Am I Missing Anything?

[sleeman13]

So here is my finalized gear list. This is EVERYTHING that I will be packing. If you see anything that I’m missing or any ways to lighten my load, all suggestions are welcome. Weights are in ounces to the right of the listed gear.

CLOTHES: In Pack
-EMS Powerstretch Gloves (2.3)
-LL Bean Long Underwear (5.3)
-Mountain Hardwear Balaclava (1.4)
-Baseball Cap (3.0)
-Patagonia Micro Puff Vest (11.4)
-New Balance Running Shorts (3.6)
-Under Armor Polyester Shirt (9.5)
-LL Bean Thermal Underwear Top (10.8)
-Marmot Precip Rain Jacket (12.5)
-Bandana (1.4)
-LL Bean 3/4 Wool Sock (2.5)
-WalMart Crocs (13.2)

Total: 76.9 oz. / 4.806 lbs.

CLOTHES: To Wear
-Bandana (1.4)
-LL Bean CoolMax T-Shirt (5.3)
-EMS Scout Pants (12.2)
-Patagonia Briefs (2.7)
-LL Bean 3/4 Wool Sock (2.5)
-Pacerpoles (23.4)
-Northface Ultra 104 Trail Runners (36.4)

Total: 83.9 oz. / 5.244 lbs.

BIG 4
-Tarptent Sublite (18.5)
-Groundsheet (?)
-GG Vapor Trail (38.4)
-EMS 20̊ Down Bag (34.3)
-Therm-A-Rest Z-Lite (15.0)

Total: 106.2 oz. / 6.638 lbs.

COOKING
-Starlyte Alcohol Stove (0.6)
-Katadyn ProHiker Microfilter (13.4)
-Snow Peak Cook Set (7.3)
-Spork (0.4)
-BIC Lighter x2 (0.8)
-Gerber Paraframe Knife (1.4)

Total: 23.9 oz. / 1.494 lbs.

HYGIENE/PERSONAL CARE
-First-Aid Kit (7.3)
-Hand Sanitizer (2.3)
-Eyeglasses w/ Case (5.1)
-Toothpaste (1.2)
-Floss (0.6)
-Chapstick (0.3)
-Toothpaste (0.3)
-Saline Solution (?)

Total: 17.1 oz. / 1.069 lbs.

READING/WRITING
-Maps (4.8)
-Thru-Hikers Companion (5.0)
-Journal (4.0)
-Pencil (0.2)
-Book (6.1)

Total: 20.1 oz. / 1.256 lbs.

COVERS/SACKS
-Dry Sack x3 (3.7)
-Sea-To-Summit Stuff Sack (0.7)
-Sea-To-Summit Pack Rain Cover (3.7)

Total: 8.1 oz. / .506 lbs.

OTHER
-PETZEL Headlamp (2.7)
-Mini Camera TriPod (1.8)
-Canon SD1000 Digital Camera (6.1)
-30' Rope (1.2)
-Platypus 2L (1.3)
-Camelback 70 Omega (7.3)
-Camelback Water Filter Adapter

Total: 20.4 oz. / 1.275 lbs.

[think0075]

i would drop the water filter, ultimately they are just a pain, they break clog, stop working. they're bulky and heavy. go buy some aqua mira, and when you run out save the bottles and pop the top, rinse them out, and go to a restaurant whenever your in town and ask the waitress if she would be kind enough to fill the bottles up with bleach, and after that all * need is three drops of bleach to every liter of water, and let sit for 15 minutes. no pumping required. and its cheap. and light.

[Blissful]

When are you leaving? I think you're gonna be cold in camp with just a vest and no outer jacket. Depends though on your start date. It can get to teens and single digits march to early April. I'd put the vest in later, drop one long sleeve shirt (if the underarmor shirt is long sleeve - you don't say) and carry an insulating jacket.
Are the scout pants convertible? If so, don't need shorts.
Two pairs of socks is not enough, IMO
What do you need saline soluton for? Contacts? Make sure you birng your prescription with you.

[Chip]

I would keep the filter. I own a Pur Hiker filter, never had a problem in the 12 years of use on the AT, Smokies, Pisgah NF just to name a few of the many backpacks I have done. Just change out the filter when needed (based on your use). :)

[sleeman13]

blissful, i've been debating whether to bring a fleece or not. as my departure date (march 15th) gets closer, i'm starting to reconsider not bringing it. at the moment i have a long sleeve under armor shirt, vest, and expedition weight thermal long underwear top.

the scout pants are not convertible, but there' really light weight, as are my shorts.

the saline solution is for my contacts. i'm planning on going with the night and day contacts that can be left in for a month.

[asm109]

Do you have rain pants?

Whenever I hike without rain paints the water runs down my legs and fills up my water proof boots. GRRRRRRR!

You also have toothpaste listed twice.

[sleeman13]

one of the toothpaste's is supposed to be toothbrush.

and i'm not planning on bringing rain pants because whenever i wear them, i just sweat like a pig, which defeats the purpose.

[Feral Bill]

i would drop the water filter, ultimately they are just a pain, they break clog, stop working. they're bulky and heavy. go buy some aqua mira, and when you run out save the bottles and pop the top, rinse them out, and go to a restaurant whenever your in town and ask the waitress if she would be kind enough to fill the bottles up with bleach, and after that all * need is three drops of bleach to every liter of water, and let sit for 15 minutes. no pumping required. and its cheap. and light.


Bleach is not not not[/*] an adequate water purifier! Aqumira is chemically different. Filter or use a chemical that will work. Or else take your chances.

[Mango]

I suggest eliminating the following: headlamp, shorts, maps, tripod (10.2 total).

I would add a Photon micro-lite (0.2), extra camera battery, and extra memory card (~0.7 combined).

Net savings ~9.3 oz.

[WILLIAM HAYES]

Consider adding lightweight rain pants Like precips I have wetted out hiking pants several times in snow and cold freezing rain and have found that my precips have saved my butt several times you can also slip them on at nite when it gets cold and windy. another option is you can add them to your sleeping clothes if it gets really really cold and everything including your bag does keep you warm enough. just my thoughts see you down the trail

[sleeman13]

Mango, the only thing i could see myself parting with is the tripod. My camera weight includes 2 batteries and 3 2GB memory cards.

[think0075]

Bleach is
not not not[/*] an adequate water purifier! Aqumira is chemically different. Filter or use a chemical that will work. Or else take your chances.
well maybe its not chemically the same as aquamira but i used it for over half my trip and i didn't catch any disease or parasite. aquamira is basically chlorine, similar to what they treat pools with, bleach is really not that far off. and is a perfectly good substitution for aquamira.

[Feral Bill]

well maybe its not chemically the same as aquamira but i used it for over half my trip and i didn't catch any disease or parasite. aquamira is basically chlorine, similar to what they treat pools with, bleach is really not that far off. and is a perfectly good substitution for aquamira.

Aquamira is chlorine dioxide, a different chemical that kills with released elemental oxygen.

The hazards of untreated may be overstated. You were lucky, just like the many people who don't treat water at all.

[theinfamousj]

Bleach is sodium hypochlorite. Aquamira is chlorine dioxide. Because of the different geometries and bonding properties that the different chemicals have, they interact differently with the different chemicals, biologicals, and virii in water.

That said, as I explain to students who want to eat the sodium chloride (table salt) found in the lab: chemicals that are not expected to be used for human consumption are filled with all sorts of crap, dirt, poisons, and other things that must be removed in order to get a food grade rating.

Maybe you are willing to introduce unknown contaminants into your body through use of non-food-grade bleach. Maybe you are willing to potentially overpay to be sure to get something which is much more pure, and much cleaner. Maybe the contaminants will never hurt you. Maybe they will.

Having worked, for my college time, in a water quality analysis lab, I'd use bleach as a last resort. I've seen the interesting (and by interesting, I mean :eek: ) compounds that it creates when mixed with the biological "gunk" (we called it HMA - humic acid) found in natural water sources. Oxygenating water (which is how chlorine dioxide works) creates none of these interesting compounds. Long before my mind gets around to which wee beasties are killed, I'm already on the chlorine dioxide team just in terms of which byproducts are/aren't created.

Which is all to say, sleeman13, your choice of water treatment (so long as you are treating your water in some way) is a personal decision and while we all have our own preferences, you should be sure to make the one you are confident about. A water filter's worst qualities are that it has the potential to clog and that it is heavy. But it definitely is safe.

[gregugadawg]

The question shouldn't be whether or not you can use bleach to treat water because the fact is most major water treatment facilities use bleach to treat water. The thing is you have to get the water to a certain ppm of chlorine in order for it to be safe, also you need to be at this level for a certain period of time, normally measured in hours not minutes. It takes almost 12 hours to kill crypto. If you want a method that will truly kill anything then you need to get UV.

[theinfamousj]

Also should be noted, that municipal water treatments plants use multi-stage disinfectant (which is impractical in the back country) from a variety of sources, including: UV, ozonation, chloramines, or free radical chlorine. (The latter two are yet two new chemicals that contain the element chlorine.)

And if you read your water treatment, even iodine and chlorine dioxide tablets say to give the chemicals 4 hours to kill crypto and giardia. 30 minutes to kill everything but those.

[gregugadawg]

Actually thinking back they may not actually initially treat it with bleach, because I think they do use UV or Ozonation to treat it. They use some form of chlorine (which is what bleach is) to keep the water clean as it is pumped throughout the city. I know from the pool business if I test a sample of water straight out of the tap that it will normally show .5ppm of chlorine.

[q-tip]

My thoughts are somewhat simpler, water is critical to my basic well being on a daily basis. The pills weigh next to nothing. Bottom line-Don't Run Out.

[The Weasel]

I don't see a mini-repair kit. I would include:

- Darning needle (has larger eye, accepts floss as thread)
- 6" of ripstop tape
- Duct tape (may have missed that on your list), about 6' wrapped around something
- 2 small safety pins, 1 large safety pin

Total weight for this is about 4 oz.

[The Weasel]

I don't see a mini-repair kit. I would include:

- Darning needle (has larger eye, accepts floss as thread)
- 6" of ripstop tape
- Duct tape (may have missed that on your list), about 6' wrapped around something
- 2 small safety pins, 1 large safety pin

Total weight for this is about 4 oz.

Also didn't see "knife". Use the very small Swiss (remove toothpick, not needed) which has blade, nail file (useful for repair), small scissors (essential in a million ways), total weight 1 oz.

[BrianLe]

The Weasel might be talking about the Wenger Esquire knife --- that's 1.8 oz, however, I don't know of a 1.0 oz knife with the features he lists.

I personally wouldn't be happy with a lot of my warmth layer stuff being long underwear and thermal underwear top --- a full pound for the two of them. My own preference is for no long underwear, but instead to get my warmth from things I can easily don & doff without having to deal with other clothes I might already be wearing. If money isn't a big factor, that 10.8 oz thermal underwear top could be replaced by, say, a Montbell Thermawrap jacket for roughly the same weight (mine in size medium is 9.9 oz). Definitely differences of opinion in this stuff, however.

I agree with you on the shorts, if they're really light weight, though my personal experience last year (PCT, not AT) was wearing long pants all the time on the trail but using the shorts in town when I was washing clothes --- handy for that, though, and mine served as backup underwear as well as pants.

I'm sure you have or will read the suggestion in other threads to ditch the Crocs, and FWIW, I agree.

Earplugs? Pillow of some sort? Windscreen for stove?

"Book" at 6.1 oz --- my guess is that you'll meet enough people and between walking, talking, eating, and sleeping you won't be inclined to read much, apart from perhaps in trail towns and maybe not even then. But you can always dump it en route too, so no biggie.

[The Weasel]

The Weasel might be talking about the Wenger Esquire knife --- that's 1.8 oz, however, I don't know of a 1.0 oz knife with the features he lists. ***.

I have a Victorinox Classic, from which I've removed the ring and the toothpick. It has 1) blade, 2) file with screwdriver, 3) scissors, 4) tweezers. Google shows (multiple places) that its weight is ".04 pound" which comes to under and ounce. I think that's accurate. Most weight-efficient item in my bag.

TW

[optimator]

I have a Victorinox Classic, from which I've removed the ring and the toothpick. It has 1) blade, 2) file with screwdriver, 3) scissors, 4) tweezers. Google shows (multiple places) that its weight is ".04 pound" which comes to under and ounce. I think that's accurate. Most weight-efficient item in my bag.

TW

I carry the same knife. I just weighed mine (without the key ring) and it was .7oz / 20 gms

[Saint Alfonzo]

Along with your glasses perscription, get a list of any meds. you may be using from your pharmacy. And dont forget your medical insurance info.

[Lilred]

You might be wise to bring sunscreen. There are no leaves on those trees, and the sun will bake you. I've seen 60* days in March. Only time I ever burned the tops of my ears was hiking. Depends on your susceptibility to sunburn.

I use a filter. Still can't get beyond the floaties. I read a trail journal once where a girl had filled her nalgene, treated it with some chemical and 20 minutes later she noticed all these black spots on the inside of her nalgene. Turned out to be itty bitty snails. Nope, I'm gonna filter. Wait till you get to VA with all the dead caterpillars floating in the water, not to mention all the caterpiller poop. You'll be borrowing someone's filter....

One way to save your filter is to bring along a collapsable water bucket of some kind. Fill it, wait a few minutes for silt to settle, then filter from the bucket. No clogs and saves my filter for a very long time. I have a sea to summit 3 gallon bucket. It weighs 4.5 oz and folds down to the size of a pack of cigs. When I get to camp, I fill it once, hang up and use if for dinner, breakfast, washing up and gets me enough water to start my hike the next day. I love this piece of gear and it has made my camp chores much easier.

[road.born.orphan]

office depot has 8gig cards on sale right now for 15$.