Riverbanks Adventure Forum

Buyer Beware: This “Waterproof” backpack is actually only Water Resistant.

// May 17th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Backpacking, Canoeing, Creative gear, Hiking, Kayaking, Product Reviews

Waterproof Backpack

Overboard Accessories LTD is a company from the UK and came up with their own patented Waterproof Store Rating System (WSRS). Then they proceeded to rate this backpack a WSRS Class 3 which means:

Waterproof so tight that it can handle quick submersions. The product could be permeated by water in any of the following applications: Prolonged Submersions, submersions greater than 3 feet of depth, or high water pressure applications.

By Our American Standards this product would be considered Water Resistant at best. It would get you through a short rain shower and an accidental dunk from tipping a Canoe or Kayak at best.

I paddled the Waccasassa River for 7 hours today and had stowed the Overboard Waterproof backpack in the back of my sit-on-top kayak. After riding countless wakes left by weekend boaters and my own little splashes from routine paddling, the waterproof pack ended up sitting in about 2 inches of water for several hours. The outside of the pack, of course was wet with splashes of water from paddling. After I removed the pack from the kayak, I opened the roll top to find that the contents on top were dry. My hiking boots and socks, which I had put in an oversized zip-lock bag for testing purposes, were damp but the papertowels I had inserted at the bottom of the pack were soaked.  However, there were not puddles of water sitting at the bottom of the pack.  Bottom line the items at the bottom where the pack was sitting in water for a prolonged period of time will absorb some moisture/water.
This pack comes with a roll down top typical of waterproof bags and clips to the side. The pack also has padded shoulder straps to allow for this pack to be worn comfortably as a daypack for hiking. There are support straps that reach around the waist and chest for extra comfort and support for toting those heavier loads. A nice idea and I will be sure to make good use of this item during the rainy season here in Florida. There are plenty of small coastal islands I plan on paddling to explore. This pack will allow me to paddle and hike without carrying extra equipment. Just remember you may need to still give those perishable items a little extra protection (ie in a smaller dry bag or ziplock)

This pack is manufactured by Overboard Accessories LTD, from the UK. You can purchase this item online at the WaterproofCases.net in Jacksonville, Florida.

About the Author: Barbara is the owner of  an on-line store Riverbanks  Outdoor Store  for several years and has frequently engaged in outdoor sports for years including camping, mountain biking, whitewater rating, kayaking, snorkeling, and hiking. Barbara also hosts a blog Riverbanks Adventure Forum  that focuses on product reviews and adventure vacations.  You can also follow Riverbanks Outdoor Store on twitter, flickr, youtube, and facebook

Garmin Touchscreen GPS have Spring Time $50 Rebate!

// April 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // ATV, Adventures, Backpacking, GPS, Garmin, Geocaching, Hand held GPS, Hiking, Mountain Biking

Garmin Dakoto 10 Bike and Hike GPS

Get ready for the summer! If you are looking for a GPS or need to upgrade your old model, Garmin is offering a $50 REBATE on most of its newer touchscreen models.

Oregon touchscreen Series – Now has improved the 400 series with the new Oregon 450 and 450t featuring a larger touchscreen with enhanced clarity and an improved Hotfix satellite prediction to help you find your location more quickly and accurately while still maintaining the sensitivity to keep a signal in canyons and dense cover.  It also features a new highspeed USB for faster mapping download.  Of course the fully loaded 550 already had the large screen with 3.2 MP camera and geotagging and is still a favorite.  Click on the links below for more information on these HOT products!

• Garmin Oregon 450 GPS
• Garmin Oregon 450t GPS
• Garmin Oregon 550 GPS
• Garmin Oregon 550t GPS

Dakota Series - The Dakota is a more affordable basic GPS with the advantages of the touchscreen.  These are  rugged, palm-sized navigators with touchscreen navigation, high-sensitivity GPS with HotFix satellite prediction, and a worldwide basemap in one affordable, power-packed punch.  For more information about each product, click on the link below.

• Garmin Dakota 10 GPS
• Garmin Dakota 10 Hike and Bike Bundle
• Garmin Dakota 20 GPS

Click here for the Garmin rebate form

Seminole State Forest – My First Black Bear Sighting! – Trailwalker Week 6

// January 29th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Adventures, Backpacking, Camping, Florida, Florida Trailwalker, Hiking

Florida trail near dusk by Riverbanksoutdoorstore

I needed one more hike and one more forest to earn my Trailwalker Badge.  I decided to travel to Lake County and hike the 10 mile Wekiva Loop in the Seminole State Forest.  I knew nothing about this hike except that it was partially along the Wekiva River and having paddled the Wekiva a few years ago, I was hoping it was just as scenic. The hike starts at the Bear Pond Trailhead which is the South entrance into this forest. The trail follows the scenic Florida Trail the trail through a young pine scrub that was exploding with purple blooms of deer tongue and other late summer wildflowers. As the trail then leads you into the Wekiva River floodplain, the cooler air from the spring run along with the new flora was a refreshing change.  I slowed my pace taking in the flora to allow more time to hide in the shade.  The trail then leads you back out into the Sand Pine Scrub and into the Sun.  Eventually I came upon a small section of Oak Scrub and that was where I saw the Florida Black Bear!  I was awestruck as I watched him for several moments while he gathered food from the Oak Tree in which he was sitting. He spotted me as I was taking his photo. He gingerly climbed down and disappeared into the thicket of Saw Palmetto.  I was elated as I could not help to think “How special of a day to see my first Black Bear on my final hike to earn my Trailwalker badge!”  I pick up my pace with my renewed energy.

Florida Black Bear gathering food

From here the trail takes you back into the Blackwater Creek floodplain. It follows a forest road that looks more like an Old Tram trail for logging.  I pause for a moment to imagine the giant cypress forest before our ancestors logged them away for profit. In the middle of this Tram Road is where I spotted the rare Celestial Lily’s in their afternoon open bloom. I am intrigued by this delicate flower that is scattered about and only has a single flower per stem.  Again I am reminded that this hike and this day are indeed special.

Rare Celestial Lily

I continue along over a  foot bridge into a forest full of tall pines and Cabbage Palms that are stretching to grow just as tall. Some sightings of resurrection fern, wild pine, and other epiphytes can be spotted. Once you leave the Blackwater Creek area, the trail is back out into the Sand Pine Scrub that is also a shared use trail for horses. After a mile and a half of this scenic scrub, the Trail joins the Florida Trail that you can take south to loop back to the Trailhead. If you have had enough adventure for the day, you can also follow the forest road south and save yourself some steps.

I chose to take the Florida Trail route back south to finish the loop.  This shorter fall days caught me by surprise as I had started to run out of daylight with 1.5 miles to finish.  I finished the last mile by moonlight. Had I not experienced the Moonlight hike at Goldhead State Park four weeks prior, I would not have remained near as calm as I made my way back to Bear Pond trailhead. But watching the sun set from the Florida Trail was a truly satisfying way to end a long day hike.

Longtailed Skipper hovering over Deer Tongue Wildflower

My two hour drive home just flew by as I reminisced about the hike I had today and my of the other nine Trailwalker Hikes  before.  For a moment, I smiled and proudly thought “I am officially a Trailwalker and what a wonderful journey it was!”

For more photos see Seminole State Forest on Flickr

Other related Trailwalker posts: Goethe (Week 1), Lake McKethan (week 2), Holly Hammock (week 2), Johnsons Pond (week 3), Oxbow Nature Trail (week 3), Etoniah State Forest (wk 3),  Buck Island Pond (wk 4)

Battle of the GPS: Magellan Triton 2000, Garmin 550T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bushnell Onix 400 & Delorme PN40

// May 18th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Adventures, Backpacking, Busnell, GPS, Garmin, Geocaching, Hand held GPS, Hiking, Lowrance, Magellan

Shopping for GPS?  Confused on which model to get.  We have the heaviest hitters on the GPS market here in a head to head shootout!

Magellan Triton 2000

Magellan Triton 2000- Needs to be commended for being the first to offer all of the whistles and bells!  The first to offer the full color touch screen with 2MP camera/picture viewer, MP3 Player, voice recorder, led flashlight, 3-axis electronic compass, barometer and more!  It also has an SD card expansion for storage of waypoints, routes, photos, geocaches, sounds, and songs.  Comes with built-in base maps with preprogrammed points of interest of the 48 states and world wide boundaries.  Magellan is now offering FREE download TOPO maps in order to keep up with the competition. The SD slot allows for downloads of more detailed maps such as National Geographic, topo maps, and marine cartography. It also has options for an external antennae and an audio jack to listen to your songs.  It’s WAAS capability offers 3 ft accuracy and is great for geocaching! MAP Price $499

Garmin Oregon 550t GPS

Garmin Oregon 550t -  The Garmin answer to the multi-gadget GPS proves to the the heaviest hitter yet!  Improving on the already top dog Garmin Oregon 400t, the 550t full color touchscreen boast a 3.2 MP camera/picture viewer with 4x digital zoom and automatic geotagging of each photo. This will always lead you back to the exact spot of the photo. Photos can be stored online at www.Garmin.com and uploaded with Picasa.  With 850 MB of internal storage and a micros SD card expansion slot, you will never need to miss a photo opportunity. For navigation it comes with detailed preloaded topo maps of the 48 states and worldwide basemap, 3 axis digital compass for 3-D views, barometric altimeter, and high sensitivity WAAS capability for those hard to reach places.  It also capacity for up to 5000 geocache locations and 2000 waypoints which can be shared wirelessly with friends that have either the Colorado or Oregon series GPS. All this comes protected in a IPX7 waterproof rated rugged casing. MAP $599 (not available until July ’09)

Bushnell Onix 400 GPS

Bushnell Onix 400  - For those who travel in weather sensitive areas. This GPS is the first of its kind!  It boasts satellite imagery, XM satellite radio and XM Weather Navigator.  With a subscription to XM Satellite Weather, you get real time weather information and updates. Great feature for those whole like to travel in areas where the weather is highly volatile..ie Mt McKinley.  Its layering ability allows you to download a satellite photo and layer topo map, compass, navigational aids and XM services on a single screen with a feature called  TruView NavigationLayer.  NEXRAD weather data down-linked from XM NavWeather can also be layered over a georeferenced satellite map of your location.  This can help you pinpoint those nasty storms or areas of high winds.  The subscription to XM NavWeather also allows access to over 170 channels of XM satellite featuring radio news, sports, talk, entertainment and music.  Built with rugged rubberized armor offers IPX7 waterproof protection. It also has a high gain SIRF GPS receiver, digital compass, and embedded 128 Micro SD Card.  MAP Price $499

Lowrance Endura Sierra GPS

Lowrance Endura Sierra - This is the Lowrance answer to the Garmin 400t with full color touchscreen and built in detailed topo maps, MP3 Player/voice record, picture viewer, 3 axis digital compass, and barometric altimeter.   The topo maps are detailed with hill shade, topo graphic contours, trails and points of interests.   Its has 4 GB built in memory and 32 GB Micro SD card slot allows the flexibility to directly accept GPX trails and geocaches, as well as POIs from web communities or other sources.  Speaker, headphone jack, and microphone all built into waterproof IXP7 rated casing.  It is also capable of turn-by-turn directions with optional purchase.  MAP price $499 (available in July ’09)

Delorme PN 40 GPS

Delorme PN 40-  If satellite imagery is your preference this unit is blazingly fast with high-sensitivity 32-channel STMicroelectronics Cartesio chipset. It boasts a NEW Dual-core processor for instantaneous map and satellite imagery redraws.  This allows are downloading large aerial images files and works well on maps with multiple layers.  This unit supports SDHC high-capacity SD cards (up to 32 GB) for fast and direct map transfer from the included maps discs.
Its 3-axis digital compass along with a 360 deg raster rotation allows you to view roads, buildings, trees, rocks etc as you rotate around or drive, bike, or hike down the path. It also comes with barometric altimeter, 1 GB internal memory that hold up to 100o way-points. Boasting itself and a pure hybrid, the unit comes with software with both detailed topo and Street maps and has access to up-to-date USPS Quad maps, NOAA Nautical Charts, and high resolution aerial  imagery for yearly subscription of only $29.95.  This rugged little unit it also waterproof IPX7 rated and is a lot of bang for its buck!  MAP $399