New Sleeping Pad, Trekking Poles, Down Jacket, Pillows, Socks, and Trail Runners For The Pinhoti

hey y'all dixie here today i'd like to introduce several new pieces of gear that i'm planning on testing out when i start my penhody trail thru hike later this month as i mentioned in last week's video i'd already be out there but i've been waiting for my dad to get out of the hospital before i go and i know i've already told you all about some different shelters i'll be trying out a different pack but without further delay these are some of the additional items that i'm looking forward to trying out first things first i'll be testing out a new sleeping pad it's the axl air made by big agnes and i'm pretty excited to test out a new sleeping pad because i've been stuck on the neoair x-lite made by therm-a-rest for years now and the sleeping pad that i'm used to is the short version so it only spans from my head down to my knees and weighs 8 ounces but this sleeping pad made by big agnes is only 1.6 ounces heavier and it's 72 inches long so for only about an ounce and a half more weight i'm going to have a full length sleeping pad the width of the pad is 20 inches and the thickness is a little bit thicker than the pad i'm used to at 3.25 inches the r value for the axl is three but i also appreciate that on the packaging of this sleeping pad they say it's meant for temperatures above 35 degrees it also says in the description of this sleeping pad that it is treated to kind of prevent antimicrobial growth on the inside if any of y'all have ever had a sleeping pad that you inflate with your mouth you'll notice that some of your mouth funk goes on the inside and grows this interesting little culture so i guess they put some kind of treatment on the inside to prevent that the cost of this sleeping pad used to be well over a hundred dollars but big agnes and amazon have it listed right now anywhere from just under a hundred dollars up to about 105 i've never been one to backpack with a pillow although i've heard it makes a huge difference in sleep so on the penhody trail i'll be testing out two different types of pillows one of those is the aeros ultralight regular pillow made by ceta summit it weighs 2.1 ounces it costs about 40 dollars when i inflated it it was very easy to inflate there is a valve meant for inflation and then one to deflate it just to make both sides of that easy so it's convenient to inflate and deflate that way you're not having to try to race the air to put the plug in before it all comes rushing out the outside of the pillow has a nice feel to it it doesn't have a crunchy or like sticky feeling it's it's got kind of a fuzzy soft feeling if you will i can't imagine much worse than having a pillow stick to your face while you're trying to sleep i guess you could always throw some piece of clothing over it but that's something i've always worried about with these inflatable pillows but it seems like they've already thought about that and remedied that situation the next pillow is the flex air inflatable pillow and you can get these on lightsmith.com that's l-i-t-e smith.com i heard about these from one of my patrons he said that he always went without pillows because he was wanting to be as just ultra-light as possible but at some point he thought well i also want to be as comfortable as possible while being as lightweight as possible so he found these pillows on lightsmith he says that they inflate using a straw i've ordered them i haven't gotten them in yet but you can get a bundle of three large pillows they come in small and large for 6.95 so they are really really cheap now he said i don't know how durable they're going to be but for that price it's a pretty good deal and you can also get one large individual pillow for two dollars and sixty cents the small pillow weighs point five ounces yes a half ounce and then the large pillow weighs point nine ounces so just under an ounce this pillow is also made out of a comfortable non-woven type fabric so it's not something that's going to be just slimy and sweaty and stick to your face next i'll be trying out two different types of trekking poles and i truly love my black diamond carbon fiber trekking poles but there could always be something out there that i like even more so i'm going to broaden my horizons and try two different trekking poles that kind of piqued my interest first i ordered the z-packs carbon fiber trekking poles now i thought it was interesting you can order these as a single trekking pole or as the pair so if you're somebody who prefers a walking stick but you want something a little more lightweight then they do offer just a single trekking pole for 59 for the pair it's 99 and together they weigh 14 and a half ounces they have sturdy clasp blocks padded wrist straps and all of the typical bells and whistles of a set of trekking poles and they also offer a one-year warranty on any defects and breakages these trekking poles are available with court grips or foam grips i personally prefer the court grips but i did get an email today saying that they were supposed to start shipping court grip trekking poles today they've kind of been on back order but that's now been delayed until the end of the month so i'll probably start out with the next set of trekking poles that i want to introduce and those are the leki micro vario carbon pull the women's version some of these names that they use for different pieces of gear it's just it's like a tongue twister anyway these are carbon fiber poles that are highly regarded i've never had a set of lucky trekking poles but they are a well-respected brand in the backpacking community so i figured i might as well go ahead and test them out outdoor gear lab actually had the women's pair ranked above the men's version and the black diamonds that i typically use so i figured why not try those out the main benefit that i saw to these trekking poles is if you're going to be traveling and you need them to be very packable they do break down or fold down they also have the lever locks that i prefer now the women's version does not have as much height possibility as the men so they only range from 100 centimeters to 120 centimeters some of the shelters that i use that set up with trekking poles recommend setting up the trekking pole to about 122 centimeters so hopefully these will still work even though they're a couple of centimeters shy of what is recommended for the shelter but i'll let y'all know the only negative aspect that i immediately saw to these trekking poles at least for me personally are they're only available in the foam handles but as long as it's not the rubber ones we're good and if you're wondering why i say that the foam still at least kind of absorbs some of your sweat where the rubber handles i feel like it's just all right there between your hand and the grip and it makes them slick and gross and slimy and i just don't prefer that and moving on i'll be testing out another new puffy i've already mentioned the mont bell puffy that i'll be trying i first looked into the eos down jacket made by feathered friends it has 900 fill power goose down that's ethically sourced it weighs 9 ounces was in the typical price range the upper 300s for a down jacket and it just seemed like it had a lot of good reviews but unfortunately they don't have any available and medium in any of the colors i prefer so i'm currently on the waiting list if they get back to me quickly then i'll go with that jacket but otherwise i'm going to test out a puffy down made by arctarix it's the cerium lt hooded down jacket and i always go with puffy coats that have a hood most of these brands and styles have an option without a hood but i prefer the hood i just feel like it keeps my neck and my ears warmer and i can still wear a beanie with the hood if i prefer but it's just a personal preference thing the arterix puffy coat is insulated with 850 fill power goose down and i thought it was interesting that they also use synthetic insulation in the areas most prone to dampness because as many of you probably know if down gets wet it's pretty much worthless but if synthetic insulation gets wet it still has some insulating properties obviously regardless you don't want to be wearing soaking wet clothing in cold temperatures my go-to puffy for a long time has been the mountain hardwear ghost whisperer so i'm pretty excited to try some new things the arctaryx puffy is supposed to be a bit more wind resistant and water resistant slash repellent than my ghost whisperer and also just a bit warmer in general the claimed weight of this puffy coat is 9.3 ounces and it generally runs in upper 300s price range so 380 or so but right now on amazon they have them for about a hundred dollars less as long as you don't want the black or yellowish mustard color another clothing item i'm going to be checking out is a new brand of socks i don't know if y'all have heard of them but the name is farm to feet which i thought was a really cool name like farmed a table and actually called them farm to table socks a couple times that would be weird anyway they are made here in the usa kind of like the darn tough socks made in vermont and i feel like in general they're going to be pretty comparable to darn tough socks which has been my go-to brand for a while the farm to feed socks that i ordered are the ankle version they're made out of merino wool which is not an itchy type of wool they're actually anti-itch and soft very comfortable wool helps regulate the temperature of your feet so hopefully they help keep your feet warm and cooler temperatures and prevent them from getting too gross and sweaty and warmer temperatures and also they're naturally antimicrobial so it'll help with any odors and other foot funk that could develop down there the particular pair i got cost 18 which i know sounds steep for socks but when you're backpacking it's really nice to have a good pair of socks but again i just wanted to try something different to mix it up a little bit and i've heard really good things about these socks and last but not least i'm still kind of up in the air about this one as many of y'all know i got the innovate terra ultras the g260s to test out this year and as everything's been delayed they've now come out with a new shoe the g270 and it's got a little bit thicker stack height and they've made some other changes based on some feedback that they got from the 260s so i'm thinking about selling the 260s and purchasing the 270s i still haven't decided if i'm going to bother with that but if any of y'all have used the g260s and now the g270s i would love to hear your feedback on that all right y'all that is all i have for you today if any of you have used any of these gear items i would love to hear your feedback on that in the comments below and before i go i just want to say thank you all so much for being patient with me this year has been crazy for many of us and my plans have kept getting delayed for one reason or another so i'm excited to actually get out on trail and test these things so i can come back and tell y'all what worked and what didn't thanks so much for watching don't get to subscribe before you go and we will see you all next time

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 73,937

Rating: 4.9587302 out of 5

Keywords: travel, hiking, backpacking, hike, gear, adventure, fun, story, Appalachian, Trail, PCT, CDT, thru-hike, Auburn, Alabama, epic, climbing, canyon, national, nature, mountains, update, park, lake, trail, tents, camping, summer, University, Aubie, River, stream, Mountains, National, Scenic, Dixie, Camino, pinhoti

Id: kYPBbI2dnh0

Length: 12min 0sec (720 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020