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Copyright 2002 A Brief Guide to Gear
Many people going into the wilderness have a tendency to overpack. It is hard to resist all that truly nifty gear; it is even harder to resist the advertisements of manufacturers and sellers insisting that your life depends on having the newest, the best, and the most expensive stuff. Take a step back and think about what you really need; think about what gear will help – and what gear will hinder – your integration into the wild. Tents can protect you from rain and wind and insects, but they keep you from seeing the stars. Carrying your stuff BACKPACK There are two main long-haul backpack designs – internal frame and external frame – both of which use a metal frame to support the packbag so that the weight is being carried primarily on your hips rather than on your shoulders.
RAIN COVER Most backpacks are moderately rain resistant and adequate for a light misty rainfall. For anything more intense, you need a rain cover for your pack. You can use a store-bought rain cover with an elastic opening; you can use a large heavy utility trash bag, which you should be carrying with you anyway; or you can buy a backpacking poncho that will fit over both you and your pack. Shelter TENTS AND BIVYS Just how much shelter will you need? This is a very personal question, which balances considerations of weight, bulk, comfort, security, skill, experience, and bravado. Remember that Grandma Gatewood carried just a light wool blanket and a plastic curtain for rain protection. The options are below. Expedient shelter You may not need to carry any shelter at all. You can sleep out under the stars. You can get out of the rain by tying your poncho up to tree branches with cord; you can build a debris hut out of fallen branches, pine needles, and leaves; you can slip inside a heavy-duty industrial trash bag and cover yourself with pine needles. Tarp A tarp is a flat piece of material with grommets for tying off to trees or rocks. Tarps range from truly cheap and cheesy plastic, used to cover loads on top of your car, to ultralight and waterproof parachute ripstop nylon impregnated with silicon. A tarp is lighter than a tent or bivy, can be kept out of the way until you need it, requires minimal skill to set up, and will keep the rain and wind away from you. But it can flap annoyingly in the wind, and will not keep out insects.
GROUND CLOTH A ground cloth is a moisture barrier sheet, typically made of four-millimeter-thick polyethylene, 1.9-ounce coated nylon, or rip-stop high-density polyethylene. It prevents ground moisture from wetting the bottom of your tent or bivy sack. Even more important, the ground cloth prevents your tent bottom from being ripped up by small sticks and rocks in the ground. It should be just a little smaller on all sides than the tent or bivy sack that will sit on it, or else water running off the tent can be channeled underneath. Some tents have an accompanying footprint, which is basically a ground cloth cut to the exact shape of the tent; in many cases, you have to buy the footprint separately. Sleeping SLEEPING BAG There are two sorts of insulation for sleeping bags – down fill and synthetic fill. Down is the fluffy undercoating found just beneath the outer feathers of geese and ducks, and it is an extraordinary insulator. Down provides a lot of warmth for very little weight, can be compacted into very small sizes, and maintains its insulating properties years longer than synthetic fill. On the other hand, down is initially more expensive than synthetics, and – perhaps most important – it loses its insulating properties when wet, and takes a long time to dry. Synthetic materials are extruded plastic filaments, usually hollow, thus reducing their weight and enabling them to trap more air. They are initially less expensive than down, are non-allergenic, continue to provide insulation when wet, and dry quickly. On the other hand, synthetic fill is bulkier and heavier than down, degrades more quickly, and is stiffer and less . . . well, snuggly. Do not trust the temperature ratings on sleeping bags. They are essentially meaningless, because there is no standardized way of determining them, and companies are free just to make numbers up. A better way to tell how warm a sleeping bag will keep you is to unroll it, shake it out, lay it down flat, and see how high it is – that is, how much loft it has. A bag with four inches of loft should keep you pretty warm except under winter conditions. WATERPROOF STUFF SACK You do not want your sleeping bag to get wet if you can help it. Pack your sleeping bag in a waterproof stuff sack for carrying. An alternative is to wrap your sleeping bag in a heavy-duty industrial plastic trash bag before putting it into a compression sack. SLEEPING PAD I have slept happily in the wilderness for years using nothing but a two-foot-square piece of Ensolite under my hips. When my old bones started to get achy, I invested in a fancy self-inflating Therm-A-Rest, which sprung an unfindable leak on my very next trip. I am now back to the Ensolite. The moral is that sleeping pads are a matter of opinion. Sleeping pads perform two important functions – they keep you comfortable when you're sleeping on hard, uneven ground; and they provide a layer of insulation between you and the cold ground. Don't even think about buying an air mattress. There are really only two sorts of acceptable sleeping pads. Closed-cell foam pads, such as Ensolite or Evazote, are made out of dense foam filled with tiny closed air cells which are completely surrounded by foam and not interconnected. As a result, closed-cell foam does not compress easily, yet provides good padding since the air cells in the foam are completely encapsulated. The trapped air cells provide excellent insulation. The Therm-A-Rest Ridge Rest is made out of closed-cell foam, but with a pattern of ridges and valleys on the outside to trap dead air and thus increase insulation value. Closed-cell foam pads are cheap, durable, nonabsorbent, extremely insulative, and will not leak. On the other hand, they tend to be stiff, bulky, and occasionally hard to roll up. Self-inflating pads are open-cell foam pads wrapped in airtight waterproof nylon shells. In open cell foam – as opposed to closed-cell foam – the tiny air chambers are interconnected, making a very soft and highly compressible foam. The problem is that open-cell foam is absorbent, which can cause problems in wet conditions; and it is less insulating than closed-cell foam, and so must be about four times as thick to get the same insulative effect. Both these problems are addressed by the airtight waterproof nylon shell, which limits air circulation, thus increasing insulation, and protects against water absorption. Self-inflating pads are soft, comfortable, adjustable for firmness, and very compact when rolled up. On the other hand, they are heavier than closed cell pads, more expensive, and, when punctured or ripped, they leak. Bring a repair kit and hope you can find the hole. A compromise is the Therm-A-Rest StrataRest, which bonds a layer of open-cell foam between two layers of closed-cell foam. PILLOW Some people bring small inflatable pillows. You can also buy a small fleece or flannel bag that becomes a serviceable pillow when you stuff your jacket into it. Or you can stuff some clothing into the sack for your sleeping bag. Or you can roll your jacket into a ball. Or you can use your backpack for a pillow, which is what I do. Sitting
Eating STOVE The first decision that needs to be made about a stove is which fuel you want to use. For most trips in the United States, there are basically two choices – butane and white gas.
There are some additional exotic options – denatured alcohol, for example, or kerosene and unleaded gas, which is what you use when traveling in remote areas outside the United States; and there are also multi-fuel stoves designed to burn more than one type of fuel. Such stoves tend to cost more than single-fuel models, and they can be more difficult to maintain. Basically, once you have picked a fuel type, look for a stove that is compact, light, folds up, fits inside a cooking pot, easily adjusts fuel flow for simmering, burns quietly, and suits your destination and mode of travel. STOVE ACCESSORIES þ Most stoves come with wind shields, which surround the stove and increase its cooking efficiency. If your stove doesn't have a shield, you can buy one separately, or bring along some heavy duty aluminum foil instead. þ Be sure to bring along a repair kit for the stove, including extra parts. Clogged nebulizer jet orifices in white gas stoves are a common problem. þ Don't forget matches or a lighter. COOK SET AND UTENSILS A two-quart pot with lid, or a coffee pot, or an old coffee can is usually sufficient. Bring a pot gripper if the pot doesn't have a handle, or use your bandana as an oven mitt. You will also need a large cup and spoon; forks and knives are probably not needed. Some people like to buy insulated cups, but I like the plain old-fashioned enamelware metal cup, which warms my hands on a cold morning. A spoon made of Lexan plastic is light and hard to break; I must confess, however, that I have extravagantly invested ten dollars in a titanium spork, which is, as you might guess, a hybrid of a fork and spoon. For most backpacking meals, all you need is boiling water. Most commercial freeze-dried meals let you pour in water and eat right from the pouch. I like to put the dried food into my enamelware cup, pour the water on top, and eat out of the cup; my after-dinner tea or coffee then also serves to rinse out the cup. The more fastidious can get a heavy-duty plastic bowl or mix the food and water in the cook pot. FOOD At many sporting goods stores you will find lightweight prepackaged freeze-dried meals made especially for hikers. Depending on your tolerance, the taste is not too bad, and there is a wide variety of add-boiling-water-and-eat meals, but such meals are definitely on the expensive side. You can also find lightweight foods in your local grocery store – for example, dehydrated eggs, powdered milk, beef jerky, oatmeal, dried soup, ramen noodles, instant mashed potatoes, hummus mix, powdered fruit drinks, dried fruit, dried chili. Take them out of their cardboard containers and pack them in resealable plastic bags. Beans and rice can be mostly cooked, drained, and packaged. You can bring along tortillas, bagels, or Scandinavian flat bread. Tuna fish comes packed in foil envelopes. Energy bars make good snacks; so do Snickers bars. You can get coffee bags that work just like tea bags. Be creative. My philosophy is that you can eat anything as long as you put enough hot sauce on it. WATER I strongly recommend that you do not drink any unfiltered or unpurified water in the wilderness, no matter how tempting. There are three sorts of waterborne microorganisms that can cause human illness in the wilderness – protozoan cysts, bacteria, and viruses. These are all potential contaminants whenever animal or human fecal material gets into your water source. Apart from packing in your own bottled water, there are three ways of treating water in the wilderness. Boiling is completely effective against protozoan cysts, nontoxic bacteria, and viruses. Bringing the water to a rolling boil is enough, except at higher altitudes, where longer boiling is required because the water boils at a lower temperature. There is nothing extra to carry, since you have a pot and stove anyway. On the other hand, boiling takes time and uses up your fuel. Boiling also does not remove sediment, but filtering the water through a bandana usually takes care of that. Halogens such as iodine or chlorine kill bacteria and viruses, but may not kill all protozoan cysts, such as cryptosporidia. Iodine tablets such as Potable Aqua and saturated iodine solutions such as Polar Pure are readily available, inexpensive, and lightweight. You can even make your own water treatment kit by putting iodine crystals in the bottom of a small bottle, filling it with water, and using capfuls of the resulting saturated iodine solution to treat your drinking water; just keep refilling the bottle with water. Some people dislike the iodine taste of treated water, but the taste can be eliminated by adding some vitamin C, as in powdered fruit drinks; in fact, the Potable Aqua "taste neutralizer tablets" are simply ascorbic acid. Another drawback is that the halogen must be given time to work before you can drink the water – anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour, depending on how cloudy or cold the water is. Pregnant women and people with thyroid conditions may have adverse reactions to iodine. Mechanical filtration forces the water through a finely porous internal element inside the case in order to physically strain out solid materials, including fine sediment and most – but not all – microorganisms. Bear in mind the difference between a filter and a purifier. A filter mechanically removes protozoa and bacteria from contaminated water. A purifier goes a step further and eliminates viruses as well, by passing the water through either a matrix containing iodine, which kills them, or a filter medium that carries an electrostatic charge, which traps them. A device must inactivate 99.99 percent of viruses to be labeled as a purifier. There is spirited debate about the relative merits of filters and purifiers. Portable filters and purifiers are compact, relatively speedy, efficient, and you can drink the water immediately. On the other hand, they are heavy, a chore to operate, occasionally cranky, and easily become clogged with sediment. Don't forget to bring wide-mouthed water bottles to keep your water in. Walking BOOTS You will need good hiking boots, well broken in and waterproof – either containing Gore-Tex or well waxed with a good boot wax. Bring extra laces in your fix-it kit. CAMP SHOES You may want to bring along shoes for sitting around camp, or to put on when crossing water that is higher than the tops of your waterproof boots. Old tennis shoes, sandals that strap completely on, such as Tevas, or moccasins with a good grippy sole are all viable options. SOCKS Please, do not wear cotton socks; when cotton gets wet, it stays wet, sodden, and heavy for a long time. Wool or synthetic fabrics are both fine. Ideally, you should also wear, under the heavy thick outer socks, thin polypropylene or similar undersocks, which have two functions – to wick sweat away from your feet to the outer sock; and to slip around under the outer sock so your feet do not get blisters. TREKKING POLES If you are going to be walking any distance, or over rough terrain, or just on general principles, you should give serious thought to bringing a collapsible trekking pole. As wilderness survival expert Ron Hood puts it, a walking stick converts you from an unstable biped into a stable tripod. In some areas, you can find fallen tree branches, or can cut willow branches, for use as a walking stick; but you can't always count on it. Wearing THE LAYERING SYSTEM The secret to wilderness clothing is layering. The trick is to keep your core body temperature consistent no matter what you are doing or what the weather might be. You make adjustments depending on the degree of exertion and the outside conditions; you can peel off layers as you heat up and add them when you cool off. The inner moisture-management layer, next to your skin, is a synthetic material which wicks moisture away from your skin and passes it on to the next layer. This layer is the primary influence on body temperature regulation, and should not be cotton, which, once wet, stays sodden and chilly for a long time. Rather, your next-to-skin layer should be silk, wool, or a synthetic polyester wicking fabric, such as polypropylene, Capilene, Polartec, or CoolMax, which, rather than absorbing perspiration, transports it from the skin and disperses it on the outer surface, where it can evaporate, so you do not get chilled when you sweat. The middle insulating layer, consisting of shirt, sweater, vest, jacket, tights, or some combination, helps you retain heat by trapping air next to your body and holding in your body heat. Fibers such as wool, polyester fleece, and down are all excellent insulators. Wool is warm and has the particular advantage of retaining its insulating qualities even when wet, although it is heavier and bulkier than the synthetics. Polyester fleece not only traps air but also wicks moisture away from your body; it is lightweight, breathable, quick-drying, and a more efficient insulator than wool, which means that you get the same warmth with less bulk. Goose down is an outstanding insulator, used in jackets and vests, for extremely cold, dry conditions; it provides a lot of warmth for very little weight, and can be compacted into very small sizes. On the other hand, down is more expensive than wool or synthetics, loses its insulating properties when wet, and takes a long time to dry. In very cold conditions, you might want to consider having two middle insulating layers, for four layers in all – for example, underwear, medium-weight fleece pullover or wool shirt, down-filled jacket or vest, and shell. The outside shell layer protects you from wind, rain, or snow, ideally holding in your body heat while allowing water vapor to escape. Thus, your shell needs to be waterproof and windproof on the one hand, and breathable on the other, to keep perspiration from collecting inside and chilling your body. For this purpose, shells use fabrics such as Gore-Tex, or any of a number of proprietary competitors, which have pores small enough to keep out drops of water but large enough to let water vapor pass through. The shell layer should be roomy enough to fit easily over other layers and not restrict your movement. PANTS You are looking for pants that are either warm enough or cool enough for anticipated conditions, which depends in turn on the thickness of the material from which they are made. Most hiking pants these days are made of some sort of synthetic polyester, but I know people who swear by their old-fashioned wool hiking pants. You can layer your bottom half just as you layer your top half, with long underwear under your pants, and rain pants over them. For warmer conditions, bring quick-drying shorts, or long pants you can convert into shorts by zipping off the legs. RAIN GEAR Your shell layer, of course, functions as a rain jacket; or, put another way, your breathable stuffable rain jacket can, under most weather conditions, serve as your shell. If you anticipate a rainy hike, think seriously about bringing rain pants as well, to keep your legs dry; get the kind that have zippers along the sides of the legs, so you can put them on in a hurry without taking off your boots. My favorite rain gear is a good-sized poncho. You can put it on and take it off in a hurry, use it to protect your pack as well as yourself, turn it into an expedient shelter, use it as a ground cloth, roll it up as a pillow, use it to haul pine needles for a mattress . . . you get the idea. EXTRAS þ You will probably want to have a wide-brimmed hat for protection from the sun – one that will protect not only your nose but also the back of your neck and the tops of your ears. þ I also strongly recommend a fleece or wool stocking cap. Since you lose fifty percent of your body heat through the top of your head, wearing a warm stocking cap to bed will make a big difference in how warm you are. þ Similarly, you will probably want some warm gloves or mittens, made from fleece or wool, and a waterproof mitten shell if you are expecting rainy conditions. þ You absolutely must have several bandanas, which have innumerable uses – as a head covering, emergency bandage, oven mitt, bath sponge, and water filter, to name a few. þ Think about whether you want to bring a quick-drying swimsuit. Fixing FIX-IT KIT þ Bring a repair kit for your pack, tent, and clothing, including some heavy thread, needles, and thimble, extra buttons, several heavy duty diaper pins, some waterproof patches, heavy-duty rubber bands, and extra zipper heads. þ If you wear eyeglasses, pack one of those tiny eyeglass repairs kits. þ The kit should include extra batteries and bulbs for your flashlight or other equipment, an extra pair of boot laces, and twenty feet of thin nylon guyline for tying things together when they come apart. KNIFE You will need a knife. Swiss Army knives are very handy; look for one with both a locking knife blade and a saw blade. Slightly bulkier and heavier are the multipurpose knives by Leatherman and other companies. There are dozens of different models, with new ones coming out all the time. It can often be handy to have a knife in a sheath on your belt. There are so many knives – and so many opinions – that all I can do is suggest you try as many as possible and see what you like. CORD No one should be out in the woods without a good-sized hank of parachute cord, also called paracord or 550 cord, because of its 550-pound overall tensile strength. Paracord is kernmantle construction – sheath over braided core – and, in a pinch, you can unbraid the core strands and use them individually. Use it to put up your tarp, make a lean-to, lag logs together, or hang the clothes out to dry. Its possible uses are truly endless. DUCT TAPE Bring a small roll of duct tape. It can be used to repair anything, from nylon tarps to mosquito netting to broken tent poles to blisters. Clearly, humans survived in the wilderness for hundreds of thousands of years without duct tape; but I don't know how they did it. PLASTIC BAGS þ Bring extra resealable plastic bags, in both sandwich and gallon sizes. They are invaluable for packing out trash, isolating wet or smelly clothing, storing used tampons, or holding leftover dinner for a snack. þ Bring several heavy-duty industrial plastic trash bags – the kind that contractors use on construction sites for hauling trash. They can be used as a backpack rain cover, a makeshift poncho, a container for floating a backpack across a river, and as an expedient shelter in an emergency. A plastic trash bag can save your life. Seeing FLASHLIGHT You will need a flashlight or a headlamp. Brighter is not necessarily better; you need only enough light so you don't trip over anything, not so much that your night vision is nuked. In fact, you are better off just getting comfortable moving around in the dark. The same holds true for lanterns; a candle lantern is plenty of light for reading or preparing food after dark. I recommend a device called a Krill Lamp, which is a small, light, battery-powered electroluminescent light – just enough light, hanging from your trekking pole stuck in the ground, to set up your gear in the dark, get ready for bed, frighten off bogey men, and locate your bivy when you wander off to urinate in the middle of the night. GLASSES AND CONTACT LENSES þ If you wear glasses, bring an extra pair in a hard case. If you wear contact lenses, bring enough solution and a pair of back-up glasses, just in case. If you wear disposable contacts, bring more lenses than you think you will need. þ You should probably bring a pair of sunglasses as well. þ If you intend to do anything that might make your glasses fall off, bring along a retainer for your glasses, such as Croakies. Personal TOILETRIES þ Bring the smallest sized toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss you can find. See if you can find one of those folding comb-and-brush combinations. þ Bring biodegradable soap for washing. You can use the biodegradable soap to do laundry as well. My wife always brings along some shampoo in a small plastic bottle; at first I sneer, but then I ask to borrow some. þ Carry a small superabsorbent towel, such as a PackTowl. þ Bring toilet paper in a resealable plastic bag; you can compress it by removing the cardboard cylinder from inside. þ Give serious thought to bringing along a small squeeze bottle or tin of hand cream. It can make a difference. You might take a look at Bag Balm Hand Cream or Badger Healing Balm. PROTECTION þ Bring insect repellent, sunscreen, and lip balm. þ Bring an alcohol-based hand sanitizer such as Purell, and use it before cooking or eating and every time after urinating or defecating. The single most significant cause of gastrointestinal problems in the wilderness is oral-fecal contamination. FIRST AID KIT Although there will often be a larger scale first aid kit at base camp, you should bring your own kit, with supplies to manage everyday cuts, scrapes, burns, sprains, blisters, splinters, bites, and stings. You are, of course, responsible for having ample supplies of whatever medication you need to take on a regular basis. GETTING FOUND þ If you know how to use them, always carry a map and a compass. Do not rely solely on a GPS unit; they break, run out of batteries, and go crazy for no particular reason. þ Always carry one of those extra-loud storm whistles. Tie a piece of cord to it so you can wear it around your neck. It can save your life. EXTRAS þ You might want to bring a camera and film, and a pair of binoculars or a monocular for wildlife viewing. þ You will definitely want a notebook or journal and a pencil. þ You should think seriously about a field guide to the plants and animals in the area in which we will be staying. þ If you bring a book to read, choose one that will enhance your wilderness experience. John Muir, Edward Abbey, or Gary Snyder, depending on your taste, are probably a better bet than Michael Crichton or Stephen King, whatever their other virtues may be. þ Bring along enough heavy-duty resealable plastic bags to protect your camera, notebook, and books from dirt and water. Notes for women þ Gear manufacturers, who apparently don't get out much, have finally noticed that men and women have different shapes. There are now backpacks and sleeping bags designed to fit women's bodies. Check it out. þ Some biodegradable soaps are gentler on sensitive body parts than others. Try out your soap at home. þ Bring a few tampons or pads even if you do not expect to need them; you never know. þ Do not be influenced by gear lists written by men. Think about the value to you of having a small bottle of baby powder, a razor, shampoo. You can keep it all in a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. þ You can buy dry shampoo, or even make your own from cornstarch or purified talc. Just brush it through your hair. | ||
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With all her gear in a denim bag draped over her shoulder, Emma Gatewood, right, known as "Grandma Gatewood," a slight 71-year-old mother of eleven, through-hiked the Appalachian Trail three times. In the process, she was the first person – man or woman – to have hiked it twice. In her bag she carried a light wool blanket, a plastic curtain for rain protection, and miscellaneous supplies. In all, she seldom carried twenty pounds, and usually carried no more than fifteen pounds, including her gear, food, and water. Clearly, Grandma Gatewood proves that you don't have to carry a lot of gear to have a successful hike. 
Internal frame packs integrate their framework inside the pack, behind the shoulder harness. The frame consists of flat bars, usually of aluminum but increasingly of composites, in any of several configurations – V-shaped, X-shaped, U-shaped, parallel. Internal frame packs tend to be narrower and more maneuverable than externals, carry a larger load, move more easily with your body, hold your equipment closer to your natural center of gravity, are more easily adjusted to fit your body, and allow you to cinch down your load for greater stability. On the other hand, internal frame packs often have a single deep main storage compartment, make your back sweat, and typically cost more than external frame packs of a similar size. 
External frame packs connect the packbag to a rigid frame made of aluminum tubing, curved so that the load is carried away from your back. External frame packs let your hips bear a greater share of the weight than do internals, are cooler to carry, often have a number of compartments for distributing your gear, will not sag under heavy loads, and cost less than internals. On the other hand, external frame packs tend to be bulkier, more cumbersome, less agile, and – under some circumstances – less comfortable than internals. 
Bivy sack The term bivy sack comes from the word bivouac. A waterproof bivy sack performs two basic functions: it keeps you and your sleeping bag dry and increases the warming capacity of your bag by approximately ten degrees. When rain falls, water can potentially drip inside through the head opening. You can minimize that risk by pulling the top drawstring very tight. Most bivies, too, are topped with insect netting, and the same strategy works to keep out bugs. Some people find it snuggly to be completely covered by a bivy sack in the rain, and some find it claustrophobic. Ultralight bivy sacks are great for mountaineers and committed minimalists – people who trim the margins of their maps and cut short their toothbrush handles to save a fraction of an ounce. I love my bivy sack, not just for its virtual weightlessness, but also because it imposes nothing between me and the stars.
Bivy shelter Many people who like the light weight and lack of bulk of the classic bivy sack still don't like drawing in their head like a turtle in order to escape rain or bugs. For such people there is a bivy shelter, which adds, at the cost of a pound or so, two tent-like features – an expanded area of shielded headspace, held away from your face by short aluminum tent poles; and a full zippered enclosure to block out bad weather and insects. 
Solo tent After the bivy shelter comes the streamlined solo tent, with an average weight of about four pounds – heavier than a standard two-pound bivy, but with more interior room, in some cases enough to sit up, more or less. Few solo tents are freestanding; that is, without tent stakes, they fall down. As with a bivy sack or bivy shelter, your gear still stays outside.
Tent and rainfly If there will be more than one person, or you want to bring your gear inside, or you are looking for the most protection from bad weather and insects, then you are looking at a full-sized tent. In order to ensure that rain does not start to drip through the tent fabric, full-sized tents usually come equipped with a rainfly, which fits over the tent and keeps off the water, although in good weather you can leave the rainfly off. For all but winter camping or mountaineering a three-season tent is fine; four-season tents are made of heavier fabric and have extra poles to bear the weight of accumulated snow. Full-sized tents are roomy, comfortable, protect your gear, let you sit up or kneel to get dressed, and are often freestanding; that is, they can stand without the aid of stakes, so you can move them easily or lift them to shake out debris. On the other hand, full-sized tents are bulky, heavy, awkward, and insulate you from the wilderness. As with temperature ratings for sleeping bags, take manufacturers' capacity ratings with a grain of salt. A two-person tent may be a tight squeeze for two large adults and their gear.
CAMP CHAIR If you are planning on spending any time sitting around in the woods, you should give serious consideration to carrying a camp chair or sleeping-pad chair kit. Believe me, it is worth its weight. It supports your back and keeps your butt off the cold ground. Some of them have slots into which you can insert your sleeping pad. As always, the tradeoffs are among bulk, weight, and comfort. For me – in this one case – comfort wins.
Butane is a compressed gas, often sold mixed with propane or isobutane. It is convenient, clean-burning, easy to light, burns hot immediately, does not require priming, can be adjusted easily for simmering, and can't spill. Butane stoves, since they are built to handle a clean-burning gas, are relatively simple, require little maintenance, and are easy to repair. However, in addition to being more expensive than other fuel types, butane has two problems. First, it will not work below 32º F, which is why it is often blended with propane or isobutane, both of which work better than butane at cold temperatures. Second, the fuel canisters hold a limited amount of fuel, which means, for an extended hike, you have to pack in and pack out a lot of them, and then, when you get them home, most are non-recyclable.
White gas is a liquid. It is easy to find throughout the United States, easy to light, inexpensive, clean, reliable, efficient, and evaporates quickly when spilled. A canister of white gas will last a lot longer than an equivalent weight of propane canisters. On the other hand, white gas is definitely spillable, and spilled fuel can ignite quickly; stoves using white gas need to be primed, which is a skill to be learned, the flame can be difficult to adjust, and some models are very noisy. White gas stoves, too, are more complicated than butane stoves, tend to get clogged, require more maintenance, and are harder to repair in the field.