[pct-l] 2012 Hike Planning Session: 10 Questions

Sun Jan 8 07:30:35 CST 2012

Hello Tim,

An entire book could be (and have been) written on answer these ten
questions. I suspect the vast majority of the folks here on the pct-l
will have the same basic answers with slight varying degrees for
personal preferences. Here are mine.

#1: A 20(f) bag should be sufficient for the first 180 miles of the
PCT. In fact most hikers use a 20(f) bag for the entire hike. My only
concern with the Kelty Mount Shasta is its packability. If I remember
right that sleeping bag does not compress down very well and could end
up taking a rather large percentage of your backpack. The smaller you
can get your gear the smaller the backpack you have to carry and thus
a lighter backpack to help bring down the total pack weight. Three
popular sleeping bags for the PCT are:  Marmot Helium Sleeping Bag,
Western Mountaineering UltraLite (or the WM Alpinlite, which is
wider), and the MontBell U.L. Super Spiral Hugger #1 (my personal
favorite, but the heaviest of the three). In the end though, a
sleeping bag is usually the most expensive piece of gear in your
backpack so that can play a large in which you end up taking. If you
feel the Kelty is compressing down enough to not consume more than
1/5th or more of your backpack than give it a go! As for going with a
quilt, I tend to believe that quilts are something that should be left
for the hikers who really have a grasp on their gear and really
understand how to control their core temperatures. They present more
fiddle-factors throughout the night (especially if it gets cold). I
have used both for a lot of miles over the last three hiking seasons
and ended up selling all of my quilts. To me sleep is one of the most
vital aspects of being on the trail and if I am up all night fiddling
around with my quilt to try to stop cold spots, that is doing me a
disservice more than what the weight differences provides. Just
something to consider. The bigger a person you are the more cold spots
become an issue for quilts. Given the fact that you are doing 180
miles it probably would not be worth the financial investment to buy
any new sleeping bag or quilt - again, so long as the Kelty compresses
down enough to get the rest of your gear and food into your backpack
(you did not indicate what your backpack is so we have no idea on that
matter) Here is data gathered on the 2010 PCT hiking season to give
you an insight into temperature ranges throughout the entire trail:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/2010-December/042944.html
 is can be useful as a baseline to understand what type of gear a pct
thru-hiker needs.

#2: The Eureka Solitaire should be good enough if all you are doing is
the first 180 miles. In the end lugging around a 2.5 pound tent for
180 miles is nothing like lugging around a 2.5 pound shelter for 2600
miles. Save yourself some money and call it good enough. If you do
want to buy a new shelter and have a bit more room and save yourself a
few ounces of weight the "Six Moon Designs Skyscape - Trekker" is a
pretty nice little shelter at around $200 bucks and 24 ounces (1.5
pounds). I did a video review (a rather cheesy one at that) awhile
back which you can see at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHpoJFADkfc
If you really want to push the limits you can see an article I
published recently that goes into detail on the lightest of the
lightest of what is out there right now. It is at
http://hikelighter.com/2011/12/29/sulxul-enclosed-shelter-comparisons/
There is a spreadsheet linked with the article. But again, that Eureka
Solitaire is more then sufficient for 180 mile hike. There is no
reason it should not be able to handle two weeks on the PCT.

#3: Four liters of what is around about what most folks have in
containers. A lot of folks will carry two one liter  plastic bottles
and a 2-liter platty bag (carried empty, except when needed). That Pur
filter is pretty much as good as anything out there today.

#4: I would say carry three waterproof matches for an utter emergency
and than a big lighter (or a mini-bic if you can find one). There is
no way you will go through an entire min-bic in 15 or so days on the
trail. The PCT does not require 'survivalist' type gear... leave that
magnesium rod in the drawer at home lol.

#5: Hiking non-cook style is a big change if you have never done it
before. Considering you are only going to be out there for 180 miles,
why not just take along a 2 ounce cook setup and enjoy a cup of tea
and a warm dinner. Enjoy your hike. As for food...
http://outdoorherbivore.com/ offers both non-cook food and vegan food.
If you are already a vegetarian/vegan you should find their meals very
nice. Reasonably priced too. If nothing else, you might get some ideas
from what they offer. Again, enjoy your hike and if that means taking
a long a little stove, go for it. Do not let those of us in the
ultralight world out there talking about hiking non-cook influence you
so much that you cannot enjoy your hike, a warm cup of tea, all over
two or so ounces of additional weight.

#6: Clothing is one of those things that is hard to answer. I will say
that the ExOfficio underwear is worth the money. So are base layers
such as Patagonia Capilene (which others on the pct-l hate) and
Icebreakers (if you can afford them). Mid layers for the first 180
miles can be just about any old standard mid-layer. Outerlayers really
depends on how cold you get, you might be able to get away with a
regular shirt if the weather plays nice this year. As for a hard shell
layer, it is always worth the extra 10 ounces to have a hard shell
layer, regardless of where you are hiking. Very little reason you
would need three pair of socks for the first 180 miles, so two pair
should be good.

#7: You will not need a bear canister nor will you need to hang your
food for the first 180 miles of the PCT. I would advice you put your
food and your perishables (toothpaste, toothbrush, trash, and anything
else with such scent) into a large LOKSAK OPSak. I approach it from a
rather interesting perspective in which each days worth of food is in
a small OPSak and than I carry one large one for everything else.
OPSaks are not legally required, just a smart thing to do.

#8: Without knowing your cell phone type there is not a lot we can say
about how to deal with it. Just remember that the vast majority of the
time your phone is probably going to be turned off so it will not be
sucking battery. If your ereader is the kindle, you should easily be
able to do 15-odd days without recharging it. My kindle keyboard (the
previous black version) lasts three+ months without a recharge. I
could almost hike half the pct without needing to recharge it.

#9: Leave the leatherman at home. Again, not a survivalist trail you
are going on. I (and many many others) have hiked thousands and
thousands of miles with nothing more than a Victorinox Swiss Army
Classic Pocket Knife. It is 21.14 grams (0.745 ounces) and is pretty
much all anybody needs. But, to each their own when it comes to the
issue of knives on the trail.

#10: You should be calculating your clothing in your base pack weight.
So if you are at 21 pounds BPW without clothing that probably puts you
at around 25 pounds true BPW. Personally I think that is a little
heavy. But again giving that you are out there for the first 180 miles
of the trail, it should be more than good enough. Figure around 2.2
pounds of food per day, times four days between towns (average) adds
another 8.8 pounds, plus 2(l) of water (~2.8) so it puts you around
the 38 pounds total pack weight. That's really heavy in my opinion but
you will not be along out there at that weight level I am sure. I
would personally like to see you try to loose around 10 pounds of
total pack weight somehow if you could. While you should not use my
gear lists as any sort of baseline, you are welcome to look them over
at: https://bitly.com/pxBnOo (or there is a link on the right side of
my website at www.hikelighter.com but again, use them for nothing more
than potentially seeing what some of the lightest gear out there is,
not what you should be dropping big bucks on for a 180 mile hike).
Again, would really like to see you find some way to get that total
pack weight down into the 20 pound range. 38-odd pounds is a lot of
weight to be lugging around for 15 or so days.

Anyway Tim looks like you are heading in a right direction. The pct-l
is an awesome resource and lot of folks on here should be willing to
share their thoughts so keep asking any questions you need some
insight into.

John B. Abela
HikeLighter.Com
RedwoodOutdoors.Com

On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 8:07 PM, Tim Gustafson <tjg at tgustafson.com> wrote:
> So, I just dumped out my hiking gear box, and went over each piece of
> gear that I own and made two piles: stuff that will come with me on my
> 2012 PCT section hike, and stuff that won't.
>
> I'm planning on hiking about the first 180 miles starting during the
> last weekend of April this year.
>
> While going through all my gear, I came up with the following questions:
>
> 1. I currently have a Kelty Mount Shasta 20 degree bag.  It's a big
> tight across the chest, but other than that it's in great condition.
> Is this a worthy bag for the first section of the trail in April/May?
> Is this overkill?  Should I get a lighter 30 degree bag instead?  I've
> heard some chatter about quilts instead of bags, but I'm a little
> skeptical I guess.  I'm a big guy - 6'3" - and it's not always easy to
> fit inside "one size fits all" gear, so I wonder if a quilt would be
> better or worse for me than the bag I already have.
>
> 2. My tent is a Eureka Solitaire one-person.  It packs very small and
> fits easily inside my bag with all my other gear - it doesn't need to
> be lashed to the outside.  But, it's not a free-standing tent; you
> need to use the stakes or it just falls in on itself.  I'm guessing
> it's not always easy to find stake-able ground in the desert sections.
>  And it doesn't really have any room for gear inside the tent - a
> bummer if it's raining and you want to work on something in your bag,
> or just keep it dry.  Should I invest in a free-standing tent?  Any
> recommendations for a suitable tent?
>
> 3. Is four liters of water storage enough?  I have a Pur "Hiker"
> series filter (I believe that brand/model now belongs to "Katadyn" - I
> bought my filter probably 10 years ago, and have just recently
> replaced the filter element) so I can filter along the way as needed,
> but will 4 liters be enough to make it from one reliable source to the
> next?
>
> 4. Waterproof matches or magnesium fire starter?
>
> 5. I'm planning on going without a stove; I've heard people say this
> is a very viable option.  It certainly saves weight and bulk.  Any
> comments on going stove-less for the first 180 miles?  Any suggestions
> as to what foods to bring?  I'm thinking a combination of regular
> trail mix, Cliff's bars, dried fruit and so on.  I'm vegetarian, so
> jerky and that sort of thing is out of the running.  Anything else I
> can/should bring?
>
> 6. As for clothing: are the "high-tech" options worth it?  Should I
> get the super-wicking underwear?  The zip-off rip-stop pants?  The
> high-tech shirts?  And, how much clothing should I bring?  I'm
> thinking two sets of undies, pants, shirts and socks, so that I can
> switch off each day and let one set air out and dry while I'm wearing
> the other.  Is this overkill?
>
> 7. Do I need a bear can at this stage of the trail, or will just
> hanging a food bag do it?
>
> 8. I'm planning on bringing my cell phone and my eReader and was
> wondering if anyone had any experience with using a solar charger -
> you know the kind that you tie onto the back of your pack while you're
> walking to charge up your gear.  Any thoughts?
>
> 9. Any reason that a simple single-blade folding knife would not be
> enough?  I have a Leatherman tool, but I'm having a hard time thinking
> of a time on the trail when I might need a metal file or a Phillips
> screwdriver.
>
> 10. Currently, my bag and all my gear, not including clothes, water or
> food, is 21 pounds.  That sounds pretty good to me, but I was
> wondering what feedback people might have about that weight.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice you all can give!
>
> --
>
> Tim Gustafson
> tjg at tgustafson.com
> http://tgustafson.com/
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