Pack: The Northface pack I started with got too big for me as I lost weight. The Ospery pack I switched to was bomber. Tons of space. Never had a problem. It rides comfortably, but distributes the weight a little differently than my old pack. Simple adjustments on the straps made for a great fit. I went from a large, down to a small on this new pack. If I gain some weight back in the future, it will be easy enough to loosen the hip belt to size.
Sleeping bag: The 15* Marmot I started with was awesome. Light and super warm. But it was too warm for this trip, even in early spring and late fall. The 35* Lafuma was perfect. There were only a few nights in Vermont and New Hampshire, and a few nights in Maine, where the temps dropped into the low 30's. I had my Sea to Summit liner mailed back to me in Hanover NH, which I used a few times when it got really cold. Wearing a fleece hat to bed helps immensely. Many hikers use 20* bags for the entire trip. I found the 35* worked great for 95% of the nights, and when supplemented with a liner or more clothing, I was never cold at night.
Tent: Loved my Big Agnes Seedhouse. The 2 person version I used was lighter than most 1 man tents on others had on the trail. It'd be a tight squeeze for 2 hikers, but I found it to be a 1 person palace. I had room to get dressed, lay out all my gear, and stretch out comfortably. In bad weather I left my pack and shoes outside in the vestibule. The only thing I didn't like was the front entry. I'd prefer a tent with side entry, but it wasn't a huge deal.
Hammock: I switched to my Eno Doublenest when I got home in Virginia. I switched back to my tent for VT, NH, and Maine. I was worried about the hammock set up I have being too simple for the cold I might see up north. I didn't have an under-quilt, or an over-quilt, I was just using my regular sleeping bag in the hammock. I was also a bit unsure about hammock options in the Whites, etc. since much of the trail is above tree line. I got my best nights sleep in the hammock. Incredibly comfortable. I didn't have a bug net. If mosquitoes were bothering me, I put my book or headlamp in the hammock pocket, and flung it over and around me, wrapping up like a burrito. Good idea to have the Doublenest for this. The Profly I used was huge. I was even able to pitch it like an A-frame tent and using my trekking poles, on a couple occasions. It's a great starter hammock, and very comfortable. However, the Eno was heavy for a backpacking hammock. The fly was super heavy too, and I didn't really like the tie out lines on it. The slap strap suspension system Eno uses is horrible. It has limited hanging options, is heavy, bulky, and retains water when it gets wet. Plenty of hikers on the AT were using Eno hammocks. I would suggest going with another brand or a DIY kit to save weight, be less bulky, have more hanging options, and better suspension. At the very least, if you use an Eno, switch out the heavy caribeaners on the hammock for lighter ones, and definitely get a different suspension. Personally, I liked having the huge coverage of the ProFly, and was fine taking that weight penalty. If I used it again, I would switch out the tie out lines for nicer, lighter ones.
Sleeping pad: The Xped was great, for a while. I loved the vertical baffles, very comfortable. And the pad was super warm. Like all blow-up style mats, it is a bit of a pain to inflate and deflate. Not a big deal, just one more task, and when you're tired or lazy, it can seem like a bigger deal than it actually is. I actually purchased 2 of these mats along the way. The one problem was that over time, the baffles began to come apart, creating a big 'bubble'. I never used my self-inflating Thermarest. Instead, after the 2nd Xped failed, I bought a Thermarest NeoAir. It had horizontal baffles, different, but not too noticeable of a change. It was super light and kept me warm, just like the Xped. The cover material was slightly more 'noisy' though. Not a big deal. So far, it seems like the NeoAir is a great purchase.
Stove: I only used my JetBoil to boil water, never cooked in it - found out on a practice hike that it is hard to clean thoroughly in the field. Saw more JetBoils on the trail than I had expected. Many hikers never really cleaned it out, just cooked in it over and over again. For boiling water, nothing beats it. Usually the water would be boiling before I had all my dinner packaging ready to go. I poured the water directly into Knorr/Lipton Sides packaging. For Ramen or instant potatoes/oatmeal/etc I poured those and the hot water into my squishy bowl, and covered with the JetBoil lid to help keep the heat in while it cooked. Sometimes used my fleece hat as a coozy. Never had an issue finding canister fuel, although in Maine it was a bit scarce and I remember having to get a large canister - which was too big to nest inside the JetBoil. I usually carried a 'backup' small canister, just in case, because I worry. Typically got 20+ boils from a small canister - so about 3 weeks of cooking dinner every night ( one canister would last me about a week or two in Maine because I was making coffee/hot chocolate frequently). I'd like to learn how to use an alcohol stove some day, but for this trip, the JetBoil was great. Used many different brands of canister fuel, didn't notice any difference in performance.
Lighter: Mini Bic is all you'll ever need. Cheap, light, small. Kept one nesting in my stove throughout the trip.
Bowl/Dish: I used a 'squishy' 16oz bowl made of silicon for my meals. Worked great. For packing, I wrapped it around the outside bottom of my stove.
Eating Utensil: Good idea to go with titanium here. Never really needed the 'fork' tines on the spork. I guess you could do fine with just a spoon. Next time, I would definitely buy a long-handled spoon though. I liked the smooth finish, or polishing, on my REI spork. Some hikers had other brands, and didn't like the texture of the part you put in your mouth, so check that out too if you're looking at sporks. Also, the cheap lexan sporks - will break. Spend the 15$ and get titanium.
Mug: I have several titanium mugs - and accidentally left them all at home. Actually, I never missed not having a mug. I found that I was never drinking a hot beverage and a cold beverage at the same time, so when I wanted coffee, I just used my 20oz gatorade bottle. One less thing to carry/keep track of. Use caution, since the plastic will melt if your water is really hot. At home, on day hikes/overnights, I do like bringing my Ti-mug. I'd recommend a double-wall if you are just using it for sipping hot beverages - helps keep you from burning your hands/lips. Use a single wall if you plan to use the mug over flame (double wall will explode if you try to cook with it).
Water treatment: Started out with the Katadyn Hiker Pro. Worked great - too great. It does a great job filtering out the floaties, but that means the filter gets clogged up with said floaties. I actually broke the pump handle off from pressing it too hard. Left filter at home when I got to Virginia. I carried MSR Sweetwater drops as a backup the entire trip - and used them as my treatment most of the hike. Basically its a $12 bottle of bleach solution, oh well. Filter was over 1 pound, drops were 2oz. Drops win. The Sawyer Squeeze system was really popular this year. I ordered one and used it from VA to Maine. Really it was just a back up plan, in case I came to some funky water where I wanted more than just drops. My go-to was the drops, and although I liked the Sawyer system a lot, I really only used it a few times the rest of the hike. The fill bags that come with the Sawyer Squeeze wear out fast, so get a Platypus bag (or find a plastic bottle that fits) instead.
Water bladder: Started with a Camelback bag since I had one already. I liked having a drinking tube while I hiked. I switched to a Platypus system for two reasons - first to save weight compared to the Camelback, and secondly the Platypus bladder screwed onto my Sawyer filter - dual purpose.
Water bottle: Just used a plastic bottle - gatorade, vitamin water, etc - 16oz to 32oz. Switched out for a new on in town every so often. Cheap, light, and comes filled with tasty beverage.
Camp towel: Intended to use a piece of a Sham-wow cloth. Never used, not once. Mailed home. Some people liked having a camp towel. I found my bandanna was enough.
Food bag: I used a 20L silnylon bag by Sea to Summit. Perfect size for me - 3 to 6 days of food. Started out hanging my food bag, but after the first week people were losing their correctly hung bags to smart bears, so I just slept with my food the rest of the way. Had a mouse get into it in Maine. No matter how waterproof your food bag is, if you hang it outside in the rain, it will soak through. Keep all food items in ziplocks.
Rope: Based on recommendations I had seen online, I went with 50 feet of rope. Paracord is popular. I used a spectracord (like the reflective tie out lines on tents). Never needed 50 feet. I rarely hung my food. It was nice to use as a clothes line to dry out wet gear though. I carried a small, cheap (not suitable for climbing) carabiner in unison with my rope.
Clothes (carried):
- Darn Tough low cut socks - A+ this brand is great. Had 2 pairs for the entire trail. Hiked in one pair for a few days, then put on fresh ones for a few more days.
- ExOfficio boxer briefs - Comfortable. Like all synthetics, they'll stink. Started with 2 pairs, one to wear and one for back up. Once the spring chill wore off and the temps started rising, I never wore underwear underneath my shorts - too hot and sweaty. Commando!
- SmartWool midwieght base layer, top and bottom - Expensive! Treat with care, these are notorious for getting small holes/tears in them, and I had some in mine. Super warm and super comfortable though. I never hiked in them, they were my sleeping clothes for most nights on the trail. Since they stayed relatively clean they often doubled as my 'laundry' clothes when I was washing all my other clothes.
- UnderArmour long sleeve - Thought I'd need a long sleeve to hike in on cold days. Nope. Mailed home.
- UnderArmour glove liners - Didn't need these for most of the hike, but when I was in VT, NH, and ME I loved having them. I hiked wearing them frequently up there. With temps in the 30s-40s I could stay warm with these gloves and a fleece hat, still wearing shorts and a t-shirt as long as I was hiking. Nice to have these light gloves for sitting around camp at night too.
- Mountain Hardwear synthetic jacket - Got this for about $30 at an REI sale, made the entire trip, and I still wear it off the trail. Loved it. There's a lot of choices out there, and a debate on down vs. synthetic. This insulating layer is a critical piece of gear, and which ever way you go with it, there's plenty of options out there that are warm and light (less than a pound).
- Mountain Hardwear fleece beanie - Another must have, for spring and fall. Mailed home during the summer heat. Mine has some wind blocking fabric, which helped immensely. Usually, even in colder weather, I would get to hot if I hiked wearing it though. Also used it as an insulating coozy for my food.
- DryDucks rain pants and jacket - Rain pants, never really needed them. Nice to have as 'laundry' clothes, but in my opinion, they weren't worth the weight. Rain jacket, critical piece of gear, a must have for all seasons. The DryDucks were cheap, but not very durable. I felt good about them getting ripped/smelly since they were inexpensive. Once they fell apart entirely, I switched to a MontBell rain jacket, which worked fine. It doubled as a wind breaker, or if I was cold in the morning I would start hiking while wearing it until my body heat rose enough. With ALL rain gear - I don't care how WATERPROOF or BREATHABLE the fabric is - whether it cost $300 or $30 - you will be WET wearing it, from soak-through of precipitation, or your own sweat. The point of hiking rain gear is to keep your core temperature warm when you are wet. Wet and warm isn't fun, but you'll live. Wet and cold can mean death, literally.
Clothes (worn):
- Darn Tough socks - As mentioned above, awesome socks, highly recommend.
- ExOfficio boxer briefs - No real complaints with them, but I chose to go commando from VA all the way to Katahdin.
- T-shirt - I went through several pairs during the entire hike, all were synthetic. No need to spend a lot of money here, since it's going to get dirty, sweaty, and stink like rotten death. I'm curious to try out a wool t-shirt sometime since those are supposed to be better about smelling bad. The only thing I advise strongly is no matter what - do not hike in cotton clothes.
- Pants - Started with some convertible zip off pants that doubled as shorts, thinking that having pants would help me with my worries about ticks. I lost weight and they didn't fit anymore by the time I got to VA. Summer heat made for ridiculously sweaty hiking, so I switched to some running shorts that had an underwear-style liner. Chaffing, Monkey Butt, Swamp Ass - what ever you want to call it - sucks. Loved this decision to switch to running shorts commando-style, and I wore that same pair of shorts the rest of the way to Katahdin.
Misc/Luxury:
- Leki Makalu trekking poles - This is another A+ brand. Poles were critical. They saved me countless times from nasty falls, and helped when fording streams. Leki is an excellent company with outstanding customer service. It's true you can just use a stick you find in the woods, and save $100 dollars or so, but if you decide to buy trekking poles, I can't stress enough that I would go with Leki.
- Cell phone - Mine was a simple, dumb-phone. Rarely had a signal in the woods. Many hikers now are using smartphones, which can be used for many purposes - download a guidebook on pdf, compass, weather, etc. I noticed on the AT, Verizon customers had pretty good signals even in the woods. AT&T was okay too. I had Sprint, and the signal was not so great. YMMV. I carried my charger with me so I could charge my phone during town stops. Advice with phones - nice to have, but don't rely solely on them to get you out of a dangerous situation on the trail.
- Camera - My Kodak ProSport was great. With it's water resistance I just carried it in the hip belt of my pack and never had to worry about rain or sweat. Nice for a simple point and shoot. Good picture quality for stills, and it shoots HD video. More serious photobugs might want a more professional camera, but this one worked great for my purposes.
- Memory Card - One in the camera, and I always carried a back up. When I filled a card up, I mailed it home from the next town I stopped in. I used 8GB cards, and by the end of the trail, I was on my 5th one.
- Joby Gorilla Pod - Never really needed it, mailed home.
- Petzl Tikka xp2 - This is fairly expensive for a headlamp, but I loved it. Would buy again. When looking for headlamps, it's nice to have one that has adjustable brightness. Also, a 'red' light so you don't blind your fellow hikers when you are walking around camp at night.
- Extra batteries - Heavy, but a smart decision. Especially if you do a lot of night hiking.
- Crocs - Awesome. Used as camp shoes, and occasionally as water fording shoes. Light, durable, not very stylish, but one pair lasted the entire trip.
- Pack liner - Just a simple trash bag as an added layer of protection for my sleeping bag, pillow, and clothes. I recommend getting a trash compactor trash bag for the sake of durability. Two lasted the entire trip.
- Stuff sacks - I had my sleeping bag and clothes in waterproof bags. A compression-style bag is great for the sleeping bag, to get all the air out and get it to take up as little space in your pack as possible. For my clothes I used a different method. I left that sack loosely closed so that it filled in the spaces around the other items in the bottom of my pack.
- Guidebook - Essential. I used AWOL's AT Guide. It's a really great book. I kept mine in tact, and often wrote notes in it so I could keep track of important things along the hike. To save weight, some hikers would tear their book apart and mail portions ahead down the trail, so that they were only carrying a few pages at a time. The only downside that I really found about this book was that it was easy to get frustrated by looking at its elevation profile. Due to the book's scale, there are many short climbs and descents that don't show up. The ATC maps solve this problem, but are bulky and heavy. Preference of the AT Guide vs. the ATC's Handbook vs. the DataBook vs. maps, will vary widely from one hiker to the next, so check them all out and see what you like.
- Compass - I feel kind of bad saying this, since it goes against the traditional "10 Essentials" of hiking, but I never once used my compass on the AT. Realized this early, and mailed home.
- Ear plugs - Helped me sleep at night. I'm a light sleeper, so every twig that snaps in the middle of the night would wake me up. Wearing these helped block out all the little noises. If you sleep in shelters, this is a very important thing to carry - for other hikers' snoring and crinkly sleeping mats/bags.
- Bible - I found a waterproof New Testament, that weighed about 9oz. It was nice to read at night for a while, but I didn't stick with it the entire way, although, I did carry it the entire way.
- Carribeaners - I used one on my food bag (when I was hanging it), and one for back up in case I needed to hang something on the outside of my pack. Rarely used the second one.
- Knife - I never needed a bigger knife than the one I carried. Save weight here - just get a mini-Swiss Army style knife, or micro-Leatherman. Some ultra-light hikers only use a small, single razor blade. All you need a knife for on the AT is to cut duct tape/rope/food/etc.
- Pack cover - Really, when it was raining, this did absolutely nothing to keep my pack dry, but I couldn't bring myself to ditch the thing. I guess it's a matter of degree of wetness - maybe my pack would have been soaked, rather than just a bit wet, if I didn't use a cover.
- Pillow - Yes this is more bulk and weight, but I could never sleep very well using a jacket or stuff sack as a pillow, like many other hikers do. I met a southbounder in 2011 that used a backpacking pillow, and his reasoning made a lot of sense to me - a better night's sleep, makes for a better hike the next day.
- IDs - I always carried my drivers license, health insurance card, and a debit card - in a small ziplock bag. If at all possible, keep these items on your person, especially in town. Several hikers this year had small, lightweight fanny packs for just this purpose. Cash is very important to have since many hostels and stores along the trail do not accept credit/debit cards, or if you end up paying someone for a ride. I found that about 50$ was enough to get by with in case something like that came up, until I could get to the next town/ATM. More cash in hand might be needed for NH and ME, for the huts/campsites in the Whites, and as towns become fewer and farther between.
- Music - This was a total luxury item for me. Small, inexpensive MP3 player with headphones. In VA I bought external speakers, and an 8 inch mirror disco ball. First I've ever heard of anyone having a disco ball on the trail. It was fun to buy glow sticks and throw some parties out in the middle of nowhere. Really, I didn't use it enough to make carrying it for almost 500 miles worth while, but it was a really fun, unique, and entertaining thing to do while it lasted. Mailed the speakers and disco ball home around NJ/NY, and all the rest in MA. I wanted to experience the sounds of nature in VT, NH, and ME free of electronic stimulus. But this is how among our crew I was also known as "Discobear".
Medical:
My needs here changed a lot over the course of the hike. I started with all kinds of stuff in my med kit, and found out that most of it I never used. Except for the blisters I experienced the first couple weeks into the hike, I never really had another medical problem, but I was extremely fortunate. In the hot months, BodyGlide or GoldBond anti-chafe sticks were crucial. What is right to carry will vary widely from person to person. I would advise checking out the ATC website and looking at their recommendations for safety. You can always adjust to fit your own comfort level. I will say, I never once used my doxy (tick meds), extra shoelace, back up water treatment tablets, or flint/striker. Bandaids, vitamins, some kind of upset stomach medicine, and a safety pin, were all used often enough to necessitate having them in my pack at all times.
Hygiene:
I found out early that you can never have too much toilet paper - I kept one roll at a time, in a zip lock bag, and would get another roll when I got to the next town. Hand sanitizer was great for after bathroom breaks in the middle of the woods. Bronners was a great soap for washing clothes, hair, or whatever - I always had the smallest bottle, and it's easy enough to find all along the trail. For oral hygiene I just used a small tooth brush, travel size tooth paste, and a small spool of floss, carried in a small zip lock bag. Tweezers are good to have for removing splinters or ticks. I didn't use nail clippers very often - if weight is an issue, you could definitely get by with out them.
More to come..........
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