Nothing wrong with people who buy good gear. In my opinion its the annoying "I'm better then you cause I have "X" item instead of your "Y" item" gear snobs who are the problem.

I've hiked lot of shorter day trails at Provincial parks in Northern Ontario and I've seen many who looked down on my simple but effective gear because its "dumb", "bulky", "military surplus", "old", "made of cotton not some super duper synthetic" etc. depending on the gear I have on me it could be a combination of all of them. And yet most of the time I over took them on the trail and finished the hike first.

Funny thing is I'm a gear "addict" I use so much different gear at times (especially when car camping) that sometimes I use different gear on a day to day basis depending on my mood.

Currently I think I've settled on a decent "day" pack that I turned into a 2-3 day capable "weekend getaway" pack. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Dimitri