My sub 7lb pct 2014 gear list. My thoughts, opinions and other things.

[R Banks]

Hey,

Sometime in late 2013 3 friends (and 1 dog) and myself decided to attempt the pacific crest trail. We were (somewhat) experienced backpackers and I knew I wanted to do it as light as possible. The main driving force behind my decision boiled down to 2 main things.

1.Simplicty, and minimalism. Do more with less because knowledge weighs nothing.

2.Comfort. walking 20+ miles day and not getting destroyed by a heavy backpack.

My friends were not very into the whole "ultra-light" thing, and went somewhat traditional.

I decided to go no-cook, had all my food shipped to me, did not have trekking poles, only treated my water once after the first 700 miles, and used a MLD Burn without a hip belt.

http://lighterpack.com/r/d1s89a

Now I did switch some things out, so lets get that out of the way first. For the entire desert section instead of the zpacks jacket, I had a LUL Argon windshirt, and instead of the LUL Wind pants I had some Cap 3 Bottoms. At Kennedy Meadows I ditched the Argon windshirt and got a Zpacks Rain jacket (white version) got LUL bottoms and bugheadnet with 1 oz of deet And ditched Cap 3's. In the sierras I used a combo of Ursack, and BV450. In Oregon I made a trash bag Rain skirt. In washington I ditched my down jacket for a Melanzana fleece hoody and got a Patagonia houdini.

My thoughts on each piece of gear, and my system for using it. The big Three.

Backpack: MLD BURN, sans hipbelt. there really isn't much to a frameless pack, but MLD sure knows how to make one. I really like the design of this backpack and figured my maximum food carry would be about 6 days and about 30 lbs max. The shoulder straps are incredibly padded! the two longest carries (mojave/Tehachipi to Kennedy Meadows, and Cascade Locks to white's pass) were not as bad as I thought they would be. This backpack is Straight up BOMBPROOF. After dropping, sliding with it, and many hang ups on brushes and trees the only damage it suffered was some hungry chipmunks eating some of the netting. The backpack was comfortable the whole thru hike, and I had no issues with it. I gave it to a good friend of mine after the hike and you could at least get another thru hike out of it.

Sleeping bag: Zpacks 20 degree quilt. I bought the long/wide one from Zpacks and used it all the way until cascade locks. It worked great. I'm a colder sleeper than most, and also just used a Gossamer gear Nightlite pad. When it would dip into the 20's I would have trouble falling asleep. due to a tragic laundramat accident, I bought a new bag from Zpacks. It was a long/wide but had no zipper and and a sewed foot pocket. I am a very big toss and turner and i was able to keep the drafts out pretty well just wrapping it around me. I much prefer this lighter simpler system.

Shelter: MLD Grace solo. This tarp is just plain awesome. It kept me dry in many astorm on the PCT. Since I didn't carry trekking poles on the PCT I used sticks/Trees my umbrella or whatever I could find to set up my tarp. I never had any problems doing it this way. There was always something to find. If the weather was bad I would start looking for good sticks an hour or so before bed and just carry them into camp. I used Ti Sheperd hook stakes and never had an issue with them pulling out. If it was a particularly bad storm I would use rocks or logs and place them on top of the stakes. It was pretty small so depending on the wind level I would pitch accordingly. It definately took some ingenuity to setup sometimes and I couldn't camp on the rocky crags out in the open like my tent brethren, but I was willing to forego this pleasure.

My Clothing system was light and worked well. I fiddled a little bit with it from town to town but this is what I carried for the majority of the time. from skin out

Long sleeve nylon button down shirt. This works pretty well. Stops those damn bugs from eating you and works well in the desert and the cold.

Running shorts with built-in liner.I boughtsome 4.5" inseem mizuno's online and they were awesome. Dried Super fast, Lasted over 1500 miles. Before that I used some brook offerings with ex-officio briefs. The sweat build up is super killer in the desert if it turns into chafe. Boxer briefs help with that. Tackle it when you start to feel it or you will regret it.

Socks: Anything Synthetic. I killed socks. My feet seamed to eat them. However I only got 1 or 2 blisters, and they never bothered me. I had a new pair of wally world poly/nylon or wool hiking socks shipped every really supply box in the desert. I found no real comfort difference between cheap socks and expensive socks. If I had to pick a favorite it would be Darn tough lightweight socks.

Shoes: Altra lone Peak 1.5's. Loved these shoes. They were comfortable, lasted a decent amount of time, and did everything I asked them to. I wore through 4 pairs of shoes, and still have the last ones in pretty good shape. My buddy was able to do the trail on TWO pairs of Cascadia 8's, and I did try some on at one point but I really like the wide Toebox and cushion of the Altra's. I did wear these very loose. I could slip them on and off easily. This probably contributed to my murdering of socks, but I'd rather murder socks than have hurt blistered feet.

Windshirt/Rain jacket. I used Both of these alot, and I learned what both of their limitations are. For the first 700 miles I carried just a windshirt, and it worked great, especially when paired with an umbrella. It snowed on us twice in So-cal. Once on Mt San Jacinto, and on MT Baden-Powell. Along with an Umbrella it worked fine. From Kennedy Meadows forward I just had my Zpacks Jacket and LUL Wind pants. It's a great piece of gear, and works great as a wind block too. I was unzip it all the way, and maybe shift my backpack on one shoulder strap If i would overheat to air out my back. I also wore my Wind pants alot. They weighed less than 2oz and were great if my massive hiker thighs were chilled by the wind, or if my shorts got soaked I'd wear my wind pants to bed. I wore these items plus my base layer's everyday. If I was to do the hike again I would take a Patagonia houdini, wind pants and froggtoggs/zpacks rain jacket the whole way

I carried a MH Ghost down whisperer jacket almost the whole way. This jacket is nice, but I found for my style of thru hiking it wasnt that needed. It was nice to wear in the early mornings but once you start hiking you oveheat and have to put it away. In Washington I decided to send it home and instead opted for a melanzana micro grid fleece hoody. I could hike in it if it was cold enough, and was great to sleep in.

So If I were to do it again; I would take running shorts with built in liner, Long sleeve nylon shirt, Houdini wind shirt, Fleece hoody, Possibly down Vest depending on the year, rain jacket, either Zpacks or frogg toggs, Darn tough socks, and altra lone peaks. I like this system because I am more concerned with hiking comfortably, than sitting around in camp. I would eat dinner the Ray jardine style while still warm, and then setup camp while hot from hiking, then jump into bag. Same thing in reverse for breakfast. Yeah It's cold in the morning, but if wear eveything then it's not too bad. A whispy down jacket like the Ghost whisperer does not make the cold go away. A couple times when friends were hanging out I would stuff my quilt in my rain jacket (a-la Glen Van peski of Gossamer Gear) and I had the warmest down jacket around. When I went to bed my quilt was warm and lovely!

Food: I carried a emptied peanut butter jar and it lasted the whole way. I soaked food in it every day. I ate dehydrated milk and cereal or a protein/calorie/coffee shake for breakfast. Had snacks throughout the day, and ate cous cous or dehydrated beans soaked in the jar. This worked well for me. I did miss Coffee or Hot cocoa sometimes but I got over it.

Misc: As a paramedic in the real world you would think I would carry lots of medical stuff, but I made a judgment call. You cannot carry enough medical tools to be prepared for every possible scenario. There are lots of people hiking the PCT and I usually hiked with friends. Some may say this is relying on others too much, but If I was going on a solo trip back into the sierras on a non maintened trail my gear would be different.

I carried My Iphone 4 the whole way with no problems. I used a combo of Halfmiles Maps on my phone, with guthooks guide. Guthooks is an amazing app, and I highly reccomend it. I turned off the sim and some other features and it lasted 6 days if used very sparingly. It was my camera, my phone, my GPS, my internet, and more. Worked great.

I carried a golite Umbrella alot of the way. This thing works fantastic. Blocks the sun in the desert and protects you from rain and snow. Very versatile piece of gear, and worth 8 ounces for sure. Definately a great pairing with a decent windshirt.

My TP solution. I had figured out from early on I wanted to carry out my Toilet Paper. This is especially important in the desert where it take many years for TP to break down in the sand/soil. Because I shipped myself boxes I was able to dictate what I would use, and how I would use it. For the desert I shipped myself on average 2-3 non-alchohlic baby wipes per day. These are stupid important. I tried lots of different wiping materials and found that the blue shop towels were my favorite. They are really absorbant, just the right "scratchy" and cheap. I allocated 1 square per day. They were fairly large and took care of almost everything. For packing out I bought a bunch of these http://bagitaway.com which worked great since they are opaque and block the scent. Washington is so green, and has so many good offerings that I would suggest every one try the "natural" wiping method. Read around a little bit and you'll find good resources about it.

I carried a little tiny thing of glue, a Swiss army classic knife, some thread and needles, a tiny roll of lueko-tape (great stuff for chafe in the desert too!) Some tenacious tape, Fenix LD01 with spare lithium battery and phone charger. I carried a small bottle of bleach for the first 700 miles, and used it alot. Once into the sierras and farther water doesn't become hard to get, and usually you have your pick of sources. I never got sick, and only treated again once in Oregon.

So I think thats about it. I will add this and fix spelling errors, when I can, but feel free to ask questions and hope you guys can get something out of it.

-Richard (Hot Legs)

[Simon Kenton]

Good read! Congrats on the thru!

[todd]

Thank you, Richard, for putting so much time into this!

[Monte Masterson]

Richard, this is a really good thread, probably the best I've seen at BPL. Even though it's long, there's not a boring spot in it, well written.

You are down and dirty ultralight! A lot of backpackers might think it's masochistic to go that Spartan, buy I don't. I hate weight as much as you do.

I learned a great deal from this thread. Thank You.

[canyon steinzig]

thanks for sharing your thoughts in a humble smart and clear way.

[Eli Zabielski]

Hi Richard,

I believe met you on Baden Powell in SoCal and then I saw you again at the Saufley's when I was laid up with a stress fracture. I was rocking the sub-7lbs base with the hipbelt-less Prophet instead.

Thanks for posting the gear list review! I was wondering what you had in that Burn.

EDIT: I converted my 2014 list to a 2015 list but this is basically what I had last year: http://lighterpack.com/r/47uqjf

[R Banks]

Hey Eli,

I remember you. Wasn't your trail name cowboy? Did you end up hiking any other sections after healing up? Thanks for sharing your gear list Looks very thought out.

Your gear list is organized much better than mine. I should go through mine again and clean it up.

[Eli Zabielski]

Yeah, that was my name, though I may seek a new one this year.

I didn't do any more after that. I went back to Colorado and had 7 weeks of recovery before I was able to hike at all. After that I did have a pretty good summer in Colorado and Alaska. I'm going to restart on the PCT in May.

[Charles Stuart]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the very informative post. I'm in the beginning stages of planning a 2016 PCT thru and am hoping to use some of the same gear you used. I'm curious about a few things.

1) The MLD Grace solo is currently my top pick for a shelter. I've been planning to order the MLD Bug Bivy along with it. I noticed that you didn't use a bivy or list any kind of bug netting in your gear list. How did that work out? Did you do anything in particular to protect yourself from bugs while sleeping? Did you have any bad bug-eaten nights? I'd really like to drop the 5 oz (and keep the $175) that the cuben version of the bivy would cost, but I assumed I'd need it. Thoughts?

2) How did your stakes hold up? I've got a set of MSR Groundhogs (full size). I wouldn't mind getting something lighter but I don't want to deal with bending.

3) I have an EE 20* quilt I'm planning to take but haven't picked a sleeping pad yet. Would you use the Nightlight again?

4) Not a gear question, but what the heck. You said you shipped all your food. How did that work out? My instinct is to do the same, but I'm worried about being tied to post office schedules.

Thanks again for the post and for any additional insight you can offer.

–Charles

[R Banks]

Hey Charles,

Sorry for the late reply, for some reason I missed your post.

1.) I loved my grace solo tarp. It was a small tarp but I am also not a super tall guy (5'8) i was very inventive when using it in adverse conditions. My guy line at the head of the tarp was about 7 feet long. That way I could tie it around a tree and help use the tree as additional protection against the elements. I never needed a bivy for splash or rain protection. In bug country I just carried a 1oz bug headnet and wore it to bed with my baseball cap, if the skeeters were bad I wore earplugs. This worked well for me and was effective since I already had my bug net on and could just get up and start hiking. I also found that the Mosquitos really really like evening/morning time and water. So if I ate somewhere a little ways from water and before evening then I could eat my food in peace and not have to hide away in a tent/bug bivy from them. Also if you hiked until it would get cold, and not just set up camp in the evening they would go away. So sometimes I was able to eat in my sleeping bag in peace! I was scared that creepy crawlers would get on me or something bad would happen, but it never did, and now I really enjoy just using a groundsheet.

2.) I loved Ti stakes. They held up much better than I thought they were going to. My buddy used groundhogs and those suckers held, but for me I didn't need it. If it was windy and storming I grab some heavy logs or rocks and place them on my titanium stakes. I never really had problems with bending as you can feel if they're going to go in or not. I did not use knots or anything with my tarp and just used the "Place and stake" method. When it was just raining or if I wanted to setup my tarp they never failed. I got a feel for how much wind it would take to pull the stakes out, and It took all of 1 minute usually to grab some rocks or heavy logs when setting up your tarp. For most of the trip you just carry your tarp and stakes, so this system worked well for me.

3.) The nightlight pad is a good pad, reasonably comfy, and worked as a good frame for my pack. I did get cold several times, which is expected when you use your nightlight pad on top of snow, but as a whole I slept warm. Just make sure you can sleep on thin torso pad.I replaced it once as it does flatten out after 1000 miles or so.

4.) There were only one or two times where I got screwed over by post office schedules. It actually worked out pretty well as a whole. The big downside to shipping is you don't know what you'll crave so you'll probably buy it anyway, and your calorie intake may change. I thought I would eat over 4000 calories a day, but I ended up just over/under 3000. I had some fat to lose so if you're skinny it may not work for you. I went no cook the whole way so it would be difficult at times to buy food that you can do that with. If I was lazy I wasn't afraid to not eat "dinner" at "dinner time" and just eat some snacks and pass out. I would just cold soak my food sometime the next day and enjoy it then. If I was to do it again I would probably buy as I go and ship to some places, as I know now what foods I like and where I could get them. The hiker boxes, especially in the beginning just have a ludicrous amount a food. This is a personal decision and I would read up as much as you can about thru hikers before making a decision!

I used this planner to ship my food, and here's the one I made for my hike.

http://www.pctplanner.com/v.php?g=pcAagN4wMFxR

Let me know if you have any more questions!

-Richard

[David Halterman]

Richard, nice write up. Reading your gear list I take it you've met Lint?

[rick .]

Thanks for this awesome write-up. I'm especially liking the clothing advice. I'm heavy-haulin' to start at 13lbs with 2lbs electronics. I'm assuming I end up sending a bit back and changing up clothes as I wear thru them.

I have a question about your plan. How close was it to actual timing? I'm trying to work out mine to be fairly accurate, even using my past hike data to inform the miles/day, and lowering it a bit for the first few resupplies as I adjust to the trail. I also noticed you didn't use the "take rest of day off" or layovers at all. Anyway, just looking for your input on that. My plan is here if you want to take a look http://www.pctplanner.com/v.php?g=pbQHbDw5kmaM

[R Banks]

Haha no I have not. He greatly inspired me and I have talked with him quite extensively over email. He's an awesome dude and accomplished hiker, and very willing to share his knowledge!

[R Banks]

So my plan was way off. I am glad I was able to talk to my friend back home about shipping my boxes, because by the time I reached VVR I was over a month behind. I used it more of a guideline then actual must adhere to plan. The original time I had planned via Craig's planner with no breaks was to finish on September 3rd, but we finished september 24th. We took our sweet time In the desert, took a lot of freakin zeros. hiking with 3 other people and a dog slowed us way down. By Oregon we were averaging over 30' miles per day and did back to back 40's. It's really hard to judge how fast or slow you will go, so leave room for injuries, zeros, and figuring out your pace.

-Richard

[rick .]

Thanks for clarifying that, even still my plan is 20 days longer. My friend is coming with me for a 1-2month section. Obviously shit happens but we're trying to line up his vacation with my progress.

[Jeremy Werlin]

Thanks for your informative and thorough write up. Cheers! The Bagitaway was a great tip for packing out the TP.

[Harry Netzer]

Nice, you and I have pretty similar strategies. I'd love to go bugnet-less, sounds very freeing and raw, but I've too much fear of bugs in a place like the sierra. Plus I would have to carry a baseball camp… props for making it work.

I too go light on clothes, in the end of the pct I only had a 3 top layers, none of them insulating, and running shorts. funny idea of the sleeping bag inside the rain jacket. Hope to try that somtime.

Dunno where I passed you that year, my name was Shorts and I finished a couple weeks prior.

I have a couple of questions: How was complying with bear rules with the Burn?

Also, do you think you save much weight over a light stove by carrying, I dont know, 6 oz dead water in your soaker? I know lint does the same, its always confused me, but maybe the health food you get out of it is worth it. I go stoveless and eat trash myself, so

edit: did you ever soak overnight and eat for breakfast? just thought of that, its pretty smart

[Virginia Craft]

An ostomy bag for packing out…GENIUS!

That was an awesome read, and I especially thank you for the above idea. You rock!

[Charles Stuart]

Hey Richard,

A belated thank-you for the very helpful reply. I've been out of town for most of the past six weeks or I'd have seen it sooner. I can't think of anything else to ask, you really got at everything I was unsure about.

Thanks especially for the info on the tarp/netting. I thought the bug bivy would be absolutely necessary. I'm glad to hear otherwise. I've never gone quite so minimal with a shelter, but I think you've gotten me over my nervousness.

–Charles

[Bradley Danyluk]

Curious on your thoughts on the LUL Argon wind shirt vs The Houdini. Why did you switch to the Houdini and why would you use it next time instead of the LUL?

[R Banks]

Hey Bradley,

I found that for me the argon windshirt was too breathable. It got really cold on some mountains in Cali, and really windy. It would cut right through the argon fabric. The new Houdini is much less breathable than the argon but I like the the warmth it provides. I found that even with a super breathable windshirt I would overheat rather quickly anyway and have to take it off. The Houdini works for my system of layering and the fit and hood are really nice.

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