First journal entry to get things registered and rolling.
Three weeks till I head for San Diego, and a few days after that I will begin the big walk.
Have nearly all of my gear ready. Need to finish up sewing in a bug net to the cuben fiber tarp, and probably make a couple cuben fiber stuff sacks with the left over material..maybe some waterproof mitts as well.
A bit of change from my AT gearlist:
Planning to sleep on the ground instead of a hammock. I really really liked hammocking on the AT, but for this trail, I don’t want the lack of trees in certain areas to determine my mileage for the day…so to the ground I go.
Added down pants to the gear for the PCT. It was either that or buy/make another sleeping bag. The pants were the cheaper way to go, and my hope is that I will be more comfortable on colder evenings before crawling into the bag as well as less reluctant to get out of the bag when nature calls at 2am.
No cook. Am going to not take a stove, so no dehydrated dinners on this trip. Will be bars and granola for the most part. Wanted to eliminate the weight and search for fuel as well as take a more frequent/smaller meals approach to my food intake. Will see how it goes.
I am using chlorine (Clorox) for water purification instead of the Steripen that I had used on the AT. Weight comes down as does the need for batteries (which are special and somewhat expensive). The Steripen worked very well on the AT, I did not have issues that many folks have had with the device (which I would guess have to do largely with the need for extremely thorough drying of the device after each use).
The pack that I made for this year is heavier than last years pack. I added a couple mesh pockets, an external sleeve for the backpad, ice axe/pole loops, and a weight bearing hipbelt. The hipbelt is probably the biggest change. On the AT, when I had 3+ days of food and 2 liters of water, I felt like that was close to the max comfort level for just shoulder carrying. Having some of the weight on my waist will be a positive thing that I expect will easily outweigh the extra ounces that are on this new pack. The pack is of my design with some inspiration of other gear that I have used over the years.
I expect to have a couple more entries about gear and food before leaving for the trip.
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