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I take my dogs on 3-5mile walks in the woods a couple times a week but never considered myself a hiker and i dont have any gear.
Kind of started looking into backpacking for the first time recently. I want a simple/light setup that I can use to camp on foot or carry in a back pack on my dirt bike (i can get most of the way to canada on old snow mobile trails from my house and i wanna make a trip).
The UL thing is intriguing but the expense/consumerism side of it kinda started bumming me out. Settled on making a cheap tarp set up outta plastic drop cloths which ill test in the woods by my house to see if i can hack it before investing in an expensive tent. Does anyone have recommendations for inexpensive gear, like backpacks, sleeping bags especially?
Are the materials on ultra light shit fragile? Could a bag handle a snag from a branch at speed or would it rip apart?
theres thousands of 'budget UL' gear lists out there, just google it, it doesn't have to be expensive at all. its been debunked that UL is more expensive than a 'traditional backpacking setup', sure, there are extreme ends of it but to the 'normal' person it isn't any more expensive.
UL fabrics have come a long ways, even over just the past couple years. I have UL gear thats been put through the wringer for over a decade and its still going strong. the only hole i can remember getting was a ember hole in my tarp that was easily patchable.
Thanks. I found the 'shoe string' guide and I think I'm gonna use that as a basis and go from there. bag and sleeping pad are the main concern.
East coast guys, how do you deal w ticks? 2 days of 50+ weather and they're already back. I was out doing trail work yesterday and we had about 15 ticks between me and two dogs. I've had good luck w pemetherin on my clothes but i definitely feel it is something that would give me cancer lol.