Month: December 2016

enlightened equipment Gear Gear reviews quilt revelation pro

Enlightened equipment revelation pro Quilt: Gear review

Kenneth Shaw on December 31, 2016

Some pieces of equipment become such an engrained part of your gear closet, a standard set piece in all your backpacking trips that they become easy to forget about. For me, the Enlightened equipment revelation pro Quilt is exactly that piece of equipment. I bought this quilt several years ago directly from Enlightened equipments website and haven’t thought about it since. It’s just always with me, summer, winter or fall this quilt is the base of my sleep system. It always works, always keeps me warm and is at the perfect weight to warmth ratio for me. On top of this it’s one of the lower priced high quality quilts on the market. Read More

backpacking backpacking recipe fudge Recipe snacks

Peanut butter fudge

Kenneth Shaw on December 29, 2016

These peanut butter fudge cubes are amazing. If your looking for quick energy on the trail, or body fat increasers, love handle expanders, these peanut butter fudge bars will do the trick. Read More

backpacking backpacking recipe breakfast recipe Recipe super breakfast

Banana muesli crunch

Kenneth Shaw on December 28, 2016

This is by far my favorite breakfast on the trail. It’s a bit more of a process at home, but the mixture will last for about 7 days on the trail and provides excellent energy in the morning and is very easy to make on the trail.

This is even a great vegan musli for everyday use if you use a milk substitute

christmas consumption mindfulness minimalism minimalist

A happy minimalist Christmas

Kenneth Shaw on December 24, 2016

It’s that time of year when we are not only expected to continue our mass gluttony of consumption, but also add to that gluttony by consuming for others. I have literally met people who take out massive loans in order to buy a bunch of garbage for their friends and families, and in the end feel just as empty after Christmas as before. In my earlier posts I talk a lot about the emptiness mindless consumption leaves in our souls. As if we are corporate owned robots with no personal willpower, the only willpower we (usually) have is dictating what we buy and what interests we find more enjoyable than others. But even the last vestiges of self control are thrown out the window around Christmas time.

Christmas is the time of year when 80 year old men and women need iPads and 80” flat screen TVs. When kids need new cars (hot wheels depending on age) and video games, (though they already have hundreds of each lying around. It’s the time of year when we pay thousands of dollars and take out new mortgages on our homes in order to buy the latest hush puppy or Nintendo. In other words it’s an absolutely soul crushing and ridiculous tradition the corporations have created for us.

backpacking recipe bar recipe energy bar Recipe snickers bar

Lazy mans Snickers bar

Kenneth Shaw on December 19, 2016

Who doesn’t love a snickers bar? Well other than the odd person here and there that happens to die when they eat peanuts.. but everyone else loves a good snickers bar. These homemade bars might not be the ”real” thing, but according to my super senses.. these are better.

Tools needed:

Oven
Stove
Small casserole
Baking paper Read More

Gear

Boil time: The most useless metric in backpacking

Kenneth Shaw on December 9, 2016

The pointless metric

As the title says.. Boil time to me is the most useless metric in all of backpacking. I don’t mean that hypothetical – I truly believe it is a completely useless metric. On top of that most “reviews” give boil times when calculated on a stove top in a kitchen. What’s the point? Yes I get that nobody wants to wait 15 minutes for water to boil, but what is 5 minutes compared to 3.45 minutes if the fuel saved is exponential. On top of that, we are in nature, why rush?

I always think about this when I am out backpacking and I bring my optimus Svea 123, Bushbuddy or Jetboil TI. These are all fantastic stoves in their own right, and in the confines of my kitchen the boil times are amazing. However, as soon as any of these stoves get attacked by wind, they turn almost completely useless. The boil time on my Svea 123 goes from kitchen counter 3.5 minutes to a hellish 10 minutes depending on the force of the breeze (I say breeze because these aren’t strong winds I am talking about). Fuel consumption goes from 20ml to 45ml for a simple cup of coffee. Read More