I’m usually pretty easy on my equipment, but recently I’ve got careless and damaged three items of my backpacking gear. My puffy jacket, my underquilt protector, and my rain skirt1. My last backpacking trip in 2020 accounted for the first two when I burned a hole in the cuff of my puffy jacket and then tore my underquilt protector falling out of my hammock. The rain skirt I tore on my first trip of 2021. I put it on when it started to hail, and then not paying good enough attention to where I was going, I got into some cat briars.
Today I removed my temporary duct tape fixes and applied permanent repairs to my underquilt protector and rain skirt. Given how difficult it proved to remove the repair tape from the backing sheet, I’m not tempted to take the repair tape out backpacking. I’ll stick with my current duct tape solution, which will hold until I can put a permanent repair into effect. I should mention that the repair tape is a lot harder to see in real life. I took advantage of its more reflective finish to make it stand out in the pictures. I also worked more on getting the last traces of trapped air out. As there is missing (burned away) material on my puffy, I have some black tenacious tape I’ll be using to effect that repair.
Anyone with children will know why I’ve got the red tape on my scissors.
1Rain Skirt. I’ve found that the rain skirt is much lighter and more practical than rain pants. More practical because it has multiple uses, provides much more freedom of movement, and isn’t as hot and sweaty to wear.