The one camping gear purchase I recently made is a very simple inexpensive product and has greatly improved my outdoor experience, and that is my Therma Rest Z-Lite camping pad.
For years of canoe camping I never had an issue with unrolling my sleeping bag directly on the floor of the tent and crawling in for the night because most of my camping occurs in mild weather conditions when the ground and air temperatures are at comfortable ranges. And as far as comfort I’ve just become accustomed to the idea that while I am sleeping on the ground I should expect to be occasionally awakened by a tree root or sharp edged rock poking me in my back once or twice during the night. So sleeping pads were never a necessity to me and I actually considered them as extra work because of the inflating, deflating and packing involved. 
Then along came my first wilderness canoe trip in upstate New York one cold weekend in early May. Was I cold? You bet! Did I sleep well? No way! I layered my clothing, crawled in my sleeping bag and then rolled myself like a sausage with every other article of clothing I could find and I still froze throughout the entire night. So then I went looking for a lightweight, easy to pack camping pad and I purchased the Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite.
It’s designed for reduced weight outdoor activities such as alpine climbing and extreme backpacking so it’s certainly acceptable for wilderness canoe trips. The pad design folds up like an accordion and packs inside my waterproof bag with little notice and the egg carton design increases softness and adds insulation by trapping warm air under my sleeping bag. It also captures moisture condensation that would normally accumulate between my sleeping bag and the floor of the tent. Just wake up in the morning and you’ll be amazed at the moisture collected on the mat that would have been absorbed into your sleeping bag.
So yes, this simple Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite camping pad is one of my favorite recent camping gear purchases and if you’re not crazy about the idea of packing along a heavier inflatable camping mat I recommend to you the Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite.
So you heard of wilderness 
If you want to learn more about Bill Mason and the Mason family just take a look at the 
I purchased my new canoe just in time for my trip to the Adirondacks, and it was a rugged three day canoe trip that left my 
Step 1. Pre-stretching the patches. It may not sound important but I realized right away these patches are going to expand once I begin to form them to the hull, so the stretching allowed me to get a more accurate approximation of how much coverage the patch is going to provide. It helps to know the coverage so you can prepare the canoe surface accordingly. In the image I only used a few light weights to stretch the patches in a horizontal position for about two hours. I’ve heard that hanging the patches with a light weight attached is another approach, but no matter what approach you choose be sure to stretch them some way.
Step 2. Outlining the patch coverage area. While canoeing on Antietam Creek a few weeks earlier I hit a rock and punched a small hole in the bow of my canoe, so I wanted to cover the hole and reinforce the area around it with the patch. I also wanted to cover as much of the hull of the stern side because that is the part of stern that takes the most abuse, so outlining the coverage area with a heavy black marker allowed me to prepare the area and position the patch the way I wanted after it’s soaked with the resin.
Step 3. Surface preparation. Once I outlined the patch coverage area I “lightly” sanded within the outline. I again wiped the area clean with rubbing alcohol and lightly touched up my original marker outline that I scuffed off during the sanding process. At this point you may want to consider taping off the area outside the patch coverage area to protect from resin drips but be sure to allow room for the patch to expand during the installation process. I didn’t allow enough for expansion and when my patch expanded over the tape and I had to stop the whole process and remove the tape.
Step 4. Mix resin and placing the patch. This is where time is critical. My first thing was to mix the resin according to directions and spread about half of the mixture on a large flat piece of cardboard. And according to directions I placed the patch into the resin and worked the resin in until the patch was saturated; I then placed the patch into position and only lightly pressed it into position at this point. I applied the second patch to the resin then placed it into position and immediately went to work on the first patch I placed into position. Caution: I used too much resin on the first patch and was scraping every bit of residual I could find to saturate the second patch.
Step 5. Smoothing the patch. The tools I used were a 6 inch foam paint roller and a 4 inch plastic putty knife; the putty knife turned out to be the most useful. I began with the first patch I placed, smoothing it with the paint roller with motions beginning from the center to the outside edges, then did the same to the second patch.
And this was not the one touch process like the directions indicated it would be. I needed to alternate my attention from patch to patch until I felt they fit the hull as tight and secure as possible. The paint roller was fine for the first round of smoothing but not for obtaining a tight seal. In this photo the patch needs to be smoothed and flattened and the rounded edges need to be feathered tight with the putty knife.
On the second round of smoothing I switched to the putty knife because I couldn’t apply enough pressure with the paint roller. I switched my attention to each patch twice and was ready to call it a finished project when I noticed the edges were still not entirely sealed. So again I alternated between each patch focusing on feathering the edges with the plastic putty knife as tightly as I could without squeezing the resin from the patch.
Located near State College, Pennsylvania, this 256-acre Whipple Dam State Park is one of Pennsylvania’s smallest state parks but also one of the most unique state parks in the way it was constructed and maintained. The lake is the perfect place to indulge in a swim, wildlife watch, picnic or hike and there are miles of dirt roads for bike riding. Because of it’s location close to State College, I wouldn’t exactly call it a quiet park, but being located so close to the beautiful Rothrock State Forest, you will certainly enjoy what the park has to offer in it’s beautiful natural appearance as it is constructed according to the National Park guideline use of native materials. You’ll certainly understand this as you visit the park because it has a very natural appearance to the landscape. 
The fishing is decent with Whipple Lake and Laurel Run stocked with trout by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission in the spring and winter months. A wildlife photographer may encounter white-tailed deer, black bear, wild turkey, waterfowl and many other species of wildlife. Osprey, great blue heron and Canada goose visit the lake. On quiet evenings, muskrat and beaver may be seen on the water.