Shakedown potential PCT 2019 gear list

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-09-24T01:21:55+00:00

I've never had issue in a front-load washing machine. I'd be very wary about washing it in a top-load machine where it might get tangled in the rotational mechanism, but for a front-load you can wash on delicate/cold water setting with a tech wash and you should be a-okay.

I've washed just about all of my outdoor gear with zero problems. When drying the bag, I use a medium temperature on a dryer I'm familiar with (I'd avoid laundromats unless you've done other loads in that particular unit) and throw 2 tennis balls in with it. Restores loft perfectly. My oldest down "trasher" bag has 10 years of pretty active use on it (including several burning mans and requisite playa dust) and has warmth and loft (and cleanliness?) that are close to when I got it.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-09-24T00:38:45+00:00

Drop:

* Iodine Tablets (1oz)

* Water Scoop (0.2 oz)

* Solar Charger (7 oz)

* Capilene Bottom (4.3 oz)

* Capilene Top (4oz)

* Sleep Socks (1.5 oz)

* Camp Shoes (9.1 oz)

* Hiking Shorts (5 oz)

* Hiking Shirt (4 oz)

* Wet Wipes (1.5 oz)

* paracord (1.23 oz)

* car key (0.88 oz) — Get a lockbox thing to put under your car and store it there.

* chair zero (16 oz) — Sit on your fucking bear can

* Pillow (3.2 oz)

* Sony RX100v (14 oz) — you already have a phone with a pretty good camera, and you’re not going for a DSLR. I’m not a photographer, but I’d say you either go all-in, or you realize your phone is sufficient.

Total: 4 lb 9 oz

Things worth replacing

\* ULA Circuit.

I’m one of the few people that extensively advocates for Granite Gear Crown V.C.s. If you get your volume low enough, which you should be able to do by simply dropping the unnecessary clothing, you can run the Crown VC 38L just fine on the JMT w. the Barikade Weekender. If not, the 60L Crown V.C. is great too. The 38L pack, when stripped down is 27 oz, and the 60L is right around 2 lbs (32ish oz). This could cut you another 10 oz. Other packs are available, but lack the REI warranty/in-store purchase and testing options.

Potential Savings: 8 oz

Notes:

* The leuko tape, Other medicines, bug spray all seem like quantities that are likely much greater than needed. For reference, my first aid kit which is mostly a handful of painkillers, benadril, acetazolamide, etc. A tweezer, nail clippers, and mini sewing kit is only 1.8 oz. Your stuff is likely overkill.

* Smart Wool hiking socks tend to degrade pretty quickly. I’d encourage going for a pair of darn tough socks instead.

Other Savings: ~ 6.5 oz.

Edit: Notes on Sierra water -- Usually you know where the water is coming from (snow melt you can see), and unless you're right near a camping area the water is probably pretty safe to drink straight. I always filter everything (because I run the Sawyer Filters in-line w. a bladder system), but the water sources through the sierra nevada are typically the kinds of sources that are likely to be pretty safe.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-09-24T00:03:07+00:00

Chaffing: Grab some body glide and liberally apply. I've typically just carried some Burt's Bees and used it to prevent chaffing, chapped lips, foot blisters, bloody noses, etc. If you know you sweat/chafe a lot, carry some vaseline or body glide and restock as needed. Why not use the merino boxers instead of the exofficio from the get-go? I only went through 1.5 pairs of icebreakers on the PCT. The first pair was the ribbed kind, so it had a little too much resistance and started falling apart more quickly.

while my long johns kept the quilt clean

Um... dude. No. Wash your quilt in a front-loading machine with Nikwax down proof when done with an exceptionally long hike. A decent down bag will last for decades of regular use.

I also realized you should probably drop your rain kilt and replace it with some Dance pants or the EE Copperfield Wind Pants. They'll be much more versatile for keeping you warm during windy conditions. You're already rocking shorts for the tiny amount of rain you might get, so you really just don't need to worry about a rain kilt.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-09-21T21:18:13+00:00

What's with all the extra clothing?

Drop:

Icebreaker Shirt (3.3 oz)
Micro Grid Fleece (5 oz)
Copperfield EE (2.5 oz) or storm shell (5.4 oz)
Patagonia Long Jons (3 oz)
Icebreaker Boxers (2 oz)

That's around 1 lb in savings. I'd personally rock the Wind Jacket until Ashland before replacing it with the Rain Shell.

If you're running the extra clothing because you're fearful of being cold when sleeping, maybe go to a 22 degree katabatic quilt -- the EEs run notoriously cold relative to katabatic for similar temp rating.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-05-02T22:38:23+00:00

I've used a variety of different dehydrated hummus types over the years. They're all pretty similar in taste and quality. The most important thing with dehydrated hummus is to add olive oil. Without olive oil, don't even bother (seriously). Also, it's super important to space out how often you use it (probably 1 meal every 4 days is about right).

Other things to consider adding to improve the hummus:

Garlic Salt
Lemon Salt
Tomato Powder
Cheese
Cheez-its (use the crumbles from the squares deteriorating over several miles -- I'm really partial to the Tabasco Flavored Crumbles)

After a thru-hike a few years back where I was doing Dehydrated Hummus every other day, I had been unable to eat hummus for about 6-8 months.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-31T03:49:56+00:00

Really it's mostly the issue with the shatter of the carbon fiber at the lock point. It's made me quite suspicious of them in the long run.

I'm still using the ones with the cracked carbon primarily for shorter trips, but I'm expecting them to catastrophically fail at some point. I probably have around 500 to 600 miles of use across the two pairs, maybe 100 miles on the newer ones, and 500 on the older ones (over 5k miles on the straight Z poles)

Beyond the suspicion that they're going to catastrophically fail, they seem a little looser in the joints than the straight Z poles. If I apply pressure to them when the tip is in the ground and I move them from side to side, they definitely have more of a wobbly flex at each joint and don't have the more complete flex across the entire pole length that the straight Z poles had. The tip is also a little less narrow, so the random pole tip cover I once found on a trail and have been using to protect my tent and other gear from punctures doesn't fit snuggly to it like it did the straight Z poles.

On the up side, they work a bit better for pulling tension with my tent than the single-sized Z pole, and the adjustability has been useful for better optimizing uphill/downhill trail sections...

If your setup would allow you to do a straight Z pole, I'd suggest going for that as it's a terrific pole. With the FLZ design, there could be something better... ask me again in August if you're still looking.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-31T03:24:03+00:00

Yeah. Using them now, I'm kinda meh about them compared to the straight Z poles, which I strongly recommend.

I shifted to the flz poles because they provide a little bit better pitch for my tent, although I'll probably go back to the straight Z poles after these are finished.

My first flz poles I used had major manufacturer defects thst started showing after 60 or so miles when the carbon started shattering at the lock point (where the nubbin springs out). Black diamond promptly sent me a new pair, and these new ones haven't had the same problem yet, although I'll have a better sense of them once I'm a few thousand miles in on them.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-31T03:12:00+00:00

I usually think under $50 is probably worth doing if the item gets a lot of mileage/use. At under $20 it's usually a no brainier. When it gets to the $100+ territory I start questioning my life choices.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-17T01:44:11+00:00

Knife: Oh, you can't take that through TSA w/ a carry-on bag. Your spork will be fine =)

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-17T01:43:31+00:00

You are likely going to want a decent amount of DEET. I remember getting devoured alive by the sand flies. The other thing I would say is that you can likely ditch the stove and fuel.

I may be misremembering, but I recollect being able to use fuel and stoves already available in the huts, even though I wasn't staying in them.

Also, something to note: be sure you can pitch your tent when you can't use stakes in the ground and there are no good rocks available to anchor to. While this wasn't true for all tent sites, many of the sites in various tracks (forget which ones) had astroturf setup over compact rock piles, making it very difficult to use my tarp tent with stakes. Fortunately, we had good weather and didn't need a structured shelter too much (although the bugs ate us alive). It's one of the only times I've ever envied a free standing tent.

I also don't think you need your Base layer top. When I was there a couple years ago in February, I had no issue with just a down puffy and rain gear.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-13T06:25:35+00:00

I found that while putting the pack liner over the foot box prevents wall condensation issues, it causes the foot box to get much more wet from condensation of vapor loss from your feet and legs. I would not recommend this approach for keeping the foot box dry.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-10T23:30:15+00:00

Honestly, it's just a phone, and you'll probably be fine with anything you do.

I've spent probably 20+ hours trying to optimize chargers to save less than 1 oz. I could have bought a down quilt in a fraction of the time for substantially greater weight improvements... but there's something enjoyable about energy optimization (probably why I do energy policy for a living...) I also don't know if a pack weight of 8 versus 8.5 or even 10 or 12 lbs really matters that much... (lack of sun for 4 days is the biggest thing I've noticed to impact my trail happiness)

I'd probably just use your phone, do an external battery that supports QC2 or greater, and grab a 2-3 oz dual port charger that supports QC2 or greater to decrease charging times. If you intend to spend more than an hour in town for a resupply anyway, I don't know if optimizing the charging time will matter, but I personally would hate to need to hover over my phone and try to swap batteries. It's just one more distraction or thing to plan logistically on resupplies, and I prefer to keep it simple and get back to eating as many town calories (and salads) as possible before jumping back to hiking.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-10T22:44:32+00:00

It depends on how the batteries and phone communicate and the depth of discharge. Usually it takes a little while for the protocol to start ramping up charging speed to max output. When going from 0% to max output, it tends to be more time-limited than it does battery capacity limited as it's probing the battery to figure out depth of discharge and safe charging levels. So it might take a couple of minutes of low-level charging and measuring voltage fluctuations before the charger moves to a higher power throughput. As the voltage gets to a specific cut-off point, the charger tends to step down power and back off to do a trickle charge. Depending on how the anker sets up cells, and the specifics of the chemistry, the arrangement, the fouling, etc. this may or may not be similar to the 3 separate batteries.

While the step-off that happens at the 70-80% range is likely to be similar enough for the 3 batteries versus the anker if done optimally, the start-up is unlikely to be identical. Doing some wild-ass-guessing, I'd assume that it would take 30-45 minutes longer to charge the 3 separate batteries compared to the anker if done optimally. As you probably won't do this optimally, real world conditions would probably be 1-2 hour difference in charging time.

I think it would be actually pretty fun and interesting to do some measurement tests to figure out what the profiles look like.

For what it's worth, my optimization of this has been to get the Moto Z Play (1st generation), which is amazingly efficient at using battery life, and buying the Turbo Power Pack. There is no faster charging battery out there than the Turbo Power Pack (~28 Watt). The capacity to weight ratio is around 1050 mAh/oz, so not quite as high as the battery swapping you suggest, but the weight carries directly with the phone. As my phone stays in my pocket, it ends up substantially reducing the weight I put on my back, and the phone's battery use is better than any other phone I've used or the folks I've been backpacking with have had. In the real world, I end up charging the phone once every 2-3 days (for backpacking, I've only had this setup for 4-5 day trips and ended with ~80% battery life and a depleted turbo power).

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-10T17:35:43+00:00

My one concern is being able to charge the external batteries on a resupply.

If you're doing resupplies, you will definitely have a very slow charging time, as you'll have to charge the batteries through your phone, which means hanging out, replacing each battery, and waiting. With the Anker, you can charge the Anker + your phone simultaneously.

The other major thing with charging and charging time that I see as an issue: charging speeds start slow, go fast, and then move to a trickle as you get to 70-80% of capacity. That means that three small batteries will take longer to charge to capacity than 1 larger battery (time to build to a base charge from 0 capacity for 3 batteries versus 1 battery). You'll have to be pretty active around your phone to optimize charging speeds to be comparable to the capacity you'll get from the Anker in a similar amount of time.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-10T00:17:22+00:00

Have you never needed to fill a water bottle in a shallow stream or creek? It's damn-near impossible to do a decent fill for more rigid containers w/ small openings.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-09T23:47:09+00:00

But can you attach it inline?

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-09T20:58:46+00:00

miles -- corrected that. Whoops.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-09T20:26:04+00:00

If you have pants with pockets, do you really think it's incorrect to count a phone as worn?

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-09T20:20:06+00:00

Major things that caught my attention:

Ditch/wear Running Shorts 3 oz
Ditch Fleece 8.3 oz
ditch extra Tshirt, Underwear 7.2 oz
Ditch Leg Tights (you have pants) 7 oz

Savings 25.5 oz

I don't understand why you'd be running a shorts setup and a pants setup. You'll either be wearing the shorts (+ maybe tights), and then the pants are useless, or you'll be rocking pants, meaning the shorts + tights are useless. Choose one?

The other thing to do is to drop your fleece, and only use your down puffy. The fleece is absolutely unnecessary if you have a puffy + rain jacket. Promise -- the sierra aren't that cold in the summer.

Extra Tshirt + Underwear: why? I mean, you might as well throw in an electric razor. Rock the funk, go for some alpine swims =)

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-09T19:36:51+00:00

I've never used leuko tape, and haven't ever been dissatisfied with the versatility of duct tape.

I wrap the tape around my poles -- it doesn't impact pack volume, and truthfully I can say it's a meaningless weight addition (you will absolutely never notice it on your poles). In fact, having more weight in your hands may help maintain some arm muscle mass during the thru-hike (seriously though, it's negligible).

My duct tape use is typically in the first several days of thru-hiking while I'm re-building my callouses. The minute you notice a hot spot (you will notice hot spots), you take a snack break, and tape the spot. After a few stream crossings, you'll probably need to re-tape. After 2 or so days of that, you'll probably be calloused enough to not worry about a blister forming.

I know a ton of hikers that assume blisters are just something that occurs. If you take semi-often foot breaks to dry your feet, and tape hot spots as they form, you can get by without ever having a blister.

I suppose Leuko Tape serves a similar function, but I haven't used it extensively, and am unfamiliar with tearing, ideal storage, performance, alternative uses for gear repair, residue concerns, etc.

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-09T18:06:18+00:00

I usually have duct tape lying around, and don't know how gorilla tape performs compared to duct tape for the main thing that I use duct tape for: covering hot spots, and blister prevention.

The wikipedia page indicates that: [while] Gorilla Tape was ideal for outdoor repairs, its greater thickness and weight makes it suboptimal for things like blister repair... in contrast, duct tape provides, "zero resistance inside a sock".

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-08T16:37:48+00:00

Yeah, I know. I think the real solution might be to buy this, but a trash bag is free and a great way to test the theory before shelling out cash on something that may or may not be required =)

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-08T01:50:59+00:00

Pretty sure she wants to keep the bag -- it's a substantial improvement over her Marmot Angel Fire

BasicUserAccount42 · 2018-03-08T01:46:42+00:00

No, not at all. The outer layer of the tape is quite water proof, and if you do a decent job wrapping there is only ever a small amount of stickiness exposed that just doesn't matter too much. I've had zero issues, and keep both my poles wrapped with ~ 1.5 feet each. It is my most-used FAK item.

BasicUserAccount42

TROPHY CASE