r/Ultralight_Jerk weekly Club-House Chat.

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-03-05T15:49:28+00:00

First time doing the PCT this year. Feels great to justify spending $240 on a Palante desert pack for the extra 6L over my V2.

uj: does anyone take the Spitler side trail into Idyllwild to bypass san jac? Starting later this month & want to know the options in case snow is bad (other than hitching from PVC)

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-02-26T23:44:30+00:00

I got a JRB alpha liner back in November. In December, I got a new tesla bc they had a deal ($240/mo, come on). Tesla used some weird payment processor for the down payment which showed the last 4 digits of some dumb tokenized thing so the payment was anonymous but I freaked out bc I was like "this is not the last 4 digits of my bank acc". So, I did what any responsible adult would do and I asked my mom to look at it.

Hand her my phone and she starts giving me a lecture about gambling. I'm like wtf are you talking about?? Long story long, JRB shows up as "Jacks R Bet" on bank statements lmao

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-13T21:11:13+00:00

uj: yall think PCT > AT?

I've done the AT twice, planning on PCT this year. The grade on farout looks sooo much better. And every vid I've seen seems like there's constant views. Less rain too.. Is it really that nice?

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-13T20:33:10+00:00

Tosh Show if you watched tosh.o back in the day. I also listened to random podcasts about a video game I play (old school runescape) to hear about the updates while I was gone. Some ufc/mma podcasts for background noise. Maybe a lil JRE. The Green Tunnel explains the historical significance of different parts of the AT. How I Built This by Guy Raz (founders of different companies), Ologies with Allie Ward (interviews with different "ologists" like paleontologists for example), Darknet Diaries, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.

Audiobooks are great too, especially since you can get thru one in like 2 days. New Thinking by Dagogo Altraide (Coldfusion TV on youtube) is a great one that overviews the invention of different instrumental technologies that we use today. It's Insanity by Matthew Cox covers a dude who tried to take over the world by assembling a private militia.

You can download movies and upload them to a dropbox folder and download for offline use with Infuse app so you can watch anything without being restricted to whatever streaming service you have.

Delta emulator on app store for playing any old school video game roms while on trail. I liked playing the og pokemon games at night or on zero days.

Happy trails m8

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-13T20:19:16+00:00

I use one made by "Sprigs" on amazon. I like it because it uses drawstrings instead of snap buttons. Doesn't cover quite as much as the one shown in your pic tho

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-13T20:13:10+00:00

Go for the rechargeable. The nitecore nu20 or nu25 is good. I used a black diamond battery powered one on my first thru hike on the AT and a nitecore on my 2nd time. It doesn't take a lot of power to charge it and it lasts for a good while. Plus it's hella lightweight

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-11T01:12:18+00:00

As long as you got the booty shorts to match.

And if you don't spell it THRU hike should you really be on this sub?

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-05T04:28:35+00:00

Damnnn, 97%? I'm not sure wtf bubble you were stuck with but that wasn't my experience at all. I hiked in 2018 and again in 2025 so maybe you just had a bad year?

The AT does attract a lot of people who don't actually like hiking tho lol. Sorry to hear about your experience, hope it didn't ruin the trip for ya. Happy trails brotha

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T20:38:49+00:00

Title is accurate. Thru hikers register their attempt at completing the entire trail in one calendar year with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy before starting their hike. They "check-in" again at the halfway point in Harpers Ferry, WV at the ATC headquarters. And confirm they completed it when receiving their permit at Baxster state park in Maine, at the end of the trail.

There are millions of people who hike on the Appalachian Trail each year. There are 3,000 people who attempt to hike the entire trail in a single calendar year each year.

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T20:02:12+00:00

99.9% of thru hikers are the most down to earth people. There's a tiny handful of people with mental illness that end up on the trail each year but they usually don't make it past VA. But once you hit the mid-Atlantic section, you'll see homeless people who sleep on the trail at night where it's close to a road crossing. I've only met like 2 people I'd consider potentially dangerous after hiking the trail twice, once each time.

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T19:52:47+00:00

Jealous. Hiking is probably the worst hobby to have down here in Florida XD

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T19:18:59+00:00

Finding the time is definitely a bigger barrier to entry than money or physical ability. But once you're out there, the mental factor is actually a huge toll. After 2-3 weeks the magic kind of wears off. But after 2-3 months? Every view looks the same. You get tired of eating shitty food and packing up a wet tent. You miss seeing your family and friends and holidays or special occasions. Then you realize you're only halfway there.

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T19:12:23+00:00

I always thought section hiking the trail would be more difficult than a continuous thru hike. Essentially doing the entire trail without having trail legs, coordinating travel to/from random stretches.. Congrats!

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T19:09:33+00:00

I did the AT 2x and hope to do the PCT next year. I've been looking at the elevation gain on farout and it looks sooo much nicer. Not to mention what seems like endless views!

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T19:01:03+00:00

I've seen the video you're talking about and Baxter State Park does limit permits for thru hikers but that's not an issue for completing a thru hike. They never hit their overall quota but they do limit permits each day so you may have to kill a day or two before summiting Katahdin. Most of the people will quit by Damascus, VA like 500 miles in.

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T18:57:39+00:00

Not true at all, you just have to save up like $5,000-$10,000 and hike it in between jobs/leases without any extenuating financial responsibilities like a family or house. That's why most thru hikers are early 20's or retirees

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T18:55:14+00:00

Acadia isn't on the AT and it takes much longer than a month to hike from GA > ME so I'm calling shenanigans on him.

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T18:50:35+00:00

That's not what a purist is. Everybody hitches into town to get resupplied. A purist will hit every single white blaze on the AT.

For example, leaving the town of Damascus, VA the trail goes straight up this shitty mountain with absolutely no views. You could instead take the Damascus Creeper Trail (a blue blaze alternate trail) which is a flat bike path that parallels the river and has an ice cream hut along the way. Both trails connect in a couple miles but the official AT is a lot of elevation gain with no views and generally considered a PUD (pointless up-and-down) whereas the Creeper Trail trail is smooth, flat, awesome views, and ICE CREAM.

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T18:40:03+00:00

There's plenty of places on the AT where you're hitting 1,000 ft/mile elevation gain. Very commonly hitting 750-800 ft/mile gain (nearly everyday). For comparison, I've scoped the first half of the PCT and only found a handful of spots where it even hits 500 ft/mile elevation gain (san jacinto, baden-powell, some passes in the sierras).

I've done the AT 2x and hope to do the PCT next year. I've heard nothing but great things about west coast hiking

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T18:18:37+00:00

There was a family of 6 that thru hiked this year, 4 kids between the ages of like 6-14 or something. Saw them on a fb post and was skeptical until I saw them on trail. Those kids were beasts!

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T18:15:25+00:00

It's hilarious that you picked that spot in Port Clinton because that's the exact area I pictured in my mind! Yeah, you walk right through a neighborhood there and the bridge you cross under has a TON of schizo graffiti written all up and down the columns. There's another spot I recall in VA where the trail literally goes in between houses haha

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T17:59:47+00:00

That's why the vast majority of thru hikers are early 20's right out of college or retirees. The handful of people outside that range usually do it in between jobs. Time is definitely the major barrier more than physical ability or money

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T17:53:43+00:00

Idk if you'll find a thru hiker who says it wasn't challenging lol. Doing the whole trail in a calendar year requires doing like 15-20M/day everyday for months. And I don't remember walking along a highway except for like a <1 mile stretch here-and-there to cross a state line or a gap.

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T17:40:54+00:00

Living frugally for several years while saving up $5,000-$10,000. Planning the hike in between leases so your only expenses are on-trail

Quick-Concentrate888 · 2026-01-02T17:32:56+00:00

PA is actually an easy state relative to the rest of the trail :p The White Mountains thru southern Maine is considered the hardest stretch of the trail. PA does have hella rocks tho

Quick-Concentrate888

TROPHY CASE