Joe Valesko (ZPacks) Arrives to Start Te Araroa Trail

Exciting week!

I picked up Joe and Sheryl Valesko (Zpacks) yesterday. They flew into Auckland non-stop from their home in Palm Bay Florida. I became their first "Trail Angel" as they prepared to start their through hike of the Te Araroa trail (The length of NZ). Checkout www.teararoa.org.nz  We spent the day getting DOC annual Hut Passes, food, bank and bus connections North to CapeReinga.

It was an early Christmas for me as Joe delivered my new Hexamid Tarp. I sold my original and have opted for a full screen with the heavier (Jez, did I use "H" word :-)  .75oz cuben, teamed with the cuben bath tub floor. All use include tie outs - 470gms

Other goodies included:

Cuben fiber shorts to go with my cuben fiber rain jacket. I decided to get Joe to cut the legs off his pants design to make them into shorts that I can slip over my normal ones, or use them over my underwear only if it looks like a rain soaked day.  I am looking forward to testing this option in Fiordland at Chrismas.

The Blast cuben fiber food bag - mouse and waterproof!

A new full length NeoAir Xlight - OK it's almost double the weight of my current short Kooka Bay pad, but after 40 plus years of "roughing" it I am going the extra 150gms for great R factor, full length (no more cold feet) and being able to attach my Mont Bell pillow on top of mat. To this end Joe gave me a great idea. He bought down some velcro strips sewn onto cuben fiber tape. I stuck the female side on the mat and male on the pillow - it works great. I have attached a couple of pictures below.

I dropped Joe and Sheryl off at the bus depot 7am this morning and they took off for Kaitaia intending to hitch to the cape to start NZ's long trail later today. The trail passes my house in Milford, so I will have a BBQ, Beer, bed and hot shower waiting for them in a couple of weeks as they pass through. 

Deflated mat and pillow showing velcro positions

Deflated mat and pillow showing velcro positions

Finished position

Finished position

         

Shoes and Sunglassess

Another alert. High Beam the NZ importer for Inov8 trail shoe (The best!) have got some good specials on Roclites. The Roclite 319 is my "go to" shoe and you can pick this up for $99 - sensational buy. Go to their "specials" page. Also check out their bullet proof Numa sunglasses, also on special ($99). These glasses are great for tramping, light and tough.

Walking Poles

Just a quick heads up to my NZ subscribers. Kathmandu has the Fizan Compact lightweight walking poles on sale right now. Great poles and cheap! About $50 each. See a previous blog. Also I got their Tropic lightweight sleeping bag to use when travelling overnight in our club bus, $48, bargain plus!

Camp Shoes

Have I stumbled on a winner here?

Many lightweight hikers dispense with camp shoes. I find after a hard day in my Innov8s, and a bath in the river, I don't want to climb back into my often damp and certainly sweaty hiking shoes, prefering the protection of my toe socks (warmth and mozzie protection) coupled with Teva thongs (177g).

But check out zemgear.com these "barefoot" running shoes could be all the go and at 124g!

I am ordering the Zen 360 split toe style, going one size up so if it's a cold evening (common in NZ backcountry) even in summer, I can still wear my toe socks.

Check out their site. I am interested in your thoughts.

Rain Jackets

Most followers of this blog will know about my latest rain wear - Joe Valesko's cuben fire rain jacket from Zpacks.
For those wanting to widen their research the Haglofs (Sweden) LIM Jacket is getting a lot of buzz from the light weight community.  Weighing in at 300g, it gets the big nod for waterproofness and breathabilty as well as the hood shape.
There is a great review at http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/reviews/display_reviews?forum_thread_id=25074&cat=Clothing%20-%20Raingear&cid=46

Sleep Pad

Following on from my previous post re air mattress research, I have really "zoned in" on Thermarest Neo XLite.

I currently use Kooka Bay (186g) but this guy has disappeared off the planet. Pity, he was on to a good thing! If I was (or had to) replace I would go for the small Neo Xlite - $US129.

It's 119cm long, 51cm wide and 6,5cm deep. It weighs in at 230g.

I like the internal reflective lining giving it a good r factor for an air mat at 3.2.

Check it out at http://cascadedesigns.com/therm-a-rest/mattresses/fast-and-light/neoair-xlite/product

Or see later post at http://lightweighttramping.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/exciting-week-i-picked-up-joe-and.html

Zpacks Tarp

Several people have asked my advice on shelters. I love the Zpack tarps. However, there are personal decisions to be made here. Do you want the tarp to pair with a bivy bag (suggest MLD Superlight with full bug net head, or Sixmoons Metro). Or if in a bug infested environment and you want some more internal room, will you go for the full internal bug net?

Maybe the tarp with the full sewn in screen floor in combo with the Zpacks cuben ground sheet will do? Go to www.zpacks.com to check out options.

Here are some quick prices and weights that may help - my head was buzzing putting this together, so open to errors & omissions!

Solo Tarp                          weight            cost


With full mesh screen         304g               $US360                        
Requires Ground Sheet         77g               $US95
Total                                 381g              $US455
                                       
Just solo tarp                     119g               $US195
Teamed with bivy bag         190g               $US169
Total                                 309g              $US364 

Sub Bivy 4 internal bug
net includes ground floor      215g              $US175 (See photo in the header of this blog)

Solo Plus

With full mesh screen        349g               $US395
Requires Ground Sheet        94g               $US105
Total                               443g               $US500
      
Just solo plus tarp             184g               $US285
Teamed with bivy bag       190g               $US169
Total                               374g               $US454 

Sub bivy 4 internal bug
net includes ground floor    250g              $US199 (See photo in header of blog - this is a solo)

So as you can see, it's all about personal preference, season, bugs and terrain.