Gear Reviews

-Here are my reviews for the gear I have used in the past-

-I'll write the bulk of my reviews after I finish the PCT-

Tarptent Contrail- I have a love/hate relationship with this tent. It's light and I love being able to see all around me through the netting when I'm lying down. I also love the fact that it's made in the US and all of the interactions I've had with Henry Shires, the maker of Tarptents, have been very pleasant. That being said, this tent is very difficult to set up correctly, even after 500 miles of practice. Even in the best conditions I had issues with the material sagging and condensation inside of the tent. I also ripped the tent in a few places while trying to dry it out after 3 days of rain in the Cascades. I think in general the positive qualities outweigh the negative, but I also think it's time for me to retire this tent and move on to something a little bigger and easier to set up.

Golite Jam 50L- I fell in love with this pack because it is simple and PURPLE. I love purple. I used it on my PCT section hike in Washington, the entire SHT, and a bunch of other small trips. It was the most comfortable pack I'd ever worn until about 50 miles into my SHT trip. This pack is frameless, but does have an internal foam pad the helps the pack keep its shape and distributes the weight so it rests on your hips. After 50 miles on the SHT the foam pad bent in half, when made the pack pretty uncomfortable. The pack no longer held its shape, the weight rested on my shoulders, and it just looked slumped over and sad. Golite volunteered to send me a new and improved foam pad, but it's been 2 months and I'm still waiting for it to arrive. The other issue with this pack is that the waist belts are HUGE. Mine is a medium and it stopped fitting me when I got down to a 33" waist. Golite couldn't help me with this and, frankly, didn't seem to even care that the giant waistband would render my pack useless. Looking online it seems like this a common problem with Golite packs. For my PCT trip, I'm debating between a ULA Circuit (the most popular pack on the PCT) and a Zpack Arc Blast (a minimalist pack that is the same size, but half the weight). I'm going to miss the Golite Jam, but I can't wait to use a pack that actually functions as it's supposed to.