Gear List Help: Great Smokey Mnt (Thomas Divide/Mingus Creek)

[Ricky&Jack]

On Saturday I am going on a 12mi hike in the Great Smokey Mountains, with the Chattanooga Hiking Club. It will be my first trip in the GSM.

Here is a description of the trail:


Here's the txt message the hike leader sent:


Here's a pic of my gear (minus change of clothes)

The gear is:
Water- 64oz
Gatorade- 2 bottles 32oz each (64oz total)
Trail mix- 6oz
Tuna Salad Packets- 4 backs, 3oz each (12oz total)
P3 protein pack- 2 packs, 2oz each (4oz)
Rev tortilla wrap- 2 packs, 3oz each (6oz total)
Peanut Butter- 2 packets, 1.15oz each (2.30oz total)

Things to note:

• I was told to bring THREE LITERS of water and 1-2 more of gatorade.. But my water bladder only hold 64oz (2litres), so I have 2 liters water and 2 liters of gatorade.
• My Food weighs 2 LBS
• Liquid weighs 128 ounces (8 lbs)
• Total pack weight with food and fluid is 13.4 lbs
• I'm 6ft 2inches and weight 260lbs
• All my food is high in protein. It all adds up to 127 grams of protein. Is that too much?

Is this too much food? (I plan on making belgian waffles etc as part of a big breakfast)
See anything I can/should take out?

Also, I'm not sure the weight limit for the pack. Is 13lbs what people usually carry in a day pack?

[HooKooDooKu]

It's just a day hike, and most of it is down hill. So the only thing you NEED is water.

So I would say that "yes you have more food than you need".

Assuming you are not eating breakfast or dinner on the trail, all you need is the equivalent to a packed lunch and some additional munchies to eat along the trail. But it's not going to hurt to have a little extra for just one day.
As for water, if you have a water filter like the Sawyer Mini, you won't need to carry enough water for the whole trip as you start out. It looks like you should be hiking right thru campsite 52 (Newton Bald). There is an excellent natural spring about 50' down the right-hand-side (from your direction of travel) ravine. So you could pack just enough water (and some spare) to get you to Newton Bald, then refill your water at the campsite.
As for energy drinks, rather than packing something like gatoraid itself, I like to get single-use packets of something like koolaid (which I've seen gatoraid packets at the store now too).

Based on what I know about my self, if I were doing this day-hike, I would pack my two 1L Smartwater bottles and my 16oz nalgene bottle. (The link shows a 700mL Smartwater bottle, but they come in 1L size as well... I like the smartwater bottles because they are lighter than say a gatoraid bottle of equivalent volume, but rugged enough to reuse). I keep my 16oz bottle handy, and refill from the 1L Smartwater bottles. I also mix the drink packets in the 16oz nalgene bottle. Once I get to the Newton Bald campsite, I would refill my water bottles. Even at that, since most the hiking is downhill from Newton Bald, I doubt I personally would manage to drink all that water (but then I usually don't manage to drink as much as I should when hiking).

The other items you are missing is rain gear (in GSMNP you ALWAYS carry rain gear, even when the forcast doesn't call for it, but this weekend, there is a 50% chance of rain). For a day hike, that can be as simple as one of those $1 garbage-sack ponchos.

Other items to consider is a 1st aid kit (but with such a large group, someone likely already has one... but then you shouldn't depend upon everyone else), and hiking stick or treking poles.

[Ricky&Jack]

Okay, thanks.

We have 22 people going (half up hill, half down.... Im choosing down) and I just didn't want to be the "new guy who packed wrong".

[HooKooDooKu]

Also, I'm not sure the weight limit for the pack. Is 13lbs what people usually carry in a day pack?

That's a typical base weight for many ultra-lite backpackers. But then we're not trying to be a backpacker this weekend.

In any case, 13lbs is only 5% of your body weight, so it's not a big deal.

[HooKooDooKu]

A piece of advice I failed to head from our bus driver when I went hiking in the Grand Canyon this year...

At the start of the day, go ahead and take some aspirin/pain killer.

As I understand, this is your first hike, and the distance as I calculate it is 11.6 miles PLUS a 3,000' foot decent. That's a long way for a first-timer. You WILL have sore calf muscles by the end of the day. (I know from all my experience hiking down the various path's from Mt. LeConte... as well as that 7 mile 4,000' decent at the Grand Canyon).

[Coffee]

Of the 13.4 pounds in your pack, over 8 pounds is attributable to liquids. I don't think it really makes much difference on a day hike, but the easiest way to trim some weight is to cut back on the liquids carried by taking some form of water treatment and verifying that water sources are available along the trail you are hiking.

On the food, my preference would be for more carbs but I don't think it much matters for a day hike. When I day hike, I pretty much eat what I normally would eat for lunch (a sandwich or two) and throw in a candy bar and maybe a bag of nuts or trail mix.

Have a great hike!

[RED-DOG]

WOW 12 miles thats alot more than your used to. I have hike these trails before and For me if i was doing this hike i would be taking, 2 32oz Gatorade bottles with some sort of water filtering device such as Aqua-mira ( they should be plenty of oppurtunities to refill ), Lunch with a few snacks ( you got too much food ), a poncho, Deet the BUGS will be out in force, a small first aid kit ( with a pack of water proof matches ), An extra pair of socks, My pack for this sort of hike would weigh around 8lbs but i would be hiking SOLO, just a reminder "Your Puppydog is not allowed in the park so don't take him".
But Bro you sure your gonna be able to handle it last time you didn't even make it to your final destination and it wasn't even 8 miles but this is 90% down hill so you might be alright.

[Ricky&Jack]

Yeah, without counting the accidental hiking I did In puerto Rico last year, all I have hiked recently was

Last month: Approach trail (Amicalola to Black gap shelter and back cause I didn't know how much further springer woulda been) 15mi round trip.
2 days ago: 5miles with chattanooga hiking club on the Pinhotti (Keown falls trail)
a few times a week do 1-3 laps on a 1.5mi trail we have near town.
and then this one tomorrow.

And yeah, i know I can't bring the dog there. Plus theres 22 of us taking 4 cars, and carpooling the 3hrs each way, anyway)

[HooKooDooKu]

...with some sort of water filtering device such as Aqua-mira ( they should be plenty of oppurtunities to refill ), ...

The intended route is almost all ridge walking, so you can't count on opportunities to refill your water bottles except at known springs or mountain side seeps.

So the only places I feel comfortable saying you should have no problem finding water are at Newton Bald Campsite and along the last 3 miles where the trail come off the ridges and follows a drainage.

[HooKooDooKu]

And yeah, i know I can't bring the dog there. Plus theres 22 of us taking 4 cars, and carpooling the 3hrs each way, anyway)

22 in 4 cars???
I hope more than one of those are either minivans or SUVs with 3rd row seating.

[Ricky&Jack]

yeah, Im told theres a van or two in there. I just call everything "car" after being a long haul truck driver for so long.

And you all rock on the info help.

[TNhiker]

as i said in the my post of the other thread on this hike----i would take your water filter with you.....

that way----you can use it out in the field and see how it works and all that...

same with the stove ya bought----at some point, you'll be eating lunch....

might as well try out the new stove out in the field as well..


that way, when you do an overnighter---you'll know how the gear works....

and have fun.........

you will be whupped...................guaranteed.....

[HooKooDooKu]

i would take your water filter with you

Ricky, do you have a water filter? If not, run to WalMart and pickup the Sawyer-Mini. It comes with a 16oz "dirty water" bag. For now, that's all you need to just start testing the water filter. Once you've tried it a few times, you'll likely make some changes to better suit your needs.

I, for example, do not like sitting at the water source, filling a small dirty water bag over and over, while I try to squeeze all that water to refill my larger water bottles.

So I instead got a 2L dirty water bag and a 2L Platypus Hoser. I replaced the hose on the platypus with something thinner, and punch a hole in the margins of the dirty water bag and put a string thru it. So now, when I'm at camp, I walk to the water source with only my 2L dirty water bag, fill it up, and return to camp. I then setup the filter with the two 2L bags as a gravity feed system. Then I do other camp tasks while my water filters.

[TNhiker]

i thought he said he bought one on the day he bought the alcohol stove...........

[HooKooDooKu]

Ricky,

How was the trip? Did you get much rain?
I was out that same day hiking between Strait Fork Rd and Peck's Corner Shelter. We had rain for about an hour, but never quite got hard enough to bother channing into rain gear.

[TNhiker]

Yeah....likewise, I wanna know.....surprised that it Monday evening and we hasn't heard how it went...

going over the gear list, and yeah, I know this is after the fact, and in GSMNP one really doesn't need it too much---I didn't see a map listed.....even a print out of the dollar map will do...

and the rain on Saturday---I was on lake santeetlah and got the same---about an hours worth of rain and heavy winds.......I was neck deep in the lake so I wasn't worried about getting wet from rain...

[HooKooDooKu]

...I didn't see a map listed.....even a print out of the dollar map will do...

You are right... but it was a group hike, so only the leader needs the map.

[TNhiker]

You are right... but it was a group hike, so only the leader needs the map.

ummmmmmmmmm......................not necessarily.....

this was a group hike of 22 people..............

you think they were all hiking at the same rate of speed?

you think all the people memorized the route?

[Venchka]

It is a National Park. The most heavily visited. The most heavily hiked. National Park.
I have hiked G.S.M.N.P. once. We had a road map to get us to our trailhead of choice. It was February. There was a foot of new snow. All the Flatland Rubberneckers were indoors. We had no map. We went in. We came out. Fabulous day. Done.

Wayne

[TNhiker]

while the chances of getting lost are slim----it still happens........

and for the cost and the weight of the map----its very minimal.......

doesnt hurt to have one in the pack, just in case....