Comments on: Gear ideas for a wilderness hiking trip

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:09:44 +0000

There you go Ian,
I have created an article with a few question our readers might feed back.
Thanks very much for taking the time to reply.
Yoy can read it here: http://ourhikingblog.com.au/2010/06/best-hiking-gear.html

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:41:39 +0000

Hi Ian,
Welcome and thanks for such a terrific reply. Keep you eye out, we are going to use it as a topic soon. (including an image of a mate’s Optimus 99!)

By: Ian Hill

Ian Hill — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:10:48 +0000

Interesting. Mates & I did a lot of annual 5 day walks – Snowy Mts, Bogong high plains, Croajing coast, etc in the ’80′s & ’90′s, and managed to get down to 21kgs even then. I still have the excellent Macpac cascade & -12 deg Fairydown sleeping bag. We usually shared a home-made 4-man Itsa-pattern tent with tarp, then a Macpac Eclipse (which the married kids have snaffled). My Pentax MX was held against the upper chest for intant access, under the jumper or parka, held by a bit of shaped car tube & army webbing, never wet, always warm & fog-free for photos, even when skiing. Swum the Lerderderg with the Pentax, and got it out fast enough to photograph my mates’ embarassing nudity as they arrived at the end of the swim with packs wrapped up in plastic!

Fuel was shellite for a very reliable Optimus 99 bought second-hand from a MBW colleague, with home-made al windshield & toastrack. 300ml of shellite was easily adequate for these trips. Technical gear was limited to a plain swiss army knife, an aluminium spoon, a bomb-proof 2 x AA Techna torch with a home-sewn velcro strap for headlighting while cooking, and a home-made AM earplug radio with earth pin and 32 guage copper aerial we threw over a tree.

Oh, and we took 5m of 6lb fishing line, 2 hooks and a bubble, and had to hide behind trees to bait it for trout at Quambat Flat!

I wonder if our walks were, in fact, lighter & better equipped, with more home-made, fun-to-use gear than those on this website?

By: Living Juice

Living Juice — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:05:00 +0000

Thanks for the valuable information, especially about the gortex gear! Hell of a way to burn through cash when there is other more important things to purchase.

By: Frank and Sue

Frank and Sue — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:03:00 +0000

Hi Ken,
Not sure if I would go down that path. I am not sure of the model but my daughter has a "newish" Olympus """""Waterproof""""" camera and it has failed several times and been back for a 6 week repair once. Not sure I would buy one again.......

Larry did a great job on the Port Davey Track report and the gear report.

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:55:00 +0000

I’m thinking of getting an Olympus mju 850 SW as it is water resistant and not expensive and seems a good option for when dampness is a risk.

Thanks to Larry for sharing his gear suggestions.