Gear Head – what to leave in, what to leave out.

Hello trail family – I did not forget you. I have been making my site easier to navigate, so check out the blog categories from the menu and the blog word cloud on the main page to visit the pages that speak to those topics. I am committed to keeping this site alive as some prepare for your thru-hiking adventures next year.

I promised to write a blog about gear in early August while on the trail. Here we are in October, and it is still on my to-do list moving week-for-week. This delay is not just my penchant for procrastination; I discovered that I have a bonified insecurity on the topic of gear. My hangup started before Campo and grew as the pros and bros made conversation about our gear. “What is your base weight? Wow, 15 pounds – good luck with that,” followed by an eye roll. The closest thing I can remember is pulling up to a stoplight back in ’73 next to one of the cool kids in high school. He was driving a candy apple red Pontiac GTO coupe with a beefy 455 HO V8 long-stroke engine. I was in my faded turquoise Toyota Corolla 4-door, 4-cylinder, 75 horsepower looking the other way. Those moments aside, my little car, named Nidwin, did do the job just fine.

Don’t get me wrong; I love gear. It is hard to fathom hiking this trail with the 60+ pound packs full of equipment that didn’t keep hikers as warm, dry, or safe as what is readily available today. After my four-month counseling session, courtesy of the trail, I am ready to rise above my insecurities and share my mistakes so you can avoid mine and make your own. Below is an excel sheet that you can download with my gear list.

Base Weight

Comparing the weight of gear is equivalent to horsepower back in the muscle-car days. And, just like horsepower, there is a lot of gamesmanship (or confusion) on what it means. I found two helpful measures. The first came from an excellent blog on gear by Halfway Anywhere. Halfway provides a valuable summary of top gear, and I used his site extensively. He defines the Big Four as a tent, backpack, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad. Invest in these four items because they are half of your base weight and critical for safety. The second measure, Base Weight, is everything in your pack except consumables (food, water, fuel, toilet paper, etc.). My base weight ranged from 13 to 17.5 pounds, depending on my kit (see below).

There are two problems with obsessing about Base Weight. Andrew Skurka’s blog describes his journey to discovering “stupid light.” Hikers that tout Base Weights as low as 7 pounds are unlikely to be self-sufficient when conditions turn for the worse. The reality of stupid light is that other hikers or rescuers are more likely to need to bail them out. The second issue to consider is your total pack weight when starting a hiking segment. For example, for a six-day section, my total pack weight doubled from 15 to 30 pounds. I needed 2 pounds of food per day, one fuel canister, and I typically carried 2 liters of water. I mention this because many thru-hikers use ultralight packs with little support. They work great at 20 pounds or less but became painful above that. The heaviest carries came in the Sierra with a Pack Weight above 35 pounds for seven days of food, bear canister, warm clothing, ice axe, and microspikes.

Customized Kits

My alternative to going stupid light was customizing my kits for different hiking segments. Changing kits gave me a significant advantage, only possible with Pleasure-Way’s support. In the spreadsheet, you will see five kits across the top: warm segments (1-3 nights, or 4-7 nights), cold segments (1-3 nights, or 4-7 nights), and a snow segment. The table shows how I changed my gear depending on what was coming up next. I recognize other thru-hikers do not have this luxury, but they do ship gear to and from resupply points along the trail for big transitions, like the Sierra.

The Big Four

TENT: I used the Big Agnes Ultralight Tiger Wall UL2 tent. I have been a fan of Big Agnes for a decade because their gear is light and durable with excellent customer support. The packed weight of the tent is 2.5 pounds, including the footprint. This tent faced wind gusts well over 60 mph on this trip and temperatures in the teens. It also has plenty of room to hang out, store gear, and cook meals. The downside is that nylon absorbs water over multiple days when compressed into the pack. Dyneema Composite Fabrics (DCF, a.k.a Cuban Fiber) is the most promising nylon replacement material. The price has dropped from ridiculous to a 2X premium. DCF was developed and perfected for high-performance sailing. DCF tents are entirely waterproof, lightweight, and the fabric doesn’t absorb water. There have been some drawbacks, such as ventilation, but tent designers are innovating rapidly, and new products are coming out each year. Many models use hiking poles instead of tent poles to further reduce weight and bulk. Here is a site with some of the most popular models. Plan on a six-month lead time to get an order filled. I would have cut one pound off my base weight with one of these 2-person models.

Rock Creek
     Rock Creek reflected
     with leaves gently swirling
     to water over rocks.
          Ribs

BACKPACK(S): I had two packs available to use in my different kits; the Osprey EXOS 58 and EXOS 38. I am super happy with this choice. They are not the lightest packs, but they have a suspension system that carries more weight than advertised and provides much-needed ventilation on hot days. Using DCF packs without suspension, Hikers looked like they just got out of the shower, covered in sweat from their packs. Whatever you get, make sure you get fit in person from someone who knows what they are doing and then load it up to 30 pounds. I spent 13 days on the trail the summer before the PCT, ensuring my pack was right for me. This piece of gear becomes part of you. I remember talking to thru-hikers over the years, and I noticed that they never take their packs off. I was the same way. I took it off maybe four times during a 12-hour day.

SLEEPING BAG(S): I started with the Western Mountaineering VersaLite sleeping bag and immediately fell in love. This bag is only 2 pounds and lives up to its 10-degree rating. I also love the near full zip feature so that you can turn it into a quilt for warmer days. When the heat started to go through the roof, it was just too much. I was lucky to find the Western Mountaineering SummerLite bag at a fabulous store in Redding, Hermit’s Hut. The SummerLite, a 32-degree bag, worked from northern California to the border but would not have been warm enough in the desert during springtime or the Sierra. When you look at these bags, you may get sticker shock, but they are worth every penny and will last for decades with proper care. Western Mountaineering only sells through small retailers. I got both of my bags from the Hermit’s Hut but order yours well before peak season.

SLEEPING PAD(S): I also had two options for sleeping pads. I used the Nemo Switchback foam pad in the desert to avoid getting a puncture from the pokey things on the ground. The advantage of a foam pad is that it easily attaches to the outside of the pack, allowing me to use my smaller pack. You don’t need to inflate them, and they also make for a relaxing afternoon nap. The disadvantage is the thermal R-Value is 2.0, which means more heat loss to your biggest heat sink, the ground. They also are bare-bones (no pun intended) when it comes to comfort. For colder sections and comfort, I used the Thermarest NemoAir XTherm inflatable pad. The R-Value is 6.9, giving three times better insulation. Yes, inflating the sleeping pad at the end of a long day is a pain, but 10 minutes meant much better sleep. The other downside is that they are noisy when you roll over, so there is a weird symphony from hikers camping nearby. As the night progresses, everyone starts to shift positions synchronously, another way that thru-hikers support one another.

Electronics

As I have shared earlier, I am a big advocate for carrying a satellite communication device. The Garmin InReach Mini worked well for Pleasure-Way and me. It was fun to look at the message log at the end of the trail and see that we had exchanged over 400 messages. Mostly, the messages were short affirmations that all was ok. There were some cases where she shared weather and fire hazards. Primarily, this allows thru-hikers to take charge of getting rescued. I also took out rescue insurance from the American Alpine Club. The other decision one needs to make is what power source to use. I decided to use power packs because they are small and durable. I kept my phone in airplane mode all the time and reduced the power usage of the screen. I was able to keep my phone, and the Garmin charged for seven days on a 10K mAh pack, but it was very tight. Others bring solar panels and attach them to the outside of their packs during the day. They are certainly getting lighter and more durable, so worth checking out for long sections.

Water and Cooking

I used the Sawyer Squeeze water filter, and it worked great. I needed a better water bag to get unfiltered water since the Sawyer bags are known to fail. The CNOC VECTO was the most popular on the trail, but I couldn’t find one given their popularity. I would guess that I filtered close to 1000 liters of water on my trip and only replaced my filter three times with no failures. The other big question is whether or not to bring a stove. I estimate that a fourth of the thru-hikers were cold-cooking. You add cold water to dehydrated food an hour or so before eating instead of adding boiling water. It sounds disgusting to hit camp, tired and hungry, and chow down on cold biscuits and gravy. And what about my proper second-breakfast of gourmet oatmeal and coffee saturated with freeze-dried heavy cream. All in, my stove, mug, and fuel weighed 8 ounces. I will likely keep this as a creature comfort.

Clothing

Many of my errors came in the clothing category. Looking back at my original list, I ended up cutting about half of my clothing. You don’t need more than one of anything, except socks and underwear. I also got lighter versions of everything as I went along. The most critical piece of clothing is socks, and I am a huge fan of the Injini toe socks. I used the no-show lightweight and midweight socks, depending on the temperature. I HAD ONE BLISTER IN 2653 MILES. That is freaking amazing. The toe socks removed heat better and isolated my toes eliminating blisters between toes. I also rinsed my socks once or twice a day and dried them on my backpack as I hiked. Other favorite items include my Columbia sun shirt, REI Sahara pants, Arc’teryx Cerium SL Down Jacket, and Dirty Girl Gaters. The bottom line is to get good stuff that works and only bring one; that is enough.

Hiking Shoes

Last but certainly not least is the shoes that will support and protect your feet during the 5.3 million steps needed to cover the distance. Selecting shoes is a vital gear decision because most hiker injuries are feet and ankle-related. It is also the most expensive piece of gear because you will need five pairs to replace the shoes every 400 to 500 miles, as recommended. I was fighting pain in my left foot metatarsal joint during the four months before I even started on the trail. I could have been one of the first hikers to flame out had this not gone away. I went with the Hoka One Stinson shoes because they are the most cushioned shoe out there. I got a lot of comments about the shoes because they are noticeably wide and cushioned. They are not very durable, so I went through six pairs and one grand to keep my little piggies happy.