Every year my mom mails me a birthday check, which I promptly squander on hiking gear. This way I get to pretend like I’m a smelly, unshaven (but way-cool) outdoors dude who’s so broke he still needs checks from home to avoid dumpster diving at the local REI. Well, the smelly, unshaven part stands.

A previous check went toward one of the last-ever Dana Design packs, a cross-country ski pack that has never seen snow but has carted my hiking kit all over the Bay Area. It’s built to withstand a nuclear blast, and I always look vaguely silly on the trail with all this pack on such nowhere-near-out-of-bounds terrain. So I decided to go smaller and lighter.

After an hour-and-a-half power-shopping session at Mel Cotton’s that would’ve impressed Imelda Marcos, I settled on a nice little number called the Gregory Icarus. Why they thought it’d be neat to name a pack after a mythical boy who plunges to his demise after flying too close to the sun is beyond me, but anyway, that’s what it looks like at right.

It’s quite light, made mostly of silicone-impregnated nylon, and very comfy. Has lots of pockets (though no hole for a hydration hose; not like you really need one but still). Here’s a review by a real live mountain-climber type who likes his fine (more of his exploits here.). It’s about 1500 cubic inches, has a waist belt with a handy ditty pocket, lots of straps and exterior water bottle pockets that are unreachable while you’re wearing it. Goes for $89 but I got it $20 off.

This is my second Gregory pack; I can’t speak for the rest of Gregory’s line but I’ve gotten great fit from mine.

The pack was the main thing, but I also needed some rain gear. I thought about using Mom’s check as a down payment for the latest EVent hard shell (this one by Integral Designs and this one from REI caught my eye) but it occurred to me that I almost never go out in the rain anyway, and all I really need is a nice poncho with eyelets sewn in so it can double as a shelter in a pinch. I picked up this one from Camp Inn for $25 and change.

(Betcha didn’t know Camp Inn has been around since 1915).

Last thing I picked up: a pair of these Kleen Kanteen bottles. I don’t know how much of the concern over plastics leaching into our liquids is justified, but I do know that the plastic taste from Nalgene bottles pretty much always sucks. These are pricey at $17 a pop, but they look like they’d last a lifetime (provided you don’t drive the car over one).

The screw caps are kind of inconvenient to open every time you feel a thirst, so I ordered a “sport cap” that lets you take a sip without unscrewing. Also ordered a sling to keep one bottle where I can reach it and avoid dislocating my collarbone trying to get one out of my new pack. Another rationale for the sling: these things are extremely slippery. When you drop one down a thousand-foot gorge, at least you’ll have the comfort of knowing it won’t shatter when it lands. (Might knock a marmot out cold but hey, anything can happen in the wilderness).

Incidentally, the REI EVent jacket I mentioned (called the Shuksan) is selling like hotcakes — they didn’t have any size larges left in the Saratoga store, the biggest one in the South Bay, on Monday. I was sorely tempted — it really looks like a great jacket — but I decided it’d be more fun to buy a bunch of cheap stuff rather than the Cadillac of backcountry overcoats.