Date: 2013-05-02
To: Gear and Food
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

My gear for the trail this year is much the same as last year. I'm carrying the ULA (Ultra Light Adventure) Catalyst pack. I have stripped the pack down severely, removing both the frame sheet and hip belt. Hip belts have never worked for me because I'm so thin. If I cinch it above the pelvic bones, I can't breathe. If I cinch it on the pelvic bones, it rubs the skin raw. I only met one other person on the trail carrying The Catalyst pack. In terms of the ULA product line, I met at least several other hikers carrying the Circuit pack.To make the pack waterproof, I line the bag with a plastic trash compactor bag. Get the UNscented bags from the Evil Empire - Walmart. The flowery scented bags at the grocery store stink to high heaven. To stiffen the pack, I coil my 3/4 length foam sleeping pad, stick it inside the pack and expand it around the periphery, forming a sort of barrel. All my stuff goes inside the "barrel". I learned these tricks from long distance hiking master Andrew Skurka. As an added indulgent luxury, I'll be taking ULA's pack cover this year for added rain protection.I'm carrying a small one-person tent, REI's Quarterdome T1. It has a nice footprint, is comfortably long, allowing me to stretch out, but relatively narrow, so it's easier to find a flat spot to set it up. On warm and dry nights I leave the fly off. I do bring along a 2-mil plastic ground cloth to put under the tent. I also use the ground cloth under my sleeping bag when staying at a shelter.My sleeping bag is an older 3-season North Face bag with synthetic fill called the Flight. I use a silk liner with the bag to add a few degrees of warmth and also to help keep the sleeping bag clean.I have two sets of clothes, one to walk in and one to sleep in. The walk clothes include polyester shorts and capilene short sleeve shirt. I have two sets of hiking socks, which I alternate from day to day, rinsing the used pair each evening. I'm wearing Garmont's Zenith MID GTX boots. The sleep clothes include lightweight capilene long sleeve top and long john bottom, ski cap, shell gloves and liner socks. I also have fleece jacket, rain jacket and rain pant and shell over-mitts.For cooking I have the 0.9 liter Evernew titanium pot. I'm using the Cat Can Stove, which I also learned about from Andrew Skurka. This stove runs on denatured alcohol or methyl alcohol (e.g.: HEET gas line treatment).I also have a small ditty bag stuffed with all the other small items including headlamp, cigarette lighter, spoon, tooth brush, maps, journal, pens and innumerable others.In terms of food, my daily ration weighs in at 1.5 lbs and consists of 4 Milky Way bars, 2 Cliff Bars (Crunchy Peanut Butter), 2 Odwalla Bars (Original Super Protein) and a Knorr Rice Dinner augmented with 1/3 cup freeze dried ham dices and 1/3 cup freeze dried green peas. The freeze dried food is procured from Emergency Essentials. Also I have 10 pieces of Deluxe Mix hard candies from Kroger. I eat most of the bars in the morning and have the rice dinner in early to mid afternoon. I did well with this diet and did not lose weight during the trip.In addition to skipping the hip belt I do a number of other things differently. I do NOT use hiking poles, most hikers do. I DO carry a lightweight Go Lite umbrella. In addition to keeping off the rain, the umbrella also blocks the sun on hot days and deflects the wind on cool days. I also fabricated some shoulder pads from an REI 1/2-inch ensolite foam sit pad. You will see these light blue shoulder pads in photos of me with the pack on.