Keith Wrage <keith.wrage_at_charter.net> wrote: >> I'm wondering if anyone out there takes along a portable table - for cooking or other uses in camp? I've seen plastic and aluminum varieties - some large (4' square!) and some tiny. Some have legs - some 4 and some 3, others attach to a tree to provide some workspace at standing height. Does anyone have a favorite? Are they useful - or a waste of space/weight? >> Depends on a couple of variables: 1. Is there plenty of stuff where you camp (driftwood, old flotsam and jetsam) that can be fashioned into a rustic "table?" If so, skip the table in your kit. 2. What style of cooking do you do? If just boil and eat, skip the table I really like to have at least a couple square feet at waist level for food prep -- because I prepare a lot of fresh stuff for dinner. That's a counter example for number 2. A counter example for number 1: I went on a Baja trip eons ago, and the outfitter had us take one of the roll-up tables with screw-on aluminum legs. I was still imbued with backpacker ethic in those days, and scoffed at it. But, the third day out, we were very glad to have it -- nothing but sand and shrubs, and no debris for a place for doing food. We'd have been groveling in the sand on our haunches with rude tools otherwise. My SO has been on me for years to buy one of those rollup tables and strap it onto the deck, but I can't force myself to do it -- just can't see hauling it along when almost everywhere I go, there is the stuff at my campsites to make a "good enough" table. At places on the Columbia River we frequent, we have assembled rustic tables (helped by other campers) over the years. And it is really nice to have those tables, especially when the weather is nasty. We just set up the cook tarp over the table and go at it. Without the table, we'd be in the wet sand ... nasty! -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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