We’ve written a couple of posts about taking care of your camping and hiking gear (here, here and here). Today I thought I would talk about a fairly common part of gear and clothing that can cause issue. Drawstrings can be found on clothing, packs, stuff sacks and sleeping bags. It’s easy to have a drawstring pull out of the casing if you aren’t careful.
Tag: gear repair
Fixing camping and backpacking gear.
When you’re backpacking in the wilderness, every piece of gear you carry needs to work properly. If critical gear fails, you may have to cut your trip short. So it makes sense to carry a repair kit of some sort to deal with common problems. But what do you put in the kit?
Part one of this series talked about the fabrics. Today we cover washing them. Using the proper settings to wash and dry your clothing and other gear will help it last longer, keep colors brighter and avoid damage. Some clothing has tags that tell you to wash in cold water and hang to dry while others might just have a series of symbols.
Of course, these are actual hieroglyphics, but unless you understand laundry care symbols, it’s not any different.
Taking care of your camping gear (and other items) means it will last longer and work better. It is more sustainable and will save you money. This is the first in a series about caring for your gear. Today, I am going to cover fabrics and insulators. Knowing what the material is will help you care for it properly.
On a recent backpacking trip, my air mattress sprung a leak. It was entirely my fault. I was using it outside the tent to lie on while I propped my feet up, and apparently didn’t clear the ground thoroughly enough. At bedtime I discovered that the pad would slowly deflate, bottoming out in about 5 minutes.