Shoutout to the cheap foam pad I almost didn't buy

I went on a trip to the Adirondacks last fall and decided to test my old, fancy self-inflating pad against a basic $15 foam pad from the discount bin. The first night, the self-inflator got a slow leak and I woke up at 3 AM on cold, hard ground. The next night, I used the foam pad. It didn't pack down small, but it didn't deflate either. I slept like a rock, even when my friend's dog decided it was a better bed than his own. The difference was simple: one thing had moving parts that could fail, and the other was just a piece of foam. Has anyone else had a piece of high-tech gear totally let them down while the basic version saved the trip?

3 comments

3 Comments

susan1305d ago

My buddy had a similar thing happen with his fancy stove. It was one of those tiny ones that screws onto the gas canister, and the little jet just clogged up on the second day of a week long trip. He was trying to clean it with a pin and everything. Ended up just using a basic fire pit for the rest of the trip to heat his food. It took longer and was smokey, but it never once failed to make a flame. Makes you wonder why we overcomplicate things.

benclark6d agoTop Commenter

Totally get that... had a fancy water filter fail on a long hike once. The backup iodine tablets tasted awful but they worked. Sometimes the simple gear just doesn't have anything to break.

finleym436d ago

Feel your pain on that one. Iodine is a rough backup but at least it gets the job done.