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. :)
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