I have been preaching to my hiking friends about what I perceive to be the most useful product for the back country : Therm-a-Rest Z-Seat Pad
We all know the key to keeping our pack light is having equipment that has multiple purposes. This looks like a pointless $15 dollars, but this is by far the most crucial piece of gear in my pack. I use this for the obvious cushion when sitting on a hard rock or wet log, but the more I hike, the most uses I've found for it. And it only weighs 2 oz.
The first realization of the usefulness of this pad came to me on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. It is one of the most remote and least visited national parks in the entire system, because it can only be accessed by boat or sea plane. My final day of a week long backpacking trip with my wife and cousins led us to waiting on the boat on the dock. The boat brought a group of 5 people who were clearly inexperienced campers. Four of the group members were loading up gear that was still in it's retail packages. The fifth person was an experienced camper who looked a little bit annoyed by what he'd signed up for. While they were loading their canoes for a 4 night-5 day trek, I was creating general chit chat to hopefully impart some of knowledge on these rookies, when I came to find out none of the 4 brought a water bottle. I demanded they go buy gatorade from the general store and implored them to save the bottles once they were done to use as water vessels. After that the biggest fellow in the group climbed into his canoe and felt uneasy. After a quick lesson on kneeling in the canoe, he stated it hurt his knees. My wife then turned to me and said 'give him your pad'. I looked at her thought about it for a second and passed it on. He folded it in half placed it under his knees and with glee said 'I can do this all'. At that moment, I realized just how useful this little pad could be.
During a mid-September trip to Glacier National park, I climbed up the Pigeon Pass trail through driving rain and cutting wind. There weren't enough layers in my pack to stop the wind from lowering my body temperature 10-20 degrees. A light bulb went off in my head, the seat pad would make a perfect wind block under my layers, with the aluminized side facing my body it would retain the heat. Within in minutes I was warm and toasty as if my shirt was stuffed with hand warmers.
Here are a list other other uses for it:
- Pillow
- Wind Screen when cooking
- foot warmer in the toe box of a sleeping bag
- fan to start a fire
- Food Cooking pouch
- Knee Pad
- Head rain shield
- Bug swatter
There are a lot more uses I am use people have for it, and as I figure out more, I will add them to the list.