Gear Help - 2p or two solo tents for PCT

[dkap09]

I can't decide on a few gear size options. I was hoping to hear some thought/opinions/insights.

My friend and I will be doing the NOBO PCT hike next Spring.

What are your thoughts on sharing a 2p tent or separate solo tents.

Also, she is vegetarian, I am not. Two separate stoves/cook kits or share? We will be re hydrating most of our dinners.

Thanks!

[burger]

Are you a couple or just friends? Is there a chance you will have to split up due to different paces or injury or off-trail events that force one of you to take time off? If you only have one tent and one cook kit, you are stuck together for better or worse. So that's one consideration.

As for cooking, my wife and I shared a pot on our thru-hike, and it worked okay. One person would set up camp and journal and eat dessert while the other cooked. Then we switched. Each of us was eating a whole box of mac 'n cheese or the equivalent each night, and we had a supercat stove, so cooking together was not an option. But we were so hungry by second half of the trail that we seriously considered buying a second pot so we could cook one right after the other. I don't think there's a right or wrong way to do it. Take some practice trips and see what works.

As for the veggie thing, as your friend what she thinks. I'm vegetarian, and I wouldn't share my pot with a meat eater. Just don't want to deal with the smells and all. But HMMV.

Good luck. Get your starting permits early--based on what happened this year, the good dates will go fast.

[HooKooDooKu]

As with most things... it depends.
One 2p tent is going to be lighter than two 1P tents. But it also means that you MUST ALWAYS stay together. You wouldn't want to seperate and risk still being apart come night time. That would risk either someone having no shelter or niether of you having shelter if the tent is split between you.

To a degree, the same can be said of the cook set.

If you do play to always stay together, then one pot should be enough if all you have to do is boil water.

So I think it comes down to a question of whether the two of you will always be together or if you need the flexibility of occasionally being independant.

[Wyoming]

On the veggie thing there is another option from what Burger said.

I am a meat eater, but I don't cook meat in my cooking gear most times and it is easy not to. Most meat eaten on the trail is jerky (and if you throw some jerky in the ramen no one is going to taste it in their cooking later anyway) or the packets of stuff like tuna (fish is not meat btw and chicken barely qualifies ). You can just add that stuff to your meal after using the pot (assuming she cares at all and you would know that). Or you could carry stuff like summer sausage as some do (it is heavy so I don't) and eat that separately.