rucksacking

Le Cafe du Rucksaque

There's nothing like a good cup of joe to start a morning in the woods off right (or maybe there is, but we haven't figured it out yet). Trouble is, bringing extra gear along just for coffee kinda violates the whole lightweight backpacking ethic (shh!). Being rucksackers, though, we want to live well and hike light. How, you ask? Brilliant question! To begin with, there's good-old, reliable, lightweight Cowboy coffee. For those with modern tastes, how about doin' it Jet Boil style (scroll down to French press)? And if you can justify bringing along one small extra bit of kit, the GSI espresso maker suits us just fine.

Cowboy Coffee [Ineedcoffe.com]
Jet Boil coffee attachment [Jetboil]
GSI Espresso maker [Med.ca]

Princeton Tec EOS Headlamp

We left the Princeton Tec EOS out of our recent headlamp roundup because it just barley over-stepped our (admittedly somewhat arbitrary) weight standard of 3 oz or less. But with lithium AAA batteries, the 1 watt light reportedly weighs in at a mere 3.3 oz, and its performance definitely recommends itself to lightweight backpackers. To wit: A single 1 watt LED bulb, three brightness settings (plus emergency flash mode), large and easy-to-use button, and a tiltable, waterproof housing. Weight: 3.7 oz with alkaline AAA batteries, or 3.3 with lithiums. Battery life: 6.5-60 hours.

Princeton Tec EOS headlamp [Princeton Tec]
EOS headlamp reviews [BackpackGearTest.org]
EOS headlamp review [Backpacking Light, sub. req.]

From Trafalgar Square to Cape Town: Thru-hiking Europe and Africa

Rucksackers everywhere should salute the Australian husband and wife team of Gary and Paula Constant. On the 1^st of August, 2004, they left London from Trafalgar square to walk to Cape Town in South Africa -- a distance of over 10,500 miles. The walk will run in three stages: from London to Morocco, Morocco to Sudan, and Sudan to Cape Town. They're currently in Portugal, which sounds nice. The trip must have taken incredible palnning skills, but we were brough up short by this line on their site: "After a great deal of thought, it has been agreed the weight that can be comfortably carried on a daily basis by each person should not exceed 30kilos, and ideally would be closer to 20. Including food." (Note to Americans: that's 44 to 66 pounds)(Note to the Constants: you could go a lot lighter than that! Please, get rid of that needlessly heavy Coleman tent!)

Constanttrek Home [Constanttrek.com]
Constanttrek Blog [constanttrek.typepad.com]

Jetboil Review Roundup

The biggest stir in stove land last year was the introduction of the Jetboil "personal cooking system," also known as, you know, a stove. An integrated pot/stove with a highly efficient heat exchanger, the Jetboil represented a new concept in outdoor stoves, and reviewers went gaga over it. It won awards from Outside and Backpacker, and supposedly has other stove makers in hot pursuit of their own versions of the integrated cooker. In honor of its first birthday, check out the three reviews it's had so far at Backpack Gear Test, see it put through its paces at Backpacking Light's review, (you may want to see how it stacked up in comparison with other lightweight canister stoves [subscription required]), or feast on the bounty of other reviews below.

The bottom line, from what we've read, seems to be this: very convenient, fuel efficient, and fast (though not as fast as the manufacturer claims). It really outperforms other stoves in windy conditions. If most of your cooking involves boiling things (one review below talks about poached eggs), and you want something easier to use than a Snow Peak Gigapower and titanium pot, this might be a good match for you.

Jetboil Personal Cooking System [Outside Buyer's Guide]
Jetboil [Backpacker Magazine]
Jetboil Reviews [BackpackGearTest.com]
Jetboil Stove Review [Backpacking Light]
Jetboil [The Backpacker.com]
Jetboil Review [GearReview.com]
Consumer Comments [Backcountry.com]
User Reviews [Summitpost.org]