It was orange, . . . what was I supposed to do??

Firstly, sorry for the mix up on Friday. I was a bit of a tease, wasn’t I. Not my intention I assure you.  I was so excited about my shopping trip that I wrote you a wonderful post about it while on the way home, using my phone. When I checked it a bit later I realised that somehow the post itself hadn’t saved, only the heading. I tried to delete it before it got sent out but unfortunately missed. So, apologies to everybody who tried to read it. Here is a new version although I’m sure it won’t be as witty or entertaining as the original was (at least that’s what I want you to think!):

I went into Macpac as they were having a half price merino sale, and I was still trying to sort out some of my clothing items. I really like Macpac gear, but usually can’t afford it, so within a few minutes had an armful of clothes to try on. I also saw a nice looking light waterproof jacket. I’ve finally decided that I can’t trust my old jacket to be waterproof so have started researching new jackets. I was certainly not ready to buy a new one today. However, I thought it was worth trying on, just as another option once I had done some more research. It was quite a lovely fit but, alas, didn’t have a hood! What a crazy idea – a waterproof jacket without a hood?!?!?

They did have a similar version with a hood, it was on sale and . . . . it came in a beautiful bright orange! It weighs in at just 10g heavier than my old (Mammut) jacket. I know this is still heavier than some of the other jackets on the market, but I feel that it will also be much more durable (especially while wearing a pack) than those jackets, and I was already prepared to accept that weight in jacket. Plus, it’s nice to have some gear from a(n almost) local supplier (NZ) when I’m going hiking on the other side of the world. It is called a “Traverse” jacket, is made of eVent material (the “new Gortex”, but lighter and more breathable apparently!) and has extra durable patches across the shoulders. I haven’t worn it except in the shop, but will try to give you a proper review over the next few days (or week!).

I also bought some amazingly fashionable sleepwear (full length merino pants and top, . . . in grey with orange and yellow stripes! – you’ll have to see a photo to get the full effect!), some Merino socks and a couple of new long sleeved shirts which seem really comfortable and are quite light. I’ll have to test these out, but am hopeful they’ll be part of my hiking kit.

While I was there I also had a fantastic chat with some of the staff who were incredibly enthusiastic and knowledgeable, as well as interested in hearing about my trip, gear and planning. One guy in particular got very excited when I asked if he knew how much everything weighed! He is an ultralight hiker and doesn’t find many people in Perth to share that with. He was particularly impressed by my tent and sleeping bag weights, . . . . and when I pulled out my own set of scales to weigh things in store! I should probably go back and pick his brain about long distance lightweight hiking as I don’t usually get the chance to talk to people that have actually done this stuff.

I also dropped off my Mammut jacket at the store I had bought that from 2 years ago and they were happy to take it back and investigate the cause of failure and possible remediation / warrantly action, so hopefully I get some recompense for that. Otherwise it was a very expensive outlay for very little use.

In other exciting news, I ordered my maps on Friday. Now I just have to wait 2+ weeks for them to arrive!!

Normally we walk for about an hour in the mornings, down to our local park then several laps around that. Thismorning I decided it was time to start my conditioning training for my holiday. I was supposed to be training anyway so didn’t mind getting up early but with the weather forecast for 2 degrees and frost I didn’t really feel cycling or rowing. So, up at 5am to go for a very long walk instead!

I had some breakfast, packed my rogaining backpack (Osprey Mira 26, total weight, including what I was wearing, of just under 10kg with a lot of water and bunch of spare clothes) and Merlin and I headed off. It served reasonably well as a mini Scotland hike – I got a bit of a hill (Kings Park), some bogs (South Perth foreshore) and even did some backtracking deciding how to get down from the hill (toss up between Jacob’s ladder and Kokoda steps – chose Kokoda in the end).

Posing for me at Kings’ Park. Difficult to get a good photo of the dog and view with the sun just risen.

We were out for about 3.5hrs, pretty much continuous walking except for photo and dog water stops. The total distance was 16.5km, with the one decent hill being ~70m vertical climb (I did say a MINI Scotland hike – in all respects!!).

Merlin at the top of Jacob’s ladder. Lucky I have a dog to photograph so I don’t have to take selfies!

My goal is to get some general conditioning and get used to the feeling and routine of long walks (mentally as much as physically). This went pretty well. I was happy to have a break by the end but wasn’t at all sore and didn’t find that time dragged. Pretty sure I could’ve had a bit of a break (e.g. half hour) and done this again.

Geraldton Wax, just coming into bloom.

Merlin was still bouncy and raring to go on the way home. Once we got home he crashed out in his bed fast asleep (Yay! thought I . . . some peace for the day) but then he was up again within half an hour and asking for his normal park walk! He didn’t get it.

The Narrows Bridge, just after coming down the Kokoda steps. I used the “background light correction” setting for this photo. If you look closely you can see where the camera has taken two photos and merged them!

Gear Updates:
Shoes were fine. I wore old thick Explorer socks (trying the shoe stretching theory) and had no problems at all. No squashed toes, no rubbed heels. Also, they kept all the water out from the wet grass and the boggy bits. The socks did get a bit hot and sweaty towards the end though!

GPS Logger: Manufacturer said I should download the latest software then recent the device, then contact distributor if I still have problems. Have done the former and am now testing again!

Food: Happy to say I didn’t eat at all during this walk. My stomach was rumbling on the way home though! When I don’t eat during a long training session my friend, Ben, says “Are you training your body to be stronger or training it to go without food?”. Normally the answer is “to be stronger” so yes, I should’ve eaten. In this case it’s definitely “to keep going without food”!! I don’t want to get in the habit of feeling hungry as soon as I start walking so am happy with this effort. I didn’t even need to eat that much for the rest of the day so hopefully the rogaine food intake was just an abnormal day.

In other news, I just watched a video on someone else’s blog showing the view from the top of one of the hills I plan to go up (http://blogpackinglight.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/new-kid-on-the-block-trekkertent/), and looked through a magical trip report and photos from Lewis (Outer Hebrides), just off the coast of where I’m going with very similar geology (ancient Gneiss) and so similar landscape (http://backpackingbongos.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/the-outer-hebrides-a-bongo-on-harris-and-lewis-pt3/). Getting very excited about this trip!! Now to go and order some maps!

It’s done. I’ve booked my flights. My thoughts: Woohoo!

Which is funny, because that’s exactly what the flight booking website said as well!

I like it when websites and programmers are a little bit quirky, like when my email program asks if I forgot to add an attachment and gives me the choice of replying “Oh, I did!”, complete with exclamation mark. Makes me smile every time because that’s usually exactly what I’m thinking.

On an interesting note, I also bought travel insurance today. That is not the interesting part. Unfortunately I couldn’t go with my favourite travel insurer (Southern Cross), even though they were the cheapest by far and have always been really good, because they exclude claims arising from travel in “Remote Areas” (“areas with limited or no telecommunications or medical services”) unless with an organised tour/guide. I’m pretty sure at least some parts of my hiking will fall under this Remote Area definition so it’s not worth the risk of them not covering me. I thought that this might be a problem so read the Policy Statements very carefully. Luckily they were the only company I looked into with a Remote Area clause.

I know, two posts in one night (and this one’s a long one – sorry), but I’ve had internet troubles over the past few weeks so have a bit of a backlog to get through. I’ve just spent an exciting evening reading other people’s blogs and doing online research (other things I’d been missing out on with limited internet). In other exciting news, I’m expecting new gear to arrive in a week or so. Can’t wait until it gets here so I can tell you about it! So, now onto this blog post . . . .

Last year, in August, a friend of a friend was looking for a partner for the WA Winter 24hr Rogaine (also known as the State Championships) and I was dobbed in with the promise that “you’ll have a good chance of winning”. I had strained my back the weekend before so was in pretty bad shape and struggling to walk at the start, exacerbated by rolling my ankle in the first half hour and having my rather uncomfortable North Face gortex shoes. Still, we struggled through for the entire 24hrs, found every checkpoint on our planned route and even added another 3 checkpoints at the end (I’d taken some painkillers and found my second wind by this point!) to walk in with about half an hour to spare and enough points to get us 1st placed Women and 8th overall. We probably covered 70-80km and didn’t make a single major navigational error. I was also massively assisted by the rogaining gods who continued to make checkpoints obvious to me just as we were about to give up or walk the other way. The number of times I was glancing around casually and said “oh, there it is”, or caught the faintest glimmer of reflection in my headlamp at the perfect angle through a tiny gap in the trees and said “is that it?” . . . . . pretty sure we would’ve missed 5+ checkpoints if not for this luck.

2013 WA Womens Rogaine Champions (with trophy)

This year the State Champs were in June and I had asked the same partner to join me again to defend our title. Actually, I didn’t put it that way as she has been busy at work so unable to keep fit. I didn’t want to scare her off so played down my grand ambitions! We set a worthy, but not overly ambitious, course of about 60km, with the plan to do 35km from midday to midnight, sleep for 4 hours then get up and do the remaining 25km. It still gave us a chance at winning but was achievable with no training or conditioning (clearly still an element of craziness with a statement like that).

We set off, feeling pretty good, and found our first point quickly, even leapfrogging head of a couple of faster teams with some superior navigation through the bush. Unfortunately this went to our heads and we forgot some of the basics of rogaining:
1. Don’t blindly follow the tracks
2. Always check the direction (bearing) you’re walking along, and that you’ve gone far enough
3. Always stick to the basic rules for the first hour or so of rogaining!!
We followed a road which was so clearly and obviously a road that we just assumed it was the one from the map, even though it was going slightly the wrong direction. We did follow rule 4 of rogaining (“Don’t blindly follow another team”), when one team simply crossed the track and kept walking and another stopped and looked at their map in great confusion before also walking away from the track. Ahhhh, if only we’d followed 1, 2 and 3 instead of rule 4!!

Clearly this was not the right track. Actually it wasn’t even marked on the map. We didn’t realise this, then spent about an hour wandering aimlessly around the bush with no idea of where we actually were. Actually, we spent about 20 minutes wandering aimlessly, then set off in an approximate direction of where some pine plantations where, assuming that if we hit them, we could just follow them to a point we could recognise. Luckily this happened, and we got to our 4th planned checkpoint (having missed 2 and 3) with only a small loss of time and an annoying loss in points. We didn’t stress about it, having decided by this point that we’d blown the rogaine and we’d just have to do a “social”.

We were much more careful with our navigations and took quite conservative routes so were very consistent with finding the checkpoints. Even aside from conservative routes our navigation was pretty spot on – at one point we walked straight across a river crossing before realising it because there was only one narrow crossing point and the rest was blackberry and scrub. We assumed we’d get to the river then have to walk along it to the crossing point. Our bearing was so good we walked straight into the crossing point!

We had one other major navigational error later that night, again from following the wrong track!! This was immediately after a water fill-up point and it was straight along a major road so we were a bit too relaxed about it. Again, the track was just a bit off bearing from the correct one. After following it for a while, ignoring all the warning signs (like the plantation being on the wrong side!!) we finally realised we were going the wrong way. At least this time it was very easy to see where we were so, after a short cross-country jaunt through a pine forest, were back on track. Again, some brilliant walking along a bearing got us right to the next point – not easy to do, walking along the side of a hill through a pine forest when the trees don’t line up with the direction you’re walking.

We got back to camp just before midnight having found everything except the 2 missed points at the start and one other one right near the end. We didn’t “miss” it, we simply decided we couldn’t be bothered walking the extra kilometre through the bush for 60 points when we were so close to home. We were doing this socially, remember!

The Hash House has a huge bonfire and hot food all night. I had been eating the entire walk but was still hungry so quickly cleaned up an organic beef burger, sausages (both supplied by the farmer whose land we were using) and soup. I’ve never come in during the night before so have never experienced this “social” side of rogaining. I must say, it was very nice. Then, off to bed for a sleep.

The alarm went off at 4:15am . . . at which point I suggested another 2 hours sleep and my partner was quick to concur! It was a brilliant idea as many of the aches and pains had begun to subside by 6:15am. Plus, the clouds had come over so it was much warmer and the sun was starting to come up.

We set off again at about 7am, full of 2 pancakes and 2 cheese toasties from the hash house (yes, even after all that food and dinner at midnight, I woke up hungry!). Sadly, we again made a stupid navigational error before we even hit our first point. Luckily this only led to lost time rather than extra distance and lost points as we just spent a lot of time looking around and discussing the map. Again, once we got back on track our navigation was excellent. Given our reduced time available, we had set a new course of only 15km for the morning. It all went well and we got in at about 11am, with a whole hour to spare. With a total of about 8 hours off the course it was definitely looking like a “social” effort. My partner didn’t even think we’d be getting into the top 20. Still, when they read the results out they got to 21st overall (2nd women’s) and still hadn’t announced our names. What a shock! 1st Women’s and 13th overall. Not bad for a “social” effort.

2014 WA Womens Rogaine Champions (no trophy this year, but you can see the white and orange square, which is what the checkpoints in the bush look like)

It turns out we actually worked harder than we thought though. I had the GPS logger on for the first half of the walk and our planned 35km course actually ended up being 46km! No wonder we were struggling so much to maintain 3km/hr!! This was partly due to following roads, fences or rivers rather than straight lines but I think I’d better check my measuring string before I plan any more walks!! We also didn’t have any help from the rogaining gods this time. At least I didn’t – I think my partner spotted 80% of the checkpoints and I had more false spots than real ones!

The afternoon route (12pm to 11:57pm, clockwise route from Hash House)

As a bit of a gear wrap up:
Wet Weather Gear: It was perfect rogaining weather – sunny to start, clear night for good moonlight, cloudcover from early morning to keep the temperature up at night and down during the day, with not a single drop of rain so I didn’t get to test this. I’ve been testing my jacket around home (after washing, spraying and dryering it) and while it is keeping a lot of water out, it’s definitely not fully waterproof still so am investigating new jackets and planning to take this one back as “faulty”.
Shoes: I took my Scarpas which were useful for keeping dry through some shallow creek crossings and in the dew in the mornings. I taped my heels but otherwise didn’t tape anywhere else (normally I tape up the entire sides of my feet during a 24hr rogaine). They were a bit squishy on my little toes (on the sides) and I did need to tape one little toe within the first hour (rubbing against the next toe) but there was no blisters or other lasting damage and they were fine to put on the next morning and walk again. Reasonably happy with this I guess, although I’d like to fix the squishy toe issue. A friend has suggested wearing super thick socks in them now to stretch them a bit so I’m trying that out at the moment.
Gaiters: I’m not planning on taking these on my trip but oh, they were soooo good!! Definitely recommend these for anyone planning on tromping through the Australian bush! Protected my pants from rips, my legs from gouges, my shoes from sticks/prickles and rocks falling in and I didn’t pick up any ticks.
Clothes: Took a new pair of pants out (thanks Mum for taking the hems up the night before!!) and they were comfy so it looks like they’ll be coming with me. Also tried out the new Ex-Officio travel underwear (super quick dry, easy wash, low-odour) and they were very comfy too. Good!
GPS Logger: This was great, as you can see from the picture of our track, . . . .when it was working. It wouldn’t start up properly in the morning, probably because of a low battery. It was fully charged before I went out and had only been used for 12 hours. The battery is supposed to last 30hrs and I won’t have enough power supply to charge it if it will only last for 12. I left it in the car while sleeping so maybe it got too cold? I’ve tested it again at home (lots of small trips) and again it’s gone low battery, this time in ~20hrs. It also doesn’t seem to be auto turning on/off like it’s supposed to. I’ve contacted the company so we’ll see what they say. Maybe I just have a dud? At least this testing is forcing me to memorise what the little flashing lights mean!!
Sleeping Pad: I used my new ThermaRest for the first time. Excitingly, there were all sorts of instructions and repair kits in the box (I really should’ve unwrapped it when I got it!). It was easy enough to blow up and certainly comfortable. There is heaps of padding and I didn’t have a problem with the short length at all. Also, great insulation. Mum’s sleeping bag was not doing a great job of keeping the cold out but I was plenty warm where I was laying on the ThermaRest. Only problem is it is so slippery I think I’d slide straight off if I was on a slope!!
Food: The amount I ate during this rogaine was concerning. There is no way I can carry that much food for several days! Hopefully it was just an abnormal day. I’ll do some more test hikes to check on this.
Long distance multi day walking: I was pretty concerned when I thought we’d only done 35km and I was that sore. However, knowing we almost did 50 (way beyond my maximum day for my trip) I’m much more comfortable. Also, this was much harder walking (through the bush) than my hike will be and still reasonably hilly. The other important thing for me was that I was able to do a really long, hard walk one day and get up the following day and keep going. It was really important for me to find out how I’d handle this. I did struggle to walk for the rest of the afternoon at home, but was back to normal by the following day. I have decided that some more conditioning would make my life easier so I’m going to try to incorporate some 3-4 hour walks over the next few months (possibly to, then around, Kings Park so I can get some hill practice too).
Navigation: Despite the couple of silly errors, I’m pretty happy with my navigational skills and I’m so happy that I was introduced to rogaining so I could learn and develop this skill. I can read a compass and walk a bearing reasonably well, but my real strength is in recognising topographical features and knowing where I am based on what the ground is doing under my feet. This was pretty challenging navigation at times – dark, dense bush, some indistinct features – and we coped brilliantly. I’m pretty sure open moorland during daylight will not be any more difficult.

Yes, I know, two posts in one afternoon . . . sorry to overload you, but I need some more help.

I’m investigating lights. Now, I’m not intending on walking at night, nor even in setting up camp at night (though this may happen with poor time management skills). I don’t even intend to read at night as I don’t want to lug a book around. This light is purely intended for emergency use and any necessary night-time pottering. I may, on occasion, write in my notebook, but even this I’ll try to do during the day. Night is purely for sleeping!

My current headlamp is a Princeton Tech Apex, running off 4xAA batteries and weighing in at about 300g (incl spare battery set). Max output 275 lumens. Burn time is quoted at 150 hours, but this is on low beam, and with Li batteries only! I can chew through a set of batteries easily in a 24hr rogaine (~10-12hrs darkness, but a fair amount of time spent on high beam). It is great for rogaining but far from optimal for what I need on my trip.

After the first round of research I have refined my criteria and narrowed my shortlist. Wants:
1. Lightweight (of course)
2. Long battery life (at low intensity)
3. Rechargeable would be cool, or small replacement batteries
4. Red light option for preserving night vision / being less obtrusive at night

Here is my shortlist:

1. Petzl e-lite: This thing is tiny (28g), runs off 2xCR2032 batteries (like watch batteries, 2.5g each), supposedly has a 70hr battery life (on low beam, white light) and has a dedicated red mode. It is waterproof to 1m. It has a max output of 26 lumens. The strap is a tiny thin cord (not looking forward to this, although I can bring another headstrap if I really want to use it as a headlamp) and it also has an integrated clip. It really looks like this is the way to go.

2. Ruta Locura headlamp. Again, tiny (37g). Powered by 2xCR2023 batteries. Similar size to the e-lite, but doesn’t have any of the fancy features. Does have a better headstrap and is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper. Plus, if I’m ordering tent pegs from these guys it would be easy to include a light too.

3. Petzl Tikka R+ : This is more like a traditional headlamp, and this is reflected in the size and weight (115g). It is rechargeable by USB, which is cool. Light output is significantly greater at 170 lumens, but battery life is corresponding lower (12hrs on automatic mode). It has some fancy function which ‘optimises’ light output . . .whatever that means. It has a separate red light. This looks awesome but I think it is just too much for what I need in a light. I’m not intending to go walking and looking for landmarks (or controls) in the distance with this light. Looks like it has the standard micro USB connection though!!

4. Black Diamond Revolt: Like the Tikka R+, this is rechargeable, but works by having rechargeable 3xAAA batteries which can be recharged within the headlamp. It is a little lighter (97g) and a bit cheaper than the Tikka R+ but has a lower output (110 lumens). Burn time is good (70hrs high beam, 300hrs low with alkaline battery (non rechargeable) or 12/190 with NiMH (the rechargeable ones)). Features are similar to the Tikka R+, so while this would win over the Tikka R+ (battery life and weight) it is still really too much for what I need. Also, splash resistant, not waterproof! Although . . . . only 70g more than the e-Lite, with much greater potential. Maybe this is worth a thought?

After that summary, I’m tossing up the Petzl e-Lite or the Black Diamond Revolt. What do you think?

Hi all,
As mentioned in a recent post about the tent, I want to get new pegs for it as I simply don’t trust the tiny 1g titanium shepherds crook skewers that came with it. Aside from all the concerns about them pulling out too easily, I also found that they are turn around very easily (in which case the guyline can slip straight off the peg) and they are incredibly hard to find if the guyline has come off and they’re still in the ground! I may’ve lost one already when I set it up in the backyard the other day!!

I’ve been doing a lot of research about types of pegs (or “stakes” as they seem to be called). Here are some key points I’ve picked up.
1. In general stakes hold the ground better if they have more surface area, through either length, diameter (circumference) or complicated cross sections. This is especially important in soft ground.
2. Conversely, stakes will go into hard ground more easily if they have a smaller cross-section.
3. Stakes need to be strong enough to resist bending when being driven in (usually by being hit with a rock – apparently standing on them with a boot is a big no-no). This is achieved either by a thicker diameter solid circular cross section, stronger material or particular cross sections resistant to bending (X is probably better than Y which is probably better than V).

The lightest and simplest are simple straight bits of metal – “nail”  or “skewer” types.
The nail types generally have a larger section on the head (just like a nail!), which sometimes has a hole through it to attach a small piece of rope (presumably to help pull it out). Heads falling off (when being pulled out, or bashed in with rocks) seems to be a major issue with some of these. The lightest are generally ~6g each and are carbon with an aluminium tip, case and/or head.Skewer types are like what I have now, but usually thicker, and often with a more useful hook shape on the top.

The third type have a shaped cross-section (V, Y, X or some combination) generally made from bending (or joining) flat sections of metal. These are a little bit heavier but have more surface area.

Here is a list of stake options that I’ve compiled (in no way comprehensive)!!

My tent came with 14 stakes (14 grams) and while I still only used 13 to set it up the other day, I will take a full 14 stakes. I’m thinking of getting a composite set, with 7 Nail type and 7 Y/V type. This way I can use the most appropriate stake for the ground conditions (hard = nail, soft = Y/V) for the key staking points, and the sub-optimal stakes for the other points. It also saves weight (as you can see, the Y/V types, which I want to get for soft ground conditions, are ~twice as heavy as the nail type stakes).

I’ve read a lot of reviews and a few key things seem to be repeated over and over again:
1. MSR Groundhogs get a really good rap. Most people seem to love them.
2. There have been problems with the Easton heads coming off, although this may have been rectified in design change.

Based on this, I’m focussing on the MSR Groundhog, MSR Mini Groundhog or Terra Nova Ultralight Ti V for my Y/V stake. Questions for you: Is it worth getting the full Groundhog, or will the mini hold well enough? It is 1.5″ of extra length and presumably bigger diameter, but also 60% more weight. The minis also have a slight twist to the cross section so might hold better. There is some concern with the strength of the mini (heads breaking off while being bashed in, due to narrow cross section below the head – check out this review: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=59460&skip_to_post=708723). The Terra Nova V was recommended by the person I bought the tent from but I’m concerned about the possibility of bending the pegs with such a simple V design (and cut out sections). Which should I get?

MSR Groundhog (left), REI Tri Stake (middle), MSR Mini Groundhog (right). I’ve ‘borrowed’ this off a post in backpackinglight forum – see link above)

Terra Nova Superlite Ti V pegs

My choices for my Nail are the Ruta Locura (6″ or 9″) or the MSR Carbon Core 6″. The Ruta Locura stakes are light and well priced. They are wider than the MSR Carbon Core (which will give better hold, but may also be harder to get in to rocky ground). The head is smaller so it looks like it would be easy for the guy line to slip off. There is also no hole in the head to string a rope through (for pulling out). That said, the one review I’ve found has not had any problems with them. They are also made by a small US company, so I’m not sure what the shipping price will end up being to Australia. The MSR Carbon Cores are VERY expensive!! Also, they look like they have a plastic head, which may not stand up too well to being bashed around, and they’ve had some of the same problems as the Easton’s with heads coming off.

Ruta Locura Sorex 6″ vs MSR Carbon Core. (I have ‘borrowed’ this picture off an amazing blog I’ve found recently: http://sticksblog.com)

So, my questions for you are:
1. Does my “7 of each type” plan sound good?
2. Which V/Y stake should I get?
3. Assuming I can get the Ruta Locura stake, which length should I get? Am I even going to be able to drive the stake 9″ into the ground in hard ground, in which case 6″ will probably be enough hold anyway? In soft ground, will the extra 3″ of ‘hold’ be worth it?

Here are several buying options I’ve come up with. After rereading the concerns about strength of MSR Groundhog minis, I’m thinking Option 4 might be the best. What do you think?