Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Lets see your camping rig.........

The cabin is in the panhandle of WV and the tent pics are our family farm in SE KY.

71 or 72 model?

Geno, my gear wasn't such high-dollar as that when I started out! My first boots were Nam-era jungle boots, too, army surplus. They blistered the hell out of my feet, so after a couple years of suffering I persuaded my mom to buy me my first pair of Kastingers when I was 15, my first year "on staff" at the Rocky Mountain YMCA.

My first couple of packs were el cheapo models, but again when I was 15 I bought the Skyline and never looked back. I had to replace the aluminum frame 3 years later when I started working for a guide outfit out of Banff and the loads got heavier... the load that broke the old frame weighed 110 pounds on the scale in the stables. Damned if I could hump that much weight at 9000 feet today!

I bought the down bag as a survival measure. I used J.C.Higgins polyfil bags and froze my ass off at nights for a couple years (on the Continental Divide, it gets down into the low 30's or even colder almost every night). I remember it cost over a hundred bucks, which ate up almost my entire pay I got for the summer of 1969. The Galibier's I bought in '71 from the youth hostel shop in Calgary, again I paid almost a whole summer's salary for them but I couldn't have done the job without them. You can't carry loads like that over rock trails and passes without heavy mountain boots, never mind putting on crampons and climbing snow-capped peaks. I still have those boots, too, and they still fit. I wore them last time I climbed Mt. Sarrail in 1996, which was my last summit and probably always will be. I'm getting too old to put up with that kind of agony "for fun" any more.

And yes, my passes looked like that.

Camping in the middle of a freeway does have its drawbacks.

Hig,

I'll bet!

Musta been quite an "experience".

Geno

Doc,

Ain't it wonderful how folks from such disparate environments go through life in similar ways?

I "upgraded" to some Vasque boots (if I recall) the summer we took 5 weeks off (had to quit a good job for that) to hike the Olympics and climb Mt Rainier ('74, record snow year. We were unprepared for the Olympics, with 8' of snow on a 3000' pass). Crampons won't work well on jungle boots. I bought my first down bag then also (they don't work well when the igloo starts to melt), think I still used the homemade pack frame (they were ugly but relatively sturdy, no welds to break).

Can you imagine a parent sending a kid out with that type of equipment today. Subjecting their kids to mild hypothermia. We had some nights above treeline that were somewhat below freezing. One morning we woke up and had to break through ice on the shoreline of the lake for our morning water.

I do wonder sometimes if our younger generations would be well served to learn about such hardships. They make life nowadays seem rather "easy".

I do enjoy your stories,

Geno

Tough to top camp love.............especially a threesome.
When the going gets tough, the tough go in the camper.
You can tow a camper, but you can't tow a fish.

If you don't know campers, know your mechanic.
RV's are what tents want to be.
Beer isn't cold in a tent.....just sayin'.

You have never heard "if this sleepin' bags rockin' don't bother knock in".
or
I haven't showered in 5 days.......wanna frah-lick?

It's 15 degrees in this tent.....wanna play poker?

Not near as fancy as most of the rigs y'all are showing, but it's mine and has served me well since 1991 . . .

Just one of the many setups we have been-


Son and I in front of the "camper" with our shootin irons.

This is my favourite type of thread - thanks Larry for starting it.

These are some shots of my old rig. The XJ has since gone to heaven, and I sold the Scotty. I loved that thing, but I need something a little bigger.

This is up in the Catskills Mountains of NY (in the background).

And the best damn coffee and buttered roll I ever had....

Fixer upper

A hammock and a bike are not a bad way to go in warmer weather.








When hunting out of my pickup I tend to use the tent-cot, as it only takes literally 2 minutes to set up, and I can move camp in minutes.

Camping with my (then) little one, and "Omar" the came who came back from the middle east, to keep her company at night.

Junior high.

Dropped off at the edge of the wilderness area and picked up 5 days later.

Good times. Of course now days they might call they child abuse or abandonment.

Bought this to hunt and fish out of. The wife likes it too.

That is awesome.

I tell people now about inner tubes and a fishing pole floating the Clearwater around here as a teen. No life jackets, no cell phones and who knows where we will put in?
Sounds crazy..........now.

That sounds about right!

Here's a pic of my old pack/frame. For loads under 65 pounds or so this beats any internal frame pack I've ever tried. And if you pull the bag off the frame, you can haul elk quarters on it real nicely.






Here's my old Optimus stove. Burns white gas and puts out a lot of heat.








I've tried other more "modern" stoves, but nothing beats the ol' Optimus' combination of compact size, light weight, and heat output.

Finally, my old Galibier mountain boots. They still fit reasonably well, I still wear them anytime I'm going to be walking on predominantly rock surfaces.