u/RunWithBluntScissors

I’ve landed on a pretty good and comfortable sleep system but have yet to find a comfortable solution for a pillow. I’ve tried a couple cheaper inflatables from brands like naturehike but found them all kind of noisy and have this sort of bouncy feel to them. I’m a side/stomach sleeper meaning my ear is often to the pillow so I’m a little extra sensitive to noise. I have also tried the old stuff sack with my jacket/sweater, whatever else I can fit in there, and find it lacks the support I need.

Anyone have any recs? Open to any solutions, inflatable or otherwise. Ideally keeping weight to a minimum but probably willing to add some grams for comfort.

So I finally got my husband to admit that as much as he loves camping, he HATES sleeping outdoors (which to me, is kind of the whole point of camping). We used to do sleeping bags on sleeping pads, but upgraded to an extra thick queen sized air mattress with bedding, which was certainly better, but the bed deflated some with the temp changes at night and it drives Mr. Princess-and-the-pea insane. He’s a six-foot side sleeper and tends to toss from side to side. He’s also very particular about temperature.

My solution thus far has been to, sadly, just give up camping with him. But I took my two year old camping for the first time the other day and she LOVED it. So we want to figure this out. Right now we’re thinking of getting an extra large tent so that kiddo and I can have our own sleeping arrangement and then we can set up whatever the heck he needs to sleep for him.

So calling all restless, picky sleepers: what’s your setup?

In a few weeks, I’m going to be visiting Baltimore for several days and would love to hear if anyone has any safe recommendations in the city. Bonus points if it’s walkable to Fells.

I’d also love any reccs for where I can find gluten-free steamed crabs. I mean I’d hope they’d be gluten-free by default but as y’all know, we can never be too careful.

I actually used to live in Maryland but I’ll just say that most of my life in Maryland was spent eating gluten and destroying my body lol (this was before I knew I can’t have it) so the idea of returning and trying to find safe places to eat when I don’t have my own kitchen is quite daunting!

And the people complaining about them are in denial about never learning to camp without the crutch.

All of the people you complain about using campgrounds with kids, dogs, equipment, etc are using the campgrounds correctly. People looking for solitude and silence need to grow up and get in the woods.

Campgrounds are for everyone who’s too old or too young or needs too much support to get into the wilderness, not for you to LARP as a backpacker in a fully supported public facility.

Edit: apologies to folks with no other public land, that’s a bummer. Point still stands if you whine about families/other people using the public facilities as designed.

Edit 2: for anyone not getting the subtext here, I’m a training wheel user. Not gatekeeping people who use them.

Has anyone used one of those thin 2mm foam with reflective material windshield visors/radiator reflectors as a sleeping pad? What did you think of them?

Currently using a thermarest neoair xlite small, but i keep sliding off during the night because i move around a lot.

For my next trip I was thinking about bringing a 5mm cut in half foam pad that i normally use for my dog so i cant really fall off, but then i found a windscreen visor in my garage. Its nice and big and weighs about as much as the small but thicker foam pad (+-70grams). Now i don’t know what to bring.

Dear r/ultralight,

Please may you convince me to adopt cold soaking and not bring a stove of any sort on my future planned Colorado Trail attempt? I’m nearly there… help me!

If I can ditch my stove, I think I can drop my base weight by around 195g. Additionally I could remove fuel from my daily weight budget of consumables and save a little pack volume.

For anyone interested: https://lighterpack.com/r/s8olwx

Are you willing to share your fave recipes?
I could try them all at home first to practice, right? That might further convince me!

Don’t you just feel like some hot food sometimes? What about if it’s a really cold day?

Hello all,

I have been backpacking since I was about 10 years old. I have done many trips of various lengths and mileages with friends, family, and scouts.

Adulthood has come less downtime for me as life responsibilities take precedent. About 4 years back I went on a 6 nighter after a long dry spell. It was after that trip and seemingly having the biggest and heaviest pack on the trail, along with some knee pain, and a couple of mild gear issues, that I decided I wanted to move towards a more ultralight approach.

I neglected doing much to lighten up my pack in the time that passed until me and a friend planned a backpacking deer hunting trip and I had a little less than a month to prepare. I bought a couple of ultralight pieces but didn’t have the time or the budget to touch the big 4 or make any serious changes. Hunting gear is heavy. My pack was crushing, yet I loved the trip and wanted to start planning out the next year and do it again, but lighter and more efficiently.

This is my current setup assuming I am not hunting or fishing. That gear is being worked on as well, but I will leave that out of this discussion. I have been out with this setup just last week and had a great time trout fishing in the Sierras.

https://lighterpack.com/r/lu4qzl

Current plans I have:
- Buy KUIU ULTRA Merino 210 Fingerless Gloves and toss my old beat up sun gloves
- Buy KUIU Kutana Stretch Woven Pants to swap my Attack pants with for hotter trips
- Buy a Litesmith 10ml dropper bottle for my soap
- Buy a Litesmith 4oz Malibu tube bottle for blister cream
- Get a dehydrator and dial in food for increased effeciency

Things I would like the most feedback on:
- First Aid
- Cooking
- All feedback greatly appreciated :)

EDIT: Not getting a new phone anymore.

Looking to rant and hear any advice. Make sure I'M not the crazy one.

Started a new job on Monday. Unfortunately, due to "confidentiality," I had no idea what chemicals I'd be working with during the interview process. Today, I found out that my lab works with HF at least weekly. Now, I've worked with HF before. I certainly don't love it, but I had to use it occasionally at my last job in small, dilute amounts. We used it infrequently and I felt comfortable with the controls we had in place, and I knew my co-workers take safety as seriously as I do.

I have big concerns around the use of HF at my new lab. First, the lab does not have calcium gluconate. I asked my manager about this and he told me that the previous lab manager "went up the chain" saying that the lab needed calcium gluconate and was told no. ... wtf? The "plan" in case of exposure is to use the safety shower and then go to the campus nurse. I have no idea where the nurse's office is, and who's to say my co-workers do? How do we even know the nurse has calcium gluconate? Apparently the safety shower triggers medical care to come to you ... so we have to tell them it's an HF exposure and to bring the calgonate? and hope they have it, know where it is, and can find our lab quickly in this massive campus?

I'll buy my own calcium gluconate if I have to, but I'm just extremely concerned by the way this has been handled so far. It makes me worry that other important safety aspects regarding HF have been overlooked, too. My lab manager said "just be careful" and "it's never happened while I've been working here." 'Just be careful' is not an exposure control plan!

There's more ... the way the lab is set up, the HF operator would need to cross the lab space to go from the fume hood to the instrument. The HF fume hood and the instrument are right at the entrance of the lab ... so anyone walking through the lab to get to other instruments (and may not be dressed in an acid-resistant apron, etc) has the potential to collide with the HF operator as they're turning around to get to the instrument. I hope that description of our layout makes sense. Ideally there would be some sort of a buddy helping to make sure that wouldn't happen but who even knows at this point! My manager did say no one works with HF alone, but I'm not sure if that means there's a designated safety buddy role in place or just "make sure someone else is around." Feel like I can't trust anything after knowing there's no calcium gluconate on hand and the company literally denied the request.

I am planning on asking my manager a lot more questions about HF safety and controls. Is there even a spill kit? Any documentation / SOPs? I'm also planning on going to the company safety officers / EHS. Hopefully they're more helpful than whoever said "no" on the calcium gluconate.

For context, until now I've always used a 90's style backpacking set up and I'm thinking of getting into ultralight. My first question is, as someone who doesn't use trecking poles, should I be looking at trecking pole tents (most companies seem to offer poles, or I could use durston z-flicks or something)? Or are other tent designs better, given that I would be packing tent poles regardless. I realize that in some sense the answer is "pick the tent that is best for you, making sure to account for the weight and cost of the poles" but given the plethora of options, I'm hoping to narrow things down a bit. Thanks!

Hi — I’m going back to work next week, my first full-time job in almost a year. I could use some help brainstorming safe and easy meals that will be both gluten-free and easy for my ADHD to plan for!

I got a little extra money and I'm thinking about going 'ultralight' on my Big 3 items - but to get much lighter than my Durston X-Dome 1+ I have to go with a trekking pole tent - and I'm nervous about it.

I've recently backpacked in

• San Jacinto
• Crystal Cove Laguna Beach
• Yosemite
  • Little Yosemite Valley
  • Volgelsang
  • Glenn Aulin
  • May Lake
  • Sunrise Lakes
  • Merced Lake
  • near Cloud's rest
  • the backpackers camp in the valley
• Trans Catalina Trail

And I'd like to go to Grand Canyon at some point.

My concern is staking a tent correctly in conditions where the ground is very hard to get stakes in - like it's very rocky or very uneven, or very windy.

Are there good tips on how to switch from freestanding to one you have to stake out?

I think saving a pound of weight would be worth it - but I'm concerned that I'll buy a tent and won't be able to get it pitched in certain areas or have a miserable time.

(Tent recommendations would be welcome too - I think Gossamer Gear One is easily in my budget - or even a Zpacks is in my budget if I push it and sell my Durston and my Big Agnes.Let's treat money as a secondary concern.)