MilesD
11-28-2012, 19:22
I’m planning to hike the AT with my girlfriend this upcoming spring, starting in early may. Leaving from springer and seeing how it goes. These forums have been tremendously helpful it the opinions answers provided and I am now ready to snag a little of the sage wisdom around the scene.
A little background helps, I used to be a big hiker a few years back when I lived in Oregon truly dirt bagging with my steel toe boots, which doubled as work boots, wearing my Levi’s, packing a flannel my father passed down, expecting to make a campfire each night to cook while using wet sticks to or precarious stones to support parts of my 2 lbs mess kit. I have never in my life owned a piece of gear with a brand name on it. I used to pick a new stick as my hiking/trekking pole. I always had a DSL camera bag hanging from the back of my pack. These were the good old days, carrying 65 lbs on my back and running 22 miles on the PCT without knowing it could be any better. To be fair ignorance may be bliss.
Enter new me, my gear is gone. I’ve been living in the Caribbean on an island. I make good money so many of the items that I have listed are brand spanking new name brand stuff, the kinda things I used to resent as a poor logging kid. I want this hike to work and while I know gear is not the determining factor towards success, I can visualize how wonderful good gear would be. Best of all I have given myself a 1500 dollar budget for gear to prepare for the trail since my current gear is long lost. With my current gear list assuming I dirtbag and scrap a few options like usual. I think I can keep inside of this goal and in a decent weight range.
A lot of talk before this, here’s what get’s “unconventional”. I plan to finish the hike with my 60D carried inside of a chestpack, photography will be a major pursuit of mine on the trial and has always been a major contributing factor in why I hike. I also want to attempt the trail using my Chaco’s and when I can completely barefooted. I have seen nearly nothing in the forums regarding DSLR Thru hikers or Barefoot Through hikers. I already hike 2 miles of rough rocky terrain daily.
Anyways here’s the gear I have started looking at:
*=I have it it already and likely other substitutes. By no means does this mean it is out of discussion.
+=Really looking for advice
#’s=Looking for alternates, listed below or just advice.
Some rows contain my targets for those sections in weight and Price
Prices are based on the best sale price I've found to date.
The tent and cookware portions are going to be split between two of us.
What
Oz.
Price Found
Item
Footwear
48
50
Sandal*
32
0
Chaco Z/2 Unaweep
Sock+
3
16
Injinji Outdoor Quarter Wool
Base Layer
24
100
Shorts *
8
0
Columbia Barracuda Killer Shorts
Shirt *
4.2
0
Haelum Faran T-Shirt
LJ top+
5
73.81
IceBraker Bodyfit 260 tech top
LJ Bottom+
5
39.50
REI Midweight polartec
Mid-Layer
32
200
Down Jacket + 1
8.5
139.5
Patagonia UL Down Jacket
Gloves
1.8
21.75
OR PL150
Pant +
13.5
55.3
Patagonia Roving Cargo
Beanie
3
19.97
OR Flurry Beanie
Rain Layer
24
50
Jacket*
13.1
0
Patagonia Rain Torrent
Pant +
8.2
69.97
MH Epic Pants
Main Gear
Backpack 2
25.2
168.75
Gorilla 2012 UL BP
Tent 3
64
262.47
MSR Hubba Hubba 2p
Sleeping pad +
11
125.39
Thermarest Neo-air Xtherm
Sleeping Bag +
24
195
EE Revelation x20degree 30% overfill
Kitchen
Stove
3
34.71
MSR Pocket Rocket
Water Filter +
3.8
59.98
Steripen adventurer opti
Mess kit +
28
75.54
MSR quick 2 system
Misc
Poles + 4
10.2
175
Goassemer LT/4
Headlamp
2.9
31.86
Princton Tec Remix
Stuff Sacks
1
1
Trash Compactor bags
Knife
2.1
34.95
Leatherman Squirt PS4
Lighter?
2
39.99
Windmill Delta Stormproof
Towel?
5
15.20
Micronet Microfiber
First-aid
25
0
Homemade
Camera Rig
80
150
Chestpack 5
16
68
Camera
26.6
0
60D W/ Bat+Card
Lens
16
0
18-135mm
Spare Batteries
5.8
31.98
Wasabi Battery X2
Charger
8
0
Canon Charger
Pole mount 1 +
.3
15
Lighttrek Mount
Pole mount 2 +
.4
13.99
Stick pic
Tossed between down and synthetic. Really looking into the montbell UL alpine down parka.
I like this pack or the ULA Catalyst would love some opinions
I like this or the SMD Lunar Duo
These poles are important because they have the screw-in camera mounts, any other pole with a similar mount would be sufficient. I’ve never used poles before so this is a new territory for me.
A chestpack for me is new territory, after using a dangle bag for my camera in the past I was concerned about protection and most of all accessibility. I missed many shot from simply not carrying my camera in a convenient spot. If anybody has advice on heavy camera packs during thru-hikes I could use it. This is a make-or-break factor.
So lots of room for advice and no-one will offend me. Obviously the barefoot and camera factors should raise the biggest eyebrows. Well let me know what you guys think.
A little background helps, I used to be a big hiker a few years back when I lived in Oregon truly dirt bagging with my steel toe boots, which doubled as work boots, wearing my Levi’s, packing a flannel my father passed down, expecting to make a campfire each night to cook while using wet sticks to or precarious stones to support parts of my 2 lbs mess kit. I have never in my life owned a piece of gear with a brand name on it. I used to pick a new stick as my hiking/trekking pole. I always had a DSL camera bag hanging from the back of my pack. These were the good old days, carrying 65 lbs on my back and running 22 miles on the PCT without knowing it could be any better. To be fair ignorance may be bliss.
Enter new me, my gear is gone. I’ve been living in the Caribbean on an island. I make good money so many of the items that I have listed are brand spanking new name brand stuff, the kinda things I used to resent as a poor logging kid. I want this hike to work and while I know gear is not the determining factor towards success, I can visualize how wonderful good gear would be. Best of all I have given myself a 1500 dollar budget for gear to prepare for the trail since my current gear is long lost. With my current gear list assuming I dirtbag and scrap a few options like usual. I think I can keep inside of this goal and in a decent weight range.
A lot of talk before this, here’s what get’s “unconventional”. I plan to finish the hike with my 60D carried inside of a chestpack, photography will be a major pursuit of mine on the trial and has always been a major contributing factor in why I hike. I also want to attempt the trail using my Chaco’s and when I can completely barefooted. I have seen nearly nothing in the forums regarding DSLR Thru hikers or Barefoot Through hikers. I already hike 2 miles of rough rocky terrain daily.
Anyways here’s the gear I have started looking at:
*=I have it it already and likely other substitutes. By no means does this mean it is out of discussion.
+=Really looking for advice
#’s=Looking for alternates, listed below or just advice.
Some rows contain my targets for those sections in weight and Price
Prices are based on the best sale price I've found to date.
The tent and cookware portions are going to be split between two of us.
What
Oz.
Price Found
Item
Footwear
48
50
Sandal*
32
0
Chaco Z/2 Unaweep
Sock+
3
16
Injinji Outdoor Quarter Wool
Base Layer
24
100
Shorts *
8
0
Columbia Barracuda Killer Shorts
Shirt *
4.2
0
Haelum Faran T-Shirt
LJ top+
5
73.81
IceBraker Bodyfit 260 tech top
LJ Bottom+
5
39.50
REI Midweight polartec
Mid-Layer
32
200
Down Jacket + 1
8.5
139.5
Patagonia UL Down Jacket
Gloves
1.8
21.75
OR PL150
Pant +
13.5
55.3
Patagonia Roving Cargo
Beanie
3
19.97
OR Flurry Beanie
Rain Layer
24
50
Jacket*
13.1
0
Patagonia Rain Torrent
Pant +
8.2
69.97
MH Epic Pants
Main Gear
Backpack 2
25.2
168.75
Gorilla 2012 UL BP
Tent 3
64
262.47
MSR Hubba Hubba 2p
Sleeping pad +
11
125.39
Thermarest Neo-air Xtherm
Sleeping Bag +
24
195
EE Revelation x20degree 30% overfill
Kitchen
Stove
3
34.71
MSR Pocket Rocket
Water Filter +
3.8
59.98
Steripen adventurer opti
Mess kit +
28
75.54
MSR quick 2 system
Misc
Poles + 4
10.2
175
Goassemer LT/4
Headlamp
2.9
31.86
Princton Tec Remix
Stuff Sacks
1
1
Trash Compactor bags
Knife
2.1
34.95
Leatherman Squirt PS4
Lighter?
2
39.99
Windmill Delta Stormproof
Towel?
5
15.20
Micronet Microfiber
First-aid
25
0
Homemade
Camera Rig
80
150
Chestpack 5
16
68
Camera
26.6
0
60D W/ Bat+Card
Lens
16
0
18-135mm
Spare Batteries
5.8
31.98
Wasabi Battery X2
Charger
8
0
Canon Charger
Pole mount 1 +
.3
15
Lighttrek Mount
Pole mount 2 +
.4
13.99
Stick pic
Tossed between down and synthetic. Really looking into the montbell UL alpine down parka.
I like this pack or the ULA Catalyst would love some opinions
I like this or the SMD Lunar Duo
These poles are important because they have the screw-in camera mounts, any other pole with a similar mount would be sufficient. I’ve never used poles before so this is a new territory for me.
A chestpack for me is new territory, after using a dangle bag for my camera in the past I was concerned about protection and most of all accessibility. I missed many shot from simply not carrying my camera in a convenient spot. If anybody has advice on heavy camera packs during thru-hikes I could use it. This is a make-or-break factor.
So lots of room for advice and no-one will offend me. Obviously the barefoot and camera factors should raise the biggest eyebrows. Well let me know what you guys think.