Great thread you started Robin, as usual
!!
interesting things for me is I’m pretty young at 49 but spent a lot of time in the bush over that short period so far, either for fun or for work or a mixed of both! And I went through all the phases of modern light gear to heavier trad gear, and everything have its place for sure!
On a sheep hunt I want as light as possible but on most of our other trips, ski/snowshoe freckles in the winter in low grade terrains and canoe trips other rest of the time I like the comfort and durability of “heavy duty” Old fashion gear! Durability/fix ability is my go too moto these days!
I like a tent to last more than 300 days on the field, I like the feel of wood paddles, I definitely prefer to use wood as my fuel for cooking and heating my shelter.
Do I use petroleum base products like nylon polyester plastic and the like for sure, there is no real practical ways around it IMO if only for sleeping bags and rain gear!
We use to do only canoeing and very little hiking and this seems to wanna change including bike packing so we are starting to get lighter gear for this activities ( mountain caribou and sheep hunts included) but I plan to use that light weight gear only when we really need it to make it last longer... cause man it is expensive per oz compare to good quality trad gear!!