Sunday, March 11, 2007
Spring equipment test...surprising lessons
March gear test
Went hiking today to test out my brand new Camelback H. A.W.G. -- -- I feel the only way to know if some gear is useful (or if I know how to use it) is to actually use in the field. You can only do so much shopping and playing with it at home and then you have to test it out and see that actually works.
The things I found that had nothing to do with the pack, but were fairly important anyway ....
conditions:
Temperature 50°
wind light
six to 8 inches of melting snow
test: 50 minutes of hiking in a large park
The first thing I found out is the can't have too many AA batteries. I wanted to try my GPS which powered up when I checked it, but when I took it outside of course it was out of juice.
The second thing I found out is that snow melts. Although this should be self-evident but half a dozen places under the snow there are six-inch puddles. This led me to discovery of:
Third -- -- my hiking boots are not waterproof. They are not 'kind of 'waterproof, they're not water resistant they're not water light or anything like it. Soaked in right through.
And of course I was wearing cotton socks.
Fourth when hiking on hilly snow water muck ice, a walking stick would have been very useful.
(I'll review the Camelback later.)
