One of the biggest purchases I made gear-wise was my backpack. The backpack I used was a 65-liter REI-brand internal-frame backpack. I decided on that backpack b/c it had gotten a lot of good reviews and also b/c it was pretty much the cheapest backpack that REI sold. In previous backpacking trips, I had used an old (70s) Kelty external-frame that my dad used hiking around Alaska back in the day. I would have used that, but it didn't seem to have enough room for all of my stuff and also because no one seemed to use those anymore - in fact, you can't even buy an external frame at my local REI.
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| From AT 2010 |
Out on the trail, one of the things that quickly started to annoy me was that sometimes when I needed something big from my pack (e.g. sleeping bag, food), I had to dig out all of the stuff on top of it. My internal frame pack is structured such that there is one, gigantic pocket - so it's packed by stacking gear on top of each other. Each night when setting up camp, I'd pull everything out, get my sleeping bag and then put everything back in. This got old.
So, I'm thinking the next time I do one of these long hikes, I'm going to go with an external frame. I could use my Dad's old Kelty, but it's missing a few of the perks of newer bags (e.g. straps to hang wet clothes on). The shoulder and belt straps are also pretty worn and not comfortable to wear. So, if I did go with the old backpack, I'd need to replace a few parts and try to add some straps. Here's what I got so far:
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| From AT 2010 |
My hammock was probably the most experimental piece of gear I brought with me. In fact, up until a couple months before doing the hike, I didn't even realize that hammocks were an option. I was skeptical when I first started: the curve of a hammock cannot be good for your back.
But after a week or so of hiking, I was starting to really like my hammock. During my whole trip, I slept in shelters maybe five or six times and that was usually because of rain or because I was required to (that's a rule in the Smokies - no tenting/hammocking unless the shelter is full). I would look forward to each night I could sleep in my hammock.
There's a novelty to sleeping off the ground like you do when sleeping in a hammock and at first I had a little trouble with it. Every time I needed to adjust myself, the whole thing would move underneath me. But before too long, I got a hang of it.
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| From AT 2010 |
My hammock came with a tarp which you hang over it to keep the rain out. The tarp was designed so that it would cover just enough of the hammock to keep it dry. I found the tarp to be too small - a few times when it rained, I awoke to find some parts of the hammock damp from rain which had blown past the tarp and into the hammock. I plan on purchasing another, slightly larger tarp for future hikes.
Another piece of gear I'll probably get is something called an underquilt. A lot of the other hammockers used underquilts on cold nights. I think I mentioned this in a previous post: hammocks don't do well in cold weather, because you lose heat through your back. Under quilts are designed to be hung underneath the hammock to insulate you from the bottom. You can see a picture of an underquilt here.
Another, slightly-experimental piece of gear I used were my shoes. In the past, I've used hiking boots when backpacking. The first couple of times, I messed my feet up pretty bad. Especially with leather boots, you need to make sure they are thoroughly broken in, otherwise your feet will get rubbed raw. I feel like the boots I have are pretty well broken in, but something I read while researching the trail was that boots are not even necessary.
Boots are designed to give extra support and prevent you from rolling your ankle. But what I was reading said that you don't need that support if you have sufficiently strong ankles, and I felt like mine were pretty strong after running for the past few months. One often-repeated piece of wisdom on the trail is that one pound of weight on your feet is like five on you back - and it's super important to minimize weight whenever possible. So, instead of boots, I went with shoes called trail-runners, which are beefed-up running shoes designed for running on trails. They worked flawlessly and I've very glad I went with them.
One final thing I want to mention is the water strategy that I went with. To carry water, I brought with me a one-liter nalgene bottle and a two-liter camelback water bag (with a valve which you can use to sip on while hiking). The water bag was strictly for water (otherwise, I'd have to clean it to prevent the sugar from causing mold), which I would drink occasionally while hiking and the bottle was for getting water when I got to a spring and also for mixing drinks (e.g. koolaid, breakfast shakes).
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| From AT 2010 |
This system worked for the most part, but one thing that started to bother me was that it was a bit of a pain to re-fill the water bag. The water bag sat in a pocket in the back of my backpack, and in order to get to it, I'd need to remove a bunch of other gear from my bag. Another issue was that it was difficult to determine how much water I was carrying. If I was about to hike past a stream or a spring, I'd need to evaluate how much water I was carrying in order to figure out if I should re-fill. But, in order to figure-out how much water I was carrying, I'd need to drop my pack and start pulling stuff out - kind of a pain. So, on my next hike, I might just go with two water bottles and forget about the super-convenient camelback valve. Or, if I go with the external backpack, maybe the extra pockets will make it less of an inconvenience to check/refill the water bag. Not sure yet...
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