Thanks for the replies on my previous post… Anyone have any links to a list of what I will need to take on my section hike in March. I have the basics…Pack, tent, sleeping bag, pad, stove, H2O filter, cook set etc…
Thanks again for all the help.
—Matt.
Matt
Take a look at the journals themselves. Each one has a link to their gear list. Everyone will be slightly different but see what they all have in common. Then decide if you need/want any of the items you’re missing. Make sure you take plenty of cold weather gear, I’m sure its gonna be chilly.
Ganj
Read their journals after Neals Gap! See what they sent home in March! We saw people send as much as 30lbs of gear home! Check at each town stop in March. People were still sending home stuff after Erwin!! It was 0 with a windchill of 15 below on our first day this year. We did fine with our gear. Was down to shorts and longsleeve shirt during the day (30’s). Have a great hike.
Papa Smurf
Whatever you pack, keep your packweight as LIGHT as possible.
Everyone’s list is individual. The big weight hogs are pack,
tent, bag, stove/fuel and food. Take enough clothes to keep
warm in camp. You won’t need much insulation while hiking,
except at lunch.
Stay dry, too. Hypothermia is insidious.
Good Luck.
Scamp
Scamp
Shakin down this weekend along the CT, trail runs along the TN River awsome! So I know already my pack is too heavy. Carrying all gear for for winter AT thru-hiker. 3 days of food and 3.5L water It did dip below freezing. Anyway I am clueless as what to cut without completely re-gearing.
bono
Wanna list your gear and we’ll have a go? Any cans of tuna? Skip the Habachi.
Bushwhack (AT '01)
Note Jan 1 is my planned departure from Springer and I expect no more then Shelter to Shelter 7-9 miles till I cross the smokys into Damascus. will wiegh stuff soon.
Gregory Shasta v01, SD Clip FL, Marmot -10 gore bag waterproof (comparing w/ a Marmot Auguille -5 DL), w/walmart comp.sack, Therm. Ultralite full, Leki Super Makalus, MSR Wisperlite, nests in cheapo 2Q aluminum pot, 11oz bottle lexan fork, Total Clothes Patagonia litewt capaline longsleave, Cap. R.5 longsleave, Puffball vest, synchilla fleece, midwt cap.longjohns, nylon shorts, 2pr socks, Sportiva TRK’s (I know, I know!). Petzl tikka, 1L Nalgene, 1L Aquafina bt, 2L platypus, PurHiker, Iodine bu, using big (3) ziplocks to organize, 2 ditty bags with tolietries, 2 ex AAs, using disposable emergency poncho for shakedown trips, shell will be either precip or pat. supercell. Food has been Liptons, dried nuts and fruit, jerky, lite stuff. Did I forget somthing
Bono
Used a loner Shasta when my ThruHiker torn a stay. Super expedition pack but HEAvy. Look at the Forrester into the large model, Northface Canyonlands, all mesh, bomb proof in a storm, versital, light, one pole!, 3/4 LE 2", an MSR Superfly butane w/a small can-this stove fits ALL brands of butane and one will last you a month, a large Primus can although about a pound could get you to Harpers-it was done!, Evernew Titanium 1.3L, metal teaspoon from home, 1 shirt to hike in one shirt for camp, Black Diamond L.E.D. lamp, 140hr burn time, lighter batteries, Precips, 1qt nalgene in your fav color, 1 2qt Platapus, make a filter for the end of your Hiker out of a brass coffee filter screen, roll it around the hose and hot clue the edges, the “acorn” is brick and doesn’t prefilter anything, this little brass bugger will make you cartridge last months if you filter clear water, don’t forget they freeze!, bounce it from Fontana, late for work, I’ll give you some food tips-going out on a limb here-Liptons ain’t food!
Bushwhack
Your list looks pretty good. A few suggestions though. Please keep in mind that I did not thru-hike in Winter and I don’t know totally what you’ll run into weather wise.
Gregory pack - it’s heavy but a nice pack. If it fits you well stay with it.
Your tent is pretty light, but if you’re trying to cut weight, get yourself a bivy or a sil shelter. Besides, you said you were heading shelter to shelter.
You’ll save a few ounces but lose comfort if you ditch the thermarest and go for a z rest or ridgerest. None of them are feather mattresses and their main purpose is insulation.
I used the whisperlite, but was cooking for 2 everynight. Lighter stove options are out there, Esbit for ex.
I don’t think you’ll ever need a fork. Try a lexan spoon instead.
Your clothes: I think you lose some weight here. I didn’t thru-hike in winter though. You are going to have clothes you hike in and clothes you camp in. I’ve packed in 8 degree weather in the whites in just a shell and midweight tops and bottoms. I was still sweating. I don’t think you’ll need much more for hiking than your shell and midweight cap long johns. For camp, your sleeping bag will be your coat and you’ll just need something dry to put on. Your fleece and another pair of long john bottoms? Your choice. I dont think you need the vest the R5 and the synchilla fleece. Hell, ditch them all and go with an R2 or 3.
Water: there is not a shortage of water until you get to PA-NY. You’ll never need more than 2liters at a time, if that! Just bring your platypus and a cup if you want to drink something hot.
Food: I don’t know what to suggest. An average thru-hiker in summer burns 6000 calories a day. Expect to burn 12,000 in Winter. The body works hard to stay warm. You really need to consider efficient fuel for yourself. I agree with bushwack. In winter, Lipton won’t cut it!
Hope this helps…
Grimace
Grimace
2L is plenty in the cold weather. I added another L when I
dropped my winter gear in May.
The pack is heavy.
Food is your choice. You’ll need more than you think.
But overall I think you’ve got a good list to start.
Good Luck.
Scamp
Scamp
Yeah everyone like his/her own grub but…
You need a certain amount of fat, carbs and all that other good stuff we know about but to keep in the happy mood it all has to taste good. Bloat meal three times a day wont get it. We hike with two guys that did that. They looked likethey ate it every day.
We make a fajitas on an aluminum 8" disc that doubles as the lid to our titanium pot; an 8" tortilla, so freeze dried bean curd(GSF or bulk stores), saok the beans for a few minutes and they’re ready. Put the stove on low, flop on the tortilla, smear with beans, add some cheddar, onion and bell pepper, shot of Tobasco, brown the bottm and wait till the cheeze melts, inhale, fend off shelter mates.
Pesto spagetti with either fresh and home dried basil or the store bought little pages in the soup isle, get some quality noodle of choice, cook duh, add the package of mix and a cup of parmasian cheeze, the powderd stuff is fine and a good squirt of olive oil, from your mini 1oz Nalgene size bottles, same for hot sauce. Get 'em at the department store in the girly isle. Bag of ten for $5, all sizes just make sure they don’t leak.
Quality bagel, buttered and toasted on the pot lid, add pepper jack cheeze and some pepperoni, nuff said.
Luna bars, lemon is choice.
If you do bloatmeal you get qwhat you pay for. Get the good unrefined organic stuff, add some dried fruit, nuts etc and some powdered milk tot he ziploc, add some hotwater, or it to the water. Much better than the ready Quaker paste, bring some maple syrup from Plummer’s Maple Farm, Grafton, Vt. Also comes in a powdered form.
Almost and flavoring will go with some type of noodle or starch. Ramen is crap but light. Drink a qt if you eat it dry. yeah dry. Bono, just look for stuff that you’d eat at home and adapt it to the trail. Quickly you find that you can put together a nice fest every night that weighs very little. Two days to the next town, get two foot long subs. The weather is cool in the spring, get some lunch meats. Pack a efw bananas for that much needed potasium. You get the idea. To give you a clue, Bramble and myself only lost 6# each! Oh, and eat well in town, don’t be counting your last four bucks and try to decide on the Lil Debbies or the Moon Pie. Eat better, hike stronger.
One more, Lipton Brocolli Chicken BUT add a small can of chicken in oil, some cheddar chunks and a big shot of hot sauce. Stir it all around in to glue like soup. It’ll fire that mutha up on the coldest nights. Burn the can, pack the can. Get a small head of fresh brocs to go with if you can find it. TTFN remember, the lighter your gear the more food you can take. If you find you don’t use it everyday, send it the hell home. ANd cut the straps off your pack, tea bag labels your underware tags the…:>)
Bushwhack
For $7500 you can hire this tour group that will drop you off and pick you up every night, feed and room. No pack! Now that’s some seriuos slack packing.
Bushwhack
Guys, I am leaving in the morning 11/8 for Clingmans dome till mon. Perfect weather to try out this advise. I have dropped alot of stuff and beefed up the diet. Keep the advice comin! I appreciate all your input.
Bono
I introduced trek poles into my shakedowns 2 weeks ago and headed to a the CT, runs alng the TN River, I would rate it a easy to moderate trail, by sunday the muscles around my rt scapula (shoulder blade)as well as the muscle group running up to my fingers where a wreck. The pain was so bad I was sure I had ripped somthing. I couldn’t close my hand and my fingers where numb. I was really worried. Stretching, a wicked deep tissue massage and most important ice packs did the trick. Apparently the muscles trekkers use normarlly arent ready for the pounding they recieve.
Just got back from the smokey today and looks like I pulled somthing in my groin, (maybe worse) its not good. I believe this was caused by tossing my pack across a swollen creek while creeping across. Hope its not a hernia.
I did drop over a lb of wieght thanks to your tips and looks like I can drop another lb after this weeks test run.
The pack felt alot better. I am looking at cutting excess straps and the lid stays home. I am torn whether or not to carry a filer. The time it takes to pump is a pain in the ass compared to the speed the fill-n-go of iodine. Even with the 30 minute wait and with the ph tabs it taste great to me.
After running with folks using the pocket-rocket type stove I am starting to get irritated with my wisperlite. I have read the pros and cons on the PR’s but by the time I’m ready to cook the PR users are eating and I think carring less wieght even with the cartridge, and no comparison in setup. I bought a 2q pot, cause I already have a hearty appetite, thinking ahead. So far I can only eat about 1/3 or more of the pots volume, maybe it is too big.
Thanks to Grimmace and Bushwack, I got more creative with food, Couscous rocks with a zip pack of chicken breast dumped in it. I left the liptons and didnt miss it. The last day I obsessed on Salsa and Mexican food and the week before I had eaten all my chocalate the first day, the next afternoon the shiny dark acorns on the ground looked just like woppers.
Finally i ran into Papa Husker a SOBO and introduced him to cliff bars and when I asked to pack his trash for him he brandished a salami end and holding it up like it was priceless artifact, stared at it like lovers do and then ‘poof’ it was gone. I got well over a 2lbs of garbage from him, apparently he had cleaned the park before we ran into him.
Bono
Bono my brutha, your almost there. Make suer that you have your pack packed so the weight is high and close to your back. The back should almost teeter on the hipbelt when it’s balance. The blade pain is prob form you hunching over pulling on the shoulder harness. And make sure that the load lifter straps, the ones over your shoulders are adjusted correctly. If you are still using the Shast hit the dealer and have them show you or hold it up to the monitor in the Chat Room and I’ll look. had Gregories for ever. Easy to tune. Sometimes its a matter of DOH! Put the salami on the top. Those six inchers are heavy.
Bushwhack
Before I start…THIS IS NOT GOING TO TURN INTO A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE MERITS OF FILTERING/TREATING WATER V. NOT FILTERING AT ALL.
Bono, just wanted to tell you what we did for water filtering/treating. Looks like you’re on the fence as to what to use. We started out with Polar Pure and I recommend it. It is an iodine purification method that uses a small 3 oz bottle with iodine crystals in it. You fill the small bottle with water creating an iodine solution, then dump cap fulls of the solution into your water bottles to purify. When your solution is done you just fill up the tiny 3 oz bottle with water again. It lasts until all of the iodine crystals have been dissolved or about 4000 gallons. One 10 dollar bottle of polar pure will last your whole trip. I noticed that it tasted better than those iodine tablets. Another method is good ole bleach in an eye dropper. But a couple of drops in per bottle and you’re good to go. Filters are a nuisance though we did use one for most of the way. The year we thru-hiked it was very dry and we found we could not dunk our bottles into the mud puddles that were our water sources. Having a pump worked better. Keep in mind that if you’re going to be hiking in freezing temps. You water filter is gonna freeze too.
Grimace
As above, same detail. Hey Grimmy, is the concentration from Polar different than with tablets? We bounced the Hiker thru the Smokeys so I wouldn’t freeze and the wife got nasty sick with cramps from iodine tabs. Granted we only hade a few quarts a day as the snow was deep and fuel low to melt snow. Some folks seem to be more sensitive to it. I was fine.
Bono, loved the Pur Hiker for getting into the little seeps for water, especially in the dry runs in Va. We bailed a few guys out who had no water for a day…and the soak it up with with a bandana isn’t so hot. It’s not to heavy and you always get clear water. We even filtered from a truck tire depression on Gods Thumb Print. The only water for 23 miles. Suck a lemon dry it was. Nasty pollywog water. Mud in, clear out. And the wife doesn’t like to chew her morning tea. If you carry one, and the Hiker seems to have the fastest flow, throw away the “acorn” on the end of the inlet hose and get one of those brass high end coffee filter baskets; cut a section out and role it up like a pizza slice around the end of the hose tight to get the size, then hot glue the open end shut. It does a super job of prefiltering in the dirty sources. Keeps the leaf litter out in the streams. And your cartridge will last longer. We got a thousand miles on the first, to Hanover on the second and still have the last one. Pur will also send you free ones when they clog. Just pick your source and keep the prefilter off the bottom. TTFN
Buahwhack
Seems to me that dipping the Nalgene may also got cooties on the outside, where your lips and hands touch. Although the average hiker hand is dirtier than a two year old.
Buahwhack
I have to admit that even in my short stint this past spring, I really enjoyed my AquaMira. It was easy and didn’t really imprint too much of a chlorine taste at all on the water. I even managed to convert a couple filter-users over… after on those hot days, they saw me lounging in the shade waiting for 20 minutes, while they were pumping away over a little stream.
While that Polar Pure sounds pretty good, too, I’m a little leary about potential problems with long-term usage of iodine.
Andy