PCT – NOBO

Are you hiking with a partner? You have a lot of stuff that two people might share.

Here are some thoughts. A lot of them are personal preference.

– Three pairs of gloves? Ditch two or all three.
– Windshirt and rain jacket? Ditch the windshirt or ditch the rain jacket and add an umbrella
– Two different Buffs and a beanie? A down hood could replace the beanie, and you wouldn't really need the wool Buff either then.
– Quite a large pot for one person. Ditch the mug, use the pot.
– Frypan is questionable. Maybe you have some specific food that you really like though.
– Is the tupperware necessary? Eat out of the main pot?
– You have 8L of water capacity. You can probably leave the Evernew bladder behind. Pick up an extra bottle in town if you know you'll need extra water for the upcoming stretch.
– Prefilter: Use your Buff?
– Scoop: Use your mug/pot/frypan/tupperware.
– You might want to enumerate your first aid/survival/repair kit. Seems heavy.
– A smartphone and charger will be about the weight of your GPS but a smart phone does everything a GPS does and much more. Assuming you have a smartphone.

You can see if you make your list overall lighter you can go with the SMD Swift and save even more weight, especially if you use the Z-Lite as a frame for it.

Yeah, this list format always gives trouble when I post it. Only items marked with an x get packed. The rest is included for suggestions from gear I own. I will gray those out next post.

I'll take a look at the rest of your suggestions.

Maybe I need to make separate desert and Sierra lists.

The Swift isn't a 6-day resupply with bearcan bag, for me. I'll take that off the possibilities list right now. Love it for weekends, not a thruhike

Shelter: take the bigger shelter if you want, but realize that you will probably not be spending much time awake in your shelter. Most thru-hikers do 25-30ish miles a day once they get up to full speed, and that does not leave a lot of time for relaxing in camp. I typically hiked til dark, cooked dinner, and went straight to sleep. I had a bivy sack and a tiny tarp and didn't need more space.

Pad: I used just a z-lite. Maybe add the extra pad for the Sierra.

Sleeping bags: if you were cold in your bag at 32, you will have many cold nights in the Sierra. But if you have some space in your bag, you might be able to add a warm liner (something heavier than silk) to make up 10 degrees. I think a 10 degree bag would be total overkill and would result in many sweaty nights.

Pen: this is trivial, but a mechanical pencil will never fail on you. A pen might.

Pack towel: I carried one on the PCT and used it all of twice, I think. YMMV.

Umbrella: the PCT up to Kennedy Meadows was made for umbrellas.

Clothes: Shell pants + hiking pants might be overkill. I picked up rain pants for Oregon and had just my hiking pants before that. I hope you have a good sun hat to hike in. Otherwise, just bring one warm hat. I think having multiple hats on a long hike is a huge waste. Lots of people say to forget gloves, but my hands get cold easily–I carried liner gloves and rain mitts the whole way. If I did it again, I would carry my powerstretch gloves from Campo and pick up rain mitts in Ashland.

Good luck.

Awesome reply, Scott.

Shelter: I do not want to carry the extra pound, but don't want to be claustrophobic. I expect to be exhausted but its good to hear a confirmation of that.

Bag: Point taken on 10f. I'm still resisting buying a 20f, (see my current bags), but I don't want to be cold. I hope that working on my MYOG quilt closure, maybe extending the length will help. I'd rather save the $300 for the hike. 14oz of 900fp down should be 20f, so something isn't right.

Pad: good to hear on the zlite, the 20" ccf pad is 20" square, I fold it into the footbox to keep my heel off the ground, and sit on it. I have no trust in an air pad for this trip.

Totally un-informed about desert hiking. Luckily its first and 700 miles! I'll sort this out.

Rick,

What's your start date?

That will determine a lot of what type of desert experience you have. Also, "the desert" isn't really all desert. Sure, there are long hot sections without shade to hide in, but every couple days you'll be high up enough to be in the forest and it won't feel like the desert at all. Good ol' dusty pine forests to walk through. I was really surprised at the diversity of the so-called desert.

I'm starting 4/6 – early I know but I want to have the luxury of time along the way.

With an early start you won't need 8L of water. And hopefully it won't be too unbearably hot for much time at all.

blank, first post revised.

"Are alcohol stoves permitted on the PCT? the regs seem vague on it."

PCT managers are specifically vague about it since the different forest service jurisdictions are vague about it. Some national forests allow alcohol stoves, although they reserve the right to ban them when there is a certain fire risk present. However, if one forest suddenly announces a ban, you might already be out on the trail and you won't necessarily hear the news. As I recall from last year, Sierra National Forest was the one that was difficult, although that can change overnight. The national parks uniformly allow alcohol stoves.

–B.G.–

Thanks, BG. So what is the thru-hiker to do?

It is extremely simple.

You take some multiple kinds of stoves so that you can adapt to this policy or that policy. Or (perish the thought) prepare for non-cook meals.

I had to do this somewhat last year for one trip. I was headed into the Sierra National Forest, and I had heard about the policy of no flames unless there is a turn-off valve, but I was hoping it wasn't completely true. So, I packed my standard Esbit burner and fuel. However, in my car, I had a butane burner and fuel. When I got to the ranger station for a permit, I started asking pointed questions about this. Frankly, the ranger didn't know for sure, so she had to call to the headquarters to confirm. The answer came back that there would be no flames without a turn-off valve. So, I quietly removed the Esbit stuff from my pack and substituted butane stuff.

For you guys, I think that you will need to prepare two ways. Take the stove and fuel that you hope that you can use primarily, and then also take the alternative stove and fuel that will suit some picky national forest. There are also multi-fuel stoves available, but with all of the bells and whistles, they tend to be heavier.

If that doesn't work for you, then you are forced to carry only one burner and fuel, and it will have to be the one that they don't complain about. That would be something with a turn-off valve, and that would mean butane. The good news is that you won't be backing yourself into a heavy penalty solution. Maybe a tiny penalty solution.

–B.G.–