Gearpods
GearPods Backcountry
GearPods Tube
- A comprehensive first aid kit (GearPods® Health),
- An array of basic survival tools, and a self-contained cooking system (GearPods® Survival CS).
- MSRP: $99.95
By Anderson Bowman
When I first saw the GearPods website I was intrigued. The idea that basic outdoors gear could be prepackaged in a durable container and ordered online was one that appealed to me, but I was worried that the implementation might be lacking.
Once the GearPods Backcountry arrived I was happy to see that the whole concept of prepackaged outdoor gear was not just well presented, but very well thought out. While I am not a fan of attaching things to the exterior of my pack, the fact that the GearPods Backcountry kit came with a nylon GearPods Tube, made it a reasonable thing to reconsider.
The Tube is a nylon covering that has two end caps attached by quick-release buckles, a daisy chain for attaching to things, and an outside pocket. The Tube appears durable and well constructed, but I am still not sure just how I am going to use it.
The GearPods Backcountry kit was inside the GearPods Tube. After I pulled it out, I was delighted to see that it contained two separate portions that screwed together with an orange (threaded on the inside) connector collar.
The larger section contains the GearPods Survival CS kit and the smaller section holds the GearPods Health kit. One thing from the GearPods literature that caught my eye was the fact that the Backcountry kit is about the size of a sports bottle and would “fit anywhere a sports bottle fits.” I will have to borrow a Nalgene bottle to compare the sizes, but from a first glance it seems to be true.
After discovering that I could separate and reconnect the two sections of the Backcountry kit with little or no difficulty, the next step was to open them up and see just what was inside of each of them.
GearPods Health
This unit contained what I consider to be trial sized packages of a whole ton of first aide items. They are nicely stored inside an orange sil-nylon stuff sack;
- Ibuprofen x 2 packages
- Tylenol x 2 packages
- Burn Cream
- Cleansing Wipes x 2
- Insect Protection/Repellent
- Sunscreen
- Insect Sting Relief
- Poison Oak Treatment
- After Sun Care
- Lip Ointment
- Hydrocortisone
- Iodine Wipes x 2
- Antibiotic Ointment
- Moleskin
- Cotton Swabs x 2
- Medical Tape (0.5”x2.5yds)
- Tweezers
- Alcohol Prep Pads x 2
- Butterfly Closures x 2
- Knuckle Band Aid
- Small Bandages x 3
- Large Bandages x 3
- Gauze Pads x3
GearPods Survival CS
This kit was all stored inside the CookMug, which I found rather amazing;
- GearPods® CookMug
- GearPods® Hexagon Stove
- Solid fuel tablets (2)
- Emergency whistle
- signaling mirror
- 20mm button compass
- Fire tinder
- Waterproof/Windproof NATO storm matches (10) and strike
- Firesteel
- Candle
- Water purification tablets (6)
- Water poly bag and tie
- Galvanized steel wire
- Nylon braided cord
- Peel-back duct tape
- Keychain flashlight
- folding knife with
- folding saw
- Waterproof paper (2) and pencil
- fishing kit
- Basic repair kit
Wow, that sure is a lot of stuff to be crammed into something the size of a Nalgene water bottle. Over the next three months I will find new and interesting ways to carry this in my pack, lumbar pack, and on any outdoor trips I take.
Attack of the GearPods
December 14, 2009
By Anderson Bowman
It is a good thing that I have a month left to work with this item because the GearPod Backcountry is a case of a ton of stuff packed into a small package. I am going to focus mainly on the GearPods Survival CS portion of the Backcountry in this report and save the rest for my final installment.
The first thing I did before throwing the GearPods Backcountry into the lumbar pack that I have been using was to pull the Survival CS tube apart and go through the contents again. The two sil-nylon stuff sacks inside the tube were full of stuff. The orange bag contained the survival gear and the brown/black sack contained the stove portion. Both of these small sacks stuffed inside the metal GearPods cup and the cup slide snugly into the GearPods tube.
The cup measures about 5 1/2 in high by 2 1/2 in diameter and has a snap on plastic ‘sippy’ lid. This ‘sippy’ lid looks like a lid I have on several travel mugs and seems to be an integral part of helping me keep my drink from sloshing out of the cup and probably helps keep the drink warm as well.
The cup holds about 16 oz of liquid and has what appears to be a neoprene GearPods ring around its open end. I was confused about this ring till I heated water in the cup using the stove in the Survival CS portion of the kit and realize that the neoprene ring enabled me to pick the metal cup up without burning my fingers.
The GearPods Hex stove was fairly easy to assemble once I got it out of the stuff sack I stuck the arms on (used to stabilize the stove), put the upper ring on it, and then put the cup onboard to see how it all held together. It was probably about two minutes worth of work to get the stove put together and the cup in place with no tools needed.
One tab seemed pretty large and I had ordered some more (I cannot test something I cannot burn it to my heart’s content) so I decided to light one up as a test, just so I knew what to expect.
The single fuel tab burned for about 12 minutes and did not bring nearly a full cup (12 oz) of water to a boil, but it got it hot enough to make warm drinks with.
There was some residue left after I was done with using the stove, but I cleaned it as well as I could and stored everything back in its stuff sack. The stove and the bottom of the cup were a bit sticky from this residue, but I used my knife to scrape most of it off the cup and left the stove as it was. No need to clean something I am just going to get dirty again and again.
Next up was ripping the orange stuff sack open again so I could inventory the contents one more time and see if there were things I wanted to add or take out.
Other than the fishing gear (line, hooks, sinkers) I kept everything else intact. I do a lot of fishing, so having this in my pack was probably not going to be a priority. The orange stuff sack was all full of things that I normally carry in my first aid kit or my hygiene kit. There were no huge surprises, but I can say that I doubt I could have come up with a more complete kit in such a small package without a lot of trial and error.
I have carried the entire GearPods Backcountry kit with me on several excursions over the last month. It has been fishing, day hiking, and bird watching all over my part of Southeast Texas. It has served as a backup to what I consider my front-line gear, but as I have grown more and more comfortable with it, I have begun to toss it in the water bottle pocket of my lumbar pack and left the redundant supplies at home.
I think that one of the biggest strengths of the GearPod system is the completeness of the Backcountry kit. If I am headed out for a day or two or just a few hours, I can grab the Backcountry tube, stuff in a pocket and not worry about double checking if I have everything. As long as I keep the Backcountry stocked it is a no brainer to take it for use rather than just carrying it as a backup. The key here is to make sure to restock it after a trip so that it is ready to ‘grab and go’ the next time I need it.
On one occasion I had to use the GearPods Hex stove to heat water for coffee because the fuel bottle for my alcohol stove had fallen out in the car and I did not realize it till I was all settled in for a morning of bird watching. I was surprised and upset till I realized that the plastic tube in the side pocket of my pack had everything I needed to get my coffee fix. I am not sure I would use the Hex stove as my main cooking stove (I hate the stink), but having it as a light weight backup for emergencies or water heating is more than fine on shorter trips.
As much as I liked the GearPod concept I was very worried that was not going to be a useful item. After my first month or so of use, I can gladly say that I will not leave my house for one of my short trips without it. I cannot beat the grab and go peace of mind it gives me to know that a large portion of my ‘kit’ is stuffed in a plastic tube. If I have the GearPods tube, then I have a huge part of what I need. There is no need to dig through three or so plastic bags to find just what I want when I know my little items are going to be in the orange or black stuff sack in the GearPods tube.
Before I sign off on this installment of my report, I do want to say that being organized is difficult for me. Organization in one thing that the GearPods Backcountry has brought to my lumbar pack as well as giving me more space in the pack for other gear.
So please stay tuned and come on back in a month or so to see what happens. If you cannot wait for me to report, join me over at the Forums for questions about the GearPods.
Making Peace with the GearPod Mindset
February 4, 2010
by Anderson Bowman
I spent the second installment of my review covering the GearPods Survival CS portion of the GearPods Backcountry and fully intended to use this space to hit on the GearPods Health portion, but I have decided to take a different approach.
Let me start with the GearPods Health kit. It is a nice, functional, and fully loaded first aid kit. Just enough supplies for a short trip or two packed nicely in a stuff sack and kept safe by the GearPods container. Please do not think I am shorting the GearPods Health kit, but the part about “just enough supplies for a short trip or two” is what got me thinking about what I really wanted to cover here.
I guess the big question for me over the last month has been; where does the GearPod fit into my gear mindset? The entire Backcountry kit has been travelling with me into the outdoors over the past the three months and there were several days when I questioned why I brought it with me. A lot of the parts of this kit are basically backups for items I already carried and carrying backups on short trips does not make too much sense to me.
Which brings me back to, where does the GearPods experience fit in? Well folks, I have finally figured it out, at least from my point of view and it took some changing to get there. Some people might even call it personal growth, but no matter what I am happy to say that I have made peace with GearPods.
The first rule of GearPods in my book is; RESUPPLY. As soon as I hit the house from a trip, I learned very quickly to restock or resupply any portion of the BackCountry kit that I had used on that trip. Anything from solid fuel tablets to aspirin had to be put back as soon as I got home. Then the kit could be put away intact and ready to roll the next I needed it. Failure to do this hampered what I consider one of the biggest and most important parts of the GearPods experience for me; compact and completeness. What I see as a huge selling point for all the GearPods kits is that I know what is in it. If it is refilled and ready to grab, that is all I have to do on the way out the door. No digging for gear, no trying to figure out what I need or where it is at. Just grab the GearPods and go.
This leads me to the second rule of GearPods for me, which is; GearPods is complete. It is not a backup; it is the first use gear for today. In other words, if I carry a GearPods kit, it needs to be what I plan to use. Again, having the complete kit restocked and ready to go makes it easy. Grabbing the BackCountry kit allows me to know that I have my cooking gear and my first aid kit with me. Notice how I keep coming back to the resupply part? I learn lessons the hard way and it took a couple of tries to get this one down. Realizing that everything I am going to need is stored in a nice plastic tube kind of goes counter to what I always believed in. If I did not spend time hunting down my stove, my cup, my spoon, my fuel, and a dozen other minor items, a trip was never complete. Utilizing a GearPods system fully means that this minor item hunting or worrying that I forgot that one tiny thing is over. Keep it stocked and then grab it and go.
While I have only tested the GearPods Backcountry kit, I can imagine how useful the other kits when it comes to mixing and matching them to suite a particular trip or need. In other words, the modular approach of the GearPods system makes a hell of a lot of sense once I really sat down and thought about it. There are those who would probably debate the weight to usefulness ratio of this modular approach, but I do know that I tend to carry more weight than is necessary on short trips and in the long run, the GearPods actually helped me cut out clutter and weight, something that is very important when using a daypack or lumbar pack.
So let me close this out by saying that I am sold on the GearPods approach to preparation. Not only do I appreciate it when a spur of the moment afternoon or overnight trip pops up, but there is a part of me that has decided that there has to be the perfect GearPod system to carry in my cars. There is no reason not to be prepped for anything, especially when it comes packaged so neatly and convientantly and can be tossed under a seat or in the trunk for an emergency.
Needless, I will be keeping my eyes on the GearPods website to see just what they come up with. This company has a great idea and they seem to adding stuff all the time to ensure that there is a GearPod experience for ever task or person.