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)
