Posts Tagged camping
Kelty Journey 2.0 Child Carrier
Full disclosure: I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to baby or child carriers, so I was excited to see what Kelty had in store in their new Kelty Journey 2.0. Like most traveling parents, we look to for products that are versatile—meaning ones that can be used by kids of varying ages and by both parents. To give the Kelty Journey a test drive, I asked my 5’2″ family travel blog editor, her 6’5″ husband, and their kids (ages three and one) to put it through its paces on a long hike. The Kelty worked well for all of them: it was safe, comfortable on the shoulders and back, and a great fit given its generous torso range of 15 to 19 inches.
Not only did the Journey 2.0 comfortably accommodate both Mom and Dad, but it adjusted easily to fit both children as well (it can accommodate a weight load of up to 50 pounds). We used it on both a one-year-old and three-year-old (ranging in weight from 25 pound to 40 pounds). With its user-friendly straps and clips, it takes less than a minute for parents to raise or lower the carrier seat, switch kids, and be on their way. Plus, the torso adjustment is at the hips, not the shoulders, which keeps kids’ center of gravity lower and less weight off the parents’ shoulders.
I was impressed with the amount of storage space the Journey 2.0 provides: significantly more than I’ve seen on other carriers. It also features an auto-deploy kickstand (especially handy when parents are trying to get the pack off by themselves), toy loops, a water bottle pocket, a five-point harness for the child, removable sunshade, and lots of safeguards on the hinges and clamps to avoid pinched fingers. All the straps (including the hip and shoulder straps) are double-lined and padded, and all material is water resistant (in a downpour, it will get damp).
I’d venture to say the Kelty Journey 2.0 is the best quality backpack carrier to hit the market in some time. If you spend significant time hiking, backpacking, camping, or traveling with kids in tow, it’s well worth the investment. What sets it apart? The ease of adjustment between wearers, the low seat to keep kids secure (and their center of gravity low), and the aple storage space. It weighs in at only seven pounds, and comes in four colors (I’m partial to the bright red). It’s available at eBags or find it as low as $200 on Amazon.
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Posted by Amy in Kids and Family on January 31st, 2012
Aerobed Comfy Mattress in a Bag
Whether you’re car camping or crashing in a relative’s living room for the holidays, an Aerobed mattress can mean the difference in a being refreshed or bleary-eyed in the morning.
We must have used the first one of these I got about a hundred times before it sprang a small leak that we were never able to find (probably around the pump housing somewhere). So now we’re back in action with this Premier Cushioned Comfort version that has a handy built-in pump. For a night in a tent or a recent vacation when we had one more person than we had beds in a rental condo, this Aerobed has been just the ticket. (Aerobed is a division of Coleman, so they know a thing or two about camping.)
The pump on this inflatable bed works super fast and will go in reverse mode to deflate it in a hurry too. It works and sounds like the pump on those Sleep Number beds and is just as effective at giving you the control you want for the perfect firmness setting. You can make adjustments while you’re lying down because the controls are on a wand at the end of a cord. With stabilization built around the edge, this is a very solid and comfy bed when inflated.
There are thinner versions that are less bulky, but I think it’s worth the extra weight for this 14-inch thick one as it’s as close as you’ll get to bed comfort in a portable package. The size means it will take sheets meant for a pillow-top mattress as well, so you can use whatever you already have in the linen closet for couchsurfers.
Once the bed is deflated, it fits into an included nylon drawstring sack that’s easy to stuff into the corner of your car trunk or a shelf in the basement when you’re not using it.
The built-in air pump comes with a three-year warranty, but any bad reviews you see of these products usually revolve around a leak developing after a few uses. Considering the huge number of these sold each year, the track record is pretty good, but use a credit card that doubles the one-year warranty on the rest of the bed if you want to be extra safe.
This premier version comes in a twin or queen size and lists for $149. (The latter supports 600 pounds—impressive for an inflatable bed!) Shipping is free if you order direct from Aerobed.
You can find the Aerobed Premier Cushioned Comfort bed at most big-box home and department stores, but Check prices online and you’ll probably save some money.
Posted by Tim L. in General Gear, Kids and Family on December 21st, 2011
The Screwpop Tool – Now Black and Customizable
Close to two years ago I reviewed a cool little $5 item that I’ve used plenty of times since: the Screwpop. It’s a handy tool that opens beer bottles (that always gets my attention), has a Phillips screwdriver, and a regular flat-head screwdriver. With those out, it’s also a hex nut wrench (should your nut be the right size). See the details here.
These days, unless you encounter an especially dickish TSA agent, you should be able to carry this with you on a flight. But if they do confiscate it, you’re not out a fortune at least.
The original version, still available, is chrome, which is hard to print on. So now there’s a black version. This looks cool on its own, but the one key advantage is that you can customize it for your company, your band, your store, your website, whatever. So instead of giving people some useless schwag they’ll toss in the garbage or a ballpoint pen that will die in a few months, you can hand out something they could still be using a decade from now.
To show me how this works, the Screwpop people did a sample run of their tool with the Practical Travel Gear logo and website address—see the photo at the top. Pretty darn cool.
Want one? (Contest now closed)
I’m handing out some of them at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in January, but I’m going to send three of them to our readers. First you have to do one of these three things:
1) OR
Then send an e-mail with which one(s) you did to tim [ at] practicaltravelgear.com. Include your name and physical shipping address. That’s it!
I’ll pick three winners at random from the submissions, which must arrive by midnight, December 23, 2011. The Screwpops will ship out the first week of January. (No sorry, while these make great stocking stuffers, you’ll have to buy one if you want it in time for Christmas.)
If you don’t win, you can get the newer black Screwpop for $6 at ScrewpopTool.com.
* UPDATE – WE HAVE WINNERS! Congratulations to readers Janice Z, Sam G, and Brian C. Sorry, you’ll have to lay out six bucks for one of your own if that’s not you.
Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on December 14th, 2011
Timex E-tide Compass Expedition Watch Review
It’s tough being a watch company these days. The expensive ones still get bought as jewelry and for showing off, but for inexpensive ones many people have reverted back to a pocket watch: their mobile phone.
Quite a few travelers don’t use their phone overseas though. The roaming and data charges can bankrupt you if you’re not at a hotspot and the batteries drain so fast on the iPhone and some competitors that your vacation becomes a long series of outlet quests—assuming you have the right adapter.
So Timex keeps on ticking by cranking out great Expedition watches for travelers and outdoor adventurers. It doesn’t cut it to just tell you the time anymore though, even if it does light up at night with the Indiglo feature. (I especially love that on a dark airplane or in a movie theater.)
This E-tide Compass Temp watch is a great example. I reviewed another compass watch of theirs a couple years ago, but this one takes it up a notch with more features. The temperature part is more of a marketing ploy than something of real use, unfortunately. I’ve yet to find a watch that has a good thermometer and this one is no exception. On your wrist it’s hopeless because of body heat, but even sitting on a shelf it ran 10F degrees hot, which is typical.
The compass is a different story though. I found it quite accurate when testing in multiple locations. Not precision perfect if you’re trying to hike the Long Traverse in Newfoundland maybe, but close enough to keep you from getting lost in the woods or to figure out which direction you’re facing on a street in Bangkok.
The tides time part is what makes this watch special, taking it beyond double-duty gear status to something really multi-functional. Figuring out when high tide and low tide are doesn’t matter a lot for a whole lot of people, just like a depth meter on a diving watch doesn’t matter to a whole lot of people. But for those in a sailboat, kayak, or river boat on an ocean tributary, this info matters a lot. I once road a boat into a village in the Darian Gap in Panama. If the guides timed it wrong on arrival and departure, we were sleeping in a hut that night instead of being back on our catamaran in a comfy bed. Other times I’ve been on kayaking trips where there was a two-hour window to get to an island. After that you would be slogging through mud. Plus there are some eroded beaches in resort areas that are lovely at low tide, but disappear to the seawall at another time of day.
There’s nothing particularly hi-tech about the tides readout on this watch. When the extra hand points to 12, it’s high tide. When it points to 6, it’s low tide. In between you can tell which direction the tide is heading. Naturally it will need to be adjusted as you change locations: high tide in even the same body of water will vary from one coast to another. Periodic adjustment is necessary if you’re on the move. I’ve been checking it against the water lapping against my desk though on a creek that leads to Tampa Bay and so far so good after four weeks.
I strongly prefer analog face watches over digital ones and I like how Timex has gotten a lot of features into a watch that looks very attractive. Unlike the Casio PAW2000 watch I reviewed before though, none of the buttons are marked. This makes it look sleeker, sure, but it also means digging out the instruction manual to remind yourself how to do the simplest tasks—-like changing that tide clock or using the compass.
This is a common problem with almost any one you use though, no matter the manufacturer. I actually choose which watch to use in my travels sometimes based on how much hassle it’s going to be when crossing multiple time zones. In that department anyway, this one is easy to adjust with the main crown button.
The Timex E-tide Compass Expedition Watch lists comes in a variety of face and strap styles. A variety of names too: sometimes it’s a mouthful like “Intelligent Quartz Compass Tide Temperature Watch.” It feels hefty and expensive and is water resistant to 100 meters. It lists for $170, but you can find it discounted at these links:
Timex Men’s IQ Tide Temp Compass Watch at Overstock.com or get this watch at Amazon.
See the Timex Sports Facebook page or follow Practical Travel Gear there.
Posted by Tim L. in Adventure Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on October 6th, 2011
Tough as Titanium Spork for the Road
If I’m not mistaken, it’s been four years since a spork appeared on Practical Travel Gear and that was on the old version of this blog. Titled In Praise of the Lowly Spork, it was about one that had been thrown in with another gear item I was getting to review, as an afterthought.
Snow Peak wants to elevate the spork to a higher plane, thus this Titanium Spork with baked-in coloring. This Japanese company doesn’t believe in doing anything halfway. If you’ve been to Japan or Korea you’ll understand: if you’re going to go camping (or hiking, or skiing), you must be fully outfitted with the very best gear, even if you only do this once every two years. Projecting the right image is very important.
Thankfully Snow Peak realized there’s a limit when it comes to which products can command a premium price and a spork isn’t one of them. So unlike their $69 souped-up coffee mug, this spork retails for around $9 or $10 depending on if it’s plain or a color. Sure, you can get a plastic one for 1/3 that amount, but it won’t look this cool or feel as bulletproof.
First of all, it’s made from titanium—really! It’s not just a name to make it sound stronger, it truly is stronger than steel. For the colored versions you see pictured here, that pigment is actually bonded in the metal in the manufacturing process so it won’t wear off ever. The color on mine has gotten a little duller over time, which Snow Peak says to expect, but I kind of like the new weathered hue.
As far as “features” go, it’s a spork: it can be a spoon or be a fork—what else do you want from it? There’s a little hole on the top of the handle for hooking it to other things, but that’s about it. It’s something you take with you on a camping trip to have two utensils as one or you take it backpacking around the world so you’ll always have something to eat with. In countries where people eat everything with their fingers, this can be especially useful for self-catering: if you ask, “Can I have a fork?” at the take-out counter, they’ll look at you like you’re from Mars.
Thinking ahead, this would be an inexpensive but unique gift for that about-to-depart traveler heading out for a long jaunt. And as a dad I can say these things are always a hit with the kids. My daughter uses one of these in her daily school lunchbox, just for fun.
Get the Snow Peak Titanium Spork at Backcountry, at REI, at RockCreek, or at Amazon.
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Posted by Tim L. in General Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on October 5th, 2011
