Another Thru Gear List

[TheChop]

I'm sick as a dog now and bored stiff. I made up a spread sheet of all the things I'll be taking along with their weight. Most of it measured on a kitchen scale. Some of it taken from manufacture's websites.



Clothing:
1 MH Typhoon Jacket 15 1/8 oz 430g
1 Hat 2 3/8 oz 68g
1 GoLite Reed Pants 6 1/2 oz 184g
1 SW Boxer/Briefs 3 1/4 oz 92
1 Panty Down Sweater 13 1/4 oz 374
1 TNF Gloves 7/8 oz 84
1 Arcteyx Fleece 3/8 oz 266
2 SW Long Underwear 7 3/4 oz 218 (x2)
3 Heavy Wool Socks 3 1/2 oz 100g (x3)
1 Light Wool Socks 2 5/8 oz 74g
1 Nike T-shirt 6 1/2 oz 184g
5.33 pounds

SLEEPING
pillow 12 3/4 oz 360g
Tarptent Double Rain 34 oz 910g
MB Spiral #1 34 oz 963g
NeoAir Large 19 oz 550g
6.23 pounds

CARRYING
2 13 L Dry Sack 1 1/2 oz 42g (x2 one for sleeping bag one for food)
1 Gregory Z65 63 oz 1770g
1 Mesh Sack 5/8 oz 16g (matches, aquimira, etc. goes here)
1 .5 Liter Dry Sack 5/8 oz 18g (batteries, tp, "office" stuff in here)
4.20 pounds

KITCHEN
1 Blue Cup 4 1/2 oz 128g
1 Aquamira 3 5/8 oz 104g
3 1 L Platypus 7/8 oz 26g
1 Platypus Nipple Top 1/4 oz 6g
1 Alcohol & .5 L Plat 14 oz 400g
1 E2E Alcohol Stove 5/8 oz 18g
1 Ti Spoon 1/4 oz 8g
1 Ti Pot 4 7/8 oz 140g
1.92 pounds

ELECTRONICS!
1 Camera 6 oz 134g
10 AA Lithium Batteries 5/8 oz 16g
11 AAA Li Batteries 1/4 oz 8g
3 Camera Batteries 5/8 oz 16g
1 GPS 5 1/3 oz 151g
1 SPOT 3 7/10 oz 105g
1 Cell Phone 3 3/4 oz 106g
1 USB Charger
1 Kindle 8 7/10 oz 247g
1 Camera Charger
1 Cell Battery 5/8 oz 18g
2.44 pounds

MISC
4 handkerchief 1 1/4 oz 34g
1 FIrst Aid Kit 11 1/8 oz 338g
1 Knife 2 7/8 oz 84g
1 Sunblock 2 3/4 oz 76g
1 Clamp 3/4 oz 20g
1 BD Orbit Lantern 2 7/8 oz 86g
1 PT Headlamp 1 5/8 oz 46g
1 Pen 3/8 oz 12g
1 Toilet Paper 1/2 oz 44g
1.74 pounds

Carrying 67.25 oz 4.20 pounds
Kitchen 30.75 oz 1.92 pounds
Sleeping 99.75 oz 6.23 pounds
Clothing 85.25 oz 5.33 pounds
Misc 27.88 oz 1.74 pounds
Electronics 38.98 oz 2.44 pounds

Base total: 21.87 pounds
2L of water & 7 pounds of food: 33.27 pounds

Still have to weigh my USB charger and going to get a new point and shoot before I take off but I have to research that quite a bit more. Also need to put my knit beanie on the list for winter wear. For summer gear I drop down to 19.55 pounds. The one huge place I could drop weight at this time is on my pack. I considered changing it up but my Gregory pack fits me like a glove and I've had absolutely no issues with it. With something as delicate as pack fitting I think the best policy is if it's not broke don't fix it. I was tempted to try out a GoLite Pinnacle which would shave off 2 pounds. The firsrt aid kit is relatively heavy for a first aid kit as it goes. I could probably shave off a few ounces there but since I don't have things like matches, alcohol wipes, alcohol gel on here it'll probably wash.

Obviously boots aren't included. Still trying to find a great fit and I'm taking hiking poles but for my little spread sheet I didn't include them. Another piece that's left off is some solution for Kindle carrying. I don't have it in my hands yet so want to wait on that.

[mweinstone]

the thing i see, the pillow. its not needed cause you have too much clothing. you have alot of sox. and you have the ability to make a pillow much easilyer than carriying such a heavy one. if you love a pillow, see if you cant make one just as comfy with all your spare fluffy stuff. the other thing i see is that this list really isnt done. add your poles and tally the real weight. your carrying alot of good stuff . be sure you can make it fun.

too many sox.

[TheChop]

the thing i see, the pillow. its not needed cause you have too much clothing. you have alot of sox. and you have the ability to make a pillow much easilyer than carriying such a heavy one. if you love a pillow, see if you cant make one just as comfy with all your spare fluffy stuff. the other thing i see is that this list really isnt done. add your poles and tally the real weight. your carrying alot of good stuff . be sure you can make it fun.

too many sox.

Opps. Actually I'm only carrying 3 pair. The lightweight wool ones were just on the spreadsheet so I could fiddle with the numbers, etc. They are actually listed as 0 lightweight wool socks for calculations. I plan to carry three. One to sleep/camp and two to change out on the trail.

And yeah the pillow. I just really like it. I might experiment with an overnight trip sans pillow to see how I fare but I've done 400 miles with it so far and have grown slightly attached.

[BrianLe]

Helpful would be to know when you plan to start thru-hiking, in which direction, and on which trail (but as you're from GA, so I'm guessing the AT ...).

Pillow: try an inflatable. I use Montbell's inflatable pillow, much lighter.

Tarptent "double" --- ? Unless you already own this, why such a big tent?
Neo-air large --- unless you just have to have a 25" pad, you could consider something a bit lighter (I use a size regular and am happy with that).

Pack: saving 2 pounds on the pack will make more sense IMO if other base weight things are reduced as much as you're willing first. There's some point at which 2 pounds of base weight savings are ultimately more comfortable than a pack which fits better, if the result is a quite-light pack. Where that point is, that's the trick, very subjective.

Depending on process perhaps you can drop that blue cup; I was happy with a gatorade bottle, FWIW.

I'm a heavy "electronics" user myself, but that's a heck of a lot of batteries you're carrying. The AT has a lot of stores along the way, just buy more as you go.
I would suggest ditching the GPS, for the AT anyway.
You strike me as a prime candidate for the "smartphone as multifunction device" approach, which is what I do. My smartphone is my GPS (for most trails), and my only camera, and my journaling device. And book reader for that matter.

But if you're thru-hiking, you won't have that much time when you'll be inclined to read a lot, or at least I didn't. Some do read a bit at the end of the day, but the AT is a pretty social trail; I suggest starting without the Kindle, have it mailed to you if you find that you're really in need of it after a few weeks.

Drop the SPOT, unless someone at home is demanding that you tether yourself electronically in this way, or you just really really want your blog to show where you are/were every day of the trip. Again, assuming at normal-season AT thru-hike. There's a lot of people on the trail.

4 handkerchief's --- I don't get that at all. Standard thru-hiker practice for blowing your nose doesn't require any external aids, a single, general purpose bandana is plenty for most folks.

[burntoutphilosopher]

down sweater AND an arc teryx fleece ?
depending when you start i'd pick one. a 13 ounce down sweater shoudl be damn warm, my montbell alpine jacket is warm at 15F

i agree a 'large' sleeping mat is a waste. ... a double tarptent... for the AT? you don't like having shelter provided FOR you or something? : )
how about an EWing tarp for that rare chance you can't get a spot in the shelter?

what dry sack do you have that is 13 liters and 1.5 ounces? ...never seen such a thing !

i'm really wondering the weights ... your blue cup weighs 4.5 ounces and a thirteen liter drysack weighs 1.5 ounces?
2 pounds for a kitchen is unreal... my girl and i SHARE a nine ounce kitchen

T E N double A's ? E L E V E N AAA's ? wow, try 2! i carry two double A's and 3 tripple A's and typically make it 5 or 6 days no problem.

ditch the 'latnern' and get a headlamp that has a nice low setting , imho.

hard to trust the baseweight put there cause some of the weights listed are obviously wrong, but 21lbs is a big heavy load.

7 lbs of food, what is this from? how many calories do you mean? 11,200 calories? if you can get that 7 lbs to contain 11K+ calories with all packaging etc included... you'll be good for 3+ days but typically not four. and that's packing well.

our goal is 100 calories an ounce for the entire food bag, including all packaging, etc. it's not always easy.

all in all 21+ pounds and not even close to complete... add in 2Lbs for your shoes, and 18ish ounces for your trekking poles...

... you're going to be approach a 25 pound basewieght with no food and water ! that is scary-break-your-knee heavy.

[Rocket Jones]

Looks like you're carrying 14oz of alcohol for your stove? If you're cooking twice a day, 10oz between resupply should be plenty. If you're only doing one meal a day, 6-8 oz should be all you need.

My first aid kit plus repair kit only weighs 8oz. What are you carrying in your first aid kit at 11oz? Like you said, there's probably room to shave weight there.

The DR is fine, especially if you don't care for staying in shelters.

Way too many batteries.

A large IMUSA mug is only 2.5oz, compared to 4.5oz for yours.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Okay, I agree with some of what everyone said previously, but

... you're going to be approach a 25 pound basewieght with no food and water ! that is scary-break-your-knee heavy.

I seem to remember 25+ lb base weights and 40+ lb loaded packs being very normal a few yea--okay, decades ago. Nobody's knees broke because of it.

Quite a few pounds of of luxury and convenience stuff. But rather than second guessing and making yourself nuts trying to over-plan, start with it and mail home what you find you don't really want and/or need (and get tired of lugging up and down hills). I think some of the electronics, such as the kindle, spot, gps and a lot of the batteries and chargers and cables for them are probably going to be little used and prove to be mostly a pound and a half of "pack ballast". The fleece and the second pair of long underwear could be another pound saved. It will all fit in a large flat rate Priority Box though, so don't sweat it.

[TheChop]

First off thanks for everyone who has commented so far and second off sorry for some of my typos/blunders. The spreadsheet wasn't originally made for public consumption. So there are a few mistakes. I am actually taking the regular Rainbow and the weight listed is of that but I didn't change the name in the spreadsheet just the weight. Originally I was going double but was talked out of it. The same for handkerchiefs. They are actually bandanas.

The batteries break down into 4 for the BD Lantern and 3 for headlamp with 4 in reserve for both the headlamp/lantern. (I don't actually have a headlamp right now that takes AAA's. It uses watch batteries. It's one of the last things I'll be buying.) The AA are for the GPS/Spot. The weights listed for the lamps, etc. are empty. Ideally I'd like to have a continuous GPS track of my trip that I could use the time information in my camera to geotag photos with.

Part of my sleep "philosophy" is being able to shut myself up in the same space night after night with certain comfort items. I tend to have pretty bad insomnia and I've developed a certain ritual for that. A book, the lantern, pillow, etc. are all part of that and I'm very wary of changing it. The pillow is problematic due to its weight, volume and I keep it free in the pack so it gets wet/dirty occasionally. An inflatable one might do the trick nicely.

The part with the down sweater/fleece didn't occur to me until just now really. I've used the down sweater a lot in the past when it's gotten cold but mostly because my previous sleeping bag was inadequate. With the new Montbell I might find it unnecessary or only useful around camp at which point I can make a determination about sending it home.

I'd really only like to carry 2 pair of undies but not sure how to do the split between long and short. I think I could manage with 2 long with hiking in the longs with shorts on.

My first aid kit right now consists of a bunch of stuff in a sack which is why it weighs so much! Also the dry sack it's in is fairly thick and heavy.

As far as burntoutphilospher is concerned I think you're being a little overdramatic. I've carried a pack that was a good 6-7 pounds heavier than this over 400+ miles on trips as long as 16 days. My knees did not explode. http://www.seatosummit.com/products/display/7 These are the dry sacks I use. I just double checked my figures and 1 5/8 ounces it is, which matches up nicely with sea2summit's 1.4 ounces on their website. Photos are included as well since my measuring skills were called into question.

I haven't hiked with this configuration yet but once I do I'm sure opportunities to lighten the load will present themselves. I am in no way an ultralight backpacker obviously.

[BrianLe]

"I tend to have pretty bad insomnia and I've developed a certain ritual for that. A book, the lantern, pillow, etc. are all part of that and I'm very wary of changing it. "

I get insomnia at times myself (note that it's 3 am my time as I type this ...), but never on the trail --- walking all day wears a person out, and life on the trail has a sort of beautiful simplicity about it, with relatively few cares (if you don't spend a lot of time thinking about home or elsewhere).

I agree, however, with whoever said that you can mail home stuff you're not using, so certainly no big deal if you don't get it perfectly right to start, and in particular w.r.t. discretionary gear. Still, it's even nicer IMO to have a fairly light load when you're first starting out and your body is at it's fattest and weakest (not you personally, just many/most starting out thru-hikers, me included).

"I am in no way an ultralight backpacker obviously."

Again, I don't think you've told us when you're starting (or what direction), and that has an impact on base weight. But in general if you're ever interested in going pretty light, the AT is a good trail to do it on. Keep your base weight reasonably low and that synergizes well with the reduced amount of food and water you have to carry (as compared to various other trails), and for much of the trip a relatively low amount of clothing and sleeping gear as well. It can get to the point where the weight of your pack is low enough that the overall experience is just fundamentally different (and much better).

I hope that you end up enjoying whatever pack weight level you do end up at!

[TheChop]

Again, I don't think you've told us when you're starting (or what direction), and that has an impact on base weight. But in general if you're ever interested in going pretty light, the AT is a good trail to do it on. Keep your base weight reasonably low and that synergizes well with the reduced amount of food and water you have to carry (as compared to various other trails), and for much of the trip a relatively low amount of clothing and sleeping gear as well. It can get to the point where the weight of your pack is low enough that the overall experience is just fundamentally different (and much better).

I hope that you end up enjoying whatever pack weight level you do end up at!

Oh NOBO on the AT mid-March departure. Sorry about that. I personally don't see 20 pounds base as being that extremely heavy. I also feel like I'm pulled by two desires. One is to simplify and make do but also in simplifying and making do am I actually going against that philosophy by buying a bunch of new stuff? I mean I could get a new Ti cup to replace my "heavy" blue cowboy cup but then I have a spare cup at home that I don't need and I've spent 35 bucks and I've saved 2.5 ounces. So I could ditch the lantern, replace the cup, replace the pillow, replace the Typhoon with something a bit lighter, etc. and save a pound or two. Or I could just make do with what I have.

Also after 1000 miles I might change things up completely. At one time I loved Clif Bars. Now I can't stand them.

[flemdawg1]

Definately not a "bad" list, but there is some room to lighten up.

Clothing:
1 MH Typhoon Jacket 15 1/8 oz 430g Lots of options to get lighter here.
1 Hat 2 3/8 oz 68g
1 GoLite Reed Pants 6 1/2 oz 184g
1 SW Boxer/Briefs 3 1/4 oz 92
1 Panty Down Sweater 13 1/4 oz 374 Never seen down panties before
1 TNF Gloves 7/8 oz 84
1 Arcteyx Fleece 3/8 oz 266 Is this a jacket?
2 SW Long Underwear 7 3/4 oz 218 (x2)
3 Heavy Wool Socks 3 1/2 oz 100g (x3) 3 pair total is my max.
1 Light Wool Socks 2 5/8 oz 74g
1 Nike T-shirt 6 1/2 oz 184g
5.33 pounds

SLEEPING
pillow 12 3/4 oz 360g I use the bladder form an inflatable travel pillow 2.5 oz
Tarptent Double Rain 34 oz 910g
MB Spiral #1 34 oz 963g
NeoAir Large 19 oz 550g
6.23 pounds

CARRYING
2 13 L Dry Sack 1 1/2 oz 42g (x2 one for sleeping bag one for food)
1 Gregory Z65 63 oz 1770g Lighter options available, but comfort is KING!
1 Mesh Sack 5/8 oz 16g (matches, aquimira, etc. goes here)
1 .5 Liter Dry Sack 5/8 oz 18g (batteries, tp, "office" stuff in here)
4.20 pounds

KITCHEN
1 Blue Cup 4 1/2 oz 128g Lighter options avail, but I've taken a 9oz french press a couple of times.
1 Aquamira 3 5/8 oz 104g
3 1 L Platypus 7/8 oz 26g
1 Platypus Nipple Top 1/4 oz 6g
1 Alcohol & .5 L Plat 14 oz 400g
1 E2E Alcohol Stove 5/8 oz 18g
1 Ti Spoon 1/4 oz 8g
1 Ti Pot 4 7/8 oz 140g
1.92 pounds

ELECTRONICS!
1 Camera 6 oz 134g
10 AA Lithium Batteries 5/8 oz 16g
11 AAA Li Batteries 1/4 oz 8g
3 Camera Batteries 5/8 oz 16g
1 GPS 5 1/3 oz 151g
1 SPOT 3 7/10 oz 105g
1 Cell Phone 3 3/4 oz 106g
1 USB Charger
1 Kindle 8 7/10 oz 247g
1 Camera Charger
1 Cell Battery 5/8 oz 18g
2.44 pounds Dump it all, except one cell phone (in airplane mode) with a camera built in (and its charger).

MISC
4 handkerchief 1 1/4 oz 34g
1 FIrst Aid Kit 11 1/8 oz 338g Go thru this, keep some meds (ibu, immodium, maybe some cold tabs), some blister treatment, neosporin, and a couple of big gauze pad (incase some really bad stuff happens). Dump the rest.
1 Knife 2 7/8 oz 84g
1 Sunblock 2 3/4 oz 76g
1 Clamp 3/4 oz 20g ????
1 BD Orbit Lantern 2 7/8 oz 86g You have a HL, dump it.
1 PT Headlamp 1 5/8 oz 46g
1 Pen 3/8 oz 12g Notebook? Maps, guidebook?
1 Toilet Paper 1/2 oz 44g
1.74 pounds

Carrying 67.25 oz 4.20 pounds
Kitchen 30.75 oz 1.92 pounds
Sleeping 99.75 oz 6.23 pounds
Clothing 85.25 oz 5.33 pounds
Misc 27.88 oz 1.74 pounds
Electronics 38.98 oz 2.44 pounds

Base total: 21.87 pounds
2L of water & 7 pounds of food: 33.27 pounds

[TheChop]

Definately not a "bad" list, but there is some room to lighten up.

I looked at the alternatives to the Typhoon but it comes down to spending a relative lot of money on saving 6-7 ounces. After buying a new tent and sleeping bag I just couldn't make the change. Also buying it now I'd be buying it for my pre-hike bloated self. Might be one of the things I ship home in VA and buy a lighter rain jacket more geared for summer. The electronics have their purpose. A kindle is lighter than a book and I love to do some reading. I once carried Grapes of Wraith on a 200 mile hike of the Smokies and read it all. Honestly if anything goes it would be the cell phone. With SPOT and Kindle's Whispernet it's a little redundant. I'll be pretty damn connected as it is.

Thanks for the recommendations though. Concise and to the point.

And at this point I think the lantern (although it's a piece of gear I'm pretty attached to) might be on the chopping block.

[TheChop]

1 Arcteyx Fleece 3/8 oz 266 Is this a jacket?

http://www.arcteryx.com/Product.aspx...r/Delta-AR-Zip

It should read 9 3/8 oz. In copy and pasting I deleted the 9. Opps.

[flemdawg1]

My wife found a refurb Samsung Behold II android phone without a data plan. It has a 5.0 MP camera w/ flash, a Kindle app (from Android Market) and GPS. Could be an option for ya.

[BrianLe]

"My wife found a refurb Samsung Behold II android phone without a data plan."

Take care if you buy a smartphone and then try to activate it on a network as I got burned by Verizon on this recently, or at least sort of burned. I wanted to use their prepaid daily plan, but after buying my phone elsewhere was told that they don't offer pre-paid daily on that phone, and I think in general on higher end (3G capable perhaps?) phones. Pretty awful for me, as the only other option costs me a lot more money and leaves me in general with the choices of "pay too much per month or have no cell service".

Bottom line is check explicitly with the carrier you plan to activate a phone with, to see if you can activate it on the plan you want, before you buy the phone. Silly me, I assumed that a phone that they sell could be activated on a plan that they offer ... (!)

[TheChop]

I'm not a fan of the smartphone thing. Yes it's multi-use but it's battery intensive.

Ideally the Kindle can serve as book/notebook/data book/map and has a ridiculously long battery life. A smartphone is going to need to be recharged every three days or so and more if you're using it as a book reader. If you were doing photos/reading/GPS the battery would be gone quick. A Kindle can get 3,000 page flips more or less on one charge. For me it's either I take the Kindle at 8 oz and get multiuse out of it as data book/fiction book/notebook or I take a book ranging from 6 to 12 ounces, a notebook and a data book/companion. Now that's in theory obviously. My only real concern is durability.

The camera is there because I take a boat load of photos and plan on doing something kind of neat with my trip in regards to the camera. A smartphone camera simply doesn't have enough contrast ratio or the controls I'd like.

The Spot is a favor to my mother. If it'd help her sleep at night I'd carry something twice as heavy and I've really enjoyed using my GPS not to navigate but to help me learn map skills. It's nice to be able to look at a relief map and look at actual terrain and know where you're at.

Which leaves the cell phone as the one really expendable part of the electro kit. But having it really helped me at times where I've been out alone in a tent and needed to hear a familiar voice.

And I could leave it all at home and still make it to Maine but to be able to share the trip as much as possible afterwards it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

[Rocket Jones]

I tried maps on the Kindle and they were pretty useless at any scale that was useful. I wound up buying paper maps.

[TheChop]

I tried maps on the Kindle and they were pretty useless at any scale that was useful. I wound up buying paper maps.

I figured I'd use paper maps mostly. It's nice to be able to pull a map out of your pocket as opposed to unpacking a Kindle. How would you rate the Kindle for the other uses? I like to sit in my tent and plan out my next day a little and was thinking it'd be good for that.

[Rocket Jones]

I love my kindle for reading. For notes and journal, etc, I prefer paper.