Date: 2015-09-30
To: Gear review
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Here¢s a review of my gear: Granite Gear Crown VC 60 backpack. 5 stars, lightweight and comfortable. The stitching that attaches the load lifter to the right shoulder strap failed after leaving Daleville, but Granite Gear replaced it with a brand new pack and shipped it to me on the trail. That¢s great customer service and refreshing that a company stands behind their products without any hassles. A trash compactor bag, which I replaced half way through, kept my stuff dry. Lightheart Gear Solo tent. 4 stars. The majority of my nights were spent in this tarp tent and I had no problems with it and loved that it only weighed 27 ounces. Everything, including the backpack, fit inside. However, if I were to do it again I¢d consider a free-standing tent for the flexibility of tenting on summits with rock slabs, but the tradeoff is more weight. Or a cuben fiber tent that weighs less, but the tradeoff is cost. Marmot Plasma 15 sleeping bag. 5 stars, very lightweight. I carried this from Springer to Damascus and Glencliff, NH to Katahdin. It was definitely worth the money in the spring with several nights in the 20¢s in GA and NC. In NH and ME I basically used it like a quilt as it was not as cold, and usually pretty warm at night. Between Damascus and Glencliff I used my Jacks-Are-Better hammock underquilt as an overquilt. Air mattresses: From Springer to Damascus I used an old 34 length yellow Thermarest air mattress, using my empty backpack for foot support which wasn¢t comfortable enough. From Damascus I used a 3-year old Exped UL 7 air mattress, but the internal baffles started popping by the time I got to Front Royal. Then I bought a NeoAir Trekker and used it through Katahdin. I was completely satisfied with the Trekker, but it was not as comfortable as the Exped UL 7. EuroSchrim umbrella. 4 stars. At 9 ounces, it was lighter than my rain jacket which I left at home between Front Royal and Glencliff. When I carried both, I used the umbrella much more as I did not sweat under the umbrella and it kept me dry from the waist up. However the terrain in NH and southern ME is too rough to dedicate one hand to holding an umbrella. Fortunately 2015 was a fantastic weather year as I only had two hours of hiking in rain throughout the Whites and just a couple of days of rain in ME. Sawyer water filter: 4 stars. Both my Sawyer filter and 2L Evernew dirty water bag were 4 years old when I started. The Evernew bag finally cracked around the neck in VT and I replaced it in Manchester Center with a 2L Sawyer replacement bag. Sawyer bags are still of poor quality as it cracked a leak around the neck by the time I got to ME. That¢s probably why Sawyer sells their replacement bags in pairs. Other hikers with newer Sawyer filters were getting better flow rates, probably because of the age of my filter. Other hikers were using Platypus bags or Smartwater bottles as their dirty water bag. I used two 0.6L Vitamin Water bottles to carry my filtered water in the side pockets of my backpack and never carried more than 1.2L of water. The driest part of the trail was in NY and trail angels staged several gallon jugs of water at several locations where the AT intersects with roads. Cookpot: Most hikers use canister stoves that can boil water in three minutes. I was completely satisfied with my homemade cat can alcohol stove, which can boil water in ten minutes. I told others that I can spare the extra seven minutes. Denatured alcohol is available by the ounce practically everywhere except Williamstown, MA. La Sportiva Ultra Raptor trail runners: 5 stars. Choice of footwear is highly personal and my choice was based on experience gained in prior year section hikes. I used four pairs, switching in Damascus, Front Royal and Williamstown. The rocks of PA, NJ and NY really wore down the lugs on the soles, but otherwise the tops were always in good condition. I used SuperFeet Blue insoles and silk sock liners under REI CoolMax quarter socks. I only had one blister in the beginning of the hike. I replaced the insoles and sock liners halfway through, and used the same two pairs of quarter socks the entire trip. I never sweated in my shoes due to the mesh tops of the trail runners, but had to be careful to avoid stepping in water and mud. Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone and Bolt backup battery: 5 stars. The smartphone was my camera, internet access and watch. Verizon has the best coverage, but it¢s not available everywhere. Most often I would write my journal daily in the notepad app, copy and paste using a clipboard app, and paste it to trailjournals.com when internet access was available. I kept the smartphone on airplane mode and B&W mode during the day, and turned it off a night. I usually was able to recharge the smartphone every 3 or 4 days, and only relied on the backup battery a handful of times.