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Hands Free Umbrella

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    • CamelBak also makes those clips that go on your shoulder straps and you secure your water line into the clips. Just so happens, the chrome style umbrellas (and maybe others) can clip into those also. You can buy a few and try it out.
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork
    • I use the Gossamer Gear Liteflex (Chrome) Umbrella. I consider it a must have piece of equipment in the Southern California sun. My ULA Catalyst pack comes with some shock cord on the straps that I use to secure the umbrella for hands free. If there is any kind of breeze you will want to hold the umbrella in hand to control it and try to point it towards the wind direction so it does not blow out. It is windy on those dessert ridges, so I have blown out two now on my section hikes, but at $39 each it is not too painful to replace one.

      I do often end up holding the umbrella by hand so I can control where the shade falls on me depending on the angle of the sun. It is not too taxing, but I do switch hands and when the angles and wind allow, strap it back on my pack for hands-free.

      When I stop in the dessert the umbrella gives me a small patch of shade to crouch under. Again, for the first 700 miles of the PCT this has been must have equipment for me. An umbrella would be harder to use on the AT in areas with lots of brush and vegetation encroaching on the trail, but finding shade on the AT is less of a problem anyways.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


      John Greenleaf Whittier

      The post was edited 1 time, last by IMScotty ().