Gear Lust and The Art of Simplicity
As I pedal or paddle the miles away, one of my favorite topics of thought is gear, what I can change, how I can simplify, what would work better. Sometimes these topics are at odds, the idea of adding new gear goes against the grain of simplification, or does it? I guess gear for the sake of gear would definitely go against the grain of minimizing what you own, but gear for the sake of doing something better, making life simpler, well I don't know.
Here is an example of one of my recent topics of thought. I switched my stove system from the MSR Reactor (an awesome stove!!) to the Snow Peak Giga unit, an ultra light, very fuel efficient beast. I love the size and weight of the Snow Peak unit and you can't beat its fuel efficiency, but alas that comes with strings. It has no wind break like the Reactor did or like the very popular Jet Boils do, so you must do something to solve this problem. One option is to fashion your own home made screen/reflector, which is exactly what I have done.
After much research I settled on making a reflector (to keep heat away from the canister) and a wind break (to keep wind from the flame) out of aluminium foil, or more specifically, roasting pans. You know, the ones that you find in the Dollar Store for $1, that you might normally use once and then throw away. Well, my first iteration was from a light weight pan and that lasted me from Louisiana to Del Rio Texas. Really all in all that was not too bad. In Del Rio, my windscreen had basically had holes melted in the sides from the flames so I opted for a heavier setup. For this iteration I chose the $1.79 version of the broiler pans, the one that said "Heavy Duty" on it. This version unfortunately has only lasted me a week and is really just not as portable as I wished.
So, this all leads me back to this post and my example of gear lust and simplicity. I am now in the process of lusting over the good ole fashion commercial versions of what I have tried to hand craft. They cost more, but as you can see the life expectancy of these cheap home-made versions could quickly add up. One more broiler pan and I would have spent close to $5, and the Snow Peak screen costs $12 and looks fairly indestructible. No in fairness, it is really not the most robust of screens in terms of wind protection, so I would have to add something like the MSR screen or a similar variant, upping the ante to around $25. Quite a bit more than the home made versions, but likely to last a good deal of time.
This is an example of where sometimes going the route of simplicity and doing it yourself may not be the best choice when you are putting gear through its paces. Granted, between my first creation and now, I have used that stove probably 60-80 times, way more than what the average person would use on a couple of weekend outings. I guess in the end, the decision or trade-off between cost and longetiviy is one of the deciding factors between simplicity and buying something pre-built.
For now I will continue to spend a good chunk of my days contemplating how gear can be made simpler, lighter, switched up, or just left alone. When you have so much time on your hands and you are carrying everything you own in a BOB trailer or the dry hatches of a kayak, gear and kit, just becomes central to your life. The thought of lightening my BOB bag by a few pounds excites me when going up hills, but then at camp I could curse myself for not having another piece of luxury, an extra sweater or maybe a larger pot. Pedaling through the rain and getting wet legs and feet because I opted not to carry rain pants can be infuriating until you look at the dry bag with your spare clothes in it and curse the fact that you think it is too big. I get hungry and dream of an alternative food source but then get mad at the fact I am carrying 3-4 days of food with me instead of 1.
Unfortunately, or not, there is just no getting around that fact, even when you want to live as simply as possible, kit and gear is a huge part of life on the road.