Well, I'm a truck camper and being a truck camper means I can bring the gear that makes me comfortable and the trips more enjoyable, so I'd have to say my truck is my favorite piece of outdoor gear.
(hell, it even lives outdoors the lucky dog!
)
Then there is a comfortable chair.
It has to be a recliner so I can kick back and star gaze at night without straining my neck.
I love to kick back and watch for shooting stars and satellites while enjoying the heat and crackling of the fire. (the chair is great for napping in too btw
).
It's all about comfort for my old bones.
I also have various small folding tables and small stools I found at thrift shops.(I have a table and stool for the tent also
)
I also have a chuck box I made out of scrap 1/4" plywood and brass from my old job making radiator cores.
The corner edges are reinforced with scrap brass strips I cut down on a shear and bent on one of the breaks.(hard to see as I painted the whole thing)
The box, cooler, water jugs and sleeping bag along with a small duffle for clothes are about the only things that don't stay in the truck permanently.(guns and knives also of course)
Then there is the tent.
It has to be big enough for a cot and to stand up in.
Also to have a chair in in case of rain so I can sit it out comfortably and read. (the old bones don't like crawling into a tent, stooping, or sitting/sleeping on the ground!
)
Camping gear load in the back of the truck.(notice the three sleeping pads? Yeah!)
Besides the truck as my favorite piece of gear there is this old Kelly Works Demon axe head I found stuck in a tree with a broken handle when I first started exploring this area in 92 or 3.
Shown before the last rehang.(I believe it was the third handle I put on it, or is that.. it on?
)
The three pics below the truck pic are at my favorite camp site my brother and I found back in the late 90s.
The benches and stove table along with a big stack of cut rounds were there when we found the place one spring outing while hunting for Morels.
I suspect they were cut and made by deer or elk hunters the previous fall.
It sure was nice of 'em to leave all that wood for us, saved a lot of work on our part!:thumbup:
I cut and painted the green table tops you see on the two rounds in the second pic as it's good to have plenty of space to put stuff up off the ground.(Pistols, binos, knives, books and whatnot)
Oh and honorable mention goes to my camp crapper.
I throw a couple of trash bags in the bucket and I'm ready to 'go'.
The folding seat I made at the aforementioned job after one elk hunt/camping trip where it was raining and sleeting one morning and I had to 'go' before heading out.
I ended up squatting over a bucket in the tent.
Damn!
Well, like I mentioned earlier...these old bones don't play that game so I made the folding seat out of some 1/4" thick aluminum angle stock we had no use for and some old seatbelt I scrounged somewheres for the straps to keep it from collapsing under weight and added the cat litter bucket for the ultimate outdoor crapper for usins' that don't cotton ta squattin'.
I love repurposing stuff and making my own gear when I can.
At the mentioned job above we went through a lot of brass sheet and I made a carrying case for a single burner coleman stove out of brass scraps and the case to store coffee filters you can see right below the black filter holder hanging in the third pic, along with the two round ash trays seen on the stump in front of the travel alarm clock in the same pic.
Long winded, but there you have it.
