Date: 2005-02-22
To: GEAR TALK
Miles today: 0.0

Counting the day's til im outta here... 29 days til I leave Florida, 39 days til I hit the trail. I'm taking a 10 day mini-vacation before the hike to mosey on up to Asheville, NC. I'll be leaving my truck there with a friend, I figure at some point I may just take a break and it would be nice to have my vehicle 800 miles closer than Ft lauderdale. My friend Mark has called me twice asking when I'll post up my gear, he is a gear nut and anxious to see what I'm carrying this time. The problem has been... I still haven't decided. I have the reverse problem of most hikers, I have an abundance of STUFF. I've been a gear hog since I was a kid; if there was a cool new tent, sleeping bag, or backpack I've probably owned it at some time. I actually collected a good part of my hiking cash for this time by selling most of it off on EBAY this fall. The fact is your gear won't get you to Maine, your legs and your heart will. It sure is nice to have good stuff though! So anyway Mark, here it is...Welcome to Gear Talk by a gear geek where I'll attempt to put everyone else but you into a coma by talking endlessly about ounces. I'm not going to list every single thing I'm carrying but I will talk a lot about the important ones. PACK- My base pack weight is going up from 14 lbs to 22 lbs. The only exception to this is the Springer-to-Neels Gap leg where I'll be taveling with less than 10 lbs, and only because Eddie's truck will be at Neels Gap and I can switch gear. Hopefully this will give me a few days to get some trail legs under me. Its a wonderful thing to travel with only the lighest stuff but there are sacrifices to make for it. A little bit of extra comfort goes a long way in keeping one's spirits up when the bad times and the emotional lows hit and I geared up with that in mind. The biggest weight increase is in the backpack itself. Last time I used either a GVP4 pack or an Equinox Katadhin, both at around a pound and I have a lot of good things to say for both of them. The biggest drawback to these ultralight packs is their lack of true suspension and harnessing. I find that no matter how tightly you cinch down one of these packs they still have a good amount of "flop" as everything begins to settle to the bottom. The pack and the contents bounce up and down with each step and that bounce is magnified on the dowhills when the knees are already taking a beating. 14 lbs translates into at least 25 lbs with a full load of food and water. Without getting into the physics calculations I would guess that 25 lbs jumping up and dropping 2 or 3 inches on your back just as you put your foot down has got to translate into an additional 3, 4 or 5 pound momentary jolt on the knees. Times 20,000 average steps a day equals 80,000 extra pounds of punishment to the joints every day. I think that the cumulative effect might have made a difference for me. What I have now is one of my old Kelty packs with full suspension and aluminum stays that I've completely gutted and modified with external mesh pockets very similar to the GVP4. The weight is a liveable 3 lbs., 5 oz. and it has ZERO bounce, no shifting whatsoever. Having said all that I'll still be doing Springer-to-Neels Gap with an 8 oz GVP5 packTENT- I got rid of the Nomadlite and the Henrry Shires Squall tent. I will still probably be pulling 3 changes of shelters...I would love to carry my Hennessy Hammock the whole way because it is by far the lightest and most comfortable sleep I've had on the trail. You freeze your ass off in cold weather though, unless you also carry an insulated "wrap" for it and then the extra weight and complexity of setting it up no longer makes it attractive to me. I won't be changing over to the hammock until Harper's Ferry, when it's a lot warmer. What I will be starting out with is a highly modified (by me) MSR Zoid 1.0. It has a sil-nylon fly now sans a vestibule. The poles, the tent and the fly are all permanently attatched together and the pole cords shortened so when you unroll the tent it practically snaps together on its own. It has spectra cord and elastic added at strategic points to tension the tent body and hold the fly farther away than the original design. And it takes at most 2 stakes to set up. Under a minute from taking it out of the pack to being inside it, and a total packweight of 2lbs 4 oz. One advantage besides the speed setup and the weight is that you stay VERY warm in this tent when it's very cold outside, up to 15 degree difference because its cocoon-like fit traps your body heat in it. It also has a tiny footprint so it sets up in places another tent can't which is a good thing in April at the beginning of the trail when it's way over-crowded. The big disadvantage is it's like sleeping in a coffin, and sleeping is all you can do in it. This means being limited to setting up near shelters and doing everything else at the shelter, especially in bad weather. Right now I'm planning on carrying this just as far as Neel's Gap and switching although I may decide there to tough it out and carry the crazy ultralight stuff all the way to Fontana Dam where Eddie will once again be meeting me to hike the Smokies. When I switch over it's going to be to an MSR HUBBA. This tent is just DA BOMB! It is free-standing, has a huge vestibule and you can not only sit up in it you can kneel upright in it! I still stake it down for wind with 7 stakes. Also the tent without the fly free-stands inside a shelter and takes up about the same room as your thermarest does. You can also set up the fly without the tent for enough room to sleep 3 people under it. That's a lot of options. I've also shaved 4 ounces off the Hubba by replacing the aluminum poles with fibraplex carbon fiber ones bringing the total packweight to 3 lbs 4 oz. I'll be switching back to this tent from the hammock when I hit Glencliff NH.SLEEPING BAG- Western Mountaineering Ultralite down, switching to a WM Highlite down at Pearisburg VA and then back to the Ultralite at Glencliff NH. The Ultralite is a full-zip 20 degree down bag and weighs in at 1 lb, 12 oz. The Highlite WAS a half-zip (I added another zipper to make it a full-zip), has a 40 degree rating, and weighs it at 15 ounces.OTHER STUFF-Prolite4 Thermarest regular lenght---1lb 8ozWestern Mountaineering Flight Jacket, down---10 oz. (goes back and forth with the Ultralite, winter gear) Marmot Driclime windshirt. By the way for anyone thinking about buying one beware, they are NO LONGER 10 oz for a medium like all of the outfitters say!!! They are 15+ oz. Apparently Marmot changed the material they make these from in 2002 and anything after that is heavier. I had to buy a used one to get a 10 ouncer. Also, the new inner lining is like the soft half of velcro, it catches on everything. I have rough hands from construction and putting them into the sleeves of a new one is like running nails across a chalkboard. Bad move Marmot. Marmot Precip jacket and pants ( Montane Aero top and Featherlite pants for Springer-Neels Gap) Snowpeak 24 oz titatinum pot, cup and spork, pot cozy, windscreen, Vargo stove, mesh bag---15 oz. 2 micron gavity filter setup, 2- 2 liter platypuses W/ hydration hose and bite valve, 1/4 oz of calcium hypochlorite for emergency water disinfection---9 oz.Mountain Hardwear X-Tend x-static top and bottom longjohns Ingenius hiker socks, x-static liner socks, New Balance 806 trail shoes, Crocodile gaiters, WaldiesX-static t-shirt, Columbia SPF 40 convertible fishing pants 2 (yes, two) beanie hats, a Possumwool one and a Turtle Fur one. the turtle fur one gets sent around with the other winter gear. A warm head makes for good sleeping, double up. Also a visor hat. Rio S-50 mp3 player, a digital voice recorder, and a Sony CybershotU camera, lithium batteries for everything a pair of Yak Traxx, picked up at Neel's Gap, go home after the Smokies Leki ultralite poles a Frogg Togg bottom cut off at the knees for hiking in the rain and for wearing at the laundrymat when everything else is getting washed 2 bandanas, One that says HIKER TO TOWN and HIKER TO TRAIL and a BUZZ-OFF bandana from Ex-Officio. Also will be trying out a BUZZ-OFF long sleeve shirt when the skeeters start getting bad somewhere in Pennsylvania. OH! I almost forgot my big luxury item for this time, Sierra Designs down bootie socks to sleep in! They will also travel around with the winter gear, I think that's enough, if you've actually read all the way down to here, you need to seek professional help, really. I think this will be the last pre-hike post I make, happy trails to everyone!!!