[pct-l] Ultralight as a must?

[Gayle Webb]

Stefan:
 
The reality is you only need to pack for 4-5 days at a time.  If you can manage daily washing clothes and eating dehydrated food for that time, the resupply stops and trail angels make extra food and gear useless weight. This year I found out that I did not need as much for the trail as I expected for the desert. No need for a tent most of the time up to section H. For the central part of California - north I got UL gear from ZPacks (http://www.zpacks.com/) And with it my base pack weight went well below 10 lbs. with their Heximid Plus tent, poncho-ground sheet, rain kilt and Arc Blast pack. 
 
For gear I packed 32 degree sleeping quilt made with a Ray Jardine (http://www.rayway.com/) kit, foam sleeping pad, three pairs of socks (changed and washed 3x per day) a base layer marino wool shirt and pants, a down hooded jacket (Western Mountaineering), fleece cap and gloves, hiking fingerless gloves (for the desert), head lamp, fuel canister stove & MSR titanium pot, water bladder, first aid-toilet kit, plastic spoon and fork, verinox knife, pinch light, smart phone-8mp camera, compass, half-mile maps (resupplied by sections) and light Montane wind-rain jacket (http://www.montane.co.uk/).  The rest of the clothes (Columbia UV resistant convertable pants, long sleve ventilated shirt) and Tilly hat,  I wore and washed often. Food, fuel and water weight was excluded as well as the bear canister used from section H to Sonora. My 64 oz capacity Platypus water bladder with hydration hose was supplemented by two 32 oz plastic soda bottles, one of
 which I replaced with a 28 oz Dole peach jar in which hydrated my food while I hiked. I filtered my water through a 10 micro pad into a 2 gal.  "Pack Bowl" (www.backpcakerspantry.com)  and treated it with bleach.
 
I think the total pack weight loaded with 5 days of food and 3 liters of water was abut 24 lbs for the first day from resupply points on the trail. Most of the time my pack seemed very light and my daily milage, with Merrill Ventilator shoes (I hear Brooks Cascadia shoes are good too), almost doubled to 25-30 miles per day (on a good day). I did take a 0 day each week - or more when I got pooped.  I did not finish the  PCT, however, due to a knee injury. I will try again next year. Check out other great gear lists from more experienced hikers on the PCT website. I found their advice on many subjects invaluable. Again, my UL pack and gear took time to assemble and worked fine for me but may be too light - or expensive - for you. As they say: "reducing pack pounds is easy, ruducing pack ounces is expensive." But, for my money, it was way cheaper than Carribean cruise. 
 
Spider legs


________________________________
From: Craig Stanton <craigstanton at mac.com>
To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 3:24 AM
Subject: [pct-l] Ultralight as a must?

(An old thread, but I read this via the archives and I'm a bit behind the times)
Hi Stefan,
    I took a MacPac Ascent along the trail in '07 and though it was 4.5lbs I'm glad I had it. So long as the two you've got are heavy because they are strong and not because they have lots of spare bits and clips dangling from all places then I don't see any problem with taking a non-ultralight pack. This monstrous you mentioned is not an absolute point, but a continuum that we're all on. All the hiking I had done in New Zealand conditioned me to prepare for and defend against everything. I'd never considered cowboy camping until the 3rd gate cache, and then I didn't get back in my tent until Washington, it's amazing what sleeping in the dirt will do to you :-) I massively overpacked and got blisters in the first few hundred miles. But as I went I got more comfortable with my kit and put items that I didn't need into my bounce-box and slowly my packwieght went down. I only weighed my pack twice because other people were curious about it but I never
 got hung up about it. 
I've rambled on now but I'm coming to a point. Don't strive to get your bags down to a particular weight or to earn the "ultralight" label. Just try to pack efficiently, only take what you need and as you get more comfortable wearing the same underwear for a week you'll find that you need to carry less things and your pack weight will naturally come down.
~Craig/SunWalker/Heaps

> Dear all,
> 
> somehow we are a bit confused about the gear we are planning to take with
> me for the pct-hike. we thought we had found the "right way" for us, but
> this UL-thing keeps coming back into our minds. we'll hike as a couple and
> therefore are able to share some weight/gear. beside our packs (osprey
> aether 70 and ariel 65, each 4 - 4,5 lbs; both packs that fit our expected
> needs, and our tent which weighs little less than 4 lbs) we try to keep the
> total gear weight very low and aim to reach a total of round about 14-18
> lbs excluding pack (empty), food and water. since the PCT-community in
> germany is from non existing to not so big, we feel somehow helpless and
> intimidated by this "ultralite monstrum". Beyond, we cannot assess the
> impact of weight+ total distance.
> alltogether, the chosen gear might be a result of cautiuosness: tent as
> protection against insects, snakes and the "heavy" backpack due to health
> considerations even though we`re 24&26 and fit :)
> 
> we're thankful for suggestions, comments and experiences!
> 
> regards,
> 
> stefan

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