>inb4 "if you're not exclusively eating foraged fungi under a handmade wood shelter, you're not really camping"
what sorts of non-essential things does PrepHole like to bring to make hiking and camping a bit more than merely walking and sleeping outside?
for me, it's been a somewhat extensive toiletries kit with things like eye drops, dental floss, cotton swabs, baking soda as mouthwash, baby powder as shampoo, etc. but now that i've got some years of off-trail experience, 2024 is the year i spend money and really dial in my setup. a table and chair would be quite nice to have but the helinox tax is pretty steep for a luxury item. maybe instead, i cut a piece of yoga mat and buy one of those mini aluminum tables?
I bring a paperback book with me just about every time. I fricking love reading next to the fire or while listening to rain on the tent.
agreed, my e-reader is mandatory every time i go out. i suppose this thread would be less about comfy activities, and more about making the actual logistics of existing outdoors a bit more comfy, ideally on a budget. e.g., buy the best sleeping bag you can afford, but don't necessarily spend $300 on a table and chair when a scrap of foam and a $20 chinesium table will do fine. or similar items that aren't strictly necessary to bring, but make things that much more enjoyable
Uhhh in that case, I bring air-activated hand warmers and shove them in the footbox of my sleeping bag. It's great.
>folding chair
I have a Helinox chair. It's tiny and light. A chair is one of those things that's too hard/time consuming to bushcraft, and a rock/log doesn't do nearly as good a job. I have a Big Agnes table, and while it's nice I find that I only really use it if I'm going to be in a tent for a while.
>Christmas lights
It's just so comfy to have lights strung up around the tent. Makes it easy to find your way back after pissing. Also, sets the mood nicely
>Boullion cubes
Lightweight, take up no space, can be used to season wild caught game, have enjoyed a cup of boullion soup when it's cold or I ate all my food
>packet of gatoraid powder
Started carrying it after going hyponatremic innadesert years ago, but now it's really nice to be able to have something other than water
>Jetboil
So fricking nice to be able to heat up water without having to build a fire
I keep a little copy of the Havamal in my pack. Religious stuff aside, I find that I can really concentrate and interpret it much better when I'm innawoods. If I remember, I like to bring other paperbacks too, like Dick Francis stories.
>folding chair
i've decided against buying this but may want one for other scenarios, e.g., camping via sailboat, which lets me carry significantly more weight. if i ever do buy a chair, it'll be a helinox, everything else seems like a waste of money. for now, it's gonna be a cascade wild plastic table and a square cut from an old yoga mat to kneel on
>bullion cubes
yeah man, these are absolutely essential luxuries for me. there's probably nothing more comfy than drinking a hot cup of bullion with some whiskey in it. i'm always packing bullion cubes. whiskey is also my preferred alcohol, though i rarely drink it while /in/ - it's strong; mixes great with bullion, black tea, and water; and very warming
>stove
finally upgrading to an alcohol stove after years of going without. probably more of an essential item, but i believe those expensive gas canister things are meant to boil very fast
I was given both a Helinox and a Big Agnes. The BA is better unless you're turbo autistic about weight savings. The BA feels way more sturdy.
I've never tried Whiskey in boullion. I pretty much only drink scotch straight, and only on special occasions. May have to give it a go though. Very mountain man esque.
Let us know how the alcohol stove works. I use a jetboil because I got it for free, and don't know much about stoves. What are the upsides to an alcohol stove?
I have the Chair Zero. It's good, but tbh I'd get the Big Agnes version over the helinox.
Which Helinox do you have? Been taking a peek at them recently.
The 2QZQ table looks pretty neat. They also make a big spike so you can put it wherever you want instead of in a tree. Dutchware sells them as a table for hammocks. Irl so is another brand but I do t think it has the spur (so it requires a tree).
The Cascade Wild table is the new hot consume item. It’s a tiny folding plastic table
>Cascade Wild table
that's exactly what i'm looking for, thanks. a functional luxury item that's essentially invisible in my backpack. something to keep plates, toothbrush, bedside items, etc., off the ground would be huge. seems to be made out of the same shit as USPS crates (btw, steal them whenever you see them, they are awesome, no i'm not a fed)
glad that works for you, though i personally prefer to leave my socks on when sleeping outside. i have a pretty decent sleeping bag and want it to last many more years so i store it outside the stuff sack and avoid bare feet in the footbox
lol i usually camp with my brother, who is also a functional alcoholic. after seeing him lug around empty glass beer bottles compared to my 500 mL nalgene of whiskey, i'd strongly consider bringing just a couple cans of good beer next time as a non-essential luxury. but whiskey does mix well with black tea and bullion cubes, my preferred hot drinks when camping
>leave my socks on when sleeping outside
Oh, I wear socks to sleep as well. I've had frostbite (ironically not from PrepHole shit) and my feet just don't stay warm like they used to, so the hand warmers keep the footbox from getting cold on me.
Alcohol.
Campfires and cold beer are made for each other.
Long hike? Yeah nothing beats a cold beer.
I’m otherwise a teetotaler, but love me a beer after a +5 miler or camping with a skewer of meat and beer
Luv me meat and me pint of lager, simple as
Full stove, blow up pillow, whiskey
Carrying stuff on land?
Nahh
a lot of people on ~~*gear review blogs*~~ seem to love pillows. are they actually better than say, a stuff sack with soft things in it? i'd personally rather buy a heavy-duty sewing machine and consider making a pillow after variously sized stuff sacks. 2024 is the year of the hammock and trangia, so we'll see what's up. my sleeping and cooking systems were always fairly weak, think yoga mat on the ground under a small tacticool tarp, and a big-ass pot over an open campfire
for years i also just used my sleeping bag sack stuffed with cloths as a pillow. 2 things, it makes whatever you put in there kinda damp for the morning, and pretty lumpy. honestly, it works fine
what i use now is not just air, its some kind of insulating material, biggest thing is, that having a pillow "somewhat" similar to what i have at home prevents me from twisting and turning like the girl from the exorcist
dont know why
whatever gives you the best night's sleep, man. i also include ear plugs in my "somewhat extensive" toiletries kit described in the OP, as i wake up at the slightest sound. if bring a dedicated pillow makes you sleep better, well better sleep is probably the single best gain one can possibly achieve
absolutely 100% true, i cant really sleep with earplugs though, unless im in a tent, ussually i tarp camp or in a shelter like original pic, because there are a lot of forest mice that needs a good thump with the crocs (doesnt hurt them, but keeps them from coming back that night) and also boars which are far far more of a problem if they show up
I just some rando on PrepHole, so my opinion is worthless. But a pillow (inflatable or traditional) is a nice luxury if you’re on the ground, but a necessity in a hammock. I use a fancy ass ExPed UL inflated maybe 2/3 of the way in a hammock. A lumpy stuff sack is manageable in a tent but just no good in a hammock. But an inflatable pillow combined with a hammock may as well be anesthesia.
>a necessity in a hammock
this is good to know, thanks. about to start using a hammock, it should be an interesting change. i'll be sure to start packing clothes in a small stuff sack with its primary function as a pillow in mind. i can see how some kind of neck support is important
i'm also taking a hard look at my cookware. kinda straddling essential and luxury, but a small pair of tongs and a wood spatula/spoon cut down to size and modified to my preference should be better than my random plastic spatula from wal-mart. of course, the height of cooking-related luxury would be to bring pint containers filled with the purest spring water for the purpose of making perfect instant potatoes
fair, the only wildlife i seem to encounter is deer and squirrels. that'll probably change soon, need to go to burlington, vt for the eclipse
those lanterns are really comfy, i can never justify it though. gotta make do with the red light headlamp setting
>gotta make do with the red light headlamp setting
aw look that's fair man if you're huffing it on foot the whole way and just making the best of a cold ground. but whenever you might have some wiggle room for comfy lanterns, candle or oil are the bees breasts.
in saying that, if you're going more primal you have a lot more to appreciate and shouldn't miss the firelight anyway
>pint containers
>the only wildlife i seem to encounter is deer and squirrels
yea thankfully moose arent motivated by human food like mice and boar are, if they were, i would be screwed
I have a chair like the one in and a light aluminium table, I also bring my kindle
I am a finely tuned hiking machine that runs on cookies, sausage, and whiskey.
As for camp comforts, I have never needed a chair or a table. My Z-Lite foam pad on a log works just fine.
for me, it's my oil lantern and of course my togging and recording gear. otherwise I don't need too many comforts besides my hammock or just my ute to sleep in.
bRump
I got a gas mantle lamp that provided some nice light, and a little folding aluminum table that springs open. Was a nice combo to use on the ground as I don't have a chair just yet since I can't decide on what to get.
Fleshlight.