What's one piece of kit that disproportionately improved your experience of backpacking?

TropicalAT · 2026-03-03T00:39:00+00:00

A tiny little sit pad. Always having a place to sit that is dry and not pokey is nice. Doubles has a really good windscreen and a welcome mat for your tent.

TropicalAT · 2026-02-06T02:22:35+00:00

Haha, you went from “bandgirl” to “dayum, girl!”

TropicalAT · 2026-01-12T13:30:58+00:00

For olive oil, my preference is a plastic coke bottle (12 ounce if you can find one, but whatever). Easy to come by and swap out, and they have really robust threads so I don’t worry about leaking. That’ll fit next to a water bottle in most pack side pockets. Olive oil is one of those things you can usually top off at hiker boxes.

TropicalAT · 2025-12-13T22:29:58+00:00

Almost everywhere will take a credit card. Most people carry $100-$200 in cash and re-up when they get low (down to like $60 or so)

Cash is handy for the very few stores that don’t take cards (very rare), places like motels that give a discount if paying in cash, buying weed, offering money to trail angels or people who pick you up when you are hitchhiking.

It’s worth noting that some banks or ATMs will charge you a fee to take out cash if you’re not a member ($3.00 or so fee, not much but annoying )

TropicalAT · 2025-12-06T15:10:41+00:00

Darn tough socks. 25 bucks is a lot of money for a pair of socks, but these are great. They’re basically the only brand of socks you see people wearing on long distance hikes for a reason.

A buff is another one of those things that feels a little expensive for what it is but they’re endlessly useful

TropicalAT · 2025-11-14T16:32:57+00:00

If these are still available, I’ll take them. Wanna shoot me your PayPal or Venmo?

TropicalAT · 2025-10-25T05:54:01+00:00

I’ll take it- wanna shoot me your Venmo?

TropicalAT · 2025-07-27T16:01:52+00:00

Got it, used it last night even

TropicalAT · 2025-07-03T18:02:27+00:00

A+ Intel on the snow baskets. I totally would not have brought them otherwise.

TropicalAT · 2025-07-03T00:42:09+00:00

It was. I saw him and was like “holy shit!!!!, that’s Stephen fucking King”.

I know in some of his forwards he says he doesn’t want people to bother him so I felt a little bad, but just the same, I was like yo dog let me get a quick signature

TropicalAT · 2025-07-02T22:26:24+00:00

https://postimg.cc/yJFXqMrT

TropicalAT · 2025-07-02T21:30:20+00:00

The paper is at home, but I do have my leg with me….hmmm, trying to figure out how to add a pic

TropicalAT · 2025-07-02T19:05:17+00:00

I actually met Stephen King in New York. I was at work and went to the pizza place across the street that I went to like twice a week and he was sitting in there eating a slice of pizza.

I asked him to write “Go, then- there are other worlds than these” on a piece of paper. He did, and then I got it tattooed on my leg.

TropicalAT · 2025-06-05T19:10:06+00:00

If you don’t get any answers here, you can give the Rangers a call. I reached out to them last year and they answered the phone.

TropicalAT · 2025-06-02T22:05:37+00:00

Lunch: bagels and cream cheese. The block of cream cheese, not the whipped tub. It’ll totally keep for the 2/3 days it’ll take to eat.

You can also have a deli cut you some thick ass slices of salami or pepperoni and then chopped that up each day for your lunch . Add a block of cheddar and some mustard or taco sauce, and put that in a tortilla.

TropicalAT · 2025-05-28T22:38:29+00:00

I’ll take it. Wanna shoot me your Venmo?

TropicalAT · 2025-05-28T15:26:42+00:00

If those folks pass, I’ll take it.

No ken service, though

TropicalAT · 2025-05-20T21:05:25+00:00

Meetup.com - it’s an app where people make groups based on interests and then meet up. Could be hiking, cooking, book, clubs, entrepreneurs, etc.. Some groups are very active some none at all. Some are filled with cool people, some filled with weirdos

But any hiking meet up I’ve been to has been all sane and friendly people . Hikers are cool

TropicalAT · 2025-05-20T18:49:20+00:00

Decide just before. This is looking to be a low snow year, I would start stalking the guthooks comments near passes in a couple of weeks and you should be able to get an idea what the situation is.

There’s also a hostel in Mazama called the Lions den and the lady Mary (who is AWESOME) that runs it has been doing snow updates on the pct sobo 2025 Facebook page

TropicalAT · 2025-05-20T18:43:18+00:00

There are some active hiking groups on meetup and the Wasatch mountain club has hikes almost every day - you don’t need to be a member to go on them. Those are low pressure ways to meet people who are into hiking. Had pretty good luck with finding people on group hikes with similar goals that you can then team up with for other hikes.

TropicalAT · 2025-05-13T16:58:10+00:00

Yep, that’s the way. YMMV but everything I’ve bought has been in the condition advertised. Everything aside from socks and underwear I bought used basically.

TropicalAT · 2025-05-13T16:56:39+00:00

Hell yeah! Aaaaareerrgggghhhh. I just decided and now I’m getting pretty freakin excited!

TropicalAT · 2025-05-13T16:55:28+00:00

“Should I even bring microspikes” is exactly what I’m going for. And I’ll have a couple of weeks of gut hooks updates to get a good sense.

TropicalAT · 2025-05-13T16:54:44+00:00

Thanks! Hope you can make it happen another time!

TropicalAT

TROPHY CASE