Gr5 Gear List

Only a few days till I leave. The tension rises. My food has been delivered to my mom’s. And all my gear is finally collected and ready to be packed. And that’s exactly what I want to talk about… gear.

I kind of love gear. I think it can be counted as one of my special interest. At the other hand, my budget isn’t very big. So most of the gear collected is second hand. 

Shelter

As a shelter I use the six moon designs Lunar Solo. I decided on this tent due to the form. Traveling with a dog I need some extra space in a tent. Meaning for most brands I will need a two person tent which of course ways more. But the Lunar solo fixes this problem. It has a place perfect for a dog or some gear but not enough for two persons. It’s really spacious and perfect dimension for me. And the weight (26 ounces/740 g) and price (247€) are pretty nice. I also bought it second hand so the price was way less. The only disadvantage is that te condensation is very present… Especially with a dog in the tent. I use a Swedish cloth to deal with it.

Sleep system

I use the Thermarest Neoair uberlite (8,8 ounces/249g) in combination with an Enlightened equipment revelation quilt (-1°C short/regular)(17,65 ounces/500g). I hear a lot about the Uberlite not being as comfortable but with being a short not that wide person, it works for me. To inflate and deflating it I will be using the flextail zero pump. I really hate to deflate pads.

I decided on a quilt due to being a stomach sleeper. The hoods on normal sleeping bags tent to just suffocate me. I haven’t been able to use the revaluation quilt that much so I hope it will be fine.

As a pillow I use my puffy jacket stuffed in a buff. I find most of the camping pillows to be way to high. 

As a comfort item I’m still doubting to bring my Ozysleep bag. I’m used of sleeping with a weighted blanked, my Ozysleep bag, and a weighted stuffed animal. Sleep is very important for my and I have a lot of problems with it. So I do anything to improve it. 

Pack

I am in love with my atom packs atom+ EP50 (23,8 ounces/675g). I find a lot of backpacks just a little bit to big for my back. The Atom+ is the first pack that actually fits. And it is also very versatile, both the frame and the belt can be removed. When I’m carrying not that much it can fold down pretty smal. But if something happens and I need to carry the pack of my dog it can all fit inside.

I’m also caring the atom packs the roo (3,5 ounces/100g) and a nylofume pack liner.

Kitchen

My kitchen stuff is a bit all over the place. I use a robens firefly stove (2,5 ounces/71g). I bought it when I didn’t know a lot about camping, but it works. As a spork I use one from GSI outdoors that came in a set with a way to big pot and bowls I don’t really use. The pot that I do use is the toaks titanium 750ml pot (3,6 ounces/103g). I also will use a cold jimmy joy pot (2,82 ounces/80g) for cold soaking my lunches.

For my water system I use a katatyn befree 0,6l (1,62 ounces/46g). Combined with two water bottles. One is the cnoc versica (2,11 ounces/60g) and the other is an old Pokemon water bottle (2,82 ounces/80g).

Autism essentials

As you can read in a previous blog I will also bring some things to deal with my autism. I will bring a stuffed animal, some headphones, my sunflower lanyard, the therapy dog clothes for Appie and my sunglasses. And I guess you can count the Ozzy sleep bag also under autism essentials.

Hygiene/First Aid

For hygiene I use the famous ultralight toothbrush from garage grown gear in combination with some toothpaste tablets.

In my toilet kit you can find my Kula cloth, the culoclean portable bidet and a pstyle stand to pee device.

For firs aid I carry a Hartford gear trail pouch with some leucotape, my medication, classic SD Swiss army knife and sunscreen.

And last but not least for safety I care a Garmin inreach mini 2.

Tech.

You can’t leave with a source of light, so I’m carrying the Rovyvon aurora A5. 

I can’t go without stories. I read them, I listened to them and they calm me down on hard days. For this I use a Boox Palma. It’s a smartphone sided e-reader with an app store. So you can put your favorite reading app on it as wel ass apps for music or audio books. Of course I’m also bringing some earphones to listen to it.

With electronics comes of course stuff for energy. I will be bringing two usb-c cables, a micro usb-c cable and the charging cable for my Garmin instinct solar. This will be combined with my anker powerport mini dual which has two charging ports.

And off course I will be bringing a power bank. I use the X move 20000mah power bank.

Camera gear

My camera is definitely the most heavy item I’m bringing … I use the Canon Eos 70D which weighs about one kilo with the lens attached. I’m also bringing an extra battery, the battery charger and an extra SD card.

The tripod I use is the Dörr travel tripod Gipsy, it can be used for camera, phone and as a selfie stick.

To carry it all I use the hyperlite mountain gear camera pod.

Clothes

Most of my clothes are from the kids section of decathlon which is one of the largest outdoor stores in Belgium.

I pack keytom thermo pants with a thermo wedze shirt for sleeping and the colder days. And for rain I pack my rain pants and jacket from Quechua. My puffer is also from Quechua, it’s the mh500. Just to be sure I will also be bringing some lightweight gloves (Forclaz MT500).

For sock I’m a really big fan of injinji toe socks. I will be wearing the trail midweight crew socks and have also an extra pair packed.

While hiking I will be wearing Quechua MH100 shorts and a millet shirt that was second hand and not sold anymore.

Shoes are a big deal for me. I prefer going barefoot and wear normally only barefoot shoes. But I have noticed that if I do big miles a few days in a row my feet hurt because they aren’t trained enough. The only problem is that by wearing only barefoot shoes my feed are back in a natural food shape with wider toes. Meaning I don’t fit in normal shoes. But luckily enough there are shoe brands that make food shape shoes. I’m very glad I came across the Altra lonepeaks. The fit great and I really love them.

Dog gear

Appie is carrying her own pack, an old version of the ruffwear palisades pack. In it she carries her sleeping pad (which I made from a car frost screen), her Been camping DCF dogbowl, a peace of towel, some dog shoes and some food and snacks.

In total I have a base weight of 6305 grams (with the Ozzy sleep bag). All the camera gear together weighs about 1619 grams. So without that it would come down to 4686 grams.