SUL and thru-hikes

I think the PCT would be possible with SUL load but it really comes down to timing and weather. You don’t have as much of a margin as you do with presumably more insulation / better rain gear.

Francis Tapon yo-yo’d the CDT and his pack was in the six to seven pound range. And that was several years ago. His gear list is here.

I am sure it can be done but I do agree with the other posters. Nick made a good point about the nature of a thru hike. It would be very different if you needed only to resupply once every two weeks. The food weight would be much heavier and the loss of town stops could be viewed either as a blessing or a curse, depending on how much you enjoy the foray into town.

Dirk

I think a few people come close to SUL on the PCT, but in all honesty, it's not really necessary.

First of all, you end up carrying a lot of water in So Cal so even if your packweight is really low, you don't feel it that much. You can shave your water carried from 12lbs to 6lbs with a little effort toward optimized water management. Yeah, I know if you have 6lbs of water on top of only 5lbs of gear that's even better, but after a point, you really don't notice, which leads to the next point…

Secondly, you end up getting so strong it hardly matters anymore. A long hike becomes your life and you become so strong it doesn't penalize you to add extra things to improve your life.

I added soap and shampoo so that when I got anywhere with a shower I could wash up, including any campgrounds on the trail I wasn't planning to stay at. This also meant carrying a few quarters (gasp!).

I added a skirt to wear in town because I learned quickly enough that it really sucks to have nothing at all to wear while your clothes are in the wash. I had to fashion an outfit from my bivy sack and windbreaker before I started carrying a skirt. That's fine if I'm going to sit in the laundromat, but what if I want to do some shopping while my clothes are washing?

The skirt was nice because I could wear it over my pants and keep vicious mosquitoes from biting my knees and butt.

I also added an extra large can of deet. Vicious mosquitoes deserve a complete fogging of my whole body, not a wimpy little smear.

I also added a cotton T-shirt. Cotton works great in summer. It also keeps vicious mosquitoes from biting my shoulders. Cotton t-shirts are easy to find in an emergency, which is how I came to obtain mine. (A mosquito emergency.)

I added a paperback book. When you're alone, having something to read at the end of the day really improves your morale.

I carried a musical instrument. I think if I did it again, I'd carry a different, much heavier musical instrument. Something quieter to help pass the time and make me take longer rests.

"Secondly, you end up getting so strong it hardly matters anymore. A long hike becomes your life and you become so strong it doesn't penalize you to add extra things to improve your life."

Well said Piper.

I haven't done a thru-hike, but cycling through Europe recently (after crossing Australian and most of Africa), Stephen and I started to add some things to our panniers. Our time schedule was more relaxed, and we were so rediculously fit that adding a little bit of weight really didn't matter. We both had an extra shirt and shorts and shoes (rather than just our cycling boots and thongs), and we often had a couple of books each, and splurged on fresh food items. It made the trip a lot more enjoyable. Sure we could have gone SUL on the trikes but we only had to average 70-90km per day through Europe so there was no point, we wouldn't have gained much enjoyment from being SUL, especially as we are kind of masochists and if our load was that light we'd be champing at the bit after only 70-90km in a day (and we still were most days!).

However, if the goal was some kind of record, then SUL it would be for sure.

@Clint: 1.4lbs per day is a little light when considering consecutive days a thru-hiker puts in. The appetite increase dramatically, 2 to 2.5 lbs of food a day could be consumed and certain individuals would still be hungry, considering the miles per day some put in. That works out to an extra 6 to 11 lbs of food for that same 10 day stretch

To me you really nailed it Clint. The underlining issue for thru-hikers (those in the UL/SUL category) is not a matter of what gear they carry or do not carry, rather it is a matter of how much food they have to pack and how much water they have to pack.

In at few sections of the PCT you are carrying 5+ days worth of food. If you are somebody who can survive on 2.5 pounds of food per day you are lucky but a fair number of hikers out there these days are up in the 2.8 – 3 pound range of food per day in order to match the calorie and protein intake that they require.

That means that just for food alone you have 14-18 pounds of food – plus another 3 pounds for water putting you at (lets just say) 20 pounds for those two sections.

If your BPW is in the 4 pound range that means your food/water alone is 3x heavier than your BPW.

THAT is what becomes the real issue with a long distance thru-hike for SUL hikers: Is your backpack large enough to carry that much food and water and can your pack handle it without destroying your back and hips for those hundred odd miles.

I had a 5lb base weight when I got rid of my cold weather stuff this last april when I was doing the A.T…. While having such a light pack was nice, I soon realized that adding a few pounds of comfort made the trip much more enjoyable, and 8lbs instead of 5lbs isn't really a big deal… unless of course your trying to break some speed record or something and every ounce truly does count… but for doing 20 or 30 mile days it didn't matter.