Big Agnes Tensleep Station 4 Tent

I wanted a new car camping tent, so I picked this tent up for $425 at MEC.

I recently bought this tent because it has some unique features, and most of all it has more height for the size footprint it has compared to other tents with the same square footage.  I was looking for a roomy feeling yet compact footprint tent that is easy to set up and has nice features for car camping to very comfortably sleep two people, and I got that with this tent.  The front and rear vestibules adds some good features that other similar tents don’t have too.  This design has many elements that I do like, but unfortunately it does have what I consider some design flaws that I am surprised the manufacturer did not pick up on before going to production.
To make this short and sweet, here's a list of Pros and Cons I found about the tent.

Pros:
1)    Intuitive, easy set up with four poles. I only needed instructions the first time.
2)    High tent height and near vertical walls give it a very roomy feeling for its footprint.  It fits a queen size inflatable mattress easily.
3)    Front and rear large entrances for flexibility
4)    Many gear pockets to stash stuff in
5)    Vestibules give ample room to keep gear dry
6)    I really like the organized and easy to use folder/stuffsack/backpack/carry bag the tent stores in.  It’s very easy to pack up and gives options for carrying different ways.
 
Cons:
1)    Front door of the tent is mesh only – should be double door nylon and mesh to give the option for ventilation or privacy/rain protection.  With the way it is, if you want privacy and to protect from splashes when raining, the vestibule door has to be closed, and there’s not much ventilation when it’s like that.
2)    Rear door has a similar issue, it’s nylon only no mesh – it should at least have a portion that could unzip for a meshed window for improved ventilation.
3)    Way, way too many guy lines for the fly…   really, is it necessary to have 10 of them?  Even though they are nicely reflective, anyone walking near the vicinity of your tent other than the entrances at night is going to trip.  Trust me.
4)    All three main tent poles bent permanently in middle with the first use.  I didn’t abuse/force anything, excessively tie anything down and it wasn’t in high winds at all.  The material the poles are made of simply is not suitable for this design and should be made from a higher strength aluminum or fiberglass - period.  I have not used this tent in anything more than light-medium winds, but I would suspect there would be much more bending going on if there was more wind, especially due to the high tent profile.
5)    It’s a little heavy for anything other than car camping.  Possibly can be used for canoe camping without many portages.
Despite these shortcomings, some of which I think should have been obvious and addressed by the manufacturer, I still would recommend this tent.  It would be an awesome tent if Big Agnes fixed these problems.

Cold Weather Gear for Winter Camping

   It's a frosty -22 celsius outside so I have my mind on cold weather gear.  I would like to do a winter camping weekend somewhere this season.  Frontenac Park, Alggonquin, Killarney, Tobermory maybe?  But this year in particular has had it's share of wwell below zero days and nights.  Got to have some good gear to be prepared, so i ordered some recently.
     I just ordered a Hadron S down filled hat from Black Rock Gear. It's ultra light, warm and protective with the siliconized coating.  They just had some come back in stock.  Most of the gear they sell has been sold out, likely due to the frigid climate this season.  This one I should be getting in a week or so.
     I also ordered a pair of custom down pants from Goose Feet Gear.  Again, this is a favorite of the ultralighters, there's no zippers or pockets to add unneccessary weight, and is ultra customizeable.  I chose to get mine with proper baffles instead of sewn through construction, filled with 4.5 oz. of down, and with ultralight fabric.  Should be nice and toasty.  I can layer it with fleece or capilene base layers and over top it with some snowboard pants or a lightweight shell to up the warmth when the mercury drops.  I hope I get this soon in time for a winter camping expedition, although they say it can take up to 10 weeks for custom gear.  If not, i will have them on hand for next year.  It took me a while to find these guys, i originally was going to get some Montbell or Western Mountaineering pants.  I actually ordered some WM flash pants from an outdoor company in Texas but was told they couldn't ship to me due to some BS> about tarrifs, or so someone from WM told me when I emailed them about it.  In any case I am glad that didn't work out, since the flash pants I ordered only has about 2 oz of down fill and would have been much colder than the Goose Feet Gear pants I ordered.. not to mention the GFG pants are almost the same cost!  Long live grassroots small gear manufacturers of quality products.
     Down apparel isn't all that cheap, especially when enveloped in lightweight fabrics, but it sure does keep you warm.  I'll do a first impressions review of these good looking pieces of gear, and hopefully get to test them out with a nice backcountry weekend somewhere in the near future.
       In the meantime, here's an entertaining video with some crazy dude named Shugemery I stumbled upon while surfing Youtube who's hammock camping in Minnesota in -40.  Yes -40.  At that tempterature celsius and fahrenheit are the same.  That's hardcore.

 

Underwater Hockey + Sony Action Cam HDR-AS30V

    I took my Sony Action Cam to the pool for an underwater hockey practice this week.  I shot the video in 1080P.  The performance of the camera in an indoor pool is good.  It is a little grainy and at times out of focus under water, but in general it is decent quality.  The sound is pretty fantastic, that and the POV perspective makes you feel like you are actually underwater and playing.

     I used a strap mount from the the universal head mount kit BLT-UHM1 to attach the action cam to my diving mask, making it as low profile and compact as you can get for a video setup - I am not sure how you would even do this with a GoPro with it's big square front facing form factor.  I didn't notice the camera or the drag much underwater. Some people playing didn't even realize I had a camera on my head during the game until I posted the video later.

Ontario Provincial Parks User Fee Changes for 2014

     It is an unfortunate comment that, among all of my many blog articles, the one that gets the most hits both overall and on a continuing basis is my first entry which laments the high costs of user fees for Ontario Parks.  People search the web wondering why the costs are so high for camping and day use fees in Ontario Provincial Parks and end up finding my blog.  This shows me there is a disconnect between what people are expecting to pay for a night of camping and  the actual fees that are being charged for using these parks. 

    I have now taken it upon myself to analyze the Ontario Provincial Park user fee increases year by year when they are released since I don’t think anyone else out there does this.  Sometime in November, Ontario Parks quietly rolls out the next year’s fees on their website without any comment s explaining what the increases are, so I collect the data from past and present years and analyze the data in a spreadsheet and make some comments to give some transparency to park users who are concerned about the user fees for Ontario Parks.

     For the analysis regarding the fee increases between 2013 and 2014…  this year’s increase from 2013 shows a moderate increase in camping fees.  Per night, the fees have increased in the neighborhood of 3%, similar to last year’s increase as well.  This still is three times the inflation rate.   The inflation rate in Canada for 2013 was 0.91% according to this.

     Fortunately many of the other fees show no increase – reservation fees, group camping fees, and most of the day use fees have been frozen from the year before.  The only other thing to note is the fees for cross country skiing see a substantial increase of 18% up to $13/day for 18+ regular rate users.  Senior, youth and group skiing rates have also gone up 9-11%, not as much as the regular rate user fees.  Some roofed accommodations have also been adjusted upwards, fortunately not the yurts.

     Crown camping accessible areas which at one time had offered a solace from the crowds of the Provincial Parks are themselves becoming overcrowded recently, as people look for backcountry alternatives that you don’t have to pay exorbitant fees to use.  There’s many spots that are difficult or impossible to find parking spots at crown land access put ins because so many people are opting to use crown land instead of using Provincial Parks for their backcountry trips.

Excel Spreadsheet with the user fee data and analysis from 2011 to 2014 is located here.

Links

OutdoorJay - High Cost of Camping in Ontario Provincial Parks

OutdoorJay - 2012 Fee Increase

Ontario Parks website – 2014 Fees

Ontario Parks website – 2013 Fees

"Feels Like' Temperatures are Bullshit

     When the temperatures drop and become very cold, or conversely when it is very hot out, you hear it everywhere.   People saying  "OMG, tomorrow it feels like -40 out!" on Facebook, Twitter, and people you talk to, your friends and around the office.  There's a subset of people like myself who are annoyed with the 'feels like' temperatures the media likes to spew out.  My problem is it's a perfect tool for the general population to sensationalize the temperature.  I's say a good majority of society likes to complain about the weather, it's too cold, too hot, too rainy, too humid, they hate the snow etc.  Please just deal with it and shut the fuck up - the weather in Canada is always variable, there's nothing you can do about it and just learn to deal with it.   Whining about it only annoys others and doesn't accomplish anything, and the 'feels like' temperatures only feeds these whiners with more material to whine about the weather.  I personally love the weather in all it's forms, it makes life interesting to me.  Sure, sometimes I would prefer to to have to shovel the driveway, scrape the windows and white knuckle drive my way through a snowstorm somewhere, but still it makes life interesting.  It changes the landscape into a type of beauty that changes with the seasons.
     Don't get me wrong, the wind and humidity do affect how it feels like outside, but they are separate variables, and you can't manipulate the temperature with a formula to come up with some kind of equivalent.  Environment Canada attempted to combine these things that feel different and with a formula wrongly, oh so wrongly attempted to spit out a 'feels like' value, and even have the balls to call it an equivalent temperature.  You see, thermal conduction depends on different things.  The heat transfer through materials and from radiation (infrared) and through convection (transfer to a fluid) are all different, so you can't just make an equivalent number of of some formula.  Sadly, i don't think the wind chill and humidex will go away, since people like to sensationalize and this is toll for them to do so.  To me it's -22 and windy outside...  not 'feels like -40'.


Related Links

Farm & Ranch Guide - ‘Feels Like’ forecasting is equally frustrating, annoying

Slate - Wind Chill Blows - It's time to get rid of a meaningless number

Grumpy Owl - Bullshit Alert:Wind Chill 

 Wind Chill and Humidex - Critique of the Indices

The Globe and Mail - Love it or hate it, ‘wind chill’ here to stay
http://contrarian.ca/tag/wind-chill/

 

 

Sony Universal Head Mount BLT-UHM1 First Impressions

Demonstrating the parts that come with the Sony BLT-UHM1 Universal Head Mount kit and the uses of it with different head bands, goggles, and helmets with the Sony Action Cam HDR-AS30V.

Paddling and Photography – how to make electronics and backcountry paddling trips mix

    I'm into landscape and nature photography and take many photos during my backcountry paddling trips, both for the beauty of the landscape or the moment itself, and also as sort of a photo journal for the trip and what the area looks like.    For the on the water shots, I use my trusty Panasonic TS2 waterproof tough camera.  Back about 5 years ago, I used to go through 2 or 3 of these ultracompact cameras a season as I kept getting them wet in one way or another, and waterproof cameras didn’t exist at the time.  I kept it in an otterbox strapped to my kayak deck.  Nowadays it’s all good with the ubiquitous waterproof tough camera.

      The photos that come out of the Panasonic camera are great for on the water, but I do prefer to have my SLR on land, for the depth of field, quality, resolution and low light performance it offers.  But, bringing something that costs that much with you where there’s water all about, and the possibility of getting all your gear soaked is very high can send shivers down some photographers spines.  I looked around at all of the options available for waterproof containers for my camera and I found a great solution with the Lowepro Dryzone 200.

     Firstly, I like to have my SLR accessible during shore stops, lunch, portages, etc.  when on paddling trips so burying it in a drybag in a dry pack doesn’t work for me, not to mention, there is not much protection against crushing, rubbing, etc.  I also wouldn’t want to just strap a typical drybag to the deck or put it in the bottom of a canoe, as I don’t trust 100% any dry bag to be sealed properly.  I could have also used an otterbox, but they are very bulky, square, and don’t have any proper straps for when I need to portage.

      I bought a LoweproDryzone 200 backpack about 5 years ago – it was the only type of purpose built water protection for cameras that is also carry friendly at the time, and still is, as far as I can tell.  It consists of an inner pod, what they call a drypod, which is essentially a PVC watertight casing with a drysuit zipper from a german company named tizip. The bag  comes with a variety of Velcro dividers you can configure any way you would like to, so you can separate lenses, filters, cameras and accessories.  It’s big enough to carry my D600 with 28-300 lens attached, and maybe one or even two more medium/large SLR lens would fit in it as well.  The drypod is attached to a nylon outer backpack shell with loops around the case and some wire.  But, I have since taken the drypod out of the backpack shell and just use the case itself.  The reason why I did that was the shell made it harder to access the contents as I would have to undo another nylon clip in addition to opening up the zipper, the shell is also heavy and soaks up water making it wet all the time and even heavier, and the shell does add some extra non-protected storage, but not all that much, for all the downsides it has.  The shell itself weighs 3 pounds, seriously.  And that is when it's dry.  There's no use for it for my needs.

  The full Dryzone 200.  I just ditched the outer nylon shell and use the inner drypod bag.

     When kayaking, I thread some bungees directly through the loops around the drypod base and attach it to my deck lines on the rear of my kayak.  It is easily attached this way, and is awesomely accessible when I get out of my kayak.  When canoeing, I just place the drypod on the bottom of the cane in front of me…  once in a while I will take it out of the case for some photos while on the water, but not very often.  I generally use it for all of my electronics while on a trip – batteries, phone, filters, etc, and sometimes even put my toiletries kit or a book in there for dryness and ease of access.

     The one downside of using just the drypod itself is the lack of straps for portaging.  I have used the bungies themselves many times to act as backpack straps, but it isn’t quite ideal, although it is manageable.  My last rip, I didn’t have the bungie configuration the best configuration, and I did pull one of the attachment loops off of the base.  Basically the glue gave way on the attachment loop itself, it didn’t tear a hole in the outside.  I am going to look into getting some aftermarket PVC attachment points and some glue to mount some attachments for just some simple backpack straps to make this this ideal for my needs as a paddling drypod for my SLR.

     As for keeping water out itself, it is rated for IPX7 which means it is submersible.  It comes with a small tube of silicone grease to keep the Tizipzipper lubricated and sealed properly, as is used with drysuit zippers.  I have done rolls in my kayak with it, and there is no issue.  There is one caveat though.  You must make sure you do the zipper all the way up.  One trip to the French River I was lining my kayak down some rapids and the kayak flipped over, putting the drypod in the water.  I wasn’t concerned at all about the water and took my time righting the kayak.  Then I realized I hadn’t done the zipper up all the way, it was about 2 inches open, and there was some water in my bag.  The water  did mess up the electronics inside the Nikon D300 that I had at the time.  Luckily I was able to recover $700 by selling it as a water damaged item on eBay at the time.  So now, I make sure double check the zipper before putting in with the bag.

     The Dryzone 200 inner drypod is very functional and I think it is the most useful product out there to take your SLR camera gear on backcountry paddling trips.  The outer backpack shell is somewhat useful, but I prefer to use the drypod without the outer shell.  My only complaint is it is very pricey for what it is.  I wish that Lowepro would make a different version to sell of this – just the inner drypod with just two shoulder straps attached directly to it, without the outer shell  to reduce the price.

LoweproDryzone 200

Tizip