CT gear list

First pass:

Hooded wind shirt – you will wear this every single day (although rarely all day)

Rain pants – the monsoon season starting in mid-July brings cold, often torrential rains every afternoon that can occasionally continue all night.

Wide-brimmed hat with chin strap and neck cape – it's very windy above treeline, and often below. You'll also need it for sun protection above treeline. No neck cape? Carry a 2nd bandana. Doubles as an extra towel.

Gloves – wool or synthetic liners with separate WP/B outers

Warm hat for sleeping and in camp – the CT gets cold fast once the sun goes behind the hill.

Socks – Consider carrying a separate pair of heavier wool socks reserved only for sleeping.

Misc: sun screen, hand sanitizer.

I came up with the same items as Bob! I would add all those items he mentioned, and I can't think of anything you have that I'd leave behind. Yes, I also live in Oregon, but I grew up spending summers high in the Colorado Rockies. It gets cold up there, can freeze or even snow (insignificant amounts) any time. You particularly need the warm hat or a balaclava with that quilt. Fortunately, none of the items we suggest are expensive.

I would consider a long-sleeve shirt for wearing rather than a T-shirt, for sun protection and bug protection. Admittedly I'm paranoid about the sun; my DIL just had most of her upper lip removed due to skin cancer.

Fortunately, none of these added items are expensive!

And a question: Are you carrying all the shared gear (shelter, cooking, misc. stuff)? If you and your wife share some of the weight of those items, that's a considerable lowering of your base weight. Of course that leaves you with the food….

I am definitely bringing a skullcaps beenie, just forgot to add it to the list. Do you think I really need the rainpants? And I agree I prob need some type of sun hat. Even though I hate hats :(

Yea we will be spreading some of the gear between the two of us. She has pretty much the same gear as me so I just made one gear list

+1 for Bob and Mary's comments.

Yes, you REALLY need rain pants or at least water-repellent wind pants. Expect a lot of afternoon-early evening showers and at least half a dozen snow or hail storms. You will be walking in cold, wet conditions a good portion of the time.

If you carry wind/rain pants, you may consider leaving out the thermal bottoms. I carried both and never needed both simultaneously. If I were to do it over again, I would opt only for the wind pants. On colder nights, I just slept in my wind pants.

Wind shirt. +1 on Bob's recommendation, however, since you have a rain shell, I would recommend getting a long sleeve shirt as your primary hiking shirt that has good wind and rain protection. I use a Columbis PFG L/S shirt and it blocks wind, has good water repellency and has 50 SPF sun protection. Also, very good back ventilation. Retail price is about $45.00, but you could probablaly find it on sale. Much cheaper than similar quality shirts like Rail Riders. I think the snap front is better than the button front style. The material is lighter and breathes better.

Hydration. There will be a few long dry sections where you will need to carry at least 3 to 4 liters of water a piece. So you will need something else for water storage. You may consider some disposable 32 oz. gatorade/powerade type bottles to supplement your permanent storage.

have fun!

Ok so could I get away with washing my rei pants with that dwr stuff? Or I have dri ducks rain pants I could trade the long underwear bottoms for.

Rain Pants are a waste to me. I rarely use them. they are too hot and a pain to put on. I now use a rain skirt. It is light and very easy to put on. It can alos double as a ground cloth when taking lunch breaks.

Here is one example from the web.

http://www.zpacks.com/accessories/cloudkilt.shtml

+1 on the long sleeve shirt. If I get too warm, I can always push up the sleeves, but when it gets cold, I can not roll down a short sleeve.

My usual hiking clothes for both the PCT adn the CT:

150 weight merino wool LS base layer
150 weight merino wool boxer shorts
LS nylon hiking shirt (i.e. Mountain Hardware)
Long nylon hiking pants (i.e. Mountain Hardware)
merino wool liner socks
Merrel Moab Ventilator hiking shoes
Tiley LTM6C hat – has integral neck cape

I wear my rain pants instead of my hiking pants when hiking through either a shower or extended stretches of wet brush. I really don't like that cold water running down my legs or soaking my hiking pants. My long merino bottoms are saved for sleeping.

I, too, like rain pants. They help block wind as well as rain and I use them as a long pant alternative, so I do not need the lower half of converta pants.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/golite_reed_pants_review.html

PS I added ankle zips

For me, the answer on rain pants is "it depends."

If the temp is 55 degrees and it's drizzling, I don't wear either rain jacket or pants, just base layer top and nylon supplex pants which will dry from my body heat in 15 minutes when the rain stops. If the drizzle keeps on, I put the top and pants in a plastic bag and keep it inside my sleeping bag. They don't dry, but at least they are warm when I put them on the next morning.

If it's 35 degrees, pouring rain and the wind is howling, I want my rain pants (says she shivering at the thought)! I take them along for that reason. I also wear them in camp when it's cold and wet.

I've encountered both scenarios in Colorado, but the second is more likely than the first during the daily thunderstorms. Only you can decide!

Aobi think from what you guys have said I'm going to add a sun hat of some kind, swap the long underwear bottoms for the rain pants, and remember to take a warm hat for sleeping.

Any suggestions for cutting some weight?

I'd suggest rain pants as well. I did not take thermals and I was fine (and I hiked later in the year). Here are a few other ideas.

Water – Make sure you can carry enough water. How much water storage you take depends on how well you stay hydrated and how far you hike in a day. I had a few dry camps and there are some really long dry days. I think I had 4.5 liters of capacity and that was just barely enough in a few places. Hydrating well ahead of time is a good strategy but you still need to carry adequate water.

Navigation – I'd suggest the data book plus some maps. Trails Illustrated maps get expensive and heavy. I'd suggest getting a topo map program and printing off the sections you need.

One area that was confussing was the trail into Breckenridge. There were some unmarked bike trails that joined the CT so sometimes it was hard to tell which way to go. I might get the Trails Illustrated map of this section or at least look at it.

What trails illustrated map should I look at for that section? Yea and I'm definitely picking up so extra water containers for the dry sections for sure.

Looks pretty similar to mine. Other than the hat/gloves that have been pointed out it looks good to me.

I'm leaving from Denver in two weeks, and am NOT bringing rain pants…I am however treating the bottom half of my convertible pants with DWR treatment. I'm also using an umbrella as my raingear so I feel that wet legs with a completely dry torso/face is manageable. We'll see!

When are you heading to the trail?

Yeah we should be leaving the trail early on the 15th.

Nice! I'm heading out on the 16th. I recently decided to switch to a hammock, and am excited to see how that plays out. It added almost 2 pounds to my baseweight, but I had been pretty light to begin with. This is definitely my first "real" backpacking trip. I've car camped a lot, and grew up in Florida around a bunch of lakes. Camping in cold weather is pretty new to me.

I've lived in Colorado for two years and never made it to the mountains during the summer…I've done plenty of boarding since I've been here, but it will be nice to experience the wilderness without snow.

I'll be wearing a hunter's orange, 2 dollar hat, dark sunglasses, and a big smile on my face!

Cool man, We will definitely run into you then. I actually think we are leaving on the 15th though, so we might be a day ahead of you. Two weeks seems like an eternity!!!