Should I plan to ruin all my gear?

[Many Walks]

We took good care of our gear along the way and after some cleaning and maintenance it's fun to use it after so many miles. We wouldn't throw away an old friend who went many miles with us and got a bit tired and worn.

[Brock]

I hate to admit this, but 4 years after finishing the AT, I'm still using the 2 pair of wool socks I used on the trail. They lasted me the whole trail and still to this day.
The liner socks got trashed after a month or so of use.
My Columbia rain jacket smells like smoke so bad its only useful for camping.
My Tarptent tent bag has holes in it but the tent is in great shape. A small hole or two in the floor have developed since the trail which is my fault for not using a ground cloth.
All my clothes (mostly Columbia) are still in great shape except the crotch of my pants finally gave out. I still wear the tshirts, long sleeves, hat, coat, long underwear, underwear, etc.
Of course my shoes never lasted.
My spork finally broke in half.
My trekking poles broke several times and were replaced by Leki each time. In fact, the winter after returning home, I broke the screw on the wrist strap and Leki sent me another set of brand new poles.
I used 2 different sleeping bags and both are still in use.
I still have the original bottle of Polar Pure that is still usable.
My Granite Gear pack has some holes developing on the bottom pockets, but still very usable.

All in all, I'd say that the majority of my gear has lasted me well past the 2200 AT miles. All except the obvious stuff you'd expect to wear out.

[Miner]

For those of you who have done a thru-hike and replacement cost for gear wasn't an issue, did it make sense to keep your stuff or just get new gear afterwards?

Other then socks, shoes and a ripped out at the crotch pair of pants, all my gear that I used to thru-hike the PCT is in excellent condition. While money isn't an issue, I had no good reason to replace any of it. That is, all the gear that made it home; I did lose a few items during the hike that had to be replaced along the way.

[MotoGypsy]

I hate to admit this, but 4 years after finishing the AT, I'm still using the 2 pair of wool socks I used on the trail. They lasted me the whole trail and still to this day.
The liner socks got trashed after a month or so of use.
My Columbia rain jacket smells like smoke so bad its only useful for camping.
My Tarptent tent bag has holes in it but the tent is in great shape. A small hole or two in the floor have developed since the trail which is my fault for not using a ground cloth.
All my clothes (mostly Columbia) are still in great shape except the crotch of my pants finally gave out. I still wear the tshirts, long sleeves, hat, coat, long underwear, underwear, etc.
Of course my shoes never lasted.
My spork finally broke in half.
My trekking poles broke several times and were replaced by Leki each time. In fact, the winter after returning home, I broke the screw on the wrist strap and Leki sent me another set of brand new poles.
I used 2 different sleeping bags and both are still in use.
I still have the original bottle of Polar Pure that is still usable.
My Granite Gear pack has some holes developing on the bottom pockets, but still very usable.

All in all, I'd say that the majority of my gear has lasted me well past the 2200 AT miles. All except the obvious stuff you'd expect to wear out.

Dang Brock, that is motivating... as I watch my growing $$ total go up! I guess it makes sense to invest in the good stuff from the start.

[Roche]

Any ratty old piece of gear should end up where?
a) garage
b) landfill

In which one of the above two choices does the ratty old piece of gear not remain on the planet?

Extra credit: Read and explain The Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy.

Class dismissed. Now go back hiking!

[10-K]

If you spotted a $400 sleeping bag in there with a slight odor somehow I think you might just spend $5 to wash it and see if you could'nt get the smell out. Used old footwear? yes, probably best to toss.

Donate your footwear! I go through 1 pair of running shoes every month. I toss them in a box and haul them to a place that collects shoes for the homeless.

[Rockhound]

Donate your footwear! I go through 1 pair of running shoes every month. I toss them in a box and haul them to a place that collects shoes for the homeless.

My church shoes sure.(Good as new) Hiking footwear? Another story. When I'm done with em' even homeless people look at my feet and say, "Damn brother! you need some new shoes".

[emerald]

I freely admit to having not read the ENTIRE thread, but it doesn't really matter since I post based upon my own experience of closing in on 49 years, rather than what's been posted.

Your short answer is nothing lasts forever and you should expect to plan on rendering your entire A.T. through hike outfit useless and worthless. That said, you might still own some things bought today 25 years from now, if you take proper care of them.

I still use a few things I carried on my 1980 GAME hike. If you are as fortunate, consider yourself blessed.

Many things today are built lighter to reduce the costs involved with production and to meet the demands of a limited and small market. It would not surprise me were these offerings to not last as long as what I bought, but they're what a market which shops based upon weight and price demands.

Whether or not these products provide value in the longer term only time will tell.

[JAK]

I am not sure which is worse, buying stuff we don't need, or throwing it out when it still has value. All things, including our stuff, should be part of natural sustainable lifecyles, not arbitrary ones. Hopefully we might learn something when we walk through nature, or perhaps they should reroute the AT through a landfill site.

[kanga]

i'm sure it would cut down on the windchill.

[sbhikes]

Between wear and tear and odor, I'm thinking there's a good chance I'll toss a lot of my gear (sleeping bag, clothes, rain clothes, backpack)...

For those of you who have done a thru-hike and replacement cost for gear wasn't an issue, did it make sense to keep your stuff or just get new gear afterwards?

I'm sure my answer will get lost in the din, but I didn't have to replace any of it after I got home. I don't think stuff gets ruined as much as you think it will.

I still wear my down jacket and both windbreakers that I used. I simply washed them. They look, smell and feel just like brand new.

Oddly my sleeping bag had no odor at all. I washed it after my first hike, but after my second hike I didn't wash it. I left it out in the sun for half a day and I swear to you there is no odor.

My backpack does stink. I washed it and it still stinks. But since I stink when I go backpacking anyway, I'm not going to throw it away.

I still wear the last pair of hiking shoes I wore on the trail. I washed them when I got home.

A few of my socks got tossed but I also still have some of the last ones from my trip. Still good. Washed up nice.

I did ruin my outer hiking shirt. I suppose I could throw it away but I've been thinking either I might donate it to someone who needs a good desert shirt for the PCT or else I'll just wear it next time I wear the backpack that stained the backside of it.

I still wear my hiking pants, although now that I'm fat they don't fit as well as they used to.

I still wear the same panties and bra. I washed them.

All the hard stuff is still good, such as my pot and alcohol stove, my spoon, my plastic water bottles etc.

Nothing wrong with my tent so I still use that. I did have to send it for repair to the zipper so now it's in even better shape than it was on the trail. Repairing the zipper was free.

I still use the same polycro groundsheet. I'm only on the second one I've ever used. Those things really hold up.

With a little bit of care, your backpacking gear should last a long time. I don't even have the "bomb-proof" stuff. I use the fragile ultralight stuff and it still held up great.

[HikerRanky]

This thread has been moved into Straight Forward... This was done in an effort to keep the thread on track rather than close it out.

Randy

[modiyooch]

I still use my huge external frame from 1981. It's perfect.

[Powder River]

I threw out my shoes, socks, underwear, shorts and t-shirt. Basically all the stuff I wore every single day. I am sure that the underwear and shirt would have been salvageable, but it ended up becoming kind of a symbolic thing in the end, a fresh start. Everything else held up very well though. I got new tips for my lekis and gave my pack a good bath. I washed my down sleeping bag and it doesn't smell at all. I also threw out the camelbak because it was pretty nasty.

Don't just throw all of that stuff away, it has plenty of life left in it. Besides, you might want to keep the gear that made it as far as you did on the trail.

[rjc]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm a little surprised by some of the comments but after re-reading my post, in retrospect I understand. I'll try to put it in context, especially since I'm relatively new to this forum and don't really know anyone yet.

My wife and I try to do a week-long backpacking trip every year. I love my gear and take great care of it. I keep it in almost new condition for the most part. But I am amazed how much odor has built up over time. My closet has a permanent smell that gets a little worse each year. Totally tolerable after a few hundred miles of backpacking trips - but noticeable.

Then I think of what a thru-hike puts gear through. Weeks of rain without drying out. Used every single day, stinking to high heaven between cleanings. If I extrapolate to a 2200 mile thru-hike I'd think the stuff would be just flat worn out.

If I thru-hiked the trail just after college, it would have taken every dime I had to my name to make the hike and my perspective would be from someone who ate Ramen noodles for lunch even when I wasn't backpacking. No way would I have considered tossing a pack because it smelled bad. But 15 years later I have a totally different perspective. Average household income is around $50,000 per year. For an average husband/wife to take 6 months off work to hike the trail would cost $25,000 in salary plus maybe $6000 in direct costs like food/town money/etc. So what if it cost another $1000 in gear? It really isn't material from an economic standpoint ($31,000 vs. $32,000).

I hate to actually add up what I've got in gear between us. $350 tent, $150 in thermarests, $600 in sleeping bags - that's already $1,000. Maybe we've got $2000, I don't know actually, there's a lot of little things to add up that make up our ~17 lb base pack weight!

So to wrap up my comments, I really answered my own question. If $1000 isn't really material, then I really don't care if the gear is trashed or not. I'll just use it and if it's toast when I'm done so be it, otherwise I'll keep it.

What caused me to ask the question is kind of funny - I have a couple of pieces of gear that I love, like a rain jacket I really like and I don't want to ruin it on my hike. Easy answer - I'll buy a new one that's lighter weight, and take that on a thru-hike!

[Bronk]

When I got off the trail after 4 months the first thing I did when I got home is take my pack to a car wash and spread everything out and pressure wash it...then I set it all out to dry in the back yard.

I finally retired my tent after over 700 days in the field...it wasn't waterproof anymore. It was a Eureka Backcountry II.

My sleeping bag I threw away. It was a $10 Walmart bag. Had I spent more money on it I would have probably tried to clean it. It had started falling apart after I put it in the washing machine in Damascus...the stitching that held the zipper on was coming apart...didn't much matter because by then it was getting warmer and I wasn't using the zipper much anyway. I still have most of the clothing...after a few washes the funk comes out of it.

Having said that, I went into the hike with the attitude that I was going to wear everything out and accepted the idea that I might be ready to throw it all away when I was done.

[The_Saint]

I didn't throw a thing out. Use the stuff until it wears out, then buy something new and better.

[prain4u]

Let's assume that the typical casual hiker/camper uses their gear 1-4 weeks each year (7-28 days per year). A six month thru hike (plus shake-down hikes) is close to 200 nights of use--or the equivalent of 7-25 years worth of casual usage. Thus, if your gear becomes worn out, super dirty or too smelly after a thru hike--feel free to dispose of it in good conscience. You have gotten good use out of your equipment. Sell it. Give it away. Abandon it. Throw it out. Whatever seems to be most appropriate.

However, it is amazing what one or more good cleanings--COUPLED WITH EXPOSURE TO SUNSHINE AND PLENTY OF FRESH AIR--will do to get the odor out of things. The rays of the sun are very helpful in killing certain odor causing bacteria. You might want to try these things before you get rid of a beloved piece of equipment.

[RGB]

i would never use a used sleeping bag

I must be a lower life-form than you, then.

[sloopjonboswell]

Hiker boxes are not just for food. Maybe somebody could get some use out of his slightly worn gear. Sure beats it taking up room in a landfill.

I couldn't help but stop and comment, I didn't read all the replies. you will kill multiple pairs of boots/sandals/shoes. i still use my gear and love the smell. my holey wool sweater probably won't make the business trip.