You want good equipment cheap? Go to an area where hiking and camping are big deals and visit the pawn shops and thrift stores. There is where you will find high quality equipment at amazingly good prices. Especially thrift stores in "rich" areas are another place to check out. You would be surprised what gets "given" to these places.
For example, I got a flourescent orange REAL artic coat, like for Antartica, for 39 bucks that had likely been worn once when someone went on a trip to Antartica 15 years earlier and they decided to give it to the local thrift shop. It's the real deal like you see the scientists etc. wearing on documentaries.
This was a custom made coat from an English company that doesn't sell anything for less than 1500 bucks with the extendable fur lined face cone and amazing amounts like four inches thisk of real down not feathers. I now live in Montana and I dont' even break this coat out until single digits it is so warm. But we have 20 thirty below days/weeks here in lat Jan/early Feb and this is an awesome coat.
So, I suggest when you are visiting certain areas of the country, you stop in thrift stores and pawn shops.
Oh, did you know there is only ONE Patagonia outlet store in the world? It is in Dillon MT. The owner of Patagonia apparently fishes there and for some reason decided to open the only one in the world there. Great deals, better than the best clearance prices online. Most of the stuff is still high but go through the racks and amazing deals are to be had. So, if you are traveling MT, it is worth a stop. AND twice a year they have sales. About half of MT tries to get in.
