I’m Tom Larsen. I live in Columbus, Ohio, work as an operations data analyst, and spend a good portion of my free time with a digital scale, a notebook, and whatever piece of camping gear I’m trying to understand that week. I’m also a husband and the father of two kids, currently 7 and 9. That last part shapes almost everything on this site.
I started Measured Camp because most gear advice online is written for someone else. Thru-hikers, ultralight specialists, and people who treat the outdoors like a second career swap notes about grams and mountain aesthetics. That’s fine if that’s your life. It isn’t mine, and it isn’t the life of most of the people I know who actually go camping.
What I needed—and what I suspect a lot of busy parents and weekend campers need—was simpler: cleaner comparisons, repeatable tests, and plain-English explanations of what the numbers mean in real use. Not more opinions. Not more hype. Just measured results and honest trade-offs.
How I Got Here
Before logistics and supply chain work, I spent a year and a half as a QA tester at a small game studio. That job left me with a permanent habit: if something claims to work a certain way, you write a protocol, run it the same way every time, and write down what actually happens. I brought that habit to camping gear.
I test stoves, pads, jackets, pillows, shoes, and the rest the same way. Fixed backyard conditions when I can control them. Real family trips and soccer-sideline weekends when I can’t. Scale weights instead of hangtag numbers. Side-by-side runs instead of single impressions. The goal is always the same: turn marketing claims into something a normal person can use to decide.
What You’ll Find Here
Four main sections:
Backyard Bench — controlled comparisons. Boil times, packed weights, drying speeds, measured dimensions.
Family Miles — how the same gear holds up when kids, wet grass, short timelines, and ordinary Midwest weather are part of the equation.
Pack Smarter — decision guides that translate specs into practical choices for people who camp ten or fifteen nights a year, not a hundred.
Garage Notes — the longer observations, the testing logic, and the occasional connection between fixing an old Subaru and deciding what gear is actually worth buying.
What You Won’t Find
Tactical language. Survival cosplay. Motivational speeches. Environmental moralizing. Disguised product pitches. Or the assumption that every reader is trying to set a fastest-known time or live out of a 40-liter pack for months.
I write for people who have jobs, kids, limited free time, and a weather app that is only mostly accurate. The gear still matters. The romantic framing usually doesn’t.
The Simple Promise
If a piece of gear makes a claim, I’ll try to test it under conditions I can repeat and explain. I’ll tell you what the scale said, what the timer said, and what it felt like when the kids were involved. Sometimes the expensive option earns its keep. Sometimes the cheaper one is the smarter buy for the way most of us actually camp. Either way, you’ll get the evidence and the context.
I weighed it so you don’t have to.
That’s the whole idea.