There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Over the years I have been able to put together a pretty dialed-in setup of gear for myself, for the two or three geographical regions that I tend to spend the most time in. The vast majority of the time that I can spend out on the trail has me doing so with a sub 2268 gram setup, with a trip here and there in the 6.5 pound range, considered by most big mileage long distance hikers to be the sweet spot, for when I just want a bit of extra comfort and/or am taking electronics for shooting videos for my pathetic youtube channel.
Below is one of my videos of a sub 2268 setup. While it is from 2016, for the most part, again, because most of the gear is dialed-in, as they say, is still pretty much the same. A few changes, but not many.
But what I really wanted to talk about was the issue of when you have such setups that are so specific that you find situations where they are no longer viable.
A prime example of that is right now. A hiking buddy and I have been wanting to go hiking for a couple of weeks, but we both have such specialized gear setups that we have discovered we have the wrong setups for the current weather conditions. Specifically the uncommonly cold weather we are having. You see, here in the Redwoods, of Northern California, we tend to have extremely stable weather - it is one of the reasons we both live here. It is usually low F50°'s to mid F60°'s, all day, and all night, for about 350 days of the year. Yet for the last, well, weeks, many night time temps have been down into the sub freezing. It is currently F28° outside, at 8am. This is just unheard of for the Redwoods where I live.
Now, this is not a post about climate change - believe whatever you want too on that - but rather the fact that, as a fairly experienced hiker, I (and my friend) have found ourselves housebound because we do not have the right gear for this type of weather.
Now, sure, we could both take extra layers of garments, and take two or three different quilts and layer them up, but when we have both talked about doing that, we have both been like "meh, nah".
Or maybe we are both just woosies. Probably lol.
So, I just thought I would share all of this as an example of when specialized setups have left me... wanting... wanting to get out, but has caused me not too. Got me thinking others out there that have similar specialized setups have found yourself in such predicaments, because of not having the right gear for the right conditions. If so, would love to have you share those situations/experiences!