TOY BOX ‹
Circuit DAYPACK The Circuit by Osprey Packs is a daypack you can feel good about. Its pack fabric is recycled PET, a cute acronym for a really big word meaning that you’re carrying 32 litres of stuff in a pack made primar- ily of ground up water and pop bottles. In the stylish Circuit that stuff can be a 17-inch laptop and a weekend’s worth of paperwork (which I usually try to ignore) hidden safely in a laptop sleeve and organized with file dividers, pen pockets and even an internal music pouch with headphone wire ports. Next year’s model, we hope, will have the much-needed, and surprisingly missing, compression and chest straps. Available in Redwood, Glacier, Panda and Rainforest colours.
www.ospreypacks.com Price: $110 Cdn, $99 US
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Buck/Whittaker X-TRACT LED MULTI-TOOL Remember that Scout leader, the guy you’d secretly mock for always wearing a knife on his belt? When the new Buck/Whittaker LED X- Tract landed on my desk with a belt case, not taking myself too seri- ously I threaded the tool to my hip… where it has been now for more than a month. This multi-tool has only the most useful tools: serious three-inch blade with serrated upper section; needle-nose pliers with wire cutters; bottle opener; #2 Phillips and slotted screwdrivers; and the brightest idea yet, a five-millimetre LED light. Thanks to moun- taineer and designer Peter Whittaker I can reach to my hip and snap and lock all tools into action with just one hand. Laugh at me all you want, kid. I can either fix your bike with it, or slash your tires.
www.buckknives.com Price: $69 Cdn, $50 US
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Sierra Designs BEDOUIN ANNEX 4 + 2 You know the joke, “You’re too tense… Yah, a wigwam and a teepee.” Ha ha. But here’s one tent, the Bedouin Annex 4+2 that really is two tents or maybe four. The four plus two means that it is a four-person, three-season tent with an attached screened room with room enough to sleep two guests—picture a giant vestibule, but mesh, sewn in, and with a floor. The rain fly covers the entire tent with excellent corner coverage and rolls up and back a number of different ways for maximum venting and versatility. I’m not sure I’d ever sleep six in the Annex. I’d rather use the extra room as a bug-free screened-in porch for reading or napping. Although officially a base or car camping tent, the Annex is packed with all the quality and features we’ve come to expect from Sierra Designs’ backcountry tents—also consider it for extended canoe or rafting trips where you can afford a little extra packing space for a lot of extra living space.
www.sierradesigns.com Price: $500 Cdn, $449 US
‹ Oregon Scientific WMR100 ADVANCED
WIRELESS WEATHER STATION Other than deciding what to do that day, nothing gets talked about more while family camping than the weather. With Oregon Scientific’s WMR100 Advanced Weather Station you can share with your neigh- bours six different weather measurements, captured on five sensors and sent wirelessly to your picnic table. The base station displays temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind, rainfall, dew point, wind chill and heat index data. The WMR100 graphs barometric pressure, UV index and rainfall data, and forecasts the weather 12 to 24 hours in advance. No more guessing at breakfast if you need a rainjacket or sunscreen. When the camping trip is over, set up the all- in-one sensor pole at home for year-round forecasting. [Shopping tip: Men and kids love the WMR100; moms think we’re big fat geeks.]
www.oregonscientific.com Price: $249 Cdn, $219 US
—S.M. 6 FAMILY CAMPING
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