Appalachian Gear

“Buying new gear for a AT thru hike. Would appreciate any advice on gear or trails.”

“How much and what gear do you already have?

*Pur Hiker Water Filter
*Gregory pack
*Tarp instead of a tent. Lots thru-hikers usually end up that route.
*Trekking poles

Books:
*Thru-hikers Planning Guide by Dan "Wingfoot" Bruce

*The Appalachian Trail Backpackers Planning Guide by Victoria & Frank Logue

*Thru-Hiker Data book
*All the section Books
*Thru-Hikers Handbook (also by Wingfoot)”

“dharmaboho, havent thru hiked myself...Gear is such a personnal thing regarding brands etc... I would advise reading others jouranls and seeing what TYPES (not necessarily brands) worked for them. Get your gear early and do plenty of shake down trips and test the stuff for durability. This may sound retentive but make a detailed list of your stuff you take every time and delete the unnecessary stuff. Also it prolly would be beneficial to know how to repair any of your gear just in case. GOOD LUCK!”

“Yeah, what Birch said.

Another Fantastic source is a video called "How to hike the Appalachian Trail".
I highly recommend it. It's about 3 hours long and they interview thru-hikers on the trail. Most are about halfway through and have got it down. They unload their packs and tell what they got and why.
GET THIS VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!”

“We did a section of the JMT (CA) and decided we would do the whole trail in 2 years. In that time, we upgraded our gear, and took 25 lbs off between the two of us. (11 lbs from my pack/14 from his) By the time we did the trail, we were prepared for rain and snow (which we got). We had books to read, a tent, 2 bear canisters (required in CA) and I even carried a chair and a SLR camera. We used everything we brought, except for bug juice. And we didn't miss any of the items we left behind.

Like birch said, do a lot of shake down trips. That helped us decide on our gear.”

“Snow Nymph - How did you drop the 11 lbs? Was in from leaving stuff behind, using lighter stuff, or both?”

“Lighter stuff. Replaced:
-Walrus Rapeede (6+ lb) for Stephenson Warmlight (2.13 lb)
-Gregory DruPetit pack (6 lb) for Mtnsmith Chimera (2.13)
-Garcia canister (2.12 lb) for Bearikade (2.2 lb but is 300 ci bigger)
-0 deg bag (3.2 lb) for Marmot Pinnacle DL (2.13)
-Gaz stove (10 oz) for Snowpeak Ti (3 oz)
-carried film in deli container instead of carrying each roll in its own container (most I had at once was 13 rolls)
-replaced all stuff sacks with lightweight ones
-replaced heavy raingear for lighter (Precip pants & SD Peakbagger Jacket, which has recently been replaced with Precip jacket)
-Petzl Micro for Petzl TIKKA (didn't have to carry all the extra batteries)
......etc........”

“How could I forget the footprint that was small for the Warmlite(22 oz)? Replaced it with a tyvek sheet (7 oz)”

“walkindude - where can I get that video? I can't find it on Amazon.”

“REI has the video.”

“thanks for all your advice”

“how much money should I have for hiking the entire trail”

“I was thinking of buying the Khashmin 52 as a thru-pack. Do you think it is big enough. It's up to 3,720 cubic inches and weighs 3 lbs, 10 oz.”

“You won't want a big pack. It's too tempting to put more crap into it that you don't need.

Trust me, I use a Terraplane 5800 ci and it always gets filled.

Hense the trailname.”

“but do you think the Arc'Terxy is big enough or steardy enough for those who do own the Khashmin 52”

“dharmahobo, i hear it costs about$3-5 per mile...”

“I've been refining my packing stuff for my eventual thru-hike, and have decided about 3,000ci would be plenty, especially after talking to past thru-hikers who found they ended up unloading a bunch of crap anyway by Pearisbug.

I plan to start with a pack like the Mountainsmith Ghost at 3100ci and 2lbs 6oz, and then change to a frameless rucksack at Pearisburg when I send home my winter clothing and lighten the pack down enough, the rucksack is home made.

Price, acording to "Long Distance Hiking: Lessons Learned from the Appalachian Trail" by Roland Mueser, the average thru hike cost $3,200 dollars. $1000 for pre hike expenses and $2200 for on trail expenses - both are averages. The cheapest was $800 and the most spent was $8000.”

“I can't believe you are going to use the ghost. I love the bag, but I'm a little bit of a gadet packer. But, I admire your ultralite style. When and where are you going to begin your thru-hike?”

“I haven't got a Ghost yet, but I'm looking in that direction. I have some time to make that decision, and best scenario is I figure a way to get my pack weight and bulk down to be able to start with a frameless ruck. Currently that would put me at 27 pounds for 5 days hiking, a little much for a frameless ruck.

I retire from the Army in 2007, and I have figured out how to start my retirement vacation and authorized job search time to the point where I'll leave the Army March 1, and still get paid full salary until May 31 - three whole months of getting paid to thru-hike! So I'll start on Springer Mountain March 10, 2007 - my 40th birthday.

I've been doing long section hikes to try mail drops and facilities, as well as shake down my gear. I also know a few veteran thru-hikers who have been very helpfull in giving me pointers and telling me lessons learned from the trail. Being in the Army and getting lots of field time to test out stuff helps too. I have been working on my thru-hike plan since I have LOTS of time before I actually go. If you are interested, I've already done a mail drop scheduel, a packing list, a cost estimate, and an Army OPORD for my hike on my web site. AT Thru-Hike Plan.

I plan to do an on-line journal and currently I'm looking at setting up some sort of script for my wife to record my hike while I'm on the trail - aomething user friendly for her. I will most likely have to change web hosting services to make this happen. A great source for research is www.trailjournals.com.”

“I'm doing my trip in 2003. I'm going to do a charity walk raising money for charmonos cancer foundation. I will also be writing a online journal for those who care. Though, It isn't going to be very extensive.”

“In '99 I ran into a thru hiker hiking for brest cancer after loosing his wife to it. My hike will be more of a personal thing. about 70% because I like hiking, and 30% to get away from everything.

About my gear, I like my gadgets, but I've sort of evolved to the point that roo much gear interferes with my hike rather than makes it more enjoyable. Simplifying has become my core philosophy although I still carry some "luxuries" like a book, a small radio, a journal, and a camera with tripod. After talking to hikers of every style from gearheads to ultralight hikers - every one of them starts ditching gear and exchanging for lighter anyway, so I've just started early.

Good luck on your hike, I'm interested in following your journal. Get one at trailjournal or something and let me know.”

“Sure thing SGT”

“I checked out of the library the video "How to Hike the AT". It was 5 hours long and had some good information. I noticed that REI has it for $39.95, so see if you can get it at the library.

My take on the video - For an experienced backpacker I believe there are very few gems in the video. Most of the advice can be gained from previous backpacking experience. The good information in the video concerned "trail towns" and food. Also, hikers showed off almost all kinds of footwear, "choose what you like" seems to be the theme. The only other surprise in the video was the amount of money you should carry. Most hikers said you would need $2000 - 3000 dollars. Others spent up to $5000 and spent a lot of time in towns. I was also surprised by the number of hikers that didn't treat their water.

Get the video and check it out for yourself.”

“MDShiker...the main HSV library had it?”

“If you ever get the chance you should read the book:
"Long Distance Hiking: Lessons from the Appalachian Trail" by Roland Mueser. It's an interesting read. He compiled data from 136 long distance hikers on the AT and came up with some interesting conclusions. One of them was that 13% of long distance hikers NEVER treated or filtered and had the same incidence of illness as people that always treated or filterd. There are a lot of other good nuggets about stuff like stoves, tents, footware, money, fitness, mileage, weight loss, diet, motivations, etc.

It isn't a super scientific survey on long distance hiking with real analysis of the data, but it does give you a good idea of what worked for most people and what happens to most people on the trail.

It was written before a lot of ultralight hiking was going on, so it only includes two hikers that could be consided ultralight in the survy. Most of the gear covered was the standard stuff.”

“I read Mueser's book too. It was one of the first backpacking books I read. It gave me a great perspective on things. It was interesting to read some of his data, like some huge percentage of the thru-hikers he got data from never or rarely filtered their water, and the most common brand of boot was Hi-Tec. So when I read stuff from people talking the lightest this, or the most expensive that, I can compare that to the data Mueser collected and say, "ah bull$#it".

I have noticed from reading lots and lots of AT thru-hikers journals that a lot of them, probably most, chuck their tents somewhere between the GSMNP and Virginia and get a tarp.”