Bulin BL3000-F2 Lightweight Portable Lantern Review

This is a review of the Bulin BL3000-F2 lightweight portable lantern. In the box is the lantern with a removable 18” hanging chain, an adapter for butane canister to lindal valve (camp gas canister), three mantles, and a small plastic storage box. It’s a great little lantern with a metal globe that won’t break like the more common glass globes. It weighs 149g with the chain, which seemed a bit heavy (17g), so I removed it. The lantern itself weighs 132g. It fits commonly available hiking fuel canisters and also came with an adapter to fit the tall butane cooking canisters. It has a reliable piezoelectric igniter that usually works on the 1st click. This lantern will NOT burn without a mantle! On high (not its brightest setting...at high flame levels the brightness drops), it appears to burn just under ~2g of fuel per minute, which should give 2hrs run time on a 230g canister (worst case). At max brightness it burns ~3g of fuel in 4 minutes (~5 hrs run time). It can be turned way down and should last far longer (at least triple the time) at lower output levels. I also tried using it as a backup stove to heat water. Although it works, it is very slow (6+min for an open Ti cup). It's a little heavy to be lugging around for any distance (a headlamp serves much better) but fun for short hikes. I went back and used the Olicamp XTS pot and the boil times for a cup of water were 10min (~3g fuel) on low and 4:30 (~4g) fuel on high with butane. If you are using it, and you want hot water, might as well not waste the heat.  :)

Watch my other hiking videos and gear reviews:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

BRS-3000T Titanium Ultralight Stove Review

Quick description, review, and demo of the BRS 3000t titanium hiking stove. At 25g, it's one of the lightest canister stoves available and it works very well. One thing to note, is that the diameter of the support arms is only 75mm or about 3". This poses a particular problem for heat exchanger pots like the OilCamp XTS. The ring opening on the bottom is just bearly small enough to balance on the stove...yes, it works, but bearly, so be careful. Any flat bottomed cookware works just fine, including very small titanium mugs like the Toaks 450ml Cup. It's as efficient as any of these stoves, requiring only 5g of fuel or so to get a 2 cup boil.

Turner's Gap to Rocky Run Shelter

Video of a very quick section hike in and around Turner’s Gap from Dahlgren Backpackers Campground to Rocky Run Shelter and up and back from the Washington Monument parking lot, about 8.1 miles. Overnight was at the Dahlgren Backpackers Campground. Very nice, with well water at the restroom that has heated showers and there is also a winter/frost free spigot just up the service road. We ate at the Old South Mountain Inn in Boonsboro. Excellent Sunday morning brunch!  http://oldsouthmountaininn.com/ The owls were wicked noisy that night and there were lots of creepy night noises. Beware of the Yeti!
Watch my other hiking videos:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Appalachian Trail - Harpers Ferry to Ed Garvey Shelter

Video of my hike from Harpers Ferry up the Appalachian Trail to Ed Garvey Shelter. Overnight parking was easy at the main visitors center for Harpers Ferry and they have a free bus that takes you downtown.
Nice overnight hike. Beware, water at the shelter is almost a half mile down hill. There were stink bugs infesting the shelter, stinky little buggers they are. Also, be on the lookout for the Yeti. 

Watch my other hiking videos:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Grayson Highlands and Mount Rogers Hike

Weekend hike from Massie Gap in Grayson Highlands State Park to Mount Rogers. It was rainy and very soggy on the hike up on the 1st day. Things cleared out great for the second day and the views were spectacular. We hiked mostly on the Appalachian trail and stayed overnight in a tent next to the Thomas Knob shelter. The shelter was very crowded, 9 upstairs and 7 downstairs. There were plenty of ponies to gaze at along the trails. :) Here is a link to our photos and a video of the ponies.  I'll post the other hiking videos after I compile them.
https://picasaweb.google.com/108363005112758521525/GraysonHighlandsMountRogersHike

Visit to the Pine Knob shelter

Did a little trail wandering this afternoon and stopped by the Pine Knob shelter.  It's a nice little shelter with a well labeled spring out off the side. There are many campsites nearby and the area appears heavily used. We'll keep this in mind for when we hike the Maryland section of the Appalachian Trail in its entirety. :)

Mount Washington Lakes of the Clouds Hike

We had a perfect weather window for this trip, with 8AM temps in the 50s at the Ammonoosuc trail head and highs in the mid 60s at altitude. The Ammonoosuc started off pleasant enough and was a very enjoyable hike to Gem Pool around the 2 mile mark. We bagged a neat geocache at the pool and ate a quick snack there. The last mile to the hut was very challenging for us, having not hiked in a long time with only a few warm up hikes in VA and MD over the last month. Lots of steep rock scrambles, a ladder, and many many many tall rocks up to the summit. The views are spectacular all the way up this trail. We stayed overnight at the Lakes of the Clouds Hut, which was its own unique and enjoyable experience. I soaked my tired feet in the ice cold lakes which brought welcome relief. After a hearty dinner of stuffed shells, fresh salad, pumpkin bisque and brownies, a good night's sleep, and great breakfast, we started out again for the summit. We took the Crawford path to the summit which was far easier than the Ammonoosuc, but a little steep at the summit, which drove a poor decision we'll visit later. 
We ate hot dogs and clam chowder in the summit facility (warning, they only take cash). We photographed the Cog trains, and bagged a webcam geocache. We decided to leave a little early, right around noon, to make the descent and make sure we'd be back for dinner at the Hut at 6. We decided to take the Tuckerman Ravine trail down to the Tuckerman Junction and across the Tuckerman Crossover thinking it would be a little easier that the steepest of what we did on the way up. Huge mistake. The descent down Tuckerman is grueling and tedious, with gnarly rocks all the way to the junction. We worked at a snails pace all the way down. The Tuckerman Crossover, however, was extra nice. In the middle of nowhere, you could hear no man made noise....it was silent. The 3rd day we went down via Crawford, Westside, Gulfside, and Jewell trails. This path, despite what people say, is absolutely beautiful. A portion of it crosses under the Cog Railway, which was really neat. We were lucky and videoed a train as it went by in the fog. The top part of Jewel is pretty darn steep, but easier than Ammonoosuc would have been. The rest is also consistently steep and relentless, but eventually tapers off to nice dirt trail. All in all, an outstanding trip and accomplishment for us both. Be prepared, work up to it, and take your time. This is a challenging hike with huge rewards all along the way. Eventually I'll create a compilation video, for now, the raw Pics and vids on the links below:
https://goo.gl/photos/zWEqC8eJczDst2Zh9
https://goo.gl/photos/LH6tQwgJGXa4uFxy6
https://goo.gl/photos/QGgGH2A1riNvV6Qi9
https://goo.gl/photos/wKFK5snrFZomhjex5

This is the second video of our Mount Washington hike, showing the descent down from Lakes of the Clouds Hut. We took the Crawford, Westside, Gulfside, and Jewell Trails down to the Ammonoosuc trailhead parking.  

Video: Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail Hike up Mount Washington

Long tough hike to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut, Mount Washington Summit, and back down via the Jewel Trail.  This is from Days 1 and 2 on the mountain. 

Cog Railway New Hampshire Time Lapse

Fun timelapse video of the Cog Railway in New Hampshire I made during a hiking trip in September 2015.  I'm compiling videos and pictures from the actual hike and plan to post a video of that sometime soon.  :)