Essential Equipment

Looking for and purchasing gear is what soaks up a lot of hikers' time and money.  And take it from me, it CAN get addictive!  However, I've tried to keep in mind this saying that I've heard several times this year: It's not the gear that will get you to Katahdin -in fact- it's you who has to get your gear there!  You can spend thousands of dollars on the newest, best, and coolest products, but the reality is that it really doesn't matter in the end.  You'll probably be just as wet in a $200.00 rain jacket as you will be under a $5.00 plastic poncho. And your chances of making it through to the end are not so much based on what you take, but your mentality.

Stew and I have been really lucky in our search for gear in that we've been able to find lots of the things we need on sale.  I really think we've only purchased one or two things at full price so far.  Still, total gear cost come March is probably going to be in the $1,000-1,200.00 per person range.  Maybe a few of you just screamed out "How in the world can living in the woods with no house cost so much?!" Hah!  I know I just did... Still, it's much cheaper than home-ownership.

So, this morning I laid all of the equipment I'd purchased so far out on my bed.  It looked something like this:

Well, it actually looked more extensive than that, but you get the picture.  We have a lot of stuff!  Surprisingly, though, it really all packs down into just a few cubic feet and a few pounds.  That's the thing with backpacking gear these days (and usually the source of the high price): it's all made out of extremely lightweight material.  Hikers are fond of weighing their gear and their packs often (it really becomes something of a competition!), and you'd be surprised at how the ounces add up to unnecessary pounds after a while.  Stew and I aren't too concerned with being ultra lightweight, but- of course- we don't want to be weighed down if we don't have to. 

The general rule of thumb is that you want to be carrying 30% of your body weight or less.  Some ultra-light hikers bring that number down to 20%.  So, with my normal body weight of 112 pounds, I'm aiming for a pack that weighs between 25-35lbs, including food (food will definitely make up the bulk of the weight I carry).  I stupidly -or heroically- (well, let's just say necessarily) carried a pack that weighed 60lbs for seven days during a backpacking trip in 2005. Over half of my body weight!  Not surprisingly, I'd lost ten pounds in two weeks when the trip was over.  This was during my employment with EYA as a camp counselor.  I had to carry double my weight until another counselor met up with us half-way through the trip and took his fair share!  Needless to say, since I was able to do that, I'm thinking 30lbs won't feel too unmanageable once I set out. 

So, here's a sampling of what I have. (I've included links for those of you who want more information):

Hiking Boots-  I definitely went against the trend of buying lightweight hiking boots or trail-runners as most hikers do nowadays.  Part of the experience I want while on the AT is to have fewer reasons to have to go and buy things.  The lighter shoes that are more popular now (obviously) wear out faster.  Thus, a typical hike will involve two or three pairs of shoes.  Well, I guess I just wanted to try to make it on one pair.  That meant full leather, heavier sole, etc.  Several people on WhiteBlaze told me that they knew of hikers who completed the AT in one pair of boots.  The boots that they hiked in looked a lot like what I ended up buying: Zamberlans.  I really like them, and they'll keep my feet dry and warm if we end up hiking through snow.  Only time will tell if I end up regretting the heaviness of the boot.  If they become a pain, I'll just mail them home and buy a new pair of lighter shoes on the trail... something I'm not looking forward to doing, since that means I'd have to break them in while using them- which could lead to blisters and wasted days off the trail waiting for my feet to heal.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that these boots work out for me.

Camp Shoes-

Ok: Everybody wears Crocs!  So, I said early on "I will not buy Crocs."  I'd never really liked the shoe, for no particular reason.  Well, lo and behold, look what I bought to wear... Crocs.  They're just so lightweight and cheap.  You can use them to wear around camp when the hiking's over for the day, or to wade across streams, or in town if your boots smell too bad to go into a restaurant (!!).  So, yeah, I'll be one of those typical hikers with my Crocs hanging off the back of my pack as I walk down the trail.  Oh well...

Tent-  We bought our tent in time to test it out this summer while camping in Florida.  (Haha- look how "tough" I'm trying to be in that shot!)  It is an ultralight tent, the body of which is mainly mesh (as you can see) with a waterproof rainfly (which is not pictured).  There's room enough for two, as long as we don't take our backpacks in with us.  I really liked the tent, but on our first day setting it up, one of the poles developed a crack in it.  Uh... this was probably due to operator error- whoopsie!- but it still worked fine.  I contacted the maker, Sierra Designs, and they said they'd repair it for us.  Which reminds me, I need to mail it in for repairs soon if I want the poles back by March 13th.  Note to self...

Backpack-  My pack is the only piece of gear that I already owned.  I bought it several years ago on sale thinking that I'd be using it often.  Years have passed and it's still untouched!  Poor little pack.  I will admit, it's not the "nicest" pack on the market... nor am I even sure that it's the best fit for my small frame.  However, it's roomy and comfortable.  And best of all, already owning a pack means I don't have to go blow $200 on a new one!  Yay!  More money saved on gear means more pizza and ice cream that can be bought on the trail!

Sleeping Bag- I was so so so worried about buying a sleeping bag because the prices on them are really outrageous, up to $400.00 for a really nice one.  Luckily for both of us, we found our sleeping bags on sale online at REI.  For those of you unfamiliar with that store, it is basically the Mecca of outdoor stores.  It's a co-op, so for a measly $25 you can become a lifetime member and receive hundreds of dollars in savings.  I cannot recommend this store enough.  But back to the sleeping bag.  You really have two choices when buying a bag: down or synthetic fill?  Down is lighter and oh-so warm.  Synthetic, however, will keep you warm even if the bag gets wet, while down will not.  I had my heart set on a down bag (they're just so comfy!) and so I bought one, with the intention of keeping it dry at any cost.  I got this beautiful, wonderful REI sleeping bag at almost half price: just $70.00.  Good for me. :) 

Dry Compression Sack-  Haha!  Where'd my sleeping bag go?  Yes, it's all squished into that little bag.  This is the secret to packing a large, fluffy down bag into your pack- and then keeping it dry.  Down is extremely compressible, and a compression sack is designed to do just that- squeeze your sleeping bag into the smallest possible size.  This is a great compression sack as is, but what makes it the best is that it is also completely waterproof.  I could supposedly leave it outside all day in a torrential monsoon and still have a dry down bag to sleep in.  Of course, I won't be testing that out personally (!), but I'll just take their word for it.  Strange story about this particular dry bag: I have had my eye on it since earlier last year, before I'd even bought anything for my hike.  Why?  I don't know.  I guess it just looked cool and seemed to be a great product.  You get strange fixations while planning for a 2,000 mile hike.

Pots/Pans- Stewart and I love this set of kitchen supplies.  At the top left of the picture is the main pot- just large enough to boil water for our noodles/oatmeal/coffee/etc.  In front of that are two insulated "cups" and lids.  You drink out of the sippy-hole on the lids, thereby keeping the drink from spilling all over you.  To the left of the cups are the bowls, and in front of everything are obviously the wonderful "sporks"- America's favorite all-purpose utensil.  :)  The black bag behind everything is watertight and, aside from being the storage bag for the entire set, can also be the "sink" for washing up the dishes.  Ingenious.  Below are some more images. 



Everything but the kitchen sink?  No, we've got that, too. 
On the right, our pots sit on top of our frying pan.
On the left is a can of fuel.



All packed up!



Stove-  A backpacking stove might look a little weird to those of you who've never used one before.  Here you see it attached to the fuel container, supporting the frying pan.  We're so used to our home stoves being these gigantic, massive things taking up a good chunk of the kitchen, but in the backpacking world a "stove" is just a device that gets the energy from the fuel container to your cooking pot.  Backpacking stoves usually weigh only a few ounces, screw directly into the fuel canister, and have folding arms on which the pot/pan will rest while cooking.  They're very simple. 

    



Top left: folded up. Top Right: Attached with arms
extended. Bottom: Our stove sitting next to the fuel,

 with a nickle for size comparison.



Clothes-  Obviously, we're only taking the minimal amount of clothing on our hike.  When items need to be replaced, we'll replace them- either by purchasing them along the way at outfitters located in trail towns, or by ordering from an online supplier and having them mailed to towns in which we know we'll be.  Hikers use a layering system when dressing for the weather: a base-layer (when needed) of long underwear, a mid-layer of quick-drying, lightweight pants and a shirt, and a top layer (when needed) usually consisting of rain gear.  In the colder months you might want to bring along an extra layer for insulation, such as a lightweight down jacket.  Stewart and I both have most of our clothing, though we still need one or two items here and there.  Oh, did I mention that we're only taking TWO pairs of underwear?!  Ha!  Don't worry mom, you wash tomorrow's pair the night before, and so on.  Most of our clothing is also anti-microbial, to resist (only slightly!) the inevitable bad smell that all hikers' clothing certainly gets.  Oh, and as a rule, none of our clothing contains cotton, which just retains water/sweat/rain and may lead to blisters, hypothermia, staying wet for days and days.

I know this is a long post, so I'm going to end it for now.  You'll pick up on more of the gear we're taking as we continue to write the blog.  We'll also post a final gear picture before we set off.  Hope this post helped some of you to understand what we'll be taking.  It really will only be the very basics.

Till later!