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Hi All
I have questions about clothes....
My List
1 pr or 2 pr LS Base layer . how many pair? 1 pr for sleep 1 pr hike?
1 pr or 2 pr Bottoms Base layer
1 LS LW Shirt
1 pr Trek pants
3 pair socks
3 pair underwear
1 rain jacket
1 puffy jacket
1 pr shorts
1 LS fleece
1 beanie
1 gloves
2 camp towels 12x12
What am I missing??
I carry 2 sets. Depending on the time of year I have only carried 1 set and live in them, however that resulted in sitting in wet clothes which taught me to always have SOMETHING to change into.
I carry a pair of hiking shorts, and hiking shirt, exxficio underwear. A camp shirt that can also be used for hiking, and a pair of zip off pants. 2 pair of socks, (a wet pair and a dry pair). a puffy and rain jacket, running gloves, beanie, buff and leggings.
I would only bring 1 set of base layers and take them off while hiking. I would only bring 1 camp towel. I also bring 2 hankerchiefs and tie them onto my backpack straps while I hike. Wash them out in creeks.
Here's all I carried for my 2017 AT thru:
2 wool blend tshirts
1 LS wool shirt (sleep)
2 pair of boxers
1 pair of synthetic leggings (sleep)
1 pair of shorts
3 pairs of socks (1 for sleep)
1 lightweight Buff (sleep)
1 rain jacket
1 rain pant (useful if you dont carry other pants to hike in, otherwise, probably unnecessary)
1 fleece 1/4 zip
1 down puffy
-I dropped the fleece as soon as it warmed up, carried the puffy the whole way for mornings. Rain pants were sent home for the middle third. If I could posit one bit of advice to you, your clothes take up a lot of pack space and they're not particularly light all together. Try and pare down as much as you can (comfortably) and you'll be so happy a week or two in! Good luck!
I think you're overdoing it a bit, but I'd also just keep in mind that you can always start with all of that (assuming it fits in your pack) and pare it down once you know what you need.
I'd say only one set of baselayers. Especially since you're carrying a fleece, which is optional in my mind since you have a puffy, but some people like to hike in a fleece. If you have a LS and pants to hike with - which it looks like you do - you don't need hiking baselayers. If you're cold, put on your rain jacket.
3 socks and 3 underwear also seems like too much. I'd bring 2 socks and 1 underwear. And 1 towel.
Carry what you need to make YOU happy and comfortable. I wear wool socks with a toe sock liner. They get wet, so I have extras to rotate out. My feet get cold at night, so I have another pair of thick socks to sleep in. Being a woman, I don't like wearing the same underwear day after day, so I have at least one extra. You're not me, I'm not you. Get on the trail, and you'll figure out what you need.
What do you wear while hiking? the shorts? or leggings and shorts?Quote:
Originally Posted by Martzy13
Im going to be starting the AT on March 15thish
Coming from south Florida and hiking in March? Your gonna want some warm clothes for sure. At least to start. Eventually when the weather changes and you figure out your comfort level you can pare down.
I don't hike in base layers unless it's in the single digits. But you might want to. If you have 2 sets, make one light weight for hiking in (you don't need much) and a mid weight set for camp/sleeping.
I hike in a wicking T, I typically have two of these, in addition to the long sleeve base layer top.
For a long sleeve shirt, you want something which is almost a light jacket. I typically use a Dickie work shirt. Even though it has 60% cotton, it dries out reasonably quickly so long as it doesn't get totally soaked. It's reasonably wind proof and with a rain jacket outer layer, your good down into the low 40's for hiking. A light wool shirt/jacket is really nice to have for the extra layer.
I get away with 2 pair nylon briefs and 2 pair of socks, one worn, one spare or sleeping. But having three is good insurance. You probably live in shorts, but the AT in March and April is not the place for them. I'd leave them home.
I always have a couple of bandana's and a small camp towel.
I find a fleece neck warmer is nice to have in shoulder seasons. Helps keep a draft from going down your shirt.
Other then that, it looks to be a reasonable list If it's too much you can mail home. If it's not enough, there are people near-by who will sell you more.
Clothing lists are highly personal. It's hard to advise someone on clothing. But one of the better pieces of advice I've heard here, more of a guideline than an absolute, is that you should be able to wear all your packed clothing at the same time, in a coordinated layering system. So all your shirts should work together, for instance, and be different for different uses.
I've found I'm plenty comfortable with one pair of light nylon trekking pants and similar shirt in every season. In winter and shoulder seasons I may carry a pair of long underwear. Keeping covered means no insect repellent or sunscreen, a further weight savings. (And a one-ounce head net can be worth its weight in gold.)
Obtain a gram scale and weigh all your clothing. You may be surprised at the mass of a feather weight shirt. I found out that a warmer fleece hat weighed half as much as the watch cap I was going to pack. My heft test told me otherwise.
Clothing choices will also affect the size of the pack you need. Bulky fleece items will require a larger pack, adding more to your trip weight. All these additions may sound marginal, but apply each decision to dozens of items and it really starts to add up.
Lastly, consider that comfort has as much to do with experience as with the clothing you pack. Say you wake up and it's still raining. Everything you wore yesterday is damp or wet. Do you put on nice dry spare clothing, or bite the bullet and put on the wet stuff? Do you endure a few minutes of discomfort until your body heat warms up the damp stuff, or do you want to deal with two sets of wet clothing the next day?
This is why I am an advocate of only wearing 1 pair of socks (a second pair is used for sleeping).Quote:
Originally Posted by garlic08
Changing from your nice warm camp clothes into your cold, wet hiking clothes is the worst part of hiking in the early spring or late fall. But it has to be done. You don't want two sets of cold, wet clothes.
As has been said, look at your clothing as sets of hiking clothes and sleeping clothes. Your sleeping clothes are only worn in camp, or emergencies. I've found that if I sleep on my damp hiking clothes, they dry out fairly well. I hike in zip off pants, usually just the shorts. Long sleeve nylon shirt, short sleeve merino wool shirt from Ice breaker. If it's cooler, I'll wear my rain jacket, or wind shirt. This time of year, I'll bring rain pants and, maybe, a fleece jacket. Puffy stays in my pack, nice and dry with my quilt. I found this combination gave me the most flexibility for changing conditions and as garlic08 said, can all be worn together if crap really goes to hell.
You'll figure out what works for you
you definitely want to have clothes that dry easily. I hate hiking in wet, sweating clothes. Also, not trying to promote, but alpaca base layers are on sale at arms of andes site.
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Not trying to promote? Seriously?Quote:
Originally Posted by Arms of Andes
You’re probably carrying too much.
Clothing is probably the biggest area people over pack in, but once you get a few weeks in you’ll have a much better sense of what works and what’s superfluous.
I started with this in Mid March:
2 Patagonia lightweight capilene shirts (one hike one camp/town)
Patty thermal weight hoodie (mid layer)
Patty thermal weight leggings (never really hiked in these)
2 pair ex officio undies (hike/camp)
Wool beanie (for sleep, always too hot to hike in)
2 running shorts (hike/camp, though now I only carry the one pair)
3 socks, 2 hiking one sleep. After the first hiking pair wore out I only carried one for hiking, as others have said, because soon you’ll just be carrying 2 pairs of wet socks.
Wind jacket
Rain jacket
Rain pants (ugh, heavy but they were great in the smokies. If it dropped into the 20s I’d pull them on over my shorts. My leggings were only for camp by this point.)
Patty UL down hoody
After that first month the vast majority of the time I was hiking in shorts and tee, and if it got cold I’d throw the wind jacket on for a bit. For 3 ounces I love that thing.
I dropped the thermals and rain pants somewhere in Virginia and swapped from 20 degree quilts (hammocker) to 40s. What a wonderful day that was.
I would lean towards fewer; but then having grew up in N Wisconsin I usually hike in shorts when others are in long pants. As you can see from the responses, you will likely run into spare clothes in the hiker boxes along the first few states anyway. People will drop them as they get heavier and heavier relative to the amount they are used.
I second the suggestion of Icebreaker NZ merino wool for base layers. Not scratchy and no funk. We got head to toe merino goods: socks, long underware, ss and ls tops, and balaclavas. Wonderful stuff. Still good as new 10+ years later.
BTW I tried alpaca from Bolivia and I was turned off by the stink and lack of durability.