This weekend we went on a motorcycle ride to Lyons Ferry. There is not a whole lot to chat about concerning that trip (as the spiders that I was hoping to see and photograph were not present), so I thought this weeks’ post would contain content related to what gear I travel with. This is my essential gear and the minimum that I require to head out the door and into an adventure. I will try to include links to gear that is still currently available along with little reviews or thoughts pertaining to the gear. Also, these are my unsolicited thoughts and the links are not affiliate links.

The most important piece of gear that goes with me no matter what is my Exped MegaMat 10. It is a little bulky on the bike, but the comfort is well worth working around the space constraints. I have slept on this mat in the winter, on a bed of ice, and the side of me that was on the mat was the warmest part of me. The mat has an R value of 8.1, making it suitable for use down to -40 °F.
The mattress is roughly 4″ thick when filled, and provides an area that is 72″-77″ long by 25.6″-30.3″ wide (depending on which model you buy). This thickness provides great comfort but also contributes to the mass of nearly 5 pounds. This makes it so that, despite its’ supreme comfort, I would never pack this on my back. Packed size is 26.5″-31.1″ long and 7.9″-9.8″ in diameter. My mattress came with a bag, patch kit, and foot pump for fine setting the firmness. The mattress is self-inflating, but it will not fill as firm as I want on its’ own. I used the included foot pump for several years to top it off with little effort. If you want to share with a partner, the MegaMat10 Duo is perfect for couples.
The mattress firmness will change a little with temperature change. I have found that it is best to get it filling as soon as the tent is up. I top it off just before I lay down to sleep. I have found that this leaves the pad with as much firmness as possible. Filling it while it is warm and then leaving it alone has led to slightly less firm inflation, but warmth was still sufficient for sleep.

The next piece of gear is my ALPS Mountaineering Highlands 2 tent. This item does not appear to be available new any more, but I think the Tasmanian 2-Person is similar enough for my experience to apply to it as well. It is a two person, 4 season tent that weighs in at 8 pounds. I have found it to be pretty comfortable in winter weather down to temperatures in the high teens, but have not had a chance to test it in lower temps than that. I find it perfect for motocamping as there is plenty of room inside it for the gear that cannot be locked in the side cases. For two people, I think there would be plenty of room for the mattress and people, but there may not be much space at the end of the tent for gear. The tent does have a large vestibule when the fly is attached, which allows me to leave my boots outside the tent without having them exposed to weather or animals.
With roughly 4′ of height inside, the tent is not tall enough to fully stand, but not so short as to be claustrophobic. I have yet to experience adverse weather in this tent, but it seems like it would be quite pleasant in rain, snow, or high winds. I will say that it is a little warm for hot summer nights with little wind as it holds heat a little too well, even without the rain fly. The doors at either end do have mesh windows, and there are openings in the top to allow heat (or moisture) to escape the tent.
This tent is supposedly a backpacking tent, but at 8 pounds, it seems like you would really need a four season tent before bringing this along. 3 season options would be much lighter and would not take up as much space. The tent packed is 23″long, by 12″ wide, and 8″ tall. I did not opt for a footprint, but I do carry a light duty tarp that I unfold to roughly the same size as the tent and use that as a footprint. At roughly $5, it seems a much more affordable option, and I can use it for things other than a footprint if needed.

I have two sleeping bags, one for when the temperatures are going to be over 40 °F and one for when temps will be below 40 °F. The lighter bag is no longer available and is a North Star CoreTech 3.5 mummy bag. I believe I spent around $50 for the bag. It is a 3 season bag and the temperature rating is 30-40 °F. I think this is very optimistic, as I do not feel comfortable below 40 °F. I know that the temperature listing is a survival rating and not a comfort rating, but I also think that a part of survival is good rest. There have been plenty of nights that were close to 30 °F where I did not sleep well and the ride home was a little more perilous for that fact. The bag does compact well as it is a synthetic fill. I did have to do some minor sewing as the stitching in the hood area came out during one particularly uncomfortable sleep, but otherwise it has done pretty good over the last five years.

My heavy bag is an Ascend Whammy -20 °F mummy bag. It is a synthetic fill bag. This bag is also no longer available, but I did see used ones for sale. I have used this bag in temperatures down to high teens’s and was plenty warm. It does take up about twice as much space as the CoreTech bag, but it is also much more comfortable in the cold. I have only used this bag for about two years, but it is holding up very well considering how reasonable the cost was.

I have a Peregrine Pro Stretch self inflating pillow for those times when I cannot bring a full size pillow. It has served me quite well for the last three and a half years. It inflates too much for my liking, which is nice, because I can let it fill on its’ own and then deflate it to my desired firmness. It weighs .7 ounces and packs into a nice little roll about 8″ by 3″ in size. I have never struggled to get it small enough to fit into its’ carry bag. I do tend to put the shirt that I am going to wear the next day around it to try to keep it clean and to have a warm shirt to put on in the morning.

The final piece of gear that I take with me is a Sea to Summit Reactor Extreme sleeping bag liner. I thought this would help to make my light bag more suitable in the colder weather. It feels to me like it helps to a 5 degree increase in comfort, which is shy of the promised increase. It seems that the current description for the newer edition of the product makes no promises, just that it will help keep you warmer, and that is accurate. The liner is way easier to wash than a bag. I have used it as a sheet while keeping an open bag over me as a blanket as well as snuggling into it inside the bag. This seems to keep the bag cleaner and it is much easier to clean the liner rather than the bag. The liner packs down to 6″ by 4″ and weighs about 13 ounces.

All of these essential items pack into a 65L Sea to Summit dry bag. I just recently acquired this bag, but I can say that it has plenty of lash points to make it easy to secure to my motorcycle. The roll top does sort of make it annoying for getting things out of the bottom, but with proper planning, it is not a big deal. It seems sturdy and there are D rings to make attaching a lock easy, tho I doubt the efficacy of locking a dry bag against a determined thief. At this moment, I believe it to be a good bag for what I am doing with it.

Alright everyone, sorry about the change in content this week. Hopefully we will get back to expected content in the next few weeks. I hope that you found this informative or interesting. Take care and happy adventuring!

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