Saddles - I'm using a Malibaud Randonee saddle which has been fantastic. I'm using it in combination with one of Len Brown's Corrector saddle pads and Dakota has had no sign whatsoever of sores.
My Pack saddle is a steel adjustable version from Custom Pack Rigging out of B.C. Also using with a corrector pad. It has also been very good. Pack saddles are trickier I think than riding saddles because of having to deal with dead weight shifting around all day long. Still, no sores on Na'anni. There is a little bit of hair that gets kind of matted towards the rear. A little movement I suppose is causing that. It's not wearing the hair out though and no tenderness. So far so good.
In terms of cinches, on my Malibaud saddle I'm using a mohair cinch; I think 27 strand making a double layer if that makes sense. Excellent. It may have been once of those roller buckle cinches. I always take off the roller and the buckle tongue. I tie my cinches on both sides. No off billet.
On my pack saddle I have a neoprene cinch up front and a mohair string one at the back. The back cinch is tied further back on the belly than a usual sawbuck setup. It's what Stan Walchuk calls the northern method. It is working well for me.
My packboxes are also from Custom Pack Rigging. They are fantastic and pretty much indestructible. I wish they were a little lighter but you can't have both. Good to use to sit on and as a table and I often use them for a wind break when I'm cooking.
I have a duffel bag that I made from Nylon reinforced vinyl for my bed roll and clothes. That is my top pack which I tie across the boxes.
Gadgetry
I do have some gadgets of course. One of which, an iphone, I am writing this blog with. It has been great. I can update my website, write blogs, check the weather and talk with missed loved ones on Skype! Unfortunately, when I unlocked it when I was in Thailand last winter, I screwed up the gps and it is no longer accurate. That could have been useful for sure but I'm a good map reader and it is the prairies after all. How does the quote go that Ruth told me? ... ' Saskatchewan ... where you can watch your dog run away for 2 days'.
I have an apple bluetooth keyboard which is much nicer for lots of writing than using the iphone built in keyboard.
I have a solar panel to keep things charged. It works, takes time and sun and I make sure that I never go below 50% on the phone in case of emergencies.
If you are traveling in Saskatchewan, I highly recommend using Sasktel or a service that can access it. (Rogers doesn't) Given what the population and vastness of space that exists here, I am impressed with the coverage. It's not everywhere mind, but impressive non the less.
I ended up buying an Amazon Kindle with a cover that has a built in light. I am happy to have this thing. I have a number of different kinds of books and reference pdfs on it, the charge lasts a long time, it's easy on the eyes for reading.
That's about it for the gadgets. I wonder at times if having non of it would change my experience. It would most certainly. Would it be deeper. Maybe maybe. I don't know. I don't use the gadgets too much with power being a limiting factor so that helps with the addiction factor of the technology. Still it's there, always a personal contradiction and conundrum for me. Well, last night I made dinner, had some wine, cleaned up and then climbed the big stack of straw bales at the Mankota stockyards to get cel reception and watched the show Weeds.
wa'dayagonna'do??
Cook stove
I have this little wood burning stove called a littlebug. It is fantastic. It folds up small is very light and burn pieces of wood the size of your finger. For me it has been perfect. If i had a gas stove, I would have run out ages ago. Most stores I come across in the small towns wouldn't have anything to run it with.
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