Our 10 Favorite Things – 2018 Hiking Season

Even though we have hiked a lot of miles, each trail and each year seem to teach us something new.  We decided to compile a list of our “favorite things” from this past hiking season.  Some of these things will be old hat to some hikers, but they are new to us this year.  Hopefully this list will provide some ideas for others to try out when the next hiking season gets under way.

1. Dollar Store Socks – Beardoh has switched to exclusively using Dollar Store dress socks for sleeping on the trail.  SweetPea is jumping in on this idea too and has already bought some Dollar Store socks for next year’s hiking season.  They are really light-weight and pretty thin, so your feet can still breathe and not get too overheated when you sleep. And, of course, they are cheap! The socks don’t work so good for normal wear, though, as they become uber stinky!  Best to stick with merino wool socks for daily wear.

   

2. Gallon Water Jug – When we hiked the GET this past spring, we expected some long water carries due to the dry winter and our late start date.  During the first three days, we just used our Evernew collapsable bottles and carried all of our water in our backpacks.  That felt like so much weight as we were walking in the desert heat.  So as soon as we got a chance, we picked up a heavy-duty gallon jug (some kind of iced tea jug) and Beardoh would carry the extra water in his hand.  That really saved our backs/shoulders a lot of pain, as we rarely carried more than two liters on our backs, and this was easily the favorite new find of the season.

   

3. Small Sunscreen Sticks – We have certainly seen these around…one of our friends on the PCT carried one the whole way, but we had just never used them ourselves before.  In the past, we have always carried liquid sunscreen…most recently we had been using containers which had about 4oz of liquid sunscreen.  Since we were both wearing long-sleeved shirts and calf compression sleeves this year, we figured that we really only needed the sunscreen for our faces and the tops of our hands.  We ended up not even finishing our small 0.5 ouce sticks over the course of 15ish weeks of hiking.

   

4. Banana Chocolate Chip Larabar – As part of our meal planing this year, we decided to include 3 Larabars for each person per day.  We managed to find a wide variety of flavors to help with the monotony…some of the flavors were a good surprise (Mint Chocolate), while others are ones we will definitely not buy again (Hazelnut Swirl – sounds good, right? Like ‘Nutella in a bar’ –  But it’s not).  Our clear favorite of the season was definitely the Banana Chocolate Chip which was a new flavor for us.  It smells and tastes just like banana bread, which is dreamy when you’re out on the trail.

   

5. Inflatable Pillows – Another thing we have seen before…we’ve hiked with several folks over the years who used them, but this was our first season trying them.  We decided to purchase pillows for the Grand Enchantment Trail, where we would be sleeping on the ground with short inflatable pads.  We mostly hammock when we backpack, so we knew that sleeping on the ground would not be easily comfortable for us.  However, the pillows made a really big difference in terms of comfort on the ground.  The one drawback is that they can fly off if you are cowboy camping when it is windy…you might just need to keep it tucked away in your pack on those nights.

   

6. GAIA GPS App – When we were planning for the Grand Enchantment Trail, we knew that we would need to have a GPS app to help with navigation.  We started the trail using OSMand, which is a free GPS app.  This app proved to be really irritating and not very reliable.  We could never be sure if we were seeing a current GPS view or a cached one.  So, partway through the hike, we switched to GAIA and were extremely happy with it from day one.  We used the app on the Great Divide Trail, and hikes in Guatemala as well and will continue to renew our subscription each year so that we can use it on future hikes.

   

7. Winged Scapula Exercises – Beardoh has struggled with pain in his back near the shoulder blades when we backpack.  Since SweetPea is always carrying a massage ball for her hip, she has often used it to roll around Beardoh’s shoulder blades to relieve the pain (it is quite effective, by the way).  Last year, Beardoh was told by a chiropractor that he has something called Winged Scapula, which, we understand to be – a lack of muscle between the shoulder blade and back (not uncommon amongst the tall & slim).  So, it was recommended to him to start doing exercises with a band, where he can, over time, build up more muscles in that area of his back.  He has been doing a modified version of the exercises in this video using a resistance band during the off-season.  These exercises were pretty effective in reducing the shoulder pain.

   

   

8. RAVPower Quick Charge 3.0 10,000mAh Charger – In planning for our hikes this season, we felt that several factors dictated an external charger with more capacity than what we have previously used.  The factors we considered were (1) we planned to take a dedicated camera with us this year, (2) we expected that we would be using Beardoh’s phone often for GPS navigation on the GET and GDT, and (3) we expected to have longer stretches between towns, meaning that we wouldn’t be able to charge in towns as frequently as past years.  This charger allowed us to use our phones freely for GPS, take as many photos and videos as we needed, and even listen to podcasts a bit during the day or watch an episode of Fraiser while laying in our sleeping bags at night.  This single charger was adequate for both of us using an iPhone 6.

   

9. Snacking VS Meals – In the past, we have always planned out our backpacking food around meals.  Our typical hiking schedule has included a long “lunch break” and then we eat dinner once we get to camp.  This was the same whether we cooked on the trail or went stove-less.  This year, we decided to try the “snacking” approach.  Our daily food plan consisted of two shakes, one granola bar, three LaraBars, a dark chocolate bar, beef jerky and some nuts.  We each had our own schedule for when we would eat our food.  We actually came to like this style of eating on the trail because of it’s flexibility as well as the likelihood that we were eating just small amounts, so we weren’t dealing with food comas in the afternoon.  The fact that our food weight went down quite a bit with this method was an added bonus.

   

10. Robic 1.2 Material – After the Grand Enchantment Trail, we took some time to sew up new hammocks for ourselves.  We decided to use some material that was new to us.  We had heard that this material was less likely to stretch over time (and under load), while still being extremely light.  An added bonus of this material is it’s soft feel.  After almost eight weeks of use this summer, the hammock has held up very well and has not had any noticeable sag.  We have noticed that RipstopByTheRoll no longer sells the Robic 1.2, however the Mountain Hybrid 1.2 seems to be the closest equivalent.  We plan to use the Mountain Hybrid 1.2 in our next hammocks, for several reasons – The 1.2 oz/sqyd seems to be an ideal weight for an ultralight hammock as it very light, yet strong enough to not sag or stretch -PLUS- it comes in XL (68″ wide) which is great for larger hammocks.