Best piece of gear you can carry…Visa card! Well, you will run into cash-only establishments, but our card got some use for sure. We ended up replacing our pot (with titanium), we traded in our whisper-lite for a super fly stove. We traded out our Tevas for flops. I got a smaller pack in Va. We both got boots along the way after we wore out/outgrew/tore up our others. Clothing wise, we were down to one set of hiking clothes (silkweight shirts and running shorts) and a set of camp/town clothes (long sleeved shirts and long pants for cool nights and bug protection). Bushwhack traded out his rain jacket at Walasi-yi and our rain/snow pants went home in April until we hit the Whites, when we really appreciated having them back. Our fellow hiker Raindog used to joke that this is really just one big shopping trip! Aside from the boots though, most of our replacements were to trim down the weight and make the hike more enjoyable. I think everything else probably would have survived the hike. Except Bushwhack’s pack. It did need to be repaired when we hit Hot Springs, but Gregory sent him a loaner, so we were able to keep moving. Some other hikers had broken poles, packs, stoves. Hopefully you’ve invested in some nice quality, lightweight stuff. Just take care of it and you should do well.
Bramble
