A NEW 50L Backpack, Budget Gear, & A Podcast
oh hey I didn’t see you come in there so this week I have been super busy I just uh I just got back from a hike out on the pctt in California I’m currently getting prepped and doing Shakedown hikes for a trip that I have overseas to do the tour to mount Blanc again in about a week and this week I’ve been super busy shooting a bunch of new videos for here on the channel while I’m gone for 3 weeks in Europe so today I figured I would show you guys something completely different that you’ve probably never seen before most people that follow me know that for the past 3 or 4 years I’ve been doing a podcast an audio podcast called The Outdoor Evolution but did you also know that I do a weekly video podcast for 2 years I’ve been doing a video podcast every single Monday a podcast where I talk about all the new gear that I’m currently testing and trying out that I might add to my kit later a new gear that I’m developing with my gear company I also show behind the scenes stuff of shooting YouTube videos and this crazy lifestyle that I’ve been living for the past 9 years and I talk about a lot of my trips a lot of my Adventures bike packing backpacking mountaineering and World travel from the past and some of the stuff that I have coming up so today I figured I would show you guys an episode of that podcast specifically because this episode I’m talking about the rest of my Adventures for the summer and some in the fall that I have planned I show some new budget gear that I’ve recently picked up off of Amazon to start putting to the test because it’s been years years since I’ve done one of those budget Gear videos and I do a full walkth through and breakdown of the new 50 L frame pack that I’ve developed with my company that I hope to be putting out soon so hopefully you guys dig this podcast if you want to see more of these and you like the format and you just want to get more content from me you should consider signing up for my patreon community my awesome community over on patreon has been digging this podcast for the past 2 years and I put it out every single Monday I guess unless I’m traveling so if you’re interested I’ll put the link down below if not no big deal but if you want to help support me and what I do here on the channel check out the link all right so next week we will return to our regular scheduled program but until then enjoy good morning my friends and welcome to a fresh episode of the first cup how’s everybody doing on this beautiful Monday morning I have an action-packed episode of the first cup for you today I want to show you all kinds of stuff I want to talk about some budget gear that I’m about to take out and test uh show you a couple new little camera gadgets that I got for my tourto Mount Blanc hike this year I’m going to do something a little bit different and uh I’m going to give you guys a little bit more of a deep dive and a first look at the uh the new pack that I have been working on at one of the new packs that I’ve been working on and uh give you a little bit of an update on kind of the the trip plans and the adventure plans for this summer going into fall I’ve kind of put some other stuff together and uh got a bunch of fun stuff to share with you guys so uh did you guys have a good weekend hopefully you did have a good weekend hopefully you got out and enjoyed it uh this weekend was Jess and I’s uh 17-year wedding anniversary so we celebrated Yesterday by going out riding some bikes going to get uh some beers at a local Brewery and eating at one of our favorite restaurants so it was a pretty good weekend aside from that just kind of relaxed didn’t really do a whole lot tried to relax because this weekend I have a really big uh trip coming up so on Friday I’m going to be flying out to LA and then hanging out in La for about 4 days with my buddy Merrick uh Merrick from orology you know the cork balls um and then on next wednes well next Tuesday I’m going to be heading to Big Bear California and starting my Highlander Trek so the event that I’m going to be doing and kind of pseudo hosting um and then also not only backpacking and Hiking with everybody but then also doing a speaking engagement next week so that uh that’ll be pretty fun so a travel week got a travel week at the end of this week and then that’s where we’re going to kind of start this really busy next handful of months doing a bunch of different travel uh a bunch of different places from going to California then going to Europe then going to PCT days and spending some time on the PCT then going out onto the at in New Hampshire and the Whits then coming back then going up to Minnesota to do some hiking on the superior hiking trail which I’m want to talk about here in a little bit it’s going to be a busy next handful of months but working on a bunch of awesome stuff uh I wanted to share a bunch of stuff with you guys and let you know my plans um so uh I’ve even made a list today folks put a list uh together so I can remember to update all of you on all of this um so uh to let everybody know uh like I said today I’m going to be showing a little more of a deep dive on the 50 L framed pack that I’ve been working on but probably probably at the end I’m going to try to get it done at the end of this week I’m going to try to get it done for everyone that’s in the gear closet I’m going to be showing you guys a first look at the other pack that we been working on the pack that I am super excited to use um and I’m going to be testing that and developing it a little further over in Europe next month to do the tourto M Blanc and to climb the matter horn because I’m going to be doing a uh I’m going to attempt a summit of the matter horn just outside of zerat in Switzerland so I’m excited about that one but uh as long as we can get this this new prototype somewhat finished by the end of this week I’m going to be shooting a first cut or a first cup this is the first cup I’m going to be shooting a gear closet for you guys and all these spilling tea members um I will be doing a new episode of spilling tea right after uh right after this podcast so uh look for that probably tomorrow you guys are probably going to get that tomorrow or Wednesday my guess would be tomorrow though so it’s an action-packed week uh here on patreon or here in my world uh in the Darwin on the trail world of all this stuff that I’m working on so um as I said uh I have a lot of trips coming up so first off is going to be Highlander Big Bear I’m going out there to to hike that big event that should be really fun I’m really looking forward to that it’s been awesome to do these trips overseas with people uh go and do these hiking trips where everybody comes and we hike together and we we camp together every night well not camp together we’ve been staying in like hostels and stuff but on this trip I’m going to be hiking every day with uh big groups of people and then camping every night with people uh so on like backpacking event and then like I said I’m going to be doing that speak engagement which I think that my uh my whole speech and everything is going to be on kind of my last really 12 years into backpacking uh going from weighing 275 lbs being a pretty big cat and being pretty unhealthy uh there’s a lot of um uh health issues in my family heart disease diabetes all that stuff and I was at the point where I really wanted to to start changing my life and turning it around and I was at my biggest at 275 I started getting into the outdoors and really at first it was riding uh doing a lot of cycling then it was running then it was Triathlon um and then in between there I was really getting out and doing a lot more hiking getting back out into the woods finding my love for backpacking again which I had left when I was a kid because I was in Boy Scouts and all that um and then that’s all led to like the last nine years of through hiking and now climbing in and bike packing and all the stuff that I do so I think that’s what my uh my talk is going to be about my my little seminar at uh big bear or Highlander Big Bear so um been putting that together this week kind of shuffling all that together and putting it uh getting it ready um when I get back from Highlander so I’ll be out there for about a week so like I said I’m going early to hang out with Merrick then I’m going to be doing the event and then when I get back I’m going to be going out I think it’s probably going to be a solo back packing trip but I’m going to be going out um a little bit kind of south of a Flagstaff uh a handful of years ago I did a video about Clear Creek Wilderness absolutely beautiful place here in Arizona I want to get back down there but for this trip instead of taking my typical gear load out like the video that I just did uh this last Friday if you guys got a chance to see how I pack my pack um I’m going to get out with something that people have asked me to do for years um because four years on the channel I did those uh gear ultral light gear on a budget where I talked about like here’s the tent that I use but if I was on a budget here’s a tent that would be a decent budget option for it uh so I’ve decided to get on to Amazon because sort of the cheapest place that I can find gear and after all these years go on there and see what is still on there what’s budget gear now and build a big three for under $300 so I have bought a pack um a a Sleep System so a quilt and a sleeping pad and a shelter all for under $300 I came in right under $300 I think it was like 295 bucks um maybe a couple cents but uh I wanted to show you guys a couple of the things that I’m going to be taken out now I haven’t taken the the whole point of this video and the whole point of this trip is to take it all out blindly so I I bought a a $300 big three kit off Amazon I’m going to throw everything in my pack along with what I typically take like my cook system um like you know the food that I would regularly take uh clothes all of that um but using that budget big three and I’m just going to go out and kind of see how it performs uh I want to set up the tent for the first time out there on the trail I want to put that pack on for the first time maybe kind of stupid but we’ll see um and and use that sleep s system for the first time and just kind of see how it works and kind of document that and see you know what I think of this budget gear so I want to show you guys a couple of the items that I have uh so first off is the tent that I picked up so back in the day uh I I kind of had used and suggested a couple different shelters uh I think one of the best kind of budget shelters that ever came out of Amazon was one that I used called the L Shan now it’s gone on to be kind of popular um but I saw there was one that was kind of this oneperson trekking pole tin that’s very similar to the Durst um where it has two vestibules two doors it actually kind of if anything it reminds me of the old six moons design Skyscape treer and it’s called the feather Stone the Featherstone backbone oneperson tent um so I picked this up because I figured it looked interesting it has double vents um it has double vestibules you know it to be honest it looks like a ripoff of kind of most of the ultralight ents on the market um it’s not too crazy heavy I won’t spoil that I won’t spoil how much it weighs and all that stuff yet uh but that is the tent that I picked up that I’ll be taking out and then um I picked up a quilt by a company called I think it’s Zoo believes Zo o o believes outdoor Zoo believes um this is their backpacking downfill sleeping bag it it’s a quilt it’s basically a quilt um it’s completely open and then it zips up so the foot box closes um stuff like that and it’s rated I found this funny it’s rated between 32 and 50 degrees so what the actual uh rating is I don’t know but that is the quilt that I picked up and then I picked up a pad uh I won’t show you guys that yet the pad actually is pretty interesting um I’m actually liking the pad and then the pack which I’ll save that as well maybe uh the next first cup that we do when I get back from my Highlander trip so that’s the stuff that I plan on taking out for that trip um should be interesting should be quite interesting it’s been a long time since I kind of put together a budget kit like that and really went out and and took it on the trail back when I was doing all those budget Gear videos I would kind of take one piece out at a time and use it for like a night right and and see like oh okay yeah this is okay um but this is me taking out a full big three budget big three at the same time so that should be pretty interesting um so after that the next big trip is high or Not Highlander uh tont Blanc so I’ll be heading over to Europe uh back over to uh Switzerland France and uh Italy to do the tour to mount Blanc um same as I did last year we’re going to do the very a very similar route uh got an awesome group of people going with me and for this trip you know last year I didn’t really document it that much I shot a little bit of video but not a whole lot you guys have probably seen it in some of my b-roll and stuff and my videos but I didn’t really shoot it to Vlog it um this year instead of taking my bigger camera that I typically take on my hikes because of what I’m doing after the tour to M Blan and I’ll talk about that in a second I’m going to be taking a bit of a smaller and different setup so there’s a camera that I bought a couple years ago and I took it uh Jess and I took it with us to Europe last year when we went over to uh Spain and that is this little Reiko gr uh 3 uh yeah the gr 3x which is a really awesome little point and shoot camera um if anybody’s ever seen the little Fuji x100s or whatever it’s very similar so it shoots some very film looking photos um the plan is to take this and shoot all of my photos on it it’s small it’s compact it doesn’t really weigh much got this little cool lens cap look at that um and the type of pack that I’m going to be taking I’m actually going to be taking a very crazy ultra light minimal setup so I’m going to be taking about a 25 to 28 L pack for the tour to M blong simply because every night we’re staying in what’s called a refuge which is like a hostel or a tea house um and when you stay in those places really all that you need is a sleeping bag liner because all of those places they they have blankets they have sheets they just want you to use a sleeping bag liner so it’s just a hygiene thing right you stay inside of that so you’re not getting everything else gross um and I’ll probably take my inflatable pillow as well so I’m not going to be taking much of a sleeping system uh no sleeping pad uh no quilt none of that as far as my layers and extra clothes go there’s not much there and that’s really all I’m going to need you know you don’t need a cook system you just need to carry snacks so I’m going to be taking a very small 25 to 28 L pack um and because of the type of pack it’s more of a fast pack style so I wanted to have something small that I can easily grab and just try something different so I’m going be taking that camera and I’m also going to be taking uh a camera that I recently got which is the insta 3 or yeah the insta 360 Ace Pro um I have talked about for years I am not really a fan of action cameras I started my channel on action cameras I used to use a GoPro all the time um to shoot all of my videos and then I got away from it I prefer a bigger camera over the years I’ve used different GoPros I had the DJI pocket osmo thing and I’ve never really been happy with any of the footage they’re good if you’re just doing all action like if you’re on a bike or something but to actually Vlog and stuff I’m not really a big fan well this guy came out the insta 360 uh Ace Pro which is very much like a GoPro but it has a little flip up vlogging screen and the footage that I’ve seen come off of this from other people is looked pretty damn good it’s even got a little plug-in thing here on the side so you can uh yeah so you can plug in a microphone so I’ll use a little bitty microphone uh like the one that I used on the CDT the one that just plugged in the side and because I’m going to not only be doing the tour to M Blanc uh but I’m also going to be climbing the matter horn after the tour Mount Blanc so I wanted something that would be just better as an action camera when I go to climb the matter horn I don’t want to be lugging a big camera around because it’s going to be a bit of a sketchy climb so I figured this would be a perfect thing to use so for uh that trip I’m only going to be taking these I will not be taking my bigger camera so I’ll be shooting all my video on this I’ll be shooting all my photos on this cuz I want some good photos this time this thing shoots phenomenal photos and then for this obviously like doing a little bit of vlogging a little bit of actioning type stuff so we’ll see what comes out of it um my plan is to kind of somewhat Vlog the trip um and that’s why I’m taking this because I feel like uh you know it’ll it’ll be an interesting thing to test and to see if I would recommend something like when of these little uh uh action cameras like I said I’m haven’t been a big fan of these in the past but I’m trying to trying to just use some different stuff and utilize some different stuff so that is the plan for July so tour to mount Blanc climbing the matter horn which I’m super excited about I’m hoping to have some of my friends that I finished the PCT with uh Fez and Einstein come with me to do it so Einstein’s going to be over there anyways I’m trying to get Fez to come over to climb the the horn um then when I get back from Europe I’m going to be shooting out to PCT days and Cascade Locks Oregon so evolve Supply code will be at PCT days again this year and then I think the plan is before we go to PCT days I think we’re going to go hike a little bitty section of the PCT coming down into Cascade Locks like right around Mount Hood so the original plan for me was to go out and Hike a big section of the PCT like I did last year about a 100 miles but um I have something going on right after PCT days and I have the the option to shoot up to New Hampshire to the whites um and because I’m going up there anyways I’m like well instead of hiking a section of the PCT why don’t I go out and rehke through the whites I haven’t been I haven’t been in New Hampshire since 2016 and hiked that section of the Appalachian Trail which is absolutely gorgeous so I think think that is the plan instead so PCT days hike a little section of the trail like a day or two before uh PCT days I’m going to be driving back here jumping on a plane flying to New Hampshire I’m doing an interview with a uh a famous climber up there um and and and documentarian that lives in New Hampshire and then while I’m out there I’m going to hike a section of the at and and make a video on that and Vlog it and all that stuff so that is the new plan for August and then September um I am actually planning on shooting up to Minnesota to do a section of the superior hiking trail but um I’m going to do it a little bit different you guys know that I am not a hammock person I’ve never understood hammocks I tried a long time ago to get into hammocks um I am going to be going up there to do a ham H section of the trail I have a buddy that is really into hammocks has been trying to talk me into it so in September I’m going to shoot up there and I’m going to be doing a big Hammock Camping section of the superior hiking trail so that should be uh should be pretty interesting we we’ll see how that goes um but it’ll be fun it’ll be fun to prep for that it’ll be fun to go do it and do something that honestly I’m kind of uncomfortable with because I just don’t like hammocks but uh the whole goal was for him he wants to convince me why I should like hammock so we’ll see um so yeah so that is what’s going on basically that’s my summer that is my summer of adventures and travel uh and in between I still have all this content that I’m making all these weekly videos for the next like four weeks I have a bunch of videos planned four weeks four months I have a bunch of videos planned uh I’m I’m slowly whittling away on my on my board in there with all the uh with all the different videos on it like my 16 it’s probably up to 20 now videos that I’m kind of whittling away at um but yeah lots of fun stuff coming uh for here on patreon and for the channel so the last thing that I kind of want to dig in today is I want to show you guys uh I want to kind of show you a little bit more of the 50 L pack that we’ve been working on um at evolved so do if you guys remember uh I if you guys watched the live Q&A that I did from uh when I was traveling over to Nepal I lost my now Gene that I had God I had that for so long probably 12 to 15 years I had that n Jee it was a n jeene that I carried on my winter trips you guys have probably seen a ton of my videos it had an orange top had stickers all over it I lost that in Doha uh in the airport on the way over which broke my my heart absolutely broke my heart so uh when I got back I actually got a new n jeene so there’s my fancy new Nile jeene uh starting to build stickers on it not too shabby a lot of Arizona stuff on there uh outdoor Evolution evolved Zia Records uh uh wooden tooth records which is another one of my favorite record stores down in Tucson Grand Canyon um and then a a sticker and a a thing that I’ve had for years I’ve had it on cars I’ve had it on my camper I had it on my van uh kill your TV uh if you guys don’t know the whole thing about kill your TV look it up but new now genene all right so let’s get into uh what we’re calling the Space Ranger so obviously we make our 35 ler 35 to 40 L frameless pack the ranger uh made out of an eppx 200 well since we launched that pack we have been asked multiple times when we’re going to be putting out a bigger version of the pack um so uh because I needed one for all my winter camping because I needed one for the climb of Island Peak and the trk through the Himalayas and just because I mean well we wanted to put out a new pack uh we have been prototyping and working on uh what we are now affectionately calling the Space Ranger which if you guys saw my not ultr light gear list this was in it this is a prototype uh so we’ve made a couple adjustments on the next one and you guys will get an update on that as soon as we kind of finish up the last things on it but we’re getting really close on it so it has a lot of the same features that the ranger has uh so your traditional roll top pack uh bottom pocket big front pocket um but we we’ve done a couple things to kind of alter it uh so number one the materials that we decided to use uh we are using another epx 200 uh so that is this nice cool gray that you see on here um we’re kind of in between right now if we want to go with this gray or a little bit of a lighter gray uh the the next prototype is going to be made out of that lighter gray but a very similar construction to the ranger as far as the outside of the pack but we did a couple small things uh the the side pockets are much bigger on this um than the than the ranger so as you can as you can see um there’s an nowe in there so you can see it’s a bit taller uh it definitely swallows up the bottle more and I think even on this last version we made them just slightly bigger uh we did a multi-point compression point on the side so you can really pull in the pack because it does have a frame uh and I’ve said for years the compression on the side of a pack is totally worthless unless you have a frame because you need something to compress up against so because this does have the frame in it um look you can see the frame there’s the frame there um we have this multi-point compression so it really pulls in the load onto the pack uh same roll top design as our last pack um it does have that beautiful uh fake Brass Buckle the aluminum made to look like old Brass Buckle uh that Venom mesh front pocket I don’t know why I’m doing this upside down uh Venom mesh front pocket we did a larger bumper plate though so we did this nice kind of stylistic designed bumper plate our skid plate and then it is a fullon pocket uh on the new one so on this one you can see it’s kind of closed off on the new version uh that’ll end up showing you guys this is completely open so you have all of this accessed all the way down to the bottom um same thing with the front of it uh it does have the uh the point for a detachable y strap so you can either use the the single leash on top or you can attach the removable y strap on it so you can carry a bear can or something else on the on the top um the shoulder straps and the hip belt and the side pockets are made out of a material that we just started using called Ultra grid so the material that a lot of people really like Ultra there’s the ultra weave that they use on pack bodies this is the ultra grid uh We’ve really been digging this stuff um this prototype is kind of a bad example of these shoulder straps because these are a little thinner we were trying a couple of different widths of the shoulder strap so the ranger has very thick wide shoulder straps which is great because it really carries a nice load so we were trying maybe to go with a little bit of a thinner strap uh which is what this Proto has but we decided to go with kind of the same shoulder straps that we have on the ranger because we’ve had such good feedback on that so this one like I said a little bit thinner um the other one has much thicker shoulder straps uh but same load lifters nice load lifters uh has the camera clip spot uh that you can put it on there you can put shoulder pockets on there I don’t have the sternum strap on there right now same sternum strap and then if you look down here here is our uh completely padded removable and uh and Lumbar pad hit belt so a fullon hip belt uh very different from the Ranger with this lumbar pad you can switch this hip belt out so we’re going to be offering this pack in two different sizes so a small medium and a medium large um so two different torso lengths and then three different sizes of belt so you can switch this belt out it’s velcroed in there and then on on the inside the frame uh goes all the way down into the hip belt so it the the frame is kind of plugged into this lumbar pad so it really carries a load well uh when I was doing the island Peak Trek I had a lot of weight I think my overall weight that I was carrying was 35 to 40 lbs uh and it carried phenomenal it was absolutely phenomenal for for that amount of weight uh which I’m very very happy with um it’ll it’ll carry up to probably about 50 lbs pretty comfortably um we’ve been loading it down a lot and testing it right now we have another prototype that’s out in the field being tested um that’s going to have a lot of weight in it so we’re excited to see kind of how that does and then a fully adjustable kind of Y style uh hip belt the thing that’s not on this pack that everybody’s been asking for is it will have HIIT belt Pockets so it’ll have two different HIIT belt Pockets they’re not on this they’re on the other prototype um I didn’t take them to Nepal with me uh but we do have those and not only will we be offering them for this pack but we’ll also just be offering them because they are removable so you can take them and if you have a ranger and you’ve wanted hit belt pockets on the ranger you’ll be able to put those on there as well um so yeah that’s kind of your first Deep dive look at the Space Ranger uh right now we have a couple little tweaks to do um there’s a couple things that we’re really trying to get focused on the frame as far as the material that we’re using for the frame uh we’re right in between either doing aluminum which is pretty typical or we’ve also thought about doing titanium a titanium stayed pack um so right now we’re prototyping a couple of those um but everything else is pretty good to go and we’re hoping we’re hoping to have it launched in August for pre-sale so that is the plan uh the Space Ranger to hopefully launch in August we’ll see what happens one thing that I’ve learned uh you can plan on releasing a product and getting it done but all the prototyping uh working with the manufacturer to make a good sample to be ready for production um just everything materials right now we’re kind of backed up on materials we’re waiting for our supplier to get us uh certain fabric that we want to use uh which they’re kind of backed up right now because of where it’s made and shipping and all that stuff So the plan is for an August release um that is really what we’re trying for so we’ll see and I’ll keep you guys updated on that um like I said this pack we’ve been working on for a while and we’re getting close the other pack uh everybody in the gear closet you’re going to get a first look at that I’m hoping by the end of this week hoping uh it’s very likely it’ll be at the end of this week I’ll basically shoot a gear closet right before I take off for Big Bear um so exciting so guys that’s it that’s it for my action-packed uh episode of the first cup so a lot to share with you guys a lot of trips a lot of gear a lot of prototypes a lot of stuff that I’m going to be testing in the field I got a lot going on um really excited about some of this new content that I’m working on too not only uh you know some of these these Gear videos and stuff like that that I’ve been doing uh but also my hope is when I go up to Minnesota um to do that section of this Superior hiking trail I’ll also be shooting some of the First episodes of the kind of the behind thes scenes look at gear companies so there’s a couple companies up in Minnesota and around that area that I really want to go tour and talk to them and kind of start doing the interviews and start that process So the plan for that series is to really come out probably sometime in the early fall um is my plan for that so lots going on guys a whole lot going on um I cannot thank you guys enough for for supporting me here and being along for the ride um supporting what I do here on patreon checking out the first cup every Monday morning and all the other stuff that I release on here so thank you guys so much for your support um you guys really helped me to to do all this stuff it’s it’s really great to to have you guys on my side my team my patreon team so um like I said a spilling tea episode coming out tomorrow or Wednesday uh so keep an eye out for that if if you are a spilling team member and then hopefully a gear closet Episode by the end of this week if not the weekend so keep an eye out for that as well I hope you guys have an excellent Monday I hope it starts off an excellent awesome kickass week um I love you guys and uh cheers [Music] n [Music]
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25 Comments
It's pronounced "mon blan" – you are not supposed to pronounce the t and the c in the Mont blanc…🤓
Love your stuff!
What camera? Ty
The Space Ranger looks awesome! No matter how light weight you get, sometimes you just need to carry more water, food insulation, etc… so the extra capacity is a must. I've seen good video from other creators shooting with the newer Insta 360 cameras (not sure what models). None of us want to see anyone seriously injured or worse because they needed a hand or two free for their fancy camera. So I'm interested to see what you shoot with your new camera.
Hi Darwin, great to meet you and hike with you out in Big Bear at the Highlander event. Your stories were inspiring! Thank you. Laurent
Bring back the bowl cut!!!
The Mr Rogers opening was fun 😊
Love the video I like the backpack I am making my own because my last one chewed a hole into my right clavicle on a 40k hike.
Have you thought about doing a video with Eric Hansen. I think it would be a great collaboration
Glad do hear you're coming up for the SHT! Planning my thru-hike this fall. Northern Terminus to Grand Marais is not maintained well, but beautiful country to be sure.
Could you maybe tell more about the AT section in New Hampshire? I am from Europe and ill be visiting a friend in Boston. We want to go on a small trip in The Whites aswell. Thank you! Keep them vids coming! Cheers!
Hey Darwin I’m hiking the triple crown starting with the At in mar 2025 and looking for a gear sponsor for my hike and channel Silver Fox Adventures and would like to collaborate if your interested
Stick with the darker grey on the pack!
By chance is your buddy in MN, Shug? That would epic if it is.
I will almost certainly be your first customer for the Space Ranger. It is almost exactly what I am after right now.
Irrelevant to the subject but I think it was a video of yours that you mentioned an annual backpacking “retreat” somewhere. If gone through your vids but can’t find it. Can you help me?
So stoked for the Space Ranger bag!
24:24 that darker grey looks the tits, plus it'll only sun-bleach lighter over time
That’s awesome you’re coming to the Whites later this year. That’s my neck of the woods! I hope to run into you on the trails!
Here in the east coast dark colors attract black flies and mosquitoes
I was stoked to check out the tent. Only issue in canada that tent is 159 plus 75 import fees. Comes to 241.91. That doesnt seem like a cheap backpacking tent to me.
I’m also not a fan of action cameras, but what Eric and Devin showed (along with Miranda making silly guest appearances while Eric shot is video) really impressed me. Something that small and has most of the main things I look for when shooting my hiking and camping videos. Plus much more water resistant and more shock proof than anything I have. I am really thinking of pulling the trigger on that and maybe the new insta360 x4.
I am very interested in the Space Ranger Pack. I have been seriously considering the Durston Kakwa but I feel the 55 is bigger (including the pocket capacity) than I need, while the 40 is on the small side. I am currently using the Flex Capacitor and usually have it compressed near minimum for short Summer trips. Things I really like about your Ranger is the removable hip belts with removable pockets as I have a long torso and a very small waist with no fat padding. The larger FC hip belt is too big and doesn’t fit my hip bones comfortably. I suspect the smaller belt will be too small. I am hoping that the double belt attachment on the Durston or Ranger will actually fit my hips better than the stiffly padded inflexible FC belt.
Great video! I love your new gear. I like that coffee mug you're drinking from. Where can I get one of those? 6:19
Oh yes, been looking to replace my old, well-used Arc Blast 45! The new pack would definitely be a great choice as I like your pack style a lot, and I always use a frame pack unless I run. Will also be needing some more space for my guiding trips. Any plans to export to Europe? Only thing I am missing from the Arc Blast are the vertical pad straps under the back pocket. I like that the hipbelt pockets are removable, don't use them anymore.
I bought the ranger and I went with it for JMT 2023, I loved it mostly but I don’t like adjust straps(olive green) it looks good n smooth, but it’s too smooth, every 30 min I need to adjust them, it’s pain in the butt.
I have kinda crazy idea going JMT with packraft and fishing pole in 2025, so I can’t wait for the space ranger
Take a Hennessy hammock or stay home. @20:55