Useful Google Map Tool for AT Hikers

[oshkoshbjosh123]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I will be thru-hiking this year and will be leaving for Springer on Feb 17th. I thought I would throw together a little website to make it easier for my family and friends to follow us on our trek. It turns out that my work resulted in a pretty nice google map of the trail and shelters. Unlike other AT google maps out there, the resolution of the trail as well as the number of shelters displayed changes automatically as you zoom in and out. This keeps the map relatively fast while also allowing you to see the trail at the highest resolution available. I wanted to share it with all of you in case you found it valuable in planning. Let me know if you have any problems or if you have a feature request.

Also, my wife and I will be posting our journal entries on our website AND trailjournals.com in case you want to follow us.

Heres the website: www.fivemillionsteps.com
Click the "Map of AT" link on the left side and ENJOY!
oh and... don't forget to sign the guestbook

SEE YOU ALL ON THE TRAIL!

-Josh

[HikerRanky]

In a word, WOW!!!!

Very impressive website work there.... I would suspect that building in links to TJ or PH for your journal entries would be a very cool feature on something like this....

Randy

[swellbill]

Wow Very nice work

[Thoughtful Owl]

Awesome job. Thanks for sharing. Will look forward to following your walk in the woods.

[fivel]

Yeah, this is extremely awesome. I have seen some pretty fancy google maps work but this takes the cake. In fact, I'm forwarding it on to those fancy pants so that they can take notes. Rock on!

[The Old Fhart]

That looks so great that I'm sure a lot of us will try to emulate it and claim it was our idea! Thanks for sharing.

[BR360]

Great map! Very impressive website, too.

On another note, I checked out your gear list. Maybe you are happy with it, but IMHO it sure seems heavy. Maybe it is just your "winter" list? If you are interested in finding out some ways to cut weight, this site is full of it.

Any rate, have a great hike! If it's OK I'll be checking your website for your progress.

[oshkoshbjosh123]

Yeah, my wife and I both know that our packs are just too heavy. We certainly plan on shipping back a lot of stuff once winter is behind us. If it was your pack, what would you leave behind? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Great map! Very impressive website, too.

On another note, I checked out your gear list. Maybe you are happy with it, but IMHO it sure seems heavy. Maybe it is just your "winter" list? If you are interested in finding out some ways to cut weight, this site is full of it.

Any rate, have a great hike! If it's OK I'll be checking your website for your progress.

[Jaybird62]

Awesome map. Thanks for sharing, and happy trails to both you and your wife.

[BR360]

Josh, what you carry is a personal thing. So no matter whose opinion is offered (especially mine), you have to be the one to judge if your rig "works for you."

Many people will have opinions, and many of them will sound more sure of themselves than you are. (There's an ironic trend here on WB about "Hike-Your-Own-Hike,"... but if you do it your way, and not MY WAY, then you are an idiot.) Everybody will have an opinion. What works for them may not work for you and Amanda. And remember that everything is a trade-off.

If I were going to focus on losing weight out of your pack, the first thing to look at is the "Big Four" pack, tent, bag, pad.

Your packs are very nice, but many who thru the AT use much lighter packs, such as the Granite Gear Vapor Trail, at 32 ozs. Of course, you have to carry less gear, but that right there would knock off 5 pounds. (If you want a large capacity ultralight pack, the Granite Gear Nimbus Ozone weighs only 3# and has 3800 cub. inches. They make women's versions too. That could get almost 3 lbs off Amanda's back.

Another place to drop weight is in your tent. Many options to get your per person tent-weight down. You could drop 1#10ozs. by going with an MSR Hubba Hubba instead. It is a highly regarded ultralight tent for 2. Skip a "footprint" to save weight.

Amanda's bag seems fine. Your bag seems heavy. The REI Sub-Kilo is rated at 20dF and weighs 29 ozs. That would save you almost 2 lbs. right there. If you and Amanda's bags zip together, you can get by with a less-warm bag for those cold nights. Drop the bag liners, or carry just one. That would be another 8-16 ozs.

Sleeping pads. ProLite Short weighs 17 ozs. Use that plus a small section of blue Foam pad for your feet (at 4 ozs.) and you save another pound +. You can also use the short section of foam to sit on when taking breaks, cooking, etc.

I'd look at carrying a small back-up alcohol stove, for when it is rainy and you don;t want to spend time in the rain collecting wood. Nothing wrong with a Bush-Buddy, from what I can tell (tho there are other, lighter options for wood stoves). Check out http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm . The SuperCat is super-easy to make and super light.

Clothing: Overall, looks good. Use of wool is especially good. But I would question that MH Windstoppr. MH Compressor would be lighter by 6 ozs., and more stuffable.

Boots may be overkill. Seems like most folks are using trail shoes. there's that old adage that "an ounce on the foot is like a pound on the back." Not sure if that ratio is accurate, but the principle is sound. Once you get through to mid-April and the possible snows of the Smokies, Roan Highlands and Mt. Rogers, think about switching to something like (example) Salomon XA Pro 3d XCR Trail Running Shoes at 30 ozs. This would save over a pound.

So, with these suggestions, you could save about 15 lbs. + footwear weight.

Somethings to think about....

[Kerosene]

Gear list suggestions:

Consider going with the TorsoLite instead of the ProLite 3s, and use your empty Nimbus Ozone pack under your feet if needed.

Take a look at the TarpTent Squall 2 and SMD Lunar Duo to save even more weight over the MSR Hubba-Hubba, albeit with a need to manage condensation more often.

Trail runners versus boots are an ongoing debate. I love the light weight, but they just don't protect my feet enough; something I've heard from other thru-hikers who switched over to boots because their feet were so banged up. A nice compromise for me was the Garmont Eclipse low-top boot with a little more protection.