It’s been nearly two months since I stopped hiking, but I’m finally getting back on the trail!! My flight leaves Oregon tonight and lands at LaGuardia tomorrow morning. I’m leapfrogging over ~1200 miles and starting north from Bear Mountain State Park Wednesday morning. My current plan is to hike north to Katahdin, then head back to Clingman’s Dome and hike north to Bear Mountain. We’ll see how that all shakes out.

I revised my gear list a bit and finally got around to finishing my spreadsheet.

The Big Three:  Total weight 9.84 lbs, total cost $1,217.14.

I could lose the strap pocket, lid, extra stakes, stake bag & guyline pretty easily, but I like the convenience. I should get a summer-weight quilt to replace the sleeping bag, so that’s on the horizon. I recognize it’s ridiculous to carry both an inflatable sleeping pad and a closed cell pad, but after having a deflation event at 2am on an extremely cold night, I decided NEVER AGAIN. I should probably just switch to a hammock at this point, but that’s one piece of gear I’d rather experiment with on shorter trips in case it turns out I actually hate it. If I got rid of the extra gear and subbed out the sleeping bag, I could cut ~1.5 lbs.

Food & water:  Total weight 12.1 oz, total cost $130.50.

I have a great stove and pot system from Trail Designs – the Sidewinder Ti-Tri with Zelph modified StarLyte – but I find cooking on the trail to be an onerous and unrewarding chore. I probably don’t need the OPSak, but it makes me feel better and keeps my food bag cleaner. I carry the Sawyer because I’ve gotten ill from drinking bad water before and would prefer to never repeat the experience.

Protip: If you’re at a mosque in Uzbekistan and someone offers you unfiltered water, they probably won’t be that offended if you just say no.

I carry the cleaning plunger because I don’t want to be the person who always asks to borrow a piece of gear they’re too lazy to carry themselves. There are lighter utensil options out there, but I don’t really want to buy something else; the last time I tried to use disposable cutlery, I crushed it in my bag and it snapped.

The hydration tube is vital because I get irrationally angry if I have to take off my pack to get a drink of water, and I hate having a bottle on my shoulder strap.

Miscellaneous gear:  Total weight 2.48 lbs, total cost $414.70

Oh, where to begin. I could probably get rid of 2/3 of this stuff with no problem, but we pack for our fears and I’m easily frightened! I also like to inconvenience myself as little as possible.

• I like peeing into a jar in the middle of the night and being able to dig a cathole with my trowel.
• I like being able to jot down notes.
• I like having a little shopping bag I can use to carry around my valuables when I’m in town or to load up with shopping if I’m walking back to a hostel from the supermarket.
• I love getting my AT passport stamped.

I use everything I carry, and I’m not quite ready to give anything up just yet.

First Aid / Repairs / Fem Hygiene Kit: Total weight 4.9 oz, total cost ~$53.01

This all fits into a quart-size Ziploc bag. Again, most of this could be abandoned with no appreciable decline in the overall quality of my life, but I feel better having it readily available.

Electronics: Total weight 4.16 lbs (or, tellingly, 66.6 oz), total cost $1,159.14

Obviously, every single thing on this list could be eliminated. I have no excuse.

Clothing carried:           Total weight 2.58 lbs, total cost $202.10
Clothing/items worn:  Total weight 5.44 lb., total cost $525.50

Clothing carried could (and arguably should) be adjusted. I’d like to swap out the rain jacket for a Packa, and I should probably dump the fleece entirely for the next ~two months or, at the very least, exchange it for my down jacket. I just really like fleece, and it’s nice not to freeze in overly-air-conditioned buildings. I like having separate sleeping clothes and prefer not to wear my rain gear while doing laundry (doubly difficult now that I have jettisoned my rain pants for summer).

As for what I wear, I like having the option to wear long pants or shorts depending on trail conditions. I prefer bike shorts to anti-chafing creams or powders. I’ve been wearing liner socks with all my hiking boots and shoes for the last few years and can count the number of blisters I’ve gotten on one hand. The hiking poles are amazing; I could go lighter with carbon fiber 2-section poles, but they’re too long to fit in my usual suitcase, and I’m clumsy enough that I prefer not to risk snapping a carbon fiber pole.

Precious Personal Hygiene Supplies

I have found that, without some basic hygiene supplies, I spend most of my hiking time praying for death’s sweet embrace. I can really only weigh the toothbrush (0.2 oz) and the single scrubby bath glove (0.5 oz) because everything else counts as a consumable and weights vary depending on what brand or size is available at any given resupply point. I usually have some/all of the following:

• toothpaste
• dental floss
• lip balm
• deodorant
• moisturizer
• Purell
• Gold Bond
• wet wipes
• toilet paper
• exfoliating/cleansing face wipes
• cotton swabs
• sunscreen
• bug spray

I’d guesstimate the above weighs in at no more than 20 oz at any given time (probably too generous, but I’d rather overestimate than underestimate).

TOTAL BASE WEIGHT: ~354.1 oz / 22.13 lbs
(not including what I’m wearing/holding while hiking)

TOTAL COST: $3,832.60

That’s not great, but it could certainly be worse. I could easily drop ~5 lbs just by losing some of the luxury items.