Clothing for Hike

[drgreenthumb]

I have a section of the GA AT coming up in May 11-21. How many layers of clothing and what types of clothing are suggested? I have never hiked any of the AT and hike in flat land Wisconsin. Completely new to hiking, looking for any advise. I have a few under armor under layers I plan on wearing, but anything besides that is up in the air. What are some ideas? And how much clothes should I bring?

[hikerboy57]

you need a base layer thatll wick sweat off your skin(under armour is ok.), a midlayer(fleece or wool sweater) and a water/wind resistant shell.you'll need a dry change of clothes in case you do get your others wet. theres plenty of info in the home page articles(left hand side) as far as packing lists, etc.how much you want to bring beyond this is entirely up to you and how much weight you feel like carrying.

[Blissful]

I'd check the weather before hand - it can vary greatly. But that late, likely will have warm days. I prefer zip off pants. Carry a t- shirt but have another long sleeve shirt for camp. I'd bring a polartec fleece top and a hat in case it gets cool. Windshirts are nice to have too - like Marmot's. A rain jacket. Several pairs of good socks.

[Spokes]

This is really all the stuff you need for a cold weather AT thru pack. Add a 100 weight fleece and trash compactor bag for a liner if you want. Trim for summer to go lighter.

BTW, Blissful and I disagree on zip off pants. I concur with Winton Porter's assessment of them- useless.
But, to each his/her own.

Ignore the popup if you get it......

http://www.backpacker.com/november_0...s/12659?page=4

[jesse]

Warm days, cool comfortable nights. Be prepared for rain.

[JAK]

Find out the coldest it might possibly get while hiking and camping. I use the historical low for that month, from climate data. That is usually a night time temperature, but I use it anyway. I carry 1 oz of clothing for every degF below 85F, not counting my shoes, shorts, or wind/rain shells. Choose layers so that you are dressed evenly when wearing everything at once for this worst case scenario. Don't carry more than one of anything, unless they are a different size. Even socks I like to be able to layer at least 2 pair, and wear the third pair as overmitts. I use some wool and some polyester. Too hard to keep it all dry if it is all wool.

Most of the time it will be warmer than the coldest you should be prepared for, so you will be delayered most of the time, and you don't really need to delayer evenly or efficiently since you still need to carry the clothes one way or another. So choose layers that are comfortable and versatile for different conditions, but make sure you can wear it all at once and it provides efficient even coverage when wearing it all at once. Where clothing overlaps is important. You want some overlap. Also, make sure your wind layers have elastic cuffs and are just a but shorter than your insulating layers to make them puff up a bit like down.

I prefer a loose knit wool sweater over fleece because it puffs up better when under a wind layer and breathes better without the wind layer. Not too much wool though. A mix.

[Turtle2]

I hiked GA twice in May a couple years apart. I wore zip offs mainly as shorts with a wicking T. In camp I would zip the bottom back on the pants and put on my wind shirt. I don't remember using my rain jacket but once. It was warm enough while walking in the rain (21 days of 30 it rained) and the rain jacket made it miserable. I always carry 3 pair of socks, two to exchange between hiking days and one to use in camp/sleeping. I never slept with a hat. Worst case, t shirt, long sleeved shirt, wind shirt/rain jacket, long johns, socks. Go and enjoy.