Less expensive hiker things

An aside:  I'm pretty disappointed in my digestive system.  Today I ate lunch and my the lower half of my abdomen swelled up like there was a basketball in it.

I really enjoyed that year of eating.  I'm going to miss it.

Okay, so yesterday I suggested things to buy your hiker if you're rich.  Which I realize most of us aren't.  Today I thought I'd point at the more affordable things that most hikers are likely to use.

Like a pepsi can stove.  Totally not fancy, but lightweight and very functional.  This, or a variation on it, has been my caping stove for a few years now.  You can make your own (my first was homemade) or buy one for $12.


Also, a pot cozy.  I made my first several from Reflectix purchased at Lowe's.  It's meant for insulating water heaters, but it works fine on camping pots.  ~$10 if somebody else makes it.  Really if you're going to need more than one, it pays to buy the roll of Reflectix.  And some metal tape.  That and scissors are all you need to make your own cozy.


The tent I use these days is a Lightheart Awning Tent.  I used to use a Tarptent Rainbow all the time, and I still have it.  The LightHeart tents are effectively regular tents - there is a ton of mesh, so you get no condensation.  In suspect weather, that's my preference.  For good weather, the Rainbow has more useable space inside, IMHO, and can be set up free standing.  That can be very handy.  The Rainbow is mostly a silnylon surface, so in heavy rain (common in Appalachia) you definitely will get misting inside.  Which is annoying.  However I note that Henry is now selling a new tarptent that looks competitive with the Lighthearts - The Tarptent Notch.  All of the tents are in the $200-$260 range, which is fairly standard for a one man tent.

The Lightheart Awning tent

Tarptent Notch

Tarptent Rainbow

Unfortunately, I don't know of any really reasonably priced sleeping bags.  Maybe on clearance?

Most hikers will want a knife.  They don't need anything more complicated than a tiny swiss army knife.  You need a small blade and a little pair of scissors.  That's it.  $13.  Like this:

I don't have a handy link, but trash compactor bags are very nice and helpful.  Maybe they don't make great gifts, but they make *great* pack liners.  Because pack covers?  Do not keep backpacks dry.

Also, pint sized freezer Ziplocks are very, very useful for repackaging foods into single portions.

Your hiker probably has very specific sock needs for hiking, but most everybody could use a nice fluffy pair of wool or fleece socks for pampering their feet at night.  $10-$20 depending on how fluffy we're talking.

They aren't common but they're one of the most useful items I've used:  a rain wrap.  It's basically a waterproof skirt.  It might not sound like much, but after a few hours in the rain, your upper half might still by dry (not likely!) but your lower half definitely won't be without more protection than a rain coat.  Dryish pants can make or break your day.  $30

Also, a 3 ounce wind jacket is nearly indispensable.  You can hike it in it when it's too hot for a raincoat but too cold and windy for just a shirt.  It makes a great layering item too - stopping the wind makes a huge difference.  A bit pricy at $80, but I've yet to have one tear or otherwise wear out.

I use these gloves for everything, and as such I go through a pair every year or two.  I love, love, love them.  Power Stretch gloves.  They're on the order of $25.  I have enough feeling to handle gloves and zippers in them - I only have to take them off to pee or fiddle with my iphone.  Which might be too much personal information.

What to buy your hiker (if you're rich)

Titanium Jetboil stove   I've been using alcohol stoves for years.  I used to use a canister stove but it was wobbly and scared me.  Before that I used a Whisperlite and had a couple of scary "oh god I might catch the forest on fire" incidents, so those were out.  Alcohol suits me really well, and I'm fairly skilled at using it.  Only problem is, at lower temperatures its vapor pressure drops and it doesn't want to light or stay lit.  So, back to canister stoves for cold weather.  Jetboils seem to be beloved by those who use them, by my observation.  The stove itself is securely attached to the pot, so no wobbliness issue.  And there are little feet you can attach to the canister, just in case.  They've been out for a few years, and I've watched hiker after hiker just be totally in love with their Jetboil.  I started reading up about them this fall, and found that they now make a titanium version.. which is to say a lighter weight version.  8.5 oz not counting the extra feet.  That includes the pot and its built in cozy. Which isn't shabby, actually, even compared to my virtually weightless alcohol stove made out of a soda can.  You can boil 12 liters of water (according to the website) using one of the fuel canisters, which weighs 6.8 oz when new.   I figure a 20 oz soda bottle of alcohol probably boils 10 liters of water for me.  It could boil more, but I find it difficult to be accurate when preloading the stove with alcohol.  I err on the side of too much, which is better than running out of alcohol before the water boils.  My new .75 liter pasta pot weighs 3.2 oz, and the cozy for it probably weighs half an ounce or so.  Say 4.5 oz for pot plus stove, plus ~10 oz for my fuel.  14.5 oz. vs 15.3 oz for the Jetboil and a full fuel canister.  Which I guess isn't a fair comparison, but that's the smallest increment of fuel I can carry for it, at least when it's new.  Basically, it's a wash, weight-wise.  Wow.  How did I never do that math before?  (It's actually worse than that, because I was carrying a larger, heavier pot before.. and a woolen mitten just for handling it when it was hot.)

It looks like every other Jetboil.  I'm just taking their word on the titanium.

Zpacks Hexamid tent  Oh these are light.  So very light.  You can get a tarp version that is 3.2 oz.  Perhaps you didn't hear me clearly.  I said THREE POINT TWO OUNCES.  That is insane.  The tent version (with netting, which I would totally get if it were me because bugs have an unnatural love for me, but if not for that who could resist the 3.2 oz tarp?) is 9.3 oz.  And you probably want to get the groundsheet, because this tent has mesh on the bottom, not a regular floor.  Strange but true.  You'd have to read the description to find out why.  Also, there is an "extended beak" which adds .9 oz, but gives you privacy to do things like change your clothes.  Which is nice.  So all things considered it's probably closer to 15 oz, which you must admit is not much for a fairly sizeable tent.  I mean it's 9 feet long and over five feet across at the middle.  It's approaching Taj Mahalish.  No pool though.

Taj-ish Zpacks Hexamid Solo Plus

Zpacks ground sheet  These are made to go into the Zpacks Hexamid tent, but are equally useful in a shelter or just on the ground.  They're made out of Cuben fiber so they're very tough and light.  The ends are sewn together so they stand up like a bathtub - keeping your stuff inside and rainwater out.  They might be a little large if you're in a really crowded shelter, but you could always fold the edges in a bit.

Zpacks Cuben groundsheet, Solo Plus size

Gossamer Gear LT4 adjustable trekking poles    Okay, so most everybody uses trekking poles.  Or not everybody, but enough so as to make no difference.  We use them for hiking, we use them instead of real tent poles, we stick them in the ground and dry our socks over the handles.  Regular poles typically start at 8 oz per pole and go up from there.  These are 3.6 oz per pole for the regular size.  They are definitely not as sturdy as some of the heavier poles, though.  My classic "trip over the hiking pole, bend it, and continue using it for two years" move would result in "trip over hiking pole, break it, have to carry it back out of the woods with me."  The LT4 is nice because it's adjustable.  They have non-adjustable ones which weigh less.  I don't know about you, but I'm constantly adjusting the height of my poles, so those don't appeal to me.

Oddly, I found no picture of these that showed one full length

Skhoop insulated mini skirt   I can't be the only one whose butt gets cold every night.  Wear a mini over your tights.  Wear it in your sleeping bag.  Wear it around the campfire.  Protect your parts!

Suitably, a tiny picture of a mini skirt

What I'd do differently in the event that I got to thruhike again

I took a sick day today after all.  But I felt better throughout the day, so I'm thinking tomorrow should be back to normalcy.  However my day off today left  me with a lot of thinking time.

So I thought about thruhiking.  As one does.

I thought I'd do a "What I'd do differently" list.  Some things would stay the same, at least the same as the end of my attempted thruhike, if not the same as the beginning.  In fact I also need to do a "What I'd do the same" list for comparison.

What I'd do differently:
Call more cabs.  This is not always possible, but if it is, why not?  It's safer than hitchhiking, plus you can arrange a cab in advance.  Now, I'm talking about getting from trail to town and back.. not skipping ahead.
Either walk faster or accept lower mileage.  Longer days, hours-wise, leads to chafe-age.
Try to find other slow people to hike near.  Having friends around makes a huge difference in my daily mood.
Not get Lyme disease again.  My plan is to take Andrographis as a preventative.  I figure I'm a pretty good test case for finding out if that actually works.
Accept that I am not an ultralight hiker.  I am not one of those butch Marines that can "dry out my clothes in camp by wearing them."  That is a recipe for hypothermia for me.  Also, I need more than a tarp to sleep under.  I am a cold sleeper so I need to be warm, and I need to keep ticks off of me.
Think about taking glasses with me.  In case I need to read, or something.
Buy a brand new Marmot Precip right before my hike.  They're great jackets but they do age, so taking an old one is a bad idea.
Carry extra charging capacity for my phone.
Skip the "extras" that don't really appeal to me.  I generally don't care about waterfalls.  Home-style restaurants either.  But I should eat more Chinese food and read historical plaques.
Train more ahead of time.  That was the idea for this year, but the Snowpocalypse put the kibosh on it.
Wear my wedding ring or a cheap facsimile thereof.
Carry more of the AWOL guide at one time.  I often cut it too close, and had to wait until I picked up the next section to figure out how many days food to buy.
Ditch the bandaids.  I used sports tape for all my bandaid needs.
Carry stevia rather than splenda.  So my liver won't, you know, hurt.
Might try to find a pair of boots that doesn't rub my heel off.
Take more video.  It conveys things that pictures just don't.

What I would do the same:
Hike South to North.  You get more warm weather that way.  I like cool weather, but I don't like cold weather, and southbounders can get a whole lot of that.
My tent (Tarptent Rainbow), backpack (Gregory something or other), stove (AntiGravity Gear alcohol stove), pot (something titanium), and spoon (long handled titanium) are all fine.
My final hiking outfit is also fine:  convertible pants designed for curvy women, button down shirt.
Probably I would still carry all the maps.  I love maps.  They haven't been super useful, exactly.  It's not like I got lost and map and compassed my way out of it. I just like looking at them.


I am of two minds about my water treatment.  On the one hand, when the steripen works, it rocks.  But when it doesn't (mostly in cold weather), filters are also problematic. 

In other news, this is day three of my diet and I'm hungry.

That is all.

My thoughts on the major gear decisions for thruhikers

Just got a call from somebody my mom pointed my way.  He's a hiker in his 60's who wants to do the trail in 2011.  We chatted for 20 minutes, mostly about gear.  A prospective thruhiker has a lot of decisions to make, and there is a LOT of information out there to sort through.  If you haven't been backpacking recently, there are a lot of changes in default gear.  I thought I'd tell you what I used, and what else I saw a lot of on the trail.

The major items most use are:

shelter
sleeping bag
ground pad
stove
backpack
raingear
water treatment

For shelter I used a Tarptent Rainbow. It weighs just over two pounds.  It is a single wall tent, meaning there is no inner mesh tent.  That makes it lighter, but it also means there is nothing between you and the condensation.  I carried a camp towel and used it to wipe down the walls during times of heavy condensation, such as during heavy rains or when camped on grass.  I liked that it had plenty of room inside.  I could sit up easily without brushing my head on the roof, and there was room for a 6' sleeping pad and also my whole backpack plus its contents spread out.  When the gnats were bad I spent a lot of time in it.

Other tents I saw a lot of were the  MSR Hubba (pretty much just room for your sleeping pad) and the Big Agnes Fly Creek which was a little roomier.  Both had the advantage of the interior tent plus fly setup.  Less condensation, plus in hot weather you can set it up without the fly.  This way you're still protected from insects but you have much more ventilation.

An up and comer is the LightHeart Solo.  It's based on the old Wanderlust design, but with improvements.  Everybody I saw with one of these loved it.  Plus the LightHeart lady is really nice.

I used a Montbell Ultralight Down Hugger 30 degree bag (no longer available).  I loved it because it was very stretchy so I didn't feel confined.  However, it was nowhere near warm enough for the beginning or end of the trail.  I layered it with a Nunatak Arc Ghost that I already had, and that was very warm. 

Montbell Super Spiral sleeping bags were common on the trail and their users were happy with them.  Western Mountaineering bags come highly recommended as well.

I slept on a Thermarest NeoAir pad.  The short was too short, even for me.  At 48", it left too much of me dangling uncomfortably over the edge.  The medium and long worked fine.  These pads have a design flaw which causes some of the interior panels to delaminate over time.  They'll still hold air, but they'll get bulges.  Also they are not self inflating.  You have to spend a minute or two blowing them up every night.  For me the comfort was worth it.  Because the NeoAir doesn't have real insulation, I carried a Gossamer Gear Thinlight pad to layer with it at the beginning of the trail.

Others use (and I often use on short, cold trips) the Big Agnes Insulated Air Core pad.  It weighs a little more than the NeoAir, but is much warmer on cold nights.  Durable and simple to use Z-rest pads were common with younger hikers who didn't need as much padding.  Heavier but self inflating Thermarest pads are very common too.

I used an Antigravity Gear alcohol stove for most of the hike except the month of summer where I went stoveless.  Alcohol stoves of that type were very common.  Also common were the fast and fuss-free Jetboil stoves, which require shipping yourself canisters via ground mail, or hoping to find canisters at the occasional outfitter.  There are still a few Whisperlite liquid fuel stoves out there.  It's easier to find fuel for them than the canisters for the Jetboils.  The Whisperlites tend to clog and are far too fussy for me.

I first used a Gossamer Gear Mariposa backpack, but after a few hundred miles I decided it didn't have quite enough support for what I was carrying.  I hated to give it up due to its light weight and wonderful pockets, but I bought a Gregory Jade 60 women's pack to use for the rest of the trip.  It is a *wonderful* pack.  The pockets are not as awesome as the Mariposa's, but the suspension was worth the extra three pounds.  If I could get a Gregory suspension with a Mariposa pack, that would be the ultimate for me.  I don't need the super durable Gregory fabric for the pack body.

The Gregory packs were mostly what I saw on others, especially toward the end.  A number of people were wearing ULA packs.  I love ULA backpacks (I have several of them myself) and would recommend them to others.  Also Brian Frankle, the brains behind ULA, is great to deal with.

I tried several silnylon raincoat options and they all kind of sucked.  Too much condensation.  I might as well have just gotten wet from rain.  I ended up going back to my old favorite, the Marmot Precip. That is mostly what I saw on others, though a few went with European brands that seemed to work great, and of course some people when with old fashioned ponchos.  Ponchos move around on me too much, sadly.

I also swear by my ULA rain wrap.  It keeps my shorts dry, it keeps my modesty intact when I'm doing laundry, and it can be used as a small tarp or to sit on.  Love it.  Some people use a Hefty bag for the same purpose.

I have a love-hate relationship with my Steripen.  I got the version with the LCD screen.  It was a bitch to get working in cold weather.  I had to open the thing up and warm the batteries to get it working.  Also the LCD screen quit working halfway through hike.  However, the pen itself kept working the whole time.  It left my water tasting delicious, and I didn't get giardia.  I did prefilter the water through a  dedicated square of camptowel, to remove silt.  I carried a backup bottle of iodine tablets in case of pen failure.

Few people used Iodine tablets.  It's not really such a great idea for long term use.  But it makes a good backup.  Get the PA plus and use the vitamin C tablets AFTER THE IODINE HAS HAD TIME TO WORK to get rid of the iodine flavor. 

A lot of folks use Aqua Mira chlorine dioxide drops.  I used to, but discovered that my intestines were irritated by the chlorine.  The drops are lightweight, but must be mixed and then left to sit for several minutes, then you can't drink the water for half an hour.  The sitting and waiting is irritating when you want to be walking (or there are gnats and mosquitoes near the water source, where you've stopped for water), and it's even more aggravating to wait half an hour to drink when you're thirsty.  All of which is why I don't use the stuff anymore.  But like I say, lots of folks use Aqua Mira and love it.

Quite a few people used various brands of pump water filters.  I hate them and can't recommend any of them.  However, I do recommend gravity filters such as the Platypus Filter.  Delee has one that we use regularly for local camping trips.  It's a little bit heavy, but works wonderfully and is less labor intensive than most other methods.

Of course, there are lots of other decisions to make too.  What kind of hat?  Gloves?  Wicking shirt?  Shorts, kilt, zip off pants, mini skirt, sundress?  Underwear or no underwear?  What kind of socks?  Boots, trail runners, bare feet, sandals, Vibram Fivefingers?  Titanium or aluminum pot?  Which hiking poles?  Tampons, pads, or menstrual cup?  Trowel or no trowel?  The list goes on ad infinitum.  The answers are not the same for any two different people. 

I hope somebody finds this helpful.  If not, at least I can use it as a gear list next time I pack up.  :)

What didn't work on a thruhike

A thruhike is pretty hard on you.  It's hard on your stuff, too.  Some items made it the whole way on my hike, but they didn't necessarily make it intact.

I started out with an old ultralight backpack, a Gossamer Gear Mariposa.  It started ripping within two weeks.  I then purchased a Mariposa Plus.  Some non-vital ribbon immediately pulled out, but that's not why it didn't make it the rest of the way.  It just wasn't comfortable enough for me, day to day.  At the end of the hiking day, it felt like a bag of jello was sagging down my back.  I needed something with more support.  (I found a Gregory internal frame pack that did the job nicely, but I dearly missed the outer pockets and light weight of the Mariposas.)

I started and ended with Keen boots, but they weren't the same pair.  I'm wearing the third pair to work now.  I also killed a previously used pair of Merrells in Pennsylvania.  (Actually the Merrells might still be hikeable, but they don't fit my feet anymore.  Thruhiking made my feet just big enough that the toes pinch now.  )  The Keens started failing the same way every time - the soles started to delaminate where they wrapped around the midsole.  No amount of glue would hold them together.  Mostly that was just an annoyance.  The real failure was how quickly the soles would wear off.  Then the boots would lose stiffness, and as a consequence my feet would hurt all the time.   Then I knew it was time for new boots.  I would get new insoles at the same time - Superfeet hot pink insoles.  The hot pink have dense foam under the ball of the foot, which made my feet very very happy.  An important breakin tip is to keep your old Superfeet if you do this, and only use the new Superfeet a little at a time the first few days.  The old Superfeet have molded to your feet, and the new ones have not.  So wearing the new ones all day is a bad idea until they get to know your feet a little better.

My first sleeping pad, a medium NeoAir, suffered some internal delamination after two months.  It still held air, but it had a bulge right where my back went.  My second pad was a short NeoAir, and my knees and feet didn't like dangling over the end.  The NeoAirs are 2.5" thick, so it's a much longer dangle than with a standard 1/2" foam pad, for instance.  My last NeoAir was long, several inches longer than me.  But the weight was only an ounce more than the model I wanted, so I lived with the silly long pad.  I loved my NeoAirs, they were very comfortable.  The only caveat is that they are not warm enough for cool weather.  For that I layered a thin foam pad with the NeoAir.

I didn't wear that many clothes at any one time, but I went through a number of garments on the hike.  Mostly bottoms.  My skirt proved too warm for warm weather hiking.  My shorts and pants tended to get thin at the rear (from sitting and sliding down steep rocks) and then they'd also get loose as I lost more weight.  Fortunately JD was able to find and mail me a new pair as needed.  For the most part I stuck with the same brand because I knew it fit.  (That would be White Sierra Tetons.  Great convertible pants for curvy women.)

I went through socks very regularly.  I wore two layer Wright socks.  JD bought them in three packs and mailed me new ones whenever mine got thin.

I went through several raincoats before I purchased a new Marmot Precip.  I've worn so many of these out that I didn't want another, but the salesperson pointed out that a year or two of daily use is probably considered "a lot" of use, and it wasn't that bad that the coat eventually stopped repelling water.  And, indeed, the jack did fine for the rest of the hike.  I think I got it in Hot Springs, and it went the rest of the way to Woodstock with me.  Prior to Hot Springs I was just wet a lot, no matter what I wore.

I believe this will have to be done in installments.  I carried a lot of stuff!