This is the year that I need to replace some of my camping equipment. I needed a new pair of Hiking Boots. I went shopping and was I shocked at the cheap quality of construction of the new boots. I have been hiking and camping all of my life and have seen the equipment go from non existing to great quality to junk. I always buy the best quality that I can afford. My last pair of hiking boots was bought 20 years ago. I have had them resoled a couple of times. I have a pair of L. L. Bean Boots that I purchased 25 years ago, and they are now having new leather tops installed at L. L. Bean. I am used to having the things I buy last a very long time. The new boots can't be repaired, resoled, etc. I had to try on a dozen different boots to find a pair that fits because nobody in the boot making business uses standard sizes anymore. One company's size 8 wide is the same size as another company's 10 extra wide. I was taught that when camping, one should try to blend in with nature, so my equipment was all earth tones. I look at the new tents and most are blue (the worst color to use because skeeters are attracted to blue) and the rest are red, yellow or orange. Our campgrounds are going to look like a circus instead of a campround. I can understand using yellow or orange for a climbing expedition, but how many campers will actually go on a climbing expedition? I see the seams on the tents that looked stressed before they are even used. My last backpacking tent was a Sierra Designs Mountain tent that was absolutley bomb proof and has kept me dry under a rocky mountain 2 foot overnight snow storm. Very well engineered and was green to blend into the woods or meadows. There is no modern day replacement for this tent. The new stoves are all copied after MSR stoves with the worst windscreen ever designed by man. I long for the old Optimus or Svea stoves that actually had a windscreen that would survive a weekend of camping. Cooksets were designed around particular stoves so that everything could be packed together and compactly. The cooksets also had a better windscreen included with the cooksets that were better than the good windscreens included with the stoves. It seems to me that the companies that grew up in the middle of the backpacking scene of years ago have lost touch with their customer base and just builds things to get thrown away and replaced frequently. These companies are the same companies that belong to orginizations that talks about how bad we are for being a throw-a-way society. If you don't want us to be a throw-a-way society, then build us products that last and can be repaired, so we don't have to replace so often.

boots: buy Lowa http://www.lowaboots.com/catalog/catalog.cfm?category=2
, look at the Baffin, Banff, Tibet or the sheep hunter, or try meindl http://www.cabelas.com/products/Cpod0015004.jsp - I own both, and for the money, those meidl’s can not be beat, you can wear them all day hiking or walking or just sitting around they are awesome. I would buy the Lowa’s if you plan to summit Denali. .

I agree with your assessment of the old days, but today I can go for 10 days solo, without a resupply and that includes a 10 pound gun, ammo, extra knife, and saw and it's all on my back.

Id much rather have all my new lightweight gear than go back to external frames with optis stoves and poor sleeping bags.. . . There now are tents made by Kifaru that are supper light weight, come in green and are bombproof!
http://www.kifaru.net/ptrp_annex.htm
http://www.kifaru.net/TIPI.HTM

You need to look around there are lots of options now, but the nostalgia is not the same for sure!

I also don’t miss white gas... I carry a burner and heat shield and gas together with my cook outfit. It's all titanium and so light and compact it can fit anywhere.

Anyhow, I hear what you’re saying, but I love the new lightweight materials now available. Way better than the bulky and heavy stuff I used to have to lug around. . .

My wife and I have never camped before together. It is something that I would really like to do. It seems so much more practical than staying in a hotel.

Having said that, I prefer to travel light-weight when hiking. I assume that nothing that you buy today is going to last forever. I know that it is a sad statement, but it seems like reality.

I have a pair of Garmont Vegans, which is a pretty solid light-weight hiking shoe for those of us who look for non-leather products. I wore them well over a year, mostly every day, and they are still trucking.

James

You guys should get together and sleep under the stars in central park. . . LOL

LOL. You would be surprised the wildlife that we would encounter! Seriously, we even recently had a coyote in the park. Unfortunately, it died during the chase the police gave it. Pathetic...I would have left the coyote alone. It might have taken out a few rats.

As for taking T camping...one step at a time. My sister and brother were always the big campers. They love to do it. It is something I wish to do more of as we get the chance.

Cheers
James

When I go photographing, it can be along the road system, or out in the Bush. If I fly out into the Bush, I take expedition grade camping equipment, because my life depends on that equipment working. It has to withstand the onslaught of Skeeters, no-see-ums, White Socks, hurricane strength winds, rain, snow, sleet, hail, 90 degree temps and -55 degree temps, bears, wolves, ground squirrels, etc. I take a medical kit with me that is much more involved than with Hiking. I take an orange panel marker and signal mirror so the airplane can find me a week or so later. This is pure wilderness with nothing to compare in the lower 48 States. No roads, no electric wires, no phones, no cell phone coverage and spotty coverage on satelite phones. When you are dropped off, you depend on yourself for survival.

When I go out photographing along the road system, then I can carry lighter weight equipment. If I go out for overnight, then I just sleep in the Van. I carry no stove as I survive on Moose Jerky, powerbars, vitamins, etc. If I go out for 3 days or more, then I carry a tent and a stove to use for my base camp. Here in Alaska, you need a tent with good skeeter netting or you will be miserable. If I am car camping, then weight doesn't matter. If I go out from my base camp for over night, then weight does matter a lot. I just bought a Eureka Zeus 1 LE tent with aluminum poles and the whole tent weights less than 3 lbs. Nice compliment to my North Face Superlight Down Sleeping Bag (+25 years old) that weighs less than 3 lbs. I use a Thermarest mattress for my tired 54 year old bones. I also travel by canoe up here to go photographing. For my camping needs, I look at quality first. I have to, sometimes my life depends on it. On a 10 day canoe trip, if something fails, I can't return it to the store for repair or exchange. If I fly out to the Bush, same thing, the equipment just has to work. If you are car camping in a campground, then camping here is no different than anywhere else, but leave the campgrounds and the road system and you are just as much at risk as any expedition in the world. For me it is worth it. You haven't lived until you wake up to what sounds like kids playing with a clicker toy out in the middle of nowhere and you look out your tent and find yourself in the middle of 10,000 Caribou that is migrating, or you hear a wolf howl close to your tent, or flyfishing on a remote river, catch a salmon and have to cut it your $60.00 fly line because a bear has just claimed YOUR fish, or wake up in the middle of the night feeling static electricy and you look out your tent and you see the Northern Lights in all their glory.