Can I get a shake-down?

[iliketacos]

This is my gear list for my NOBO in march, any thoughts or comments would be appreciated:

MAIN:

Osprey 70 pack Aether: 4.9 lbs.

Nalgene CXC Big Bore Reservoir-2L, w/water: 5 lbs.

MSR Hubba Tent: 3 lbs. 4 oz.

Marmot Pounder Plus +25 Sleeping Bag - Long: 2 lbs. 6 oz

Cocoon Silk Mummy Liner: 4.7 ounce

Therm-a-Rest ProLite 4 Sleeping Pad - Regular: 1 lb. 8 oz.

Katadyn Guide PRO Microfilter: 14 ounces

REI MultiTowel - Medium: 4 ounces

Liberty Mountain Lightload Towels - Package of 3: 0.5 ounce

Nalgene Lexan Wide-Mouth Loop-Top Bottle - 16 oz: 3 ounces

Medical UltraLight .5 Medical Kit: 3.5 ounces

Mini Fox 40 Safety Whistle: 0.5 ounce

Tyvek ground cloth: ? ounce

Food Bag: ?ounce


COOKING:

Jetboil Group Cooking System: 19 ounces

Jetboil Jet Power Fuel - 100 grams x 2: 7 ounces

Cozy-wool hat

I will be doing freezer bag cooking as much as possible

Clothing:

Under 5lbs.

Hygene:

Under 1lb.

FOOD:

10 lbs.? Wil be doing lots of resupply no food drops, accept for vitamin supplements and such.

Any thoughts? Comments?

[MOWGLI]

I would lose one of the towels. Carry the light load or the REI. FYI - many hikers carry neither.

I don't use a ground cloth for my tent.

Smart not to do food drops, but that might complicate freezer bag cooking however.

No maps?

Have a blast!

[Ridge Rat]

Wow heavy.... I haven't made a thru so I can't say as I am an expert though I am making an attempt in '08. I would lose the lightload towels and stick with the MSR towel and a couple bandana's rather have multi use and save a few oz's. Why have the nalgene? with a reservoir that is all the water you need. If you want something to hold liquid a lighter option is a ziplock container. thats what I use. Groundcloth seems futile if you have a tent and not just a tarp. And personally I would replace the jetboil for an alcohol stove. I used to be hung up on my Pocket rocket before I realised the weight advantage of losing it and the fuel canister. But, this is all coming from a section hiker. HYOH and good luck to you.

[mountain squid]

Any camp shoes? Not a necessity, but nice. You'll see plenty of Waldies/Crocs dangling from others packs...

I would also lose a few towels. I also don't use a ground cloth.

What is your food bag made of? A sil-nylon stuff sack will work.

These are also not necessary, but don't see any "office supplies" (pen, paper, data book/companion/maps, small radio/ipod thingy, camera, light source, toilet paper, etc). With the exception of a light source, tp, and maybe the maps, you don't need these items, but if you start adding them, watch the weight, because it will add up quickly.

See you on the trail,
mt squid

[Johnny Swank]

That's not a bad list to start from, and you could easily go all the way with any of it. There's a few things on there that some thruhikers would get rid of or change, but really, most of that is personal preference.

If it were me, I'd consider switching out the stove for an alcohol stove, ditch the towel for a bandana, ditch the nalgene for a wide mouth soda bottle, and maybe consider another shelter (tarptent.com). Once you get your gear weight down, you can also think about another pack, but make sure to deal with the other things first.

[SalParadise]

wow, what does all that add up to?

you'll find you may end up dropping the water filter if your pack ends up pretty heavy.

switching from the Nalgene bottle to a gatorade bottle will save a couple ounces.

bring a couple of ounces of duct tape along with the stuff squid mentioned.

those Lightload towels are redundant with your REI towel, plus they disintegrate in the wash, anyway.

gloves?

[dloome]

Some WAY heavy/overkill stuff there. I don't know if you've bought all this gear yet, but here's my advice. Take a real hard look at your big 4: Pack, shelter, sleeping bag and pad. If you want to lighten up, this is where you can lose the most weight.

Pack- That's a REALLY heavy pack. There's plenty of comfortabe, supportive packs out there that weigh much less. You shouldn't be carrying 40 or 50 pounds on your back, so you shouldn't be carrying a pack that is designed to carry that much. Probably the best weight-comfort ratio out there IMO is Granite Gear packs. Tons of AT hikers use the Vapor Trail. I used the GoLite Jam on the AT.

Shelter- There are some really good tarp shelters and hybrid tarp/tents out there now. Check out Tarptents or some of the GoLite shelters. I used the GoLite Lair tarp on the entire AT and loved it. Just wear a headnet when the bugs are out.

Bag- Everyone sleeps differently, so there's not much I can say. Just get a good one, know how to keep it dry in your pack and while you're in it, (condensation) and take good care of it. Make sure there is not too much excess room when you're inside it. This will feel nice and roomy in a store, but it's more air for your body to heat up. Expect temperature ratings to be optimistic by around 10 degrees.

Pad- Foam pads are not as compact as an inflatable but weigh much much less and can be very comfy. They also won't puncture from a nailhead on a shelter floor. They're cheap. Check out the Thermarest RidgeRest or Gossamer Gear pads. Carry a short pad and use your pack or other stuff you're carrying anyway under your legs and feet. The Gossamer Gear Nightlite is quite comfortable and weighs less than 4 oz. in the torso length verison.

Other weight saving tips:

-The lightest gear is the stuff you don't carry. Lose anything unnecessary, trim margins off maps and guide books, trim excess webbing and cords off your pack, shorten laces, remove zipper leashes, anything. It adds up. Find multiple uses for anything possible. Be creative. Tarp stake as eating utensil anyone?

-Ditch the poop trowel, sticks are everywhere. Just MAKE SURE you dig an appropriately sized hole. This is still easily accomplished with a stick.

-AT water is generally REALLY nice and abundant. (Say, compared to AZ water :eek: ) You don't need a filter. Try Aqua Mira or a similar water treatment. You can find this stuff all over the place on the AT since there are frequent outdoor stores. If there's floaties, bugs or larvae etc. and you don't want to drink them, strain water through a bandana or something. Practically NO ONE finishes the AT with a filter.

-Ditch the towel. Look at all the fabric you're carrying anyway, just find an edge of a shirt, a bandana you're carrying anyway, something.

-Your hygiene/ appearance related stuff should be practically nothing. A couple ounces or less. Deodorant is useless against hiker stank. If you're carrying it, ditch your comb, mirror, soap, etc. If you are a thru hiker, you will stink and look like crap. Accept it. No one cares.

-1st Aid is a touchy subject, but I'd almost guarantee you won't use a third of the stuff you carry. Duct tape is the most versatile item of first aid you can bring. One thing you'll use is tweezers. Good for splinters and ticks.

-Replace Nalgene bottles with plastic soda bottles, like Aquafina or Gatorade. I have one now that I've had for over 3,000 miles of hiking. These things are durable (obviously) and weigh about 1-2 oz. each. For additional capacity use Platypus bladders which are really light and can hold boiling water.

-Check out an alcohol stove. This is a really cheap way to save weight since they cost practically nothing or are free if you make them yourself. Denatured alcohol and HEET is EVERYWHERE on the entire AT, so don't worry about not being able to find it. Store fuel in a small plastic soda bottle.

-5 lbs seems like a LOT for clothing. All you really need is 1 or 2 base layers, appropriate insulation for the season, lightweight raingear and extremities stuff- Hat, gloves/mittens. Forget town clothes or anything like that, if it's in your pack, it's gonna smell like crap. YOU'LL smell like crap. Putting on a clean shirt isn't going to help.

If you're more specific about what clothes you're bringing, we could probably help you out a lot more, since clothing tends to be a heavy group of equipment for newer backpackers.

Hope some of this helped, and good luck on your hike.

[iliketacos]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the comments and tips. I really need to rethink my gear, and no I haven't bought any gear beyound the pack and the jetboil. I actually had freezer bag ramen for dinner-yummy.

I like the granite gear pack, the vapor trail-the reason I passed on it the first time was that it did not have a sleeping bag compartment, I may need to rethink this. I took the top lid cover off the pack, the osprey 70 and weighed it, it comes in at about a pound-I may be able to lose that I guess since it serves no real function other then as a fanny pack and if it rains I will be using the pack cover anyway. So that would get my pack down to about 3.9 lbs. without taking anything else off it.


I'll repost when I get it sorted out, hopefully by the end of the week. Thanks a bunch you guys. :)

[Peaks]

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't see anything wrong with the proposed list. Sure, we could all make suggestions about this tent vs that tent, or this pack vs that pack. But, gear choices is an individual matter. If that's what size pack Tacos needs to carry the gear and it's comfortable, than it's appropriate. See how things work out, and then adjust based on your own experience.

And I do use a ground cloth under my tent to save the tent floor from wear and tear.

[hopefulhiker]

One thing is that I was surprised that most of the time. I could get by on carrying about 1.5 litres of water.

I just cameled up at the water source. Although conditions vary.

In the summer I had to carry up to four litres in some spots..

[SalParadise]

I added up what you had and it came to about a 23 pound base weight, so we're talking about 36 pounds fully loaded. That's not outrageously heavy, but it's definitely a lot. But totally doable, I had friends who hiked with as much (one who even had the same pack and tent).

You're still in a great position that you haven't bought a lot of your gear yet, and there's a ton of time before hiking season starts. so decide if you're good with hiking with 36 pounds, or if you decide you want to go lighter, I might recommend you do a search on this site and see other people's gear lists for ideas, too.

keep us updated. it's way better to change out any gear now than at Walasi-Yi, because we're not trying to sell you anything.

[Johnny Swank]

If you haven't already bought that gear, that changes things a little. Pick up one of Henry's tarptents from tarptents.com, carry Aqua-Mira, pick up a Vapor Trail (you put your sleeping bag in first thing in the morning, then never look at it again until night - the lack of a sleeping bag compartment is a GOOD thing), ditch the towels, ditch the Jetboil, ditch extra clothes, maybe get a down bag instead of that Pounder, etc. Go ahead a get the "standard" items that most thru-hikers are going with now instead of having to buy things twice.

[hopefulhiker]

Henry Shires Tarp Tent..... absoulutely

Aqua Mira........Good Choice, works fast, no bad taste, light weight.

alcohol instead of Jet Boil... personal preference but it is less weight...

Look into a lighter pack....

[Appalachian Tater]

Practically NO ONE finishes the AT with a filter.


Sure they do. They're heavy but have advantages.

[rafe]

They're heavy but have advantages.

That they do. Aqua-Mira won't deal with murky water that has stuff swilling in it. A filter will. A.M. will eventually kill all the little organisms within the murky stuff, but you'll then be drinking all their little dead bodies. :D

[SalParadise]

A.M. will eventually kill all the little organisms within the murky stuff, but you'll then be drinking all their little dead bodies. :D

protein. .

[Johnny Swank]

Man's gotta eat.

[rafe]

Man's gotta eat.


Organisms poisoned by halogens. Breakfast of champions!

[Johnny Swank]

Why poison? I like organic food myself.

[dloome]

That they do. Aqua-Mira won't deal with murky water that has stuff swilling in it. A filter will. A.M. will eventually kill all the little organisms within the murky stuff, but you'll then be drinking all their little dead bodies. :D

Hike long enough and you'll stop caring anyway. Seriously, compared to much of the U.S. AT water is quite gourmet for trail water, IMO you can drink the stuff right out of the ground half the time. As for larvae and things, just think of them as little animals. We eat animals all the time, no big deal. :) I recall ONE water source on the entire AT (in PA) that was murky enough that I didn't drink from it. Plus, it's the AT. It's not like you'll have to hike 25 miles to get to the next water. Call me crazy, but I think carrying a water filter on the AT is absurd, or at the very least, totally unnecessary in order to obtain clean, safe drinking water.

[hopefulhiker]

One time I had to move a frog out of the small puddle that was the remains of a spring to get the little water that was there during a dry spell

[Survivor Dave]

Good Luck on your upcoming hike.

First I want to say that the process of purchasing, testing, and overall planning I think is an important part of the AT experience.

Today I went to Mountain Crossings at Neels Gap to have my pack thouroughly "shook down"(is that a word?) by a former Thru-Hiker. I had done this about 6 months ago when I was green and stubborn. I have lost a lot of weight on crap I thought was a necessity. I lost the water filter and went to Aqua-Mira, I lost the Whisperlite stove and went to and Etowah alcohol stove, dumpmed the synthetic bag for a down bag and so on. Took both stoves outside in 15 degree weather and made my decision.

The biggest thing that has influenced me about my gear is "you gotta go out and play in the mud" and see how it does in the real hiking world. I found that doing a couple of 2-3 day hikes give a good idea of what works FOR YOU...FOR YOU....FOR YOU.

I admire your persistence to find the absolute best gear for YOUR hike. As you can see there are many folks willing to lend suggestions that are, for the most part worthy of listening to. But as I said, It's YOUR hike, don't forget to smell the roses, and remember that the gear doesn't hike for you, it only makes you think you can.

Hike on!!

Big Maguro

[aroth87]

I'm not expert on the conditions on the AT, but I'll throw out some suggestions anyway.
I would ditch the Nalgene for 1 liter soda bottles.
I use a tarp personally, but I've heard the Tarptents are a much better choice for the AT.
You can definitely find a lighter pack. The Vapor Trail seems to be very popular.
I've only used chemical treatments for my water and have never had any problems. Use your towel as a prefilter if you need to strain out floaties.
Ditch the ground cloth if you don't get a Tarptent.
I use alcohol stoves. You can use a Supercat, Ti mug, and windscreen and have a complete cook system for under 5 oz. You can go even lighter if use a tealight and beer can pot. All you're doing is boiling water for FBC, so no need for anything terribly fancy.
I'm sure all I did was restate what has already been expressed.

Adam

[iliketacos]

Ok, so I woke up in a sweat the other day after dreaming of numbers and more numbers, pack weight x-?=?, x+y+z.....holy crap I need to take a few days away from thinking about this stuff. But, I am here anyway checking posts...aaaahhhhh

:datz