March 2014 NOBO shakedown

[DaveyT]

Hello all!! I have lurked here for a while making preparations for my thru attempt starting March 2014 and I think its about time to post my gear list, food plans and resupply stops for y’all to critique:

Clothing
Melenzana hoodie 12.2oz
Dead Bird SL pullover 11oz

EMS rainpants 12.5oz

Mesa V2 convertible pants 10.6oz
Patagucci down shirt 6oz
Darn tough mtnering sock 2pair 9oz

Long synthetic underwear bottoms 2pair 8oz
Capallini 2 long tops 2pair 11.6oz
Synthetic hiking shirt 2pair 7oz
Down hat 1oz
Down socks 3oz
Chacos 2lbs

Gear
GG Blaze AC 60 3lbs
Packcover 4oz
RevelationX 20 26.25oz

Thermarest 14oz
Aquaquest tarp7x10 26oz
Bearpaw Minimalist 1 15oz
Jetboil 8.5oz
Pasta pot 4oz
MSR Dromedary 7.2oz
Sawyer Squeeze 3.5oz

Misc
Headlamp 2.4oz
Spork 0.6oz
Swiss knife 2.7oz
AT Data book 8oz
Stuff sacks x 3 6oz

Toiletries 1lb


So looking a base weight of a little under 20lbs

For food I am planning on using mail drops to try and save money and get a variety of food. Lunches will be bought along the way.

Typical Mail Drop
1lb oats
2lbgranola
1lb Milkpowder+whey protein mix
3lb trail mix
1lb tvp
1lb beans
1lb pasta
1lb dehydrated veggies


I’m planning on getting most of this food from Harmonyhouse.com and bulk foods.com anyone have any experience or reviews that they could share?


Mail drops
Hiawassee GA
Fontana Damn NC
Hot Springs NC
Erwin TN
Hampton TN
Damascus VA
Bland VA
Pearisburg VA
Troutville VA
Montebello VA
Waynesboro VA
Front Royal VA
Blue Ridge Summit PA
Walnutport PA
Unionville NY
Pawling NY
Tyringham Mass
Manchester Center VT
Hanover NH
Bartlett NH
Andover ME
Monson ME

Any advice, criticisms, reviews, or funny stories that could be helpful would be greatly appreciated.

[Last Call]

That's a lot of beans & taters....maybe include a 12-pack of Charmin in your mail drops, as well.

[quasarr]

IMO mail drops are not worth it unless you have a special diet restriction. Too much effort and you may end up getting sick of your food. On a good note, other hikers might get lucky and score some sweet meals that you don't want any more

Just go to the grocery stores in town, the cost evens out because of the postage expense. And you will have infinite variety instead of being stuck with the food you bought 10 months ago. Once I brought a big bag of banana chips, and dear lord by day 3 I was so sick of them. I can only imagine opening up a mail box of banana chips in every town..... Ugh!!

Gear.... Did you already buy everything? I think 26 oz sounds like a LOT for a 7x10 tarp. Is it sil-nylon? Dromedary, what size is it? This is also pretty heavy and on the AT there is so much water you only need like a 3L capacity. Buy some Gatorade, you get a lightweight bottle plus it comes with free Gatorade And the Platypus 2L bladders are much lighter than 7oz.

is the pasta pot in addition to the Jetboil? Don't need it if so, no reason to be fancy you're just boiling water. Eat out of the Jetboil.

14oz sounds like a lot for the therma rest, is it full length? You can probably get away with cutting off a few feet of it. And use the extra to make camp sandals! They are fugly but marginally functional.

Chacos.... Leave those at HOME!! 2lbs for camp sandals is waAAAAY too much. Just use a pair of $2 flip flops from Old Navy.

[MuddyWaters]

Rainpants are HEAVY
Your socks are heavy
Dont need 2 sets of long underwear
Cant hike in down hat, fleece is better
No real head insulation for cold weather. For 15F sleeping , you really need a down hood with the quilt
Forget the chacos
You can get a lighter pack cover in the 1-2oz range. Either cuben or 7D silnylon
Tarp and inner is quite heavy. Tarp is really heavy . You can do half that weight.
Forget the dromedary. A couple water or gatorade bottles is all you need
Pasta pot?
Bags for sawyer squeeze?
Take pages yo uneed from data book, bounce rest ahead
1lb toiletries sounds heavy
First aid/blister kit?
Water treatment backup?
Food bag? bearcord/carabiner?
maps? small compass?
lighter/matches?
gloves?
Tyvek groundsheet for shelters?

You need some variety of food, and easy foods too.
You will get sick of bland food that is the same all the time.

You also may waste quite a bit of it. If you dont know how fast you will hike, so you dont know how many days it will take between towns, or how much food you need. Sorting, repackaging, and mailing whats not needed ahead is a major hassle.

Having to be in town when the place you mailed the drop is open is also constricting to your schedule. If you arrive on sunday morning, but have to wait till 8am monday to get your food drop, you may have just bought a hotel room. Wheres the savings in that?

[Stink Bug]

I thru hiked this year and, out of the list of mail drops, the only one I'd use is Monson and maybe Andover. Your better option for Andover would be to resupply in Rangely though.

1lb for toiletries seems excessive.

If you're using the bags for the Sawyer, I'd ditch those and use a 1L water bottle. Some of the water sources it's an exercise in frustration filling the bags. Plus with the water bottle, you can 'dip and sip' (fill up the bottle, chug as much as you need, fill again as necessary and hike on. Using this technique I rarely carried more than 3/4 L of water).

Good luck on your thru, it's an incredible experience!

[DaveyT]

Just checked the weight on the tarp it's actually 14 oz sil-nylon, my bad. I don't have a scale yet so all of these are manufactures weights.

The dromedary is 6L I just wanted to make sure I was never out of water/make less stops to fill up and have a hose to drink out of.

I'm bringing the pasta pot instead of the jetboicup so the weight of the jetboil may be less without the cup.

The thermarest is full length however I would like to keep this luxury as I am using a quilt and am a belly sleeper.

The chacos will be my primary hiking shoe, I've done 40 mile multi element days in them and love them to death; socks+chocs= snow shoe that is why the socks are quite heavy.

Should I find lighter rain pants or just skip them altogether, I was thinking it would be nice to have an extra layer in heavy rain, snow, hail.


Two of my layers have hoods I was planning on using the down hat with the quilt and the down socks on those really cold nights.

Haven't quite figured out toiletries yet that's why I budgeted them so heavy. Any suggestions on toiletries??
Gloves good call best not to skimp on those. Need a groundsheet too. Iodine or aquamira for my treatment backup.

Planning on using a smartwater bottle and an older style platy for the sawyer filter... if can find the damn platy I know its around here somewhere!

Yes I already have all of the gear listed above. Most of it I already had or was discounted so cheap that I had to splurge.

Keep it coming this is great! Thanks so much guys and gals!

[DaveyT]

As for mail drops I might just use them for the first couple states and then stop using them once I hit my stride and know what I am doing. For some raeson I still think I can save money with maildrops, but I am sure in the long run y'all are right. I just liked the idea of spending around 1k and having all the food I needed mailed to me. But logistics and tatebuds are the two deal stoppers.

[Old Hiker]

Davey, if you haven't tried hiking with all this gear for at least a week, please do so. You may find you can get rid of some of it. Or find you need a bit more for comfort.

500 miles: 2012 -

I used my rain pants for a wind break. My second pair (1st pair: dri-ducks type: tore by Hot Springs) has full length zipper legs for ventilation as needed. Paid FULL price at the outfitter, but worth it.

Try borrowing a Pocket Rocket with your pasta pot and see if you like it - may save some weight.

Pretty much everything in your food list I could find in the grocery stores except for TVP and veggies, but I didn't look for that.

2 extra batteries? Just asking - I don't think I changed mine but once.

SHOCK AND AWE: no cell phone, i-pod, i-pad, nook, paper-white, electronics????? I'm surprised and proud of ya!! Unless, of course, you forgot to put those in.

[DaveyT]

I plan on hiking a Pennsylvania section or two in November or December... whenever the weather is most miserable with the full gear load as well as full dromedary (9lbs water wooo!) And see what can go and what can stay.

My rain pants have ventilation buttons from the crotch down which work alright. They are sturdy enough to stand up to class 4 scrambles and butt-slides so I think the durability is worth the weight.

Just worried about getting all the nutrients and vitamins/ruffage I need to keep all 160lbs on my 6ft 7in frame. I feel like if I lost 20lbs on this hike it would not be healthy despite the mental/spiritual benefits.

I figured that since everybody and their mom has a cellphone attached to their hip I could borrow one in town and make a quick call to tell my parents how I'm doing and what to mail where next. I don't want to have energy to mess around with that bull on the trail, I want to wake at first light do some yoga eat hike eat hike until dark, yoga, cook din din, eat,maybe have a smoke, sleep like a log and then rinse and repeat as needed. don't need i-pod, i-pad, nook, paper-white or electronics that much in the front-country, sure don't need them in the back-country.

Any advantages of a pocket rocket over a jetboil? I'm just asking because I've been using the jetboil for years and haven't found any flaws except the igniter going on me which is easily solved by a flick of my bic.

[max patch]

You'll figure what works best for you soon enough; I do have a suggestion re food your first few weeks that will save you some weight.

Start off with enough food to get to Neels Gap (3 days for most). Resupply at Mountain Crossings to get to Hiawassee. Your Hiawasse resupply (I'd do grocery and not mail but thats your call) should get you to Franklin (where almost everyone goes for a hotel stay). At Franklin resupply to get to NOC. NOC resupply to get to Fontana.

I used mail drops but won't again. Even with mail drops still have to go to the grocery anyway.

[Old Hiker]

OK - I have NO sympathy for you at 6'7" and 160 pounds. Sheesh. Joke !!!! I vaguely remember being young and skinny, before marriage.

No experience with JetBoil, just my Rocket.

I'm looking into some type of tablet book, only because I got desperate to read. I'd find a paperback and carry it for a few days. I'd like something the same weight, but with 100's of books in it.

Forgot: I took 3 32 ounce juice bottles at first, then cut back to having 2 full all times. I also took a filter PLUS disinfecting tablets PLUS neutralizing tablets, so what do I know about weight???

Good luck - keeping a journal online?

[DaveyT]

I'm a reader too and the only way I can see to get around it is to bring one big book that never gets old (bible,quran), or to get so tired hiking and keep my days so full that I'm too exhausted or busy with life to read. But I'm sure that there are going to be quite or down times where I'll say damn should have brought a book. Not planning on posting a journal online but a may bring a write in the rain for my own thoughts while on the trail.

[max patch]

I carried at least 2 and sometimes 3 paperbacks at all times. I plan on a tablet next time around.