Roughing it – with LED lantern and fan

It has probably been close to 20 years since I last went camping, and while many elements of camping haven’t changed that much (and I use the term “elements” loosely), much has changed in the world of outdoor adventure.

Let’s start with the staple of outdoor shelter – a tent.

My first tent was a canvas model that was sun-bleached, moth-eaten and smelled like a flooded basement. The poles – a collection of cylindrical tubes that “got the job done” – were held together with baling wire and twine. It was a real scene. It served as a primitive shelter at best; nothing more than a wind block, so long as the wind speed didn’t get above 5 mph.

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Tents today are nothing like that bag of rags I would pitch on the back 40. They are lighter, stronger and more versatile than ever. My new six-person canopy sets up in about 30 seconds, takes up less space than my gym bag and stands up to 50-mph gusts of wind. In addition to all that, my daughter thinks it’s cool.

One of the coolest advanced tents on the market today has got to be the Hemiplanet Wedge (heimplanet.com). It’s a two-person tent that packs away into a 9-by-8-inch roll slightly more than a foot long and tips the scale at slightly more than seven pounds. It also can withstand gusts of wind up to 110 mph. None of that is too out of the ordinary for a high-end tent. But what makes the Wedge so unique is that it doesn’t use rigid poles for its structural support; it uses inflatable channels to give it structure instead.

Certain death for a tent (and its occupants, for that matter) is the introduction of heat. For some reason, polyester and nylon don’t really mix well with open flame. I’ve seen my share of tents and sleeping bags dissolve before my eyes in a trail of black smoke and napalm-ish like pain for those standing too close.

The problem is either caused by the tent being too close to a fire that is too big or by someone stumbling into the tent after too many campfire brewskis while holding a camping lantern, which is nothing more than a well-constructed Molotov cocktail.

LEDs are providing a fantastic alternative over liquid-fuel lanterns. Zippo – the guys who make those super heavy-duty cigarette lighters – introduced their Rugged LED Lantern earlier this year. There are a lot of LED lanterns on the market, so what makes this one special? It’s built like its older, albeit smaller brothers. Most of the LED lanterns on the market are made of plastic, but not the Zippo. It’s built of stainless steel and uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. It even floats in water! With an output of 22 lumens, the Rugged will keep your tent and its occupants illuminated and safe.

I’ll be honest with you: one of the reasons I wanted to start camping again was to disconnect from the trappings of my everyday life – email, text messages, Twitter posts to read, Twitter posts to make, Facebook and all that goes with that. Sometimes I just want a break from it.

It’s too bad that smartphones are so danged smart. If they weren’t equipped with a myriad of apps to assist the modern outdoorsman, such as compasses, mapping software, Angry Birds, cameras and first-aid guides, they would almost be worthless. You ain’t using the talkie-talkie functionality when you are up in the hills; you’d never get any reception. Unfortunately, the shortened battery life on most smartphones does render them useless.

Or does it?

Enter the FlameStower (www.flamestower.com), a small device that uses heat – from a campfire or cooking stove in our scenario – to create electricity. The juice created can be used to charge USB-powered devices such as cell phones or GPS units. It weighs less than a pound and puts out about 5 volts. You aren’t going to power your television and DVD player with it, but it can get your phone’s battery back in the action.

As I write this installment of the Geek Chic from my tent, in my backyard, on my laptop, charged by a small array of solar cells, as I listen to Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, sitting in my zero-gravity chair, as a cool breeze from my battery-operated fan blows gently through my hair, I can’t help but relish the simple things in life that can only truly be appreciated when we step away from the trappings of this life and return to nature and fully embrace it.

Until next time: Cogito. Lego. Diligo.

Michael D. Wailes is an interactive developer at Burns Marketing and Communications in Johnstown. If you have questions or would like to suggest a topic for a future Geek Chic column, email him at news@ncbr.com.