I spent a number of years as a costume maker and wardrobe mistress in the ballet world, where the dancers sometimes \u00a0refer to each other as “bunheads.”\u00a0 When we were on the PCT both in 2005 and 2010, we noticed that most of us thruhikers at some point or other turn into\u00a0GEAR heads.\u00a0 I will never forget sitting on the big granite slab by Lake Edison, waiting for the VVR ferry to arrive, and it wasn’t long before the PCT and JMT hikers were taking gear out of their packs and comparing who had what and the merits of each.\u00a0 When we meet nonhikers, they want to hear “trail tales” and could care less about our gear.<\/p>\n
I am way too busy right now to make a spreadsheet of all our gear and how much it weighs down to the hundreths of an ounce.\u00a0 But here are the basics:<\/p>\n
BIG STUFF\u00a0\u00a0 Tent (duplex), Packs and Sleeping bags all from ZPacks.\u00a0 Normally we use either a tarp or we cowboy camp.\u00a0 But the CDT sounded like we should bring a tent, so we are.\u00a0 We tried it on the Tahoe Rim Trail and it was fine (though I admit I prefer a tarp).\u00a0 Packs–I love my old tried ‘n true, but ZPacks it will be, for saving weight.<\/p>\n
WATER\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aqua Mira.\u00a0 We tried the Sawyer Squeeze and it is tedious beyond belief.\u00a0 We would rather hike than filter! \u00a0We tried it as an inline filter and about sucked our tongues out trying to get enough water flow. So where the water looks iffy, it will be Aqua Mira.\u00a0 For carrying water, we each have a 3 liter Platypus, a 2 liter Platypus, and a 1 liter water bottle.<\/p>\n
FOOD:\u00a0 Pretty standard stuff.\u00a0 Breakfast is granola, freezedried fruit, nuts, powdered milk, Belvita and Nutella.\u00a0 We cook and eat dinner at noon, which gives us a midday rest and a chance to air our sleeping bags in the sun.\u00a0 And, if any 4 legged critters smell our cooking, we are long gone by the time they arrive. \u00a0Dinner is freezedried stuff\/Knorr with dried veges (from our garden!!!), added palm oil\u00a0and finally\u00a0cookies.\u00a0 Supper is crackers and cheese or freezedried refried beans and dried fruit and more Nutella.\u00a0 Snacks:\u00a0 Snickers!<\/p>\n
COOKING:\u00a0 Esbit stove from ZPacks.\u00a0 We used to use our tiny homemade liquid alcohol stove, which was great, but more and more wilderness areas now forbid liquid alcohol stoves.\u00a0 We tried a propane canister and it’s too bulky and a hassle.<\/p>\n
SHOES:\u00a0 La Sportiva Ultra Raptor for both Fixit and I.\u00a0\u00a0 Great rock protection, excellent traction, very comfortable and tough.\u00a0\u00a0 THANK YOU to\u00a0 Lady on a Rock (Rockin) for her blog on finishing the PCT last summer–La Sportiva shoes worked for her!\u00a0 I used to always wear Vasque, but the Vasque shoes made now just do not work for me anymore.<\/p>\n
CLOTHING:\u00a0 I pretty much sew all our hike clothing and raingear\u00a0using fabric I get from The Rain Shed in Albany, Oregon.\u00a0 We wear long sleeved shirts and long pants (they are blue, by the way–if you see us on the trail, we are the couple with the blue pants)\u00a0and I like the Sunday Afternoon hat.\u00a0 We have down jackets from Mountain Hardware.\u00a0 I made warm hoods and mittens, and we each have a longsleeved “polyphew”.<\/p>\n
CAMERA:\u00a0 I suppose we could use our phone, but we each carry a camera.\u00a0 Fixit has a 2 AA battery camera (which is what we normally always use) but I am bringing a LI rechargeable battery camera as an experiment.\u00a0 We will see how well it works out on a thru hike.\u00a0 There are no places to recharge out in the middle of nowhere!<\/p>\n
So that’s the basic stuff.\u00a0 Of course there’s\u00a0 little bitty things, too.\u00a0 But right now I have to go work on putting supper stuff together.\u00a0 Fixit is off where he always goes every Sunday afternoon–to Probation Camp, which is part of the juvenile justice system in our county.\u00a0 The teen boys there are guys who ran with the gangs and got in trouble with the law.\u00a0 At Probation Camp they have an awesome, outstanding program for helping those boys\u00a0get their GED and learn a trade so that when they get out, they are ready for a job and hopefully will stay out of the gangs and out of trouble.\u00a0 Every Sunday, Fixit and a friend of his go and sit on the porch to have a Bible discussion with any of the boys who are interested.\u00a0\u00a0The basic format is “So, what do you think?\u00a0 Got questions about God and stuff?” and it goes from there.\u00a0 Fixit loves it!\u00a0\u00a0 Answering the boys’ questions is something he really enjoys.<\/p>\n
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