AT Thru Hike Gear list

[Michael Blanchard]

Please give me some advice on my gear list for my upcoming thru hike. Take note that I am hiking with a partner, so I listed half of the tent and stove weight as being in my pack.

http://www.geargrams.com/list?id=9186

[Jake D]

Skip the shovel, there are many many privy's and if you get stuck between you have trekking poles, stakes, sticks etc.

hand sanitizer will be more useful than campsuds… which are not recommended at water sources. "biodegradable" doesn't always mean good. (hand sanitizer is important after #2 to keep you and others healthy, some say more than treating water)

i'm a huge fan of Dirty girl gaiters or similar.. keeping dirt, pine needles etc out of your shoes and socks helps with avoiding blisters and your socks stay cleaner.

i don't see a knife on your list… at least something small is likely to be handy at some point. cheap and light.. Opinel #6 12 bucks <2oz

what are you doing for food with the Jetboil.. if freezer bag cooking then a sunshade or refletix cozy helps a lot.

First aid kit? moleskin, duct tape, bandaids… not sure what you've done previously but your feet take a beating and blisters will probably happen at some point.

twine? i'd get something strong and light for bear bagging like http://lawsonequipment.com/All-Products/Dyneema-IronWire-p514.html
seems to be out of stock but you could email lawson to see when some is coming.

AWOL's guide? not sure if you are doing mail drops, bump box to chop it into sections or would just carry the whole book with you but it's pretty damn useful. he says it is 8oz.

[Ben C]

I would not disagree with the above comments. I would take an alcohol stove instead of a jetboil.
Resupply of fuel is easier. Also, you may find it easier to cook resupplied trail food. Have fun.

[Michael Blanchard]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll take the advice on hand sanitizer and the dirty girl gaiters. I forgot my knife on the list but it is a gerber and weighs 16 grams. I also forgot to add my first aid kit but I plan on using Band-Aid advanced healing blister bandages.
In the jetboil I am just cooking standard dehydrated foods. I found that alcohol stoves are not that much lighter when you take into account the weight of the fuel that you have to carry, and also jetboils boil water much faster, but I will take your comments into consideration.

I have the AT Thru Hikers Companion, loaded onto my Kobo E-Reader, but I'll check out AWOL's as well.

[Remington Roth]

+1 on the dirtygirl gaitors
+1 on AWOL's guide

I agree with shifting to a different stove setup. I'm a big fan of alcohol stoves, but you might also consider a Biolerwerks Backcountry Boiler (about 8oz, 16 oz capacity, stove-pot combo wood stove.)

Personally I get paranoid about down getting wet, especially with the humidity you'll likely face on the AT. Don't get me wrong, lots of people use down. It's something you may want to consider though. There are many synthetic options which may be lighter than the items you've listed (i.e. MLD Spirit Quilt, Patagonia Nanopuff Pullover, etc.) Again though, that's mostly a personal preference thing.

You could easily go lighter on the pack if you decide to go frameless.

I'm not familiar with your e-reader, but it may be more reliable (and lighter) to photocopy guidebook pages and carry those instead. They don't need batteries and can't really break either.

I'm a fan of your water storage system. That looks great.

I feel like you could remove an article of clothing from your pack – maybe the 9.66 oz midlayer. It seems like a lot of weight to keep in your pack along with a puffy and long underwear.

I'm no pro, hopefully this helps a bit.

Cheers,
Rem

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