Christoph
12-02-2015, 13:33
This year beginning April 19th, I tried to take on my lifelong dream of hiking the entire trail, from the approach trail, to Maine, and down the knife edge. Met some good people and a new lifelong friend. I ended up making it 742.7 miles in 43 days (add another 8.whatever for the approach trail). There were a few reasons I threw in the towel (mainly my uncle passing), but I have to say I got a little scared when I found I lost 46 pounds in that 43 days (another reason I stopped). Seems like I was eating everything in sight too. So here's my lessons learned and a quick question for ya.
* I pushed it a little but never really felt uncomfortable. Getting up early, 99% of the time I was the 1st one on the trail taking care of the spiderweb situation for the crews behind me. I'd get up, pack everything, and head out. About an hour or so in, I would stop and eat breakfast at a nice quiet spot. Most days, this was my routine. From there on, when I got hungry, I stopped and I usually hiked until the sun started to set.
* Pack weight was 41 pounds when I left Amicalola Falls Park and I shed it down to around 30 with 10 days food and 2 ltrs water, rather quickly. Pack was a little on the heavy side but I can still shed a little weight (it's an older Santa fe4000) and my tent was 4 pounds. I only sent home a few items (blanket, extra shorts, etc...). Bag is around 1 pound/30 degree military mummy bag type.
* My 40 dollar Ebay tent (a Dawson products Mountaineer somethingorother) stood the test of time through a massive hail storm (I was the ONLY one dry that day) but at the cost of a few pounds (4 pounds). I since have swapped the 2 tent poles with much lighter ones from my daughters "pup" tent from Walmart (of all places). Still holds great in the wind and rain and it shed almost 1/2 a pound.
* I did end up sending back the small couch type throw blanket I was using for a sleeping pad and purchased an air mattress. Wonderful idea and worth the 75 bucks at the store in Franklin, NC! The blanket ended up getting and staying wet which added a ton of weight to my ensemble. Considerably more than the air mattress weighed.
* A lot of people asked what I ate. Well, at first (probably like 50% of everyone out there), I started with the typical Ramen, potatoes, and anything instant (just add water). About a week or so in, I upped my game to sausage logs, cheese and crackers, and eventually to a loaf of raisin cinnamon bread and cream cheese, etc... Of course the instant stuff was still there for when I didn't feel like doing anything but going to bed, but I figured I ate rather well towards the end. Moral of this story, don't just carry "just add water" type foods. Eat up and eat well! You're gonna need it! I sure did in every town I came across as well.
* I took the Sawyer filter with me but didn't use it as much as I probably should have. Lots of people were using it religiously but there were only a few spots I thought were questionable and used it there. I might get the mini next time just to save a little room. The bag held out OK but did end up breaking because I got in hurry and tore it by accident.
* Was not expecting the party crowd this late in the game (I just missed (intentionally) the Damascus party by 2 days). I came through just after but caught up to 'em shortly and pretty much blew by most of them. Most were a pretty fun crowd and didn't really bother me. If you want the alone-ness, you can get it almost everywhere. But I ended up hanging around and listening in to the crazy stories at times. It was pretty fun. Only time I got a little upset was in Pearisburg, Va when they trashed the church hostel behind the hospital. I spent a lot of time cleaning up and left a nice donation, since most of them that night thought it was a "free hostel run by thru hikers"!.
* Started out with your typical hiking type boots and found out later on that running shoes worked better and were a lot easier on the feet. The trail is a little rugged in places but nothing that taking your time with running shoes can't handle. Also carried a Dollar General pair of flip flops for the occasional night time emergency :)
* Bug spray did little to nothing for me. They were apparently overwhelmingly attracted to my hiker funk and no amount of repellent deterred them. Sun screen on the other hand was the most valuable asset in my arsenal. I burn fairly easy and it's real easy to think "I'm in the shade all day so I won't get burned". Uh... you'd be surprised how much you aren't in the shade. Also need something for the shelter mice. They weren't too bad, but the ones that were there weren't afraid of anything!
* Hiking poles: A lot of controversy on here whether to use them or not. My personal experience was I bought a pair from Walmart and there was NO WAY I would have gotten as far as I did without them. I loved them and never had any hiking experience with poles before. I will use them again on long hikes. Something for the brand only type people :) , I saw more expensive Leki's and such in hiker boxes and more Walmart or equivalent poles on the trial. Really tho, I would use whatever makes you comfortable if you use any at all.
* I used a certain guidebook and later found there's a downloadable "companion" for the phone. The one I used seemed a little more in depth and personally, I liked it more because I prefer hard copies of everything (mostly for nostalgia reasons). The little extra weight was worth it for me, but a lot of others liked the downloadable for weight savings.
* I used my phone (Droid Maxx) for videos and VidTrim from the Play Store to put them all together. That seemed to work really well but finding a place to upload a 15 minute video via WiFi was almost impossible at times. For regular pics, I used my daughters Kodak and took 4 16gig cards with me. I only used 1 and took hundreds of pics. Also carried an Anker 10,000 Ma external battery with me. I found it was way overkill but I did manage to help a few people out and really not worry about phone charging.
* Cook setup was an MSR Pocket Rocket, the pot and cup from a Walmart mess kit, a plastic spork, and a plastic Tupperware bowl that fit everything inside. Gas was readily available just about everywhere but I'd buy the bigger canister as it isn't that much more weight and it costs usually around a dollar more for twice the amount (almost).
So that's that, in a nutshell. My gear list video (and others) can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnEkYVyN7Cg
Now that you've hung in there this far, here's the question I promised in the beginning.
Not 2016 (my last kid is graduating from HS), but shortly after I might have the opportunity to try this again. My dream has always been to hike from end to end (and get that 2000 miler certificate!). If you were me, would you pick up where I left off and finish it, or would you try the entire thing again knowing what I do now and tweak the a few items while I plan again? Thoughts?
* I pushed it a little but never really felt uncomfortable. Getting up early, 99% of the time I was the 1st one on the trail taking care of the spiderweb situation for the crews behind me. I'd get up, pack everything, and head out. About an hour or so in, I would stop and eat breakfast at a nice quiet spot. Most days, this was my routine. From there on, when I got hungry, I stopped and I usually hiked until the sun started to set.
* Pack weight was 41 pounds when I left Amicalola Falls Park and I shed it down to around 30 with 10 days food and 2 ltrs water, rather quickly. Pack was a little on the heavy side but I can still shed a little weight (it's an older Santa fe4000) and my tent was 4 pounds. I only sent home a few items (blanket, extra shorts, etc...). Bag is around 1 pound/30 degree military mummy bag type.
* My 40 dollar Ebay tent (a Dawson products Mountaineer somethingorother) stood the test of time through a massive hail storm (I was the ONLY one dry that day) but at the cost of a few pounds (4 pounds). I since have swapped the 2 tent poles with much lighter ones from my daughters "pup" tent from Walmart (of all places). Still holds great in the wind and rain and it shed almost 1/2 a pound.
* I did end up sending back the small couch type throw blanket I was using for a sleeping pad and purchased an air mattress. Wonderful idea and worth the 75 bucks at the store in Franklin, NC! The blanket ended up getting and staying wet which added a ton of weight to my ensemble. Considerably more than the air mattress weighed.
* A lot of people asked what I ate. Well, at first (probably like 50% of everyone out there), I started with the typical Ramen, potatoes, and anything instant (just add water). About a week or so in, I upped my game to sausage logs, cheese and crackers, and eventually to a loaf of raisin cinnamon bread and cream cheese, etc... Of course the instant stuff was still there for when I didn't feel like doing anything but going to bed, but I figured I ate rather well towards the end. Moral of this story, don't just carry "just add water" type foods. Eat up and eat well! You're gonna need it! I sure did in every town I came across as well.
* I took the Sawyer filter with me but didn't use it as much as I probably should have. Lots of people were using it religiously but there were only a few spots I thought were questionable and used it there. I might get the mini next time just to save a little room. The bag held out OK but did end up breaking because I got in hurry and tore it by accident.
* Was not expecting the party crowd this late in the game (I just missed (intentionally) the Damascus party by 2 days). I came through just after but caught up to 'em shortly and pretty much blew by most of them. Most were a pretty fun crowd and didn't really bother me. If you want the alone-ness, you can get it almost everywhere. But I ended up hanging around and listening in to the crazy stories at times. It was pretty fun. Only time I got a little upset was in Pearisburg, Va when they trashed the church hostel behind the hospital. I spent a lot of time cleaning up and left a nice donation, since most of them that night thought it was a "free hostel run by thru hikers"!.
* Started out with your typical hiking type boots and found out later on that running shoes worked better and were a lot easier on the feet. The trail is a little rugged in places but nothing that taking your time with running shoes can't handle. Also carried a Dollar General pair of flip flops for the occasional night time emergency :)
* Bug spray did little to nothing for me. They were apparently overwhelmingly attracted to my hiker funk and no amount of repellent deterred them. Sun screen on the other hand was the most valuable asset in my arsenal. I burn fairly easy and it's real easy to think "I'm in the shade all day so I won't get burned". Uh... you'd be surprised how much you aren't in the shade. Also need something for the shelter mice. They weren't too bad, but the ones that were there weren't afraid of anything!
* Hiking poles: A lot of controversy on here whether to use them or not. My personal experience was I bought a pair from Walmart and there was NO WAY I would have gotten as far as I did without them. I loved them and never had any hiking experience with poles before. I will use them again on long hikes. Something for the brand only type people :) , I saw more expensive Leki's and such in hiker boxes and more Walmart or equivalent poles on the trial. Really tho, I would use whatever makes you comfortable if you use any at all.
* I used a certain guidebook and later found there's a downloadable "companion" for the phone. The one I used seemed a little more in depth and personally, I liked it more because I prefer hard copies of everything (mostly for nostalgia reasons). The little extra weight was worth it for me, but a lot of others liked the downloadable for weight savings.
* I used my phone (Droid Maxx) for videos and VidTrim from the Play Store to put them all together. That seemed to work really well but finding a place to upload a 15 minute video via WiFi was almost impossible at times. For regular pics, I used my daughters Kodak and took 4 16gig cards with me. I only used 1 and took hundreds of pics. Also carried an Anker 10,000 Ma external battery with me. I found it was way overkill but I did manage to help a few people out and really not worry about phone charging.
* Cook setup was an MSR Pocket Rocket, the pot and cup from a Walmart mess kit, a plastic spork, and a plastic Tupperware bowl that fit everything inside. Gas was readily available just about everywhere but I'd buy the bigger canister as it isn't that much more weight and it costs usually around a dollar more for twice the amount (almost).
So that's that, in a nutshell. My gear list video (and others) can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnEkYVyN7Cg
Now that you've hung in there this far, here's the question I promised in the beginning.
Not 2016 (my last kid is graduating from HS), but shortly after I might have the opportunity to try this again. My dream has always been to hike from end to end (and get that 2000 miler certificate!). If you were me, would you pick up where I left off and finish it, or would you try the entire thing again knowing what I do now and tweak the a few items while I plan again? Thoughts?