight of your food + fuel per day to less than 250 grams so that an averagely fit person starting out with a pack weight of say 20 kg should be able to comfortably continue unsupplied for two months+! Yes, really!” to which I added some further tips about navigation in The Importance of Landmarks to complement a lot of earlier posts about finding your way in the bush and survival.
During the lockdown year I did a fair bit of experimentation with fire. I morphed a DIY hobo stove (a post with links to lots of lore about fire lighting) into a $5 and 20 gram DIY windscreen which doubles as a wood stove. I also showed how to reduce your fuel usage by nearly half by making your won carbon cosy. I also did a lot of playing around with DIY tent stoves, showing eg how to make your own ultralight roll up chimney and how to create am approx 250 gram tent stove out of a couple of $7 pet food bowls. This is still a work in progress and I expect to make further improvements yet – including an ‘insulated’ tent to complement an ultralight (200 gram) stove which both heats your tent and cooks your food and charges your devices.
As usual I/we managed a few canoe trips, though not as many aas we would have wished. eg Carpe Diem, Wonnangatta Proof Testing, Thomson Autumn Packraft.
Other DIY ideas: I was particularly pleased with these Sub One Ounce Per Pair Camp Shoes I made for Della. And with my several new sub two ounce hiking chairs, eg the Nano Chair #2, a Ten Gram Pillow, a 30 gram Tent Pole, a 76 Gram Cookset (including stove), my Toothbrush Spoon, my Ultralight Dog Beds, etc
As usual there are plenty of tips and tricks eg Windy Old Weather, Ultralight Hammocks, Trouble with Water Filters, So What is Good and Cheap, etc – and lots of reviews.
Hope you continued to enjoy, Cheers, Steve & Della.
Here are some of my older post summaries:
Thank you for sharing so much of your specialized knowledge with your readers. I appreciate the time and effort and have found many interesting articles to return to. Plus the advice is gold! Wishing you many more healthy happy years ahead to keep us posted on your new discoveries and inventions : )
Thank you for your kind thoughts Cindie. Much appreciated. Cheers, Steve.