Date: 2015-08-26
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Miles today: 0.0

Hello again! It feels as if I haven¢t written in a thousand years. As promised, here is my exhaustive gear list and commentary. Today, I will be doing gear only; clothes and food will be separate entries. The entire gear list is also included in the ¢Gear¢ section of my journal so if you are interested in knowing the particular brand or model of an item, it should be listed there. For this entry, I will try to evaluate/review our gear choices. But first, some general remarks: 1)First and foremost, the AT is overwhelmingly a PAY TO WIN GAME. That is, the more money you can put into your gear, the better chance you have at succeeding. Of course, we have seen people on tight budgets with DIY gear who have had no issues. However, the lightest, most compact, most durable items are usually more expensive. Since we are poor, we needed to prioritize our gear choices and make do with what was available. Our gear was acceptable, but our packs were definitely on the bulky, heavy side. 2)We started from scratch, that is, we had no gear whatsoever before heading down to Springer. I would definitely recommend hunting for gear well in advance. We began many months before our departure and could subsequently find some great deals (for instance, our packs were half price). 3)Trying stuff out before leaving is ideal. I know this seems obvious, but it can help you switch out items or make you realize that a certain item is useless before leaving. 4)I know this has been said many, many time, but weight adds up so fast. PACKS We had the Volt (60L) and Viva (50L) Osprey packs. They were spacey and had sufficient pockets and straps to fit all our stuff. I saw many people with smaller packs though those packs could not have fit our bigger, less compressible stuff and extra food (we always had too much food!) The packs fit my body well and distributed the weight. After a few months, the padding did thin out and my pack became increasingly deformed, which did cause some soreness, but it was minimal. There was the unavoidable chafing (especially around the hip belts). Still, I really liked our packs because they are so sturdy; I could throw it down a cliff and it would be fine. Indestructible! We also had rain covers (by Osprey) for our pack. They held up. TENT (Big Agnes Fly Creek U2) The tent was by far our most costly item although it was WELL worth it. While some people aim for shelters, we spent over 100 nights in our tent. This tent has endured torrential rains, hail dropping down at great velocity, great gusts of wind, more floods and massive downpours. The rain fly has developed a couple of tears/holes, but a simple Duct-tape remedy was sufficient (for over 800 miles). This tent was by far the lightest model among those we had considered and it has nonetheless proven to be extremely durable. This tent is however small; it is a tight fit to squeeze two adults into this tent. Claustrophobes beware! We could also only fit one pack in the vestibule; the other was kept at our feet, in the tent. The general rule for tents is that a 2-person tent is perfect for a single person and a 3-person tent for two people. We decided to accept our tiny living space in exchange for the extra-light weight. Most people did carry tents, though hammocks and tarps are also possible options. We chose the tent because we were two people traveling together. The tent is comfortable and offers the most privacy. It also offers more warmth during those cold winter nights. With two people, it can be setup in a couple of minutes. There are many established campsites along the Trail and most shelters have a designated camping area, though that is not always the case: there were times were we either had to lower our standards and camp in a less-than-ideal spot (slanted, rooty, rocky terrain) or move on. SLEEPING BAGS We had a 20F bag (Saros, Therm-a-Rest) for winter and a 40F bag (Ocelot, North Face) for summer. Both were mummy-style models. I really enjoyed our 20F bag as it was cushiony and comfortable and generally warm enough. There were times however that I needed to wear ALL my clothes during the night. I would not have gotten a warmer bag though as, even if I was uncomfortable at times, I never felt in danger of falling hypothermic during those freezing nights. The main drawback was that this bag was HUGE and would not compress into a neat little ball. The 40F bag, while being very light and compact, was somewhat unnecessary for our trip, although this could be because of our timing. Our 2013 section hike began mid-June and ended mid-July. It was incredibly hot during that summer; we never even wore a light jacket. However, fast-forward to the year 2015, it was very cold and rainy and I was often uncomfortable during the night in the lighter sleeping bag. I will mention that our section hike spanned from Harpers Ferry to Bear Mountain, NY. This time, we were finishing up Massachusetts and entering Vermont during that same time period, states where the Trail passes through mountains (as opposed to the low-lying lands in PA for instance). Higher elevations of course mean cooler temperatures. Therefore, while I did not think a summer sleeping bag necessary for this trip, my opinion would have been different had we been in a different section of the Trail during the height of summer and if we had had less rain overall. (Some people avoided the compromise by opting for a 20F, 1.5 lb, 400$ sleeping bag.)SLEEPING PADS We had the very cheap, very light Therm-a-rest sleeping pads. They were not very comfortable, although I did enjoy their ¢accordion¢ folding pattern as it was easy to clip them on the bottom of our pack. However, they were still bulky and mine got ripped a couple of times when it snagged on something while butt-blazing. Oh, and of course we had our Z-seats (also by Therm-a-rest). With our Z-seats, we could sit anywhere in the snow, rain, anywhere. BEST. THING. EVER. WATER FILTERS We started out with a couple of Sawyer Minis. We discarded one of them after it froze during the night as freezing will compromise the filter¢s efficacy. Overall, I really liked the Sawyer Squeeze filters ¢ they are simple, relatively quick and enable us to have safe drinking water immediately (as opposed to purification tablets which demand a waiting period). They are easy to backwash and clean. The Minis can also be ¢threaded¢ into a Camel-pack type pouch. I will say that those squeeze bags that come with the filters are somewhat delicate. We never had any problems, but I witnessed a few people angrily choking the bags until they burst. After a couple of months, we switched to the ¢regular¢ (that is, bigger) Sawyer Squeeze filters as the Minis seemed to clog up. So while they are easy to clean, it became really tedious to backwash the filters every 4-5 liters or so. The bigger filter is also much more efficient. HIKING POLES We had old ones but we replaced them. We then got Black Diamond and Leki. We met many people who didn¢t use hiking poles but when you get used to them, they are indispensible. They saved me about 1,000,000 times from falling down on my face. ELECTRONICS We had our phones, Kindles, iPods and the camera (as well as chargers and the necessary cables). The camera (Nikon CoolPix AW120) was great. It is waterproof, shockproof, basically Trail proof. It still had many manual options and I found that it took great pictures. The other reason I chose this camera was that it could connect to my phone via Bluetooth so I could upload my pictures on my journal. As for the other electronics, I considered them a luxury. Many people just had their smartphone as an ¢all-in-one¢ (communication with the outside world, camera, music, etc). I preferred having all my entertainment segregated into different devices as I didn¢t need to worry so much about battery life. People who had only a phone would be reticent to listen to music for instance. We had the Goal Zero Nomad solar charger. It worked well in winter as there were no leaves yet so when there was sun, it charged up relatively quickly. As the leaves came in however, it became a burden as the solar panel was very heavy. We sent it back and ended up getting a tiny charger, the Anker Astro Mini. We had to keep it plugged in a long time for it to be ¢full¢, but it could charge both our phones. It worked very well. PHARMACY/FIRST AID KIT/MISCELLANIOUS I¢m just going to write down the full list here: -Toothbrushes (travel size) -Toothpaste (travel size) -Floss-Ear plugs (for noisy shelters) -Tweezers (for ticks) -Mirror (again, for ticks if self-checking) -Scissors-Razors (to not be too gross, haha) -Comb-Nail clippers-Band-aids-Bandages/wraps-Ankle and knee support (I gave away the knee one to someone and, of course, used the ankle one) -Gauze-Hand sanitizer -Soap (from Dr Bronner¢s) -Sun screen (important, even in March! So many people had sunburns on their noses during the first weeks!) -Lip balm with FPS-Insect repellant (the 100% DEET seems to be the favorite choice. I tried a few different types, but around northern MA, I just gave up. I know that seems stupid considering the amount of complaining I did regarding the voracity of the mosquitoes, but they attack you in such huge numbers that insect repellant seems ineffective) -Antibiotic cream-Hydrocortisone cream-Anti-allergy medication-Antibiotics (prescribed as a preventative measure in case of an UTI or Lyme¢s disease) -Ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory) -Foot powder or cream (didn¢t end up using that much of it though) -Small face cloths -Pack towels-Trowel-Toilet paper (and we bought the fanciest stuff available¢¦one of our only luxuries!)-Kleenex pack -Baby wipes (for ¢hiker showers¢) -Bandanas and hair elastics (bandanas were for my head and I also kept one as a ¢sweat rag¢)-Safety pins-Duct tape-Lighter -Head lamps-A Swiss army knife (although a knife is not really useful¢¦ we mainly used it to cut up food) -Spare glasses and sun glasses-Spare laces -Rope (to either throw a bear line or to hang clothes) -Guide book (we had the AWOL¢s Guide and the Companion as we could share the weight. I found that the AWOL¢s Guide was much more visual and user friendly and included more landmarks which is useful when trying to figure out where you are. The Companion¢s elevation profile was more accurate in the northern states for some reason. Otherwise, they offered more or less the same information.) -A small, lined notebook and pencil -Gatorade bottles (for water; they are cheap and very sturdy) -A wallet with both our IDs, debit and credit cards, cash and passports (pretty much the single item we did not want to be stolen so it was always on Vincent¢s person) Of course, we also had our cooking gear, food and extra clothes, but that is for the next entry. I think that is pretty much it! Justine