Help with my AT 2014 Gear List

[adamkunzler]

I'm having a hard time getting my base weight to something a little less. I'd like to see it at 25 or less. The base weight below excludes the italicized items in the clothes section. I figure they'll be on my body and feet all the time and not in my pack. I feel like my hammock set up weighs a lot. I've got my big 3 totals at the very bottom of the list. I was having volume issues even though I have a 65 L dry sack for my ULA Epic pack. After the sleeping bag, hammock, underquilt, cold weather gear and other misc. stuffs...the bag is full and no room for food. I got a second dry bag to keep my sleeping bag and camp clothes in. It all seems like so much. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :0)

Category	Item	Item Description	Oz.	Total Ounces	Total Pounds
Base Gear	Ground liner	Tyvek sheet from Amazon	2.3	222.00	13.88
Base Gear - Bed	Sleeping Bag	THE NORTH FACE Cat's Meow 20° Sleeping Bag, Regular	46.5
Base Gear - Pack	Pack	ULA Epic	39
Base Gear - Pack	Dry Sack	65 L Sea 2 Summit Dry Sack	13.8
Base Gear - Pack	Dry Sack	35 L Sea 2 Summit Dry sack	3.8
Base Gear - Shelter	Guy Line	Nite Ize RR-04-50 Reflective Cord, 50 Feet, Green	2.4
Base Gear - Shelter	Descender Rings	Descender Rings	3
Base Gear - Shelter	Hammock	Hennesy Explorer	45.8
Base Gear - Shelter	Webbing Strap	Arrowhead Equipment 6 foot straps x 1.5"	4.8
Base Gear - Shelter	Underquilt	KickAssQuilts Potomac 3/4 synthetic 20*	30.6
Base Gear - Shelter	Rain Fly	Asym Hex Fly	28
Base Gear - Shelter	Stakes	4 x aluminum stakes	2
Clothes	Shirt - hiking shirt	brown plaid	5.8	90.10	5.63
Clothes	Socks -medium wool	SmartWool Hiking Socks	3.3
Clothes	Hiking Sandals	CHACO Men's Z/1 Unaweep Sandals	37.3
Clothes	Undershirt (merrino wool)	Icebreaker Tech T Lite T-Shirt	5.6
Clothes	Convertible Pants	REI Sahara Convertible Pants	14.7
Clothes	Underwear	Champion Men's Tech Performance Long Boxer Brief	7.1
Clothes - Camp	Underwear (to ankles) + Top	Army Issue	11.7
Clothes - Camp	Puff Vest	Lands End Down Vest
Clothes - Camp	Socks - heavy wool	SmartWool Mountaineer Socks	5.3
Clothes - Camp	Shirt - town shirt	blue plaid	6.4
Clothes - Misc.	Head Bug Net	Sea to Summit Head Net	0.8
Clothes - Weather	Wool\Fleece Hat	Army Issue	1.3
Clothes - Weather	Balaclava	Army Issue	3
Clothes - Weather	Head Mask	Army Issue	2.6
Clothes - Weather	Gloves - fingerless\wool	Fox River Fingerless Ragg Gloves	1.9
Clothes - Weather	Gloves - fleece mittons	Walmart Thinsulate	2.8
Clothes - Weather	Jacket	Walmart Rain\Wind Jacket	12.2
Clothes - Weather	Rain Kilt	ULA	2.5
Clothes - Weather	Wind\Rain Jacket	REI Rainwall Rain Jacket	17.1
Clothes - Weather	Fleece Jacket	REI Woodland Fleece Jacket	22.5
Cooking	Stove	Cat Food Stove		10.00	0.63
Cooking	Stove Windscreen	Heavy Duty Aluminum
Cooking	Lighter		1.6
Cooking	Pot w\ Lid	Snow Peak Trek 900 Titanium Cookset	5.5
Cooking	Spork	Snow Peak Titanium Spork	0.6
Cooking	Fuel Bottle	Mouthwash Bottle	1.6
Cooking	Scotch Pad		0.7
Electronics	Camera	Pentax Optio WG-2	7.4	29.30	1.83
Electronics	Camera Charger	Charger, usb cable, 2x batteries (spare)	6.8
Electronics	Camera Tripod	some tripod from walmart	15.1
Electronics	Cell Phone \w Charger
Hygiene	Toothpaste	Baking Soda	3	42.20	2.64
Hygiene	Toothbrush		0.5
Hygiene	Toilet Paper		3
Hygiene	Wipes		16
Hygiene	Chafe Powder	GoldBond	5.1
Hygiene	Gelled Alcohol		3.4
Hygiene	Vaseline		3
Hygiene	Towels	REI Multi-Towel Small and Medium	2.5
Hygiene	Nail Clippers		0.7
Hygiene	Soap	Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap	5
Water	Bladder 2.5 L \ 100oz	Army Issue	6.7	14.70	0.92
Water	Water Drops	Aquamira	3.2
Water	Water Scoop	20oz soda bottle	1
Water	Water Filter	Sawyer Mini + Syringe + Squeeze Pouch + Straw	3.8
First Aid \ Repair	Imodium		0.8	7.90	0.49
First Aid \ Repair	Ibuprofen	motrin	0.9
First Aid \ Repair	Tea Tree Oil		2.1
First Aid \ Repair	4x4 Bandage	3 x bandages	0.5
First Aid \ Repair	Gauze	2 x gauze rolls	1
First Aid \ Repair	Large Bandaids	6 x bandaids	0.2
First Aid \ Repair	Mole Skins	3ft x 2in	0.7
First Aid \ Repair	Tweezers		0.1
First Aid \ Repair	Safety Pins	11 x saftey pins	0.4
First Aid \ Repair	Sewing Kit - needles, thread		0.3
First Aid \ Repair	Super Glue		0.4
First Aid \ Repair	First Aid Tape Waterproof		0.5
Assorted Gear	Headlamp	Petzl Tikka 2 LED Headlamp	2.9	54.30	3.39
Assorted Gear	Backup batteries	3 x AAA	1.1
Assorted Gear	Knife	Knife	3.6
Assorted Gear	Knife Sharpener	Smith's Pocket Pal (from REI)	0.9
Assorted Gear	Trail Guide	David Miller	8.6
Assorted Gear	Journal + penciel + pen	notebook, pen, pencil, sharpie	11.2
Assorted Gear	Paracord 50ft		3.3
Assorted Gear	Bandana	4 x Bandanas	4
Assorted Gear	Watch	casio w213 men's	1.1
Assorted Gear	Pipe and Tobacco	3oz tobacco, 2 pipes, tamper, lighter	8.4
Assorted Gear	Space Blanket		3.2
Assorted Gear	Caribiners		1.5
Assorted Gear	Compass		1.3
Assorted Gear	Whistle	Markwort Storm Safety Whistle	0.8
Assorted Gear	Duct Tape 20ft		2.4
Non-Gear	Scale			0.00	0.00
Non-Gear	Gaiters	Dirty Girl Gaiters
Non-Gear	Sleeping Pad	2 x Walmart CCF
				OUNCES	POUNDS
			TOTALS	470.50	29.41
		BIG 3
		Hammock + UQ + Rain Fly		116.60	7.29
		Sleeping Bag		46.50	2.91
		Pack + Dry Sacks		56.60	3.54
			TOTAL	219.70	13.73

[Shonryu]

It looks like your weight and volume issues are with your big 3. My recommendations would be.

ULA OHM - Strip it down

TQ you would easily lose a pound in a half off of your sleeping bad.

Lighter hammock that thing is heavy. Check out a Darien UL from Dream Hammocks 13oz with full bug net, suspension, and straps and I'm 6'2. If I remember that HH hammock also doesn't include the straps, bag, and snake skins into the weight. Thats like an extra 7oz. I think the real trail weight is closed to 4lbs which is extremely heavy. Just knocked off a little more than 2 1/2lbs if you go w a cuban fly.

HG Cuban Hex fly 5.6oz including ridgeline.

Get rid of the dry bags and just use a trash compactor bag. 1.6oz You would drop over a pound in dry sacks.

This would easily drop off around 4 1/2 to 5lbs

For long distance hiking I perfer cuban tarp and bivy combo.
Cuban tarp 5.6oz, Bivy 5.4oz, and 8 TI shepard hook stakes 1.8oz. Total 12.8oz for shelter set up.

[Shonryu]

Just added up your Hammock weight and all the add ons. Looks to be around 80oz Yikes!!! Thats way to much weight and volume. Your looking at more on the lines of a 5lbs shelter and when you factor in a 30oz UQ thats more than 6 1/2 lbs just for those two items. Also because your using a synth sleeping bag and UQ your losing a lot of space.

[4eyedbuzzard]

1) Hammock/sleep system is way too heavy as noted above.
2) Way too much other stuff. And stuff that is too heavy like 2lbs of dry sacks (use a 2 oz trash compactor liner), 16 oz of wipes, 5 oz of powder, 3oz gelled alcohol, and so on. Think 1 oz sizes. Get rid of stuff you won't use. Cut weight on everything you can. 11 oz journal? A knife sharpener (why)? 20 feet of duct tape (3 is enough). 4 bandanas (how about 2?)
3) Redundant stuff. Two shell jackets listed at almost a pound each. A fleece AND a vest at ? 2 ccf pads? but you're hanging, right?

If you want to shed weight AND volume you need to go through your entire list ruthlessly like this. Needs vs wants. Ounces of "nice to have things" add up to pounds.

[Sierra2015]

I can't help you since I'm still learning all this stuff, but I just wanted to say I'm salivating over your color coding.

Mmm color coding.

[BuckeyeBill]

Swapping out your sleeping bag for a Warbonnet Black Mamba 20* Topquilt saves 24.2 oz, Your under quilt for a 3 Season 20* yeti Under quilt from Warbonnet saves 18.1 oz and your hammock for a Warbonnet Blackbird saves 20.3 oz. Total saved 61.6 oz or 3.85 lbs just in those three items.

[Ercoupe]

As stated above the bulk is in the Hammock setup and two bags. But you can lose weight in other places.
Headmask and balaclava , pick one.
Two rain jackets, pick one.
Lose the town shirt.
Travel size toothpaste 1 ounce
Lose the wipes, wet bandanna. Alcohol wipes just move the dirt around.
Gelled alcohol, get just one ounce. Add to your resupply box as needed.
Imodium, motrim cut back on quality or packaging.
Just a small towel will be sufficient to wipe down condensation.
Swiss classic knife, small size, tweezers , toothpick and toenail clippers one ounce.
Smaller journal, one pencil.
Seperate the trail guide, put in resupply boxes.
Unscented soap and less of it.
Tripod, prehaps a stickpic will do the job, if you use hiking poles.
Playtapus two liter with hose 3.2 ounces.

Go over everything and downsize or eliminate. Little things add up.



Even with the dry sack you will want to seperate your bag and clothes in a compactor bag. Wet hammock will get everything else wet.

[swonut]

Cut down the soap, Ditch the tripod or get something smaller (stickpin or ultra pod), ditch one pipe and the tamper (use a stick), 20 ft of duct tape is a lot. That's a lot of safety pins if you have needle and thread. Ditch the summer stuff until later (headnet). Don't bring a knife sharpener. Worst case you buy one for a few bucks down the road, or some shop has some displays out for testing. Cut down on the bandannas.

[adamkunzler]

I guess I am going a little overboard on some things. I still have a month before I head out so I figure I have time to figure out some of this.. I don't have a lot of money at this point for new gear...like cuben fiber anything. Part of the reason I've got the hammock I do is I'm a heavier guy and I don't want to fall on my butt at night. I'll see what I can do about reducing volumes of all the "little things." I can't ditch the 65L dry bag. It's the pack part of the back pack. The ULA Epic is just shoulder straps and a harness. You strap in a drybag to store your stuff in. I'd like to ditch the second one and be able to keep the sleeping bag\camp clothes in a compactor bag in the main drybag.

[Shonryu]

If budget is a factor I would consider ditching the hammock set up all together and just bringing the hex fly. I used to have that same set up for car camping and that fly is huge. Learn tarp configurations.

You can easily use it for ground camping and may want to work on making it so you have a few more tie out points. Then just get a borah bivy for it. I think the ones in M90 are about $75 including shipping and they weight around 6.5oz for a tall and wide. This would put you around 32oz vs. The 80 your carrying dropping 48oz or almost 3lbs.

Not to mention if you use a sleeping pad you could easily drop another pound since your not gonna need you UQ. Thats 4lbs already.

Also as mentioned reevaluate your gear in terms of quantity. Quality vs quantity is a good rule to use. That and every item needs to serve as multi purpose. If it doesnt chances are you dont need it. Set up a pile of what you need vs what you consider a luxery item and really dial things down.

Your clothing should really consist of what you will wear when hiking 1outfit and what you will wear as camp/ sleeping clothes 1 outfit usually a base layer with a down jacket. Repackage all of your disposables decrease the volume and weight. Cut tags, get rid of stuf sacks etc. There will be plenty of chances for resupply along the trail.

[Slo-go'en]

I would sell the hammock set up and buy a decent tent. Especially if you don't have a lot of experiance with the care and feeding of a hammock, there is a learning curve.

One jacket - a good rain jacket only.
One pair of gloves - you just need light liners
No need for the camara tripod
Ditch the water bladders and use a soda bottles. (do you have pockets for water bottles?) Get a silylon water bag to lug water up from a spring in. Sometimes the walk to water is long so you need to be able to carry a gallon or so back to camp.
Ditch the sandals (I hope your not going to hike in them!)

I used to smoke a pipe and used my fingure to pack the bowl. Warning: finding pipe tobacco is a real treasure hunt. It is not commonly available. However, if you must smoke, a pipe is generally more acceptable then cigerettes and doesn't produce waste.

[apd07c]

I guess I am going a little overboard on some things. I still have a month before I head out so I figure I have time to figure out some of this.. I don't have a lot of money at this point for new gear...like cuben fiber anything. Part of the reason I've got the hammock I do is I'm a heavier guy and I don't want to fall on my butt at night. I'll see what I can do about reducing volumes of all the "little things." I can't ditch the 65L dry bag. It's the pack part of the back pack. The ULA Epic is just shoulder straps and a harness. You strap in a drybag to store your stuff in. I'd like to ditch the second one and be able to keep the sleeping bag\camp clothes in a compactor bag in the main drybag.

woah, wait a minute... are you telling me that ULA charges $225.00 ($275 toatl-$50 for drybag) for a 2.43 LB set of shoulder straps and a harness?

[Slo-go'en]

woah, wait a minute... are you telling me that ULA charges $225.00 ($275 toatl-$50 for drybag) for a 2.43 LB set of shoulder straps and a harness?

Yikes, I just looked at it. It sure the heck wouldn't be my first choice for a pack! Looks like a real PITA to use. Maybe you can trade it back for a Circuit or catalist? Those would be much more practical packs.

Yep, they have a great return/exchange policy. Definately get a different pack.

[Shonryu]

Just pulled this from the ULA site. Wow this is def not a pack I would recommend for a thru hike.

The award-winning Epic is our most versatile backpack. The Epic was designed for packrafting expeditions in the harshest of climates, but it’s also been known to carry chainsaws, beer kegs, and elk quarters. The Epic has also gained a following among distance hikers as it offers a versatile, waterproof way to carry your gear.

ULA packages the Epic with the 65L Big River Dry Sack from Sea to Summit . It’s a lightweight, durable and secure way to keep your gear dry in wettest conditions. to buy without the drybag enter code nobag and $50 will be deducted from the total.

The Epic has already gathered some trail accomplishments. The earlier generation, Arctic 1000, was carried on The Backpackinglight Grand Adventure in Alaska, More recently; Andrew Skurka carried the updated Epic for portions of his 4600+ mile circumnavigation of Alaska, sponsored by National Geographic.