Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game AK Caribou - AZ Guys Do Good

Here's the dirt on Bob's Kuiu experience, lest anyone believe he's a victim of buyer's remorse.

The first part of the hunt we camped on a spruce knoll. It was covered in soft, plush moss indigenous to that part of the country. We made our kitchen area between 4 spruces that had covered the ground with spruce duff, because it was cleaner and easier to sit on and keep dry. There were no cones or rocks whatsoever. I could have knelt and sat on it in shorts without any problems. Spruce duff is like hemlock duff - about the softest, driest stuff around. It was luxurious to sit on.

One day we were cooking over our MSR stoves and Bob knelt down to tend food. When he stood up the pants had torn at the knee. There was absolutely nothing on that ground to harm pants. I was astonished. As an AZ hiker, I can imagine a lot of stuff that might shred rain pants. We weren't even walking through the dwarf willows. I don't know anything about other Kuiu items, or about the company (well, I do now), but the pants are just inferior. My wife has brought home no fewer than 3 pairs of Goretex rain pants from Mountain Hardware or cheaper makers from GoodWill. Any of them were twice as good as the ones Bob had. I didn't know until reading Bob's post that Kuiu had refused to consider the warranty return.

I'll stick with my milsurp stuff.

Here's a pic of the kitchen area:



Bob's area was actually farther away from the spruce trunk. There were definitely no cones in play. Even if there were, the cones were old and soft. Those pants are terrible.