Badlands Fieldcraft: SMEAC the Gear Queer

There was a book out about 20 years ago by a guy named Bill Bryson about his fat old guy bucket list hike on the Appalachian Trail. The Robert Redford movie was not a good likeness to the book. Anyway, Bryson spends a few pages talking about “gear people” and how they interject the subject at every opportunity. He wrote of one in particular who caught him in a bad mood and asked him why he chose to go with the Kelty backpack instead of the brand X. According to Bryson, his response was that he thought it would be better than carrying all of his belongings in his arms all the way to Maine. The Gear Head sulked off with that response. Comedy aside, the book has some good field tested opinions on things like ultralight stoves and rain gear. I guess he was something of a gear guy himself after all.