Ask Darwin Q&A #7 (Answers!)

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,AT Thru-Hike,Thru-Hike,Backpacking,Hiking,Camping,Adventure,AZT,Arizona Trail,CDT,PCT,PCT Thru-Hike,Pacific Crest Trail,Zpacks,Six Moon Designs,Section Hike,Beard Growth

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hey guys it's down here with my weekly QA to answer some more of your questions if you want to ask your question for my next Q&A you can either leave it in the comment box below or send me a video question over to Darwin on the trail at yahoo.com and then my next Q&A I'll answer your questions next week I'll actually be postponing my QA is I'll be on the Continental Divide for about a week for a section go ahead and get your questions in alright so let's get started answering some of your questions what are the best guidebooks to use for planning a Triple Crown thru-hike run so great question one really good one for the 80 is the AWOL guide that's the book that snuggles and I use both in 2015 and 2016 on the 80 and then another guide that people have been using is debt hooks apps so gut hook has an app for the 80 the PCT the CDT the Arizona Trail pretty much any long distance trail there is a good hook at four and it's nice because you don't have to carry a full book you can carry it on your phone or a tablet or whatever electronic that you're going to be taking and then you can see your elevation you can see town resupplies you can even see where you're at live GPS so that's what I have switched to instead of an actual book but there's a lot of other really good books out there but I would suggest checking out the debt hook apps alright so this next question kind of coincides with the last one and it says I was wondering if you and Darwin used a PCT planner like Craig's or Post holer how did you determine your daily slash weekly mileage goes to complete the trail on schedule lastly are tarps popular on the PCT or do most through hikers use tents so I would assume that you think that I've already hiked the PCT which I haven't I'm planning my PCT hike for 2018 just like you however when I was on the 80 we actually used kind of like I just explained we used a walls guide and then for the Arizona Trail I used get hooks app so there are a lot of ways to kind of plan your thru-hike but again I think that the best one to look at would be

hooks app it's what I use on the Arizona Trail in October and it's what I'm going to be using on my section hike of the Continental Divide Trail and I'll also be using it for my PCT through hike in 2018 so definitely check out ded hooks app as far as tarps versus tents on the PCT again I'm not a hundred percent sure but I believe that tarps tend to be a little bit more popular they're definitely more popular than hammocks which hammocks you're going to see a lot on the Appalachian Trail not so much on the PCT and CDT just because there's huge desert sections where you can't really use trees to hammock so tarps tend to be the easier solution and lightweight it just kind of depends on your comfort level and what you actually like sleeping in I've been kind of experimenting with just some tarps but for now on the CDT I'll be taking my six minutes design skyscape trekker and then for the PCT I'm actually looking into AZ packs Ulta plex tent which is super light it's about as light as a tarp but it is a full and closed tent with a fly and a net and a bathtub so it's really it's a personal preference thing and as far as I know it seems like most people use a tarp but it's at your discretion I'm starting a thru-hike in February 2018 can you please comment on compiling editing preparing videos for you too so number one good luck on planning for your thru-hike going to have a lot of fun

number two I'm assuming that you watch my video where I talked about recording your thru-hike and if you haven't I'll put the link up here in the corner whichever corner it is and that is a link to the video where I talk about if you should or if you shouldn't record your thru-hike and obviously you have decided to as far as compiling and editing and stuff for YouTube I can tell you it's a lot of work I'm going to do a video in the future or I actually talked about kind of my weekly routine and how I make these videos how I edit them what I use my camera equipment all of that so keep an eye out for that until then I can tell you it is a lot of work but totally worth it there's some apps you can get for your phone editing in 2016 I used iMovie for my iPhone I was actually able to transfer footage from my GoPro to my iPhone via bluetooth and then edit everything on iMovie and then upload it to YouTube that way it's a lot of work but if you're willing to do it it definitely pays off because you can get some really good footage and kind of you know share that with everybody especially friends back home family and then if you're wanting to start a YouTube channel that's also great media for that so keep an eye out for that new video that I'm going to do talking about kind of my steps in my process of how I record videos hi Darwin on the trail I had a video question for you I'm a huge fan I've seen most all your videos so I think this question is really important I was wondering if having a beard makes you hiked faster as you can see I kind of look like I'm 12 years old so I've been thinking about growing on my beard for this upcoming prank and I just wondered if that would affect my performance in any way so yeah thanks for answering the question Saigon's and god bless yes any comments on these items to bring or leave at home for a thru-hike baby powder baby wipes pen and notepad sleeping bag liner and vivid bottle so number one I would say baby powder I didn't carry it I didn't see a lot of people carrying it I did see some people carrying gold bond so if you have kind of sweaty feet and you have some feet problems maybe burning some baby powder maybe wearing some gold bond that's kind of up to you I did see a lot of that stuff in hiker boxes where hikers would bring that out with them so they typically just kind of ditched it when they realized that they didn't need it baby wipes are actually really great to have so snuggles carried baby wipes in 2015 and 2016 on the 80 and she pretty much carried him so she could kind of wash her hands wipe down wipe the sweat because whenever you get into those really hot sticky humid months on your thru-hike you kind of appreciate being a to wipe yourself down and kind of get the grime in the grit off another great thing is they're nice to have after you take a dump in the woods you know being able to clean yourself up so you don't have some poop particles kind of hanging out in there since it's going to be kind of a while to you take a shower again it's nice to have those to kind of clean your ass out so I would say definitely bring baby wipes in a notepad that really kind of depends on how much you plan on writing I did bring a pen and notepad with me on the 18 2015 I never wrote in it snuggles on the other hand did keep a daily diary she's a lot better than that than I am but I brought one and I didn't really use it so it just kind of depends on how much a writer you are and how much you actually plan on noting down some people do and it's great to have that's kind of your own personal preference really a sleeping bag liner might be pretty good to carry for the first few hundred miles until you get to about Damascus Virginia and then maybe send it home because after that it'll start getting warm as far as carrying a sleeping bag liner through the Smokies and stuff it obviously depends on the temperature rating of your sleeping bag I've seen a lot of people that are carrying like 20 or 30 degree bags and then they would carry a sleeping bag liner to make it a warmer bag in those first like month and a half and then when they got to Damascus when it started warming up they would send it home instead of swapping out sleeping bags so a sleeping bag liner might be a good idea just kind of decide what type of gear that you want to carry and what type of sleeping bag that you're going to have far as a bidet bottle or beddit bottle or I don't really know what that is so you know if you're into that yeah bring it I don't know what that is what did you do with your pack when you were resupplying if we knew it was a small town and a little bit of grocery store sometimes we would leave our packs right outside of the store and we never had a problem with it I've heard stories of through hikers having their packs and their gear stolen I didn't personally know anybody that that happened to in 15 or 16 but it has happened

and a lot of other times we would actually just take our packs in what is especially if it was a bigger box store like if we were resupplying at a huge supermarket or a Walmart I would either carry my pack on my back or snuggles and I would take two shopping carts and I would we would put our packs in one shopping cart and put all of our food in another shopping cart so that's something you can do too and it kind of depends on the store and if they're ok with you bringing your pack in but I think most places on the 80 you're pretty safe about leaving your pack outside just kind of weigh your options in the situation you're in if it's a super populated busy area or if you're in a bigger city on the 80 you might want to carry it with you if you're in a small town like Damascus or Hot Springs chances are you pretty good the only people that would steal your pack that's going to be around is going to be another hiker and they don't want your stuff they don't want to carry your stuff so you should be good again just kind of use your use your better judgement and decide if you want to take it in or leave it outside okay and the last question for the day is kind of a big one I have had a few miserable nights on the trail due to poor sight choice both in damp valley upon a Ridge with storms wind and colder temperatures can you discuss your experience with site selection on the southern 80 and whether you stayed close to shelters designated campgrounds or more stealth camping did you create any guidelines as to where you stayed and why so great question a lot of times we would actually kind of camp right outside of a shelter or right before a shelter or hit stuff spots as far as camping on ridge lines I never camp on ridge lines and kind of the same reason I've been in some really bad weather on ridge lines both in wind and rain and cold so I know not to camp on ridge lines as far as mountain valleys and stuff never really had a problem and as far as getting wet and it being cold and stuff it's kind of inevitable it's it's kind of unavoidable if you're out hiking the 80 especially the southern 80 in spring it's raining a lot so you're going to get wet you're going to get cold it's going to be windy it kind of doesn't matter where you're staying at whether you're staying at a shelter

or whether you're staying at a stealth spot if I knew that it was kind of a cloudy day and we were going to stay at a stealth spot I would try to kind of put the tent under some trees to get a little bit more coverage from the rain but even then trees get wet and that kind of just continues to rain on you so as far as site selection just use your you know your judgment but most of the times we would camp kind of close to a shelter or if it was a really packed shelter we would kind of find a stealth spot but I would never ever camp on a Ridgeline

just because again I've been stuck in those same situations all right guys so next week I'll be doing a section of the Continental Divide Trail so I won't be doing a QA but I'll pick it back up the following week when I get back so go ahead and leave me some more questions again you can either leave them in the comment box below or send me a video question over to Darwin on the trail at yahoo.com then I'll answer as many of those as I can when I get back from the CDT

if you haven't got a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I've been posting a lot of new photos lately and I'm going to try to post a photo a day when I'm on the CDT for a week so definitely go check me out on there and make sure you're following to see all of those photos go ahead and like or dislike this video subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching [Music]

you

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