Camping Bag

The yellow bag is my camp. To stay within a realistic budget I will not be able to spend every night in a hotel. Even at $100 for a room a moth long trip would incur $3000 in lodging. Camp sites are much less expensive and include showers, so I plan on camping. I have dedicated one bag for my camp and like a backpacker I am limited on size and weight. The camp bag is the largest and highest above the center of gravity my goal is to keep it around 20 lbs. Backpacking gear is extremely specialized, it is compact, light weight, high quality and often very expensive. Recreation Outlet is a great source for good quality backpacking gear at amazing prices. The only good thing about buying a bike and preparing for a trip over winter is that I got most of my gear for Christmas.

My camp consists of a ground pad, tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag and a pillow. Backpacking tents can be very lightweight and very small since I my weight requirements are not as tight as a backpacker so I chose a larger two man tent. A lager tent gives me more room for a rainy day when I am stuck inside for extended periods of time and also allows me to keep all of my bags and panniers inside with me. The height was also important, I do not need to stand up but a comfortable kneeling height was a must. I chose the Wilderness Technology North Duo, for the price it is a great two man tent with all the room I will need plus it is less than 5lbs. I pack a 5X7 ground pad which has many uses as well as protecting the tent. Both the tent and pad roll up in a long tubular shape which is perfect for the yellow bags 22’’ length.

Most backpacking sleeping bags are mummy bags, since I like to move my legs around at night I wanted a more traditional square bag. The Wilderness Technology light box 10 has the roominess of a regular cut with the best micro-denier insulation available. The bag weighs less than 5lbs along with the tent of the same weight I am well within my weight goal of 20lbs. The problem that I encountered with a sleeping bag is that all of them are stuffed into a stuff sack that is short and wide. I need a long tubular shape that is roughly 22’’ long. Recreation outlet has a huge selection of stuff sacks so it was easy to find a tubular one that worked perfectly these bags also allowed me to use a standard pillow. The tent, sleeping bag, pillow and pad are then double bagged in dry bags of the same tubular shape. Being warm dry and comfortable is important if I am planning on spending my time camping. The yellow bag is made of a waterproof material but the zippers and seams will still leak especially when subject to the wind while being strapped to a motorcycle.

As I get older, yes I am old, I find it harder to sleep on the ground, a good sleeping pad is important for both comfort and warmth. You lose more heat through conduction to the ground than radiation from your body. A good pad works hand in hand with your sleeping bag. Again I found that size and weight were important and since most of the insulated pads do not compress well I chose to use an air pad. Klymit, a local Utah company makes a wide insulated air pad that compresses well, the Insulated Static-V Luxe is really wide and comfortable and it is extremely lightweight and packs into a tiny sack. I was fortunate enough to get everything I wished for under the Christmas tree except this amazing pad, I think I will send Klymit an email as soon as I am done with today’s blog.

The Yellow bag with everything I need to set up camp weighs around 20Lbs well within my goal and an easy one bag camping system. I can pull into a camp site, grab the yellow bag, spread out the pad, set up the tent, inflate the pad, roll out my sleeping bag and pillow in a few short minutes. The high visibility yellow color is great to have across the back of the bike and since it is above the center of gravity the light weight is a plus for riding safety. The bag is made exclusively for Recreation Outlet and it works perfectly for my needs. I did make a few minor modifications and carefully removed the webbing handles on the ends to eliminate them flapping around in the wind on the bike.