FIELD CONDITIONS

I took the BugAway bucket on a 10 day backcountry canoe trip to the Quetico Provincial Park and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the border between Canada and the US. We had sun for about 3 days, and rain intermittently the rest of the time. The temperature on the trip was between 60 and 65 F (15.5 to 18 C) most of the time during the day, which included about 4 full days of rain, and another 3 days when it rained on and off during the day.

I also took the hat on a weekend trip to Ohiopyle State park for whitewater rafting. Although I didn't wear the hat while rafting (I wore a helmet for safety), I wore it most of the rest of the weekend. The weather on that trip was sunny with high temperatures of 85 F/30 C.


FIELD EXPERIENCE

On the backcountry trip, I wore the BugAway Bucket almost all the time during the day, rain or shine. When the sun was out, I wore it to keep the sun off my head and out of my eyes. Although I was a little skeptical that the brim would be wide enough to protect my neck and ears, this did not turn out be a problem. I did not wear any sunblock on the trip, and had no troubles with any sunburn. I like to wear the hat pulled pretty far down, but I found it comfortable and roomy, even though I have a rather large head (the better for storing rocks). The fabric breathes fairly well, and I did not feel my head overheating. The photo shows me wading in a pool with my family about halfway up the Louisa Falls in the Quetico.



Because we had significant wind on the lakes, I took advantage of the cord loops and connected them with a shoelace, which I used as a wind cord. When any wind was about, I kept the wind cord looped under my chin, which turned out to be a good precaution, as the hat was blown off my head on a number of occasions. Thanks to the wind cord, I never needed to chase my hat down the lake.

When the rain was light and I wasn't cold, I tended to wear the hat on the outside of my rain hood. In this configuration, the hat brim only extended a little beyond the rain hood, but this arrangement kept the rain out of my eyes. The photo shows me pulling my canoe upstream over a swift (a modest currrent with a few rocks), while wearing the BugAway over the hood of my White Sierra Trabagon rain jacket.



When the rain was harder or I was getting cold, I tended to wear the hat under my hood, where it helped to trap the heat from my head. I kept the rain hood pulled tightly around my head, which resulted in the hat being tucked fully under the hood of the rain jacket. I can't say how much warmth the hat added, but I did not have any problems with hypothermia despite the cold, rainy, windy weather.

Although the hat spent much of the time getting soaked during the day, it did not hold water, and tended to dry out at night if it was windy and didn't rain. I actually kept the hat in my tent most nights so it wouldn't get wet and it would be substantially drier most mornings.

My other trip with the BugAway was much more mundane - a weekend in southwest Pennsylvania. The sun was much hotter on this trip, but the BugAway again did a fine job of keeping my head, ears, and neck free of sunburn.

Since this hat was developed to keep mosquitoes and other bugs away, a discussion of the hat's ability in this area is needed. Although the cold weather kept the mosquitoes down, there were still plenty of them for everyone on the trip to Canada. In general, the bugs did not seem averse to flying around me and landing on me, including around my head. This was especially noticeable when I was portaging, as I was exerting myself and generating a lot of heat during this activity. I didn't want to chance a trial of not wearing the hat, but I believe that there were fewer bugs when I was wearing the hat, especially in camp. With this preamble, I would like to point out that I returned from the trip with approximately ZERO bug bites. To be fair, I have very fast hands for swatting and don't tend to react much to bug bites. Still, the fact that I returned home free of bites makes me think that the BugAway played some role in keeping the bugs from biting.

I think it's also worth mentioning that the headband of the hat is absorbent, and I felt it did a nice job of keeping the sweat from rolling down into my eyes, particularly on the Pennsylvania trip.


WEAR AND TEAR

The hat is crushable, but it always bounced back. When I got back from Canada, I threw the BugAway Bucket in the washer with all my other dirty, stinky clothes and washed it on the extra-soak cycle in cold water with my usual laundry detergent. From there, I hung it up to air-dry. Once it was done, it looked none the worse for wear. I have washed it again since, and it is still fine. Only 68 more washings to go before the bug repellency goes away!


FIELD IMPRESSIONS

So far, I would have to say that the BugAway bucket has been a pleasant surprise. Any hat that can get me back from 10 days in the Quetico/Boundary Waters without a single bug bite must be doing something right. Although I still think it looks goofy, it does all the things I need from a hat in a compact and lightweight, no-worry way.

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