Ask a Hiker #2 (Post AT) Questions Answered!

Description

This is the follow up Video to my "Ask a Hiker Q&A Post AT" video. Thanks everyone for your great questions!

Ask a Hiker Q&A (Post AT) Video Link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrShWwcJm20

Music By: Thunder/Dreamer

facebook.com/thunderdreamerband

Tags: Hiking (Sport),Thru-hiking,Appalachian National Scenic Trail (Protected Site),Backpacking (Sport),Gear,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT,Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail (Protected Site),Utra light gear,Arizonia Trail,AZT,Bikepacking,Q&A,Adventure cycling

Video Transcription

so last week I asked you guys to send me some questions any general question that you had about hiking the 80 from topics like food to resupply to gear to places on the trail to my personal experience I got tons of great responses so let's answer some questions all right guys let's dive right in David Haines down here in the comments section asked what does it roughly cost to do it through hike of the Appalachian Trail great question so it really all depends on the person it depends if you're kind of a partier hiker if you're more out there for hiking and being on the trail it depends on what type of food that you eat how long you spend in towns if you like to grab some beers whenever you get into a town how many hostels hotels you want it really all depends on a hiker so it's really hard to give you a definite answer I can't tell you from personal experience snuggles and I over the two years that we fully hiked the 80 we spent ten thousand dollars now that's ten thousand dollars for both of us and that's even getting snuggles and new pack and new trekking poles right in the beginning so we were on the trail a total over the two years of five months three weeks and three days for $10,000 for two of us so that kind of gives you a little bit of a rough general answer to your question I did make a video last year on that question how much does it take to through hike the 80 I'll put the link right here if you want to check that out and Yemen great question

yellow-dog welding asked what were the bugs like and how did you guys deal with them another great question so bugs are totally different um depending on what section of the trail that you're in last year when we got off the trail in Connecticut in Massachusetts the bugs were really really bad especially in the Great Barrington Massachusetts section right where we got off it's very swampy and when we hit it it was July so swamp enos July tons of mosquitoes um when we returned this year it was actually pretty good a little bit of mosquitoes with nothing out of the ordinary and then we didn't really start getting bothered by the infamous black flies until we hit new hand sure we really got the Flies in New Hampshire and the bugs really got bad at night but everybody said that Vermont had really bad black flies and we didn't experience that so I really think it depends on what time of the year that you're on the trail and what section you're in dealing with them you can use DEET sometimes we used a head net like a face net um but aside from that you just deal with them you pretty much just deal with everything out on the 80 no matter how hot cold wet annoying irritating things are that's kind of what doing it through hikes all about so you just deal with them gee boat on a trail asked which to juin snuggles use either alcohol stove or a canister stove and our canister is easily available in the New England section of the 80 um we used a castor stove as he already actually commented on his own comment he did go and find the video where I talked about my Snow Peak 700 mug and stoves set up again I'll put the link to that video right here if you guys want to check that out but we use canister actually I didn't know a lot of people that were using alcohol I thought when we went out last year I'd see a lot more people using alcohol but most people use canisters and as far as are they easily available New England canisters are available everywhere on the 80 pretty much any town even some gas stations Walmart's grocery stores everybody carried can store fuel essentially because the 80 runs through that businesses know that so they carry it so yeah you can find canister fuel anywhere you go on the 80 I've heard some mixed things about the PCT and I'm still kind of balancing that trying to decide if I want to go with alcohol or if I want to go with a canister I'm leaning more towards canister right now but we'll see great question

the next question comes from Jen Seymour and Jen actually sent me a video question so Jen asked hey Darwyn I live in Costa Rica right now but me and my husband are going to be moving to Wisconsin before we start our thru-hike next year so I'm wondering what you recommend is the best way to train for a thru-hike before we start because we'll be in Wisconsin so it'll be snowy and cold out and we will be able to join a gym if needed so just wondering what you recommend for training before you hike Thanks so great question Jen and thanks again for the video there's no real way to turn for a thru-hike the best advice that I have for you is get out and do as many shakedown hikes as you can know your gear um get out there and decide and know what you really need and what you really don't need go hiking in the rain hiking the snow hiking the heat um get out there no matter what and just hike aside from that it's really hard to train for a thru-hike knowing will prepare you for that both physically and mentally it's a totally different it's a different experience and it's a different world

we tried training we're originally from Indiana which is superflat so we tried training by pretty much just going up and down hills we hiked in the rain we hiked in the snow when we got out there at the beginning of March all that went out the window and it didn't really matter it's really hard to train for my best advice Jen is really know your gear know how to set up your tent know how to use your bag know what type of food you need know how many calories you need because that's the most important part getting your pack shake down so you're not constantly doing it throughout the trail because a lot of people go out there with too much stuff and not enough experience and gets them in a lot of trouble on the trail so thanks Jen for the question camper John asked did you only use one pair of shoes or did you have to buy new ones on the trail if upgraded on the trail did you buy new or have previous broken and shoes maildrop so last year we were on the trail we did have a pair of shoes set back that we had broken in I used the Mero Moab ventilator which will here we talk a lot about in my videos I absolutely love that shoe no real break in time for that shoe but we did have a pair of set aside um we went out with one pair of shoes we got about 700 miles in when they started to break down we actually called Merril we called the companies the really good thing about doing a thru-hike and about the outdoor industry is you can easily call these companies let them know what you're doing let them know what you're wearing and a lot of times they'll send you shoes there were places for it and if not they'll give you a really great deal on shoes aside from that there's a lot of different Outfitters along the trail um I definitely didn't upgrade my shoe and go to anything else I kept the same shoe all the 2189 miles but I did go through a total of four pairs so four pairs for the entire trail but I did have that set of she's waiting for me at home in case I needed to have him sent to me but it was pretty easy to get new shoes on the trail so thanks John

Jeremy Mullis said that him and his girlfriend are going to be doing a thru-hike and they're planning for one and one no it is worth sharing a two-person tent are going with their own separate tents and what my opinion on that was so um best advice on that Jeremy is snuggles and I did use a two-person tent it really all depends on what tent you use how big of a dude you are how small the chick she is and exactly how you can fit in that tent snuggles and I found a Big Agnes copper spur ul2

actually did a video on that and it shows us inside of the tent you want to check that video out the link is right here it was more than enough room for us we slept head to toe but we were still able to put our packs in it so if you can find the right size tent it's really nice only carrying one tent because you can split up the weight of it snows would care

the footprint I would carry the rest and I would also carry the poles so it was nice to be able to split that weight up and you know you can completely split it up maybe she could carry the fly you can carry the tent she can carry the footprint you can carry the poles one piece of gear splitting up but I do know a lot of people that did use two tents so it's really a personal preference I think you can do it definitely look at the copper spur uo2 it's a really good tenman alright guys the last question I'm going to answer today comes from Heather W Heather asked what was the toughest spot to get through on the trail meaning what day section or even state was the most difficult and demanding on your body excellent question

we talked a lot with southbounders when we were first meeting them when we were in Maine an8 hadn't they hadn't got out of Maine yet and they asked us a lot of questions about like when does it get easier you know Maine was tough when does the easy section start when am I going to start really being able to just cruise um and a lot of times we had to break the news to them the entire trail is hard every single state has its own toughness whether it's mental toughness physical toughness climbing rocks whether it the entire trail is hard if the trail was easy everybody would finish it in one go and everyone everybody would be through hacking it there are a lot of people out there but there's also a lot of people that never finish their thru-hike so the entire trail is tough personally the most demanding part on my body was definitely the whites of New Hampshire you'll hear a lot of people talking about the whites big bad whites Mount Washington very tough hiking I've hiked all across the country Colorado New Mexico up and Wyoming all through the East Coast now in New Hampshire the White was definitely the toughest tightening I've ever done

and then right whenever you come out of the whites you have about a day where it's really nice and easy and then Southern Maine just whoops your ass

southern Maine is also very very hard and anybody that's ever throughout the eighty and totally attest to that southern Maine is very how can we say underrated a lot of people don't talk about southern Maine but southern Maine is just kind of one of those surprises because you think that you're done with one of the toughest parts on the trail which is the whites and then all of a sudden southern Maine just comes and punches you right in the face so for me that was definitely the hardest part but really Heather the entire trail is difficult in different ways but the best way to deal with it a lot of it's a mental game and if you can get through it and you can stay mentally strong the trails cake so guys thanks for all the questions that you sent me and asked me I didn't get a chance to answer all of them I will be doing another hiker Q&A because I really really dig these I'll probably also be doing a biker Q&A as I get more prep for my azt ride whenever I bite pack that at the end of November so look out for more of these q and A's if you're on instagram you haven't got a chance you should go check out my Instagram account I post a lot of pictures throughout the week of snuggles and eyes outings and pictures of new gear that I'm getting to review so you can kind of get a little sneak peek on the new videos that I'll be doing later in the week so definitely go check out my Instagram account also go over and check out Darwin on the trail calm again snuggles has been posting a brand new diary every single Monday on our hike this year on the 80 and she weekly updates those so definitely check that out as well like or dislike this video subscribe to my channel if you haven't already as always guys thanks for watching and I'm going to leave you with a small video clip that a friend / fans sent me whenever we finish the 80 through hike this year and I figured it'd be a great thing to share with you guys so enjoy and I'll see you later hi there we are here today to celebrate the completion of the Appalachian Trail by Darwin and snuggles therefore I am this rocket for agar 1ci guys a little logo and everything darwin eighty that's going to be altitude trekker now and we know darwin doesn't go anywhere without snuggles logo again hi anyhow this is how we celebrate their completion of the appalachian trail you get a front-row seat hi come on guys you