Date: 2012-01-01
To: Equipment Summary
Miles today: 0.0

I want to attempt to capture my thoughts on my equipment in hopes it will help future hikers. These are only my opinions, based on my experience and I am sure will differ from other hikers. I probably bought 90% of my equipment from REI. They have great products, a great selection and their customer service is unbeatable. You could not ask for a better experience. I also bought some stuff from Campmor, which is also good quality. Their catalogue is a little hard to use but I had no problems. I also bought some stuff from a local outdoor supply store which worked well too. WATER ¢ I will start with water since that is the most essential need on the trail. I actually used three different water purification systems. I started off with a Platypus Gravity Works Water Filter. This system worked fine and I really had no issues with the functionality of it but it might not be suitable for light weight back packing. It is bulky, takes up quite a bit of space, and requires 10-15 minutes to filter 2L of water. Every time I stopped for water, I had to take off my pack, get the system out, hook it up, fill it with water, allow it to filter, and then repack. I found that it just took too much time, therefore, I moved to a SteriPEN Adventurer Opti Water Purifier. What a neat concept, one can purify a liter of water in 90 seconds. It is lightweight and takes up very little space. However, the two drawbacks make the device unusable. For whatever reason, even with new batteries, it will stop working. Additionally, it consumes batteries at a very fast rate. If it used AA or AAA batteries it might be manageable but it uses the much more expensive photo batteries. One cannot be on the trail and not have a dependable water purification system. The third system I moved to was the Aquamire chlorine drop system. I found they work well and had minimal chlorine taste. The only problem is you have to wait 30 minutes after treating before you drink the water. That is OK unless it is hot and you need to consume more water than you have storage capacity. While I treated my water early in my journey I did less and less of this the longer I was out there. I know it was a gamble and I know one cannot determine the quality of water by looking at it but I got to the point where I did not treat my water. This was particularly true if I saw the water coming out of the ground or was at higher elevation, in the mountains, with no pasture land above the water source. To me, it was no different than drinking well water. I did not do this in the valleys or at lower elevations. Food ¢ The next essential need is food. There are no right or wrong answers on food, it depends on your taste and how much you want to carry. I actually found my taste changing along the hike. Peanut butter was good initially and then I did not want it at all and then the final couple of months I was back eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I found breakfast to be my most difficult meal. I went from dehydrated scramble eggs to grits/oatmeal to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to dehydrated potato chowder to bagels and muffins. The few mornings that I neglected to eat breakfast was a huge mistake as I would get weak during the day.For lunch and dinner I used dehydrated food, which I will discuss below but my favorite meal was summer sausage or pepperoni slices and sharp cheddar cheese. I found that there are enough preservatives and nitrates in these meat products to last 3-4 days without refrigeration. Prior to starting this little adventure, I purchased from Ready Nation several different dehydrated foods, all in number 10 cans. I broke these into smaller quantities placed in one quart Ziplock freezer bags and that concept worked well. However, I ordered way too much food and attempted to return the unopened containers to Ready Nation when I finished. First of all, the food is marginal at best but their customer service is horrendous. Their policy is to not accept returned food if over 30 days, even though the food is supposed to last for 10-15 years. A policy is one thing but their attitude to me was totally unacceptable and not customer service friendly at all. My recommendation is to acquire dehydrated food from other sources; I know I will if I ever have a need for dehydrated food again. I continue to receive emails from them and have listed them as spam on my email account. BOOTS ¢ Prior to my hike I ordered 8 different pair of boots from REI and wore them around the house to judge the initial comfort. This allowed me to wear the boots for a longer period of time than just trying them on in the store. I was able to return the unused boots directly to their store so I did not have to pay shipping charges. I settled on Oboz¢s Yellowstone¢s and I was extremely pleased with them. They are mid-cut leather boots, so they are a little heavy but they probably saved me from twisting my ankle 15-20 times. They wore extremely well with good gripping capabilities. In fact, I sent the one pair with 1,080 miles on them back to Oboz for evaluation. CLOTHES ¢ Most of my clothes were ordered through REI or bought at the Under Amour outlet store. Everything was synthetic except for my socks that were wool. I did try polyester and Cool-Max socks but gravitated to Smartwool socks and they did a great job. I had a lightweight down jacket that I used at camp and slept in it several times. My rain gear came from Campmor and it did a good job as well. BACK PACK ¢ I used an Osprey Aether 70 back pack from REI. It worked extremely well. One might be able to get by with a smaller pack but I had no problem filling this pack up. I did go through 3 hip belts, started with a large and ended the hike with a small. When I got off the trail, the bag smelled from all the accumulated sweat, dirt and grime. I wrote Osprey and told them that I was a completely satisfied customer but I was probably going to throw the pack away due to the wear/tear and smell. They wrote back providing me instructions on how to clean the pack and told me if I would send it to them, they would refurbish it free of charge. Wow, that is confidence in a product and tremendous customer service. So, I got the cleaner they recommended and washed it in my tub, it was nasty. I then took it to a car wash and hung it on the wall and used the spray gun to thoroughly rinse it. I sent it to Osprey and several weeks later I received it back fully rebuilt and ready to go again. Based on my experience with the pack and it¢s performance I can highly recommend Osprey.TREKKING POLES ¢ I had a lot of issues with my trekking poles and used four different pairs. I started with Black Diamond brand poles, left them in a car and I had to purchase another set, a pair of Easton. The Black Diamond poles worked well but I would not buy another pair of Easton. After I bent the Easton¢s, I moved on to Leki, probably the top brand used on the trail. The main issue I had with all the poles is the locking mechanism where the poles telescope. The good thing about Leki poles is that they will rebuild them if damaged and I had to do that once. Regardless of the brand you buy, be sure and get the shock absorbing model, it will help you knees tremendously. SLEEPING BAG ¢ I used a North Face Allegheny +40 for the beginning of my hike. It worked well but was a little heavy at 2.7 lbs. After four months I purchased a 40+ Lafuma bag, it was about half the weight and much more compact. Both of these bags were in the rectangle shape, the mummy shape restricts my legs too much. The last 3-4 weeks in October/November I did move to a down filled Kelty Coromell 25+ bag. It was extremely warm but you have to keep it dry. I wrapped it inside a plastic trash bag every day.SLEEPING PAD ¢ I used a Thermorest Neo air mattress that had to be inflated. It worked extremely well, provided a good layer of insulation between me and the ground/floor. I also used a small Cocoon Ultralight pillow. COOKING EQUIPMENT ¢ I started off with a MSR DragonFly cooking stove using white gas, with a cook set. I found out pretty soon that I was not cooking food but just boiling water to rehydrate food. I moved to a Jetboil Sol set up using a butane canister and this was fast and easy to use. I would boil water and empty it into freezer Ziploc bag containing my food and it worked great. TENT - I used a MSR Hubba Hubba 2 person tent. For most hikers it is a little heavy, 4 pounds. By having a 2 person tent, I was able to store all my stuff in my tent at night, including my pack and I just had more room. The tent is excellently built and I had no issues with it at all and it went through some tough wind/rain storms. Again, there are no right or wrong answers, every hiker has their opinions for what worked best for them. That is why there is so much to choose from !! There is much more I can comment on but these are the major items. If you have questions or would like additional information as you prepare for you hike, feel free to contact me, frankdenob@gmail.com. Thanks and be safe, Frank