Ask Darwin Q&A #27 (Answers)

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,AT Thru-Hike,Thru-Hike,Hiking,Backpacking,Camping,Adventure,AZT,CDT,PCT,PCT Thru-Hike,Pacific Crest trail,Hiker Trash,Long Distance Hiker,Grand Enchantment Trail

Video Transcription

hey guys it's Darwin here with my weekly Q&A to answer more of your questions if you want to ask a question for next week's 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 the next week I'll answer as many as I possibly can all right so let's go ahead and get into this week's first question what's the average age of the folks you meet on a thru-hike so good question Richard I think I've kind of answered this in a past qat maybe but I would say the average age of most thru-hikers are probably gonna be anywhere between 20 and 30 if I had to take a guess that being said there are tons of different types of people out on the trail of all different types of ages in 2015 I hiked over 1,300 miles with a 60 year old man from Virginia named rube then you have hikers like buddy backpacker which is a little kid I wanted to say he's like 10 or 11 and he is going for his Triple Crown this year so all different types of ages out on the trail but I would if I had to take a guess I would say the average age is probably between 20 and 30 years old hey Darwin its Kevin I'm also looking into the Pacific Crest Trail next year I'm looking to go southbound starting up at Hart's pass and doing a Canada Touch and then heading down back to San Diego which is where I live I was wondering which direction are you considering to go are you looking to go southbound or northbound thanks for all your videos right on man that's awesome that you're planning a so go through hike of the PCT good luck with that I personally next year I'm gonna be going northbound so starting at the Mexico border and headed towards Canada and it mainly comes from I'm a creature of habit and I north bounded the Appalachian Trail so I kind of want to northbound the PCT as well and if I was gonna hike the CDT I would northbound that too not for any particular reason it's just kind of my style but I have considered doing a southbound because I hear it's a really great way to hike that trail in 2017 in particular they're calling it the year of so though when I was out at Cascade Locks I met a ton of southbound hikers and that used to be kind of a rare thing not a lot of people would do a southbound hike and now it seems like it's becoming a little more normal and mainly because of the crazy weather that like they had in the Sierras this year all the snow in the Sierras and all the flooding a lot of hikers had to kind of switch their hike around flip flop up and then start hiking south so a lot of people were just kind of planned on doing a southbound anyways but yep next year I will be going northbound on the PCT do you or any hiker you know carry a flask of alcohol on a thru-hike so I don't personally carry a flask number one I'm not a really big drinker I like beer but that's about it maybe whiskey every once in a while but I would never carry it on a thru-hike one it's extra weight that I don't want to deal with - you know I'm not out there to party I'm out there to hike and when I get to town that's when I like to let loose party go to a brewery go to a bar get some beers get a glass of whiskey that's when I like to let loose but out on the trail know I've never done it in 2015 though I did hike with a guy for a little bit and his trail name was hip flask and it's because he carried a hip flask full of whiskey all the time so there are hikers out there that do carry him but I would say most hikers probably don't just because it's excess weight and most hikers are just out there to hike and you know not really drink or anything what are the advantages / disadvantages to using a bear canister on the 80 if you're going to use one where would you store it at night so Joseph there's actually no real reason to use a bear canister on the 80 I think there's only one spot it's somewhere in Georgia a really little bitty section of trail it might only be like 10 miles where you're required to use a bear canister no hiker likes using a bear canister but if you're doing a hike like the PCT or some sections at the CDT where you're going through national parks that require one that's when you would need one their heavy their bulky they take up a ton of real estate in your pack so most hikers don't want to carry a bear caster so out on the 80 you don't need to carry it aside from that small 10-mile section so I would suggest not carrying a bear caster at all just a good bear bag hanging kit a line and a rock bag to hang it up in a tree is all you should ever need so my advice to you is leave the bear canister at home hey Darwin it's Cynthia at from flat 214 err I've noticed that a lot of trail food the ramen pasta cookies and crackers are loaded with something that some of us just can't handle very well and that's wheat what are some gluten free options for the trail I love your channel I've learned so much from it hey snuggles so that is a killer question and I myself used to be gluten free not because I had a celiac disease or anything I just chose to be gluten free mainly it was a performance thing when I was racing triathlon for eight years I just did it to not feel so bloated all the time now I do eat wheat products now and they don't bother me or anything but most of the time when I'm on the trail I'm kind of a gluten free person myself now as you might know from some of my past videos recently I have decided to go stove 'less so I don't really ever cook on the trail anymore so because of that the types of foods that I now eat are very gluten free based foods so some of the things that I like eating on the trail and then I would suggest maybe for you checking out are obviously things like oatmeal and with oatmeal you typically have to check and make sure that it is gluten free because for some weird reason some oats they put little bits of wheat in and because I do a lot of cold soaking the things that I like to cold soak are a rice ramen which you can usually find at most grocery stores sometimes health food stores a lot of the instant mashed potatoes are in fact gluten free but you know you should always check the package and make sure that they are lots of peanut butter and nuts one of my favorite go twos and staples on the trail which is a pro bar I eat a lot of those things when I'm out on the trail and those are definitely gluten free so check out pro bars if you haven't already and then one of the big new things that I've recently gotten into is at Walmart I found these dehydrated refried beans and that has become one of my new staples on the trail so I have a little soaking jar or what I'll usually do is I'll take like a cup of that put it in my soaking jar put water in it put it back in my pack and when I get to camp at the end of the day it's kind of rehydrated itself I had some things like tuna to it and that's what I usually eat for my meal so yeah there are tons of different wheat free options out there just kind of got a look but definitely give those products a try because those have been some really great products for me ever since I decided to start going stove las' have you ever tried cooking or dehydrating your own meals for the trail so that's a good question and kind of a follow-up to the last question

I've actually recently went stove us so I'm not actually carrying any type of food that I do need to cook anymore on the trail but I have experimented a little bit with dehydrating my own meals for the Arizona Trail I actually did a video where I dehydrated a lot of my own meals if you guys want to check that video out I'll put a link up here in the corner that kind of just shows some of the meals that I've put together for that and those meals that I put together would not only be great for cooking but they'd also be really good for cold soaking now going forward I am gonna be experimenting a lot more with making my own dehydrated meals especially now that I'm cold soaking I want to make sure I can get as many calories in the food as possible so I'll be doing a lot of resupply boxes from here on out but like I said go check that video out and maybe it'll give you some ideas I want to do a through or section hike over my next summer break which lasts about three months do you know any lesser traveled or emerging long distance trails in the US yeah man there's actually a lot of long-distance trails out there you can always check the national trail registries website and have a full list of all those trails where they start where they end how many people hike them a year if you need a permit for it and what the mileage is so definitely check that out but ones that I would definitely suggest checking out are one of the ones I'm going to be doing next month as a section which is the Arizona Trail it runs from the Mexico border to the Utah border it's about 750 miles long and it's a great trail now a lot of that is in the desert and there are some water issues so definitely make sure that you're prepared for hiking that sort of a trail but that's a great one to check out you have the Colorado trail that's obviously up in Colorado and that is also right around that 700 mark and then a trail that not a lot of people know about that's called the grande Enchantment trail now this one takes a little bit more experience and a lot of navigation but it runs from Albuquerque New Mexico which is where I'm at right now all the way to Phoenix Arizona and the cool thing about that trail is it crosses the Continental Divide Trail and it crosses the Arizona Trail so it does emerge into other trails so those are three that I would definitely suggest checking out and that are definitely on my radar for doing a fool through hiker and for those only being 700 miles it's something you could easily do over your summer break no problem at all what about the trailer any new updates so good question and I've been getting a lot of questions lately about our trailer so as most of you might know the beginning of the year my wife snow goes and I bought a 1972 vintage lark travel trailer we're planning on renovating it moving into it living out of it full time and hitting the road it ended up being a little bit too much of a project and what we really wanted so we ended up selling that and we bought a 5x8 cargo trailer that I converted into a mini camper we've now been living in it for almost a full month and in about a week and a half we'll be hitting the road and headed further west to live in it full time and to travel with us living in it full time and as you know we're about to hit the road we've just been super busy and I haven't had a chance to sit down and do a full breakdown and a review of our trailer but I promise guys I promise it is coming soon just give me a little bit more time I have given some sneak peeks to it over on my Instagram account and snuggles has actually done a few blogs about it over on our website so definitely check those out it'll give you a little bit of update but I promise oh I promise I will make a video showing you guys the full layout of our trailer how I built it and how we're living in it all right guys last question of the week is a video question just wanna thank you for taking some time to hang out with us at PC T days this question comes from Glacier National Park so our question is what are your essential items

that you have with you for a first aid kit and bonus question what multi-use items can be used in a first-aid situation

thanks Darwin hey guys it was awesome hanging out with you at PCT days thanks so much for stopping me hanging out with me and geared up and Masshole had a really awesome time having a beer with you guys talking trail it was great I love to do that now an answer to your question I keep a pretty simple first aid kit and I keep it with me in my day pack so you guys are in luck because I have it with me so believe it or not that's it

that is my first-aid kit and that's all that's in it and I also carry some leuco tape now I don't typically carry this massive role of leuco tape because it's pretty heavy I actually take this I take a little pencil or the pin that I'm carrying in my pack to be able to write stuff and I actually wrap it around there and make a small roll on the pin so I multi-purpose that pin but to kind of give you guys a little bit of a breakdown of what is in my first-aid kit let's open this guy up here I have some alcohol swipes which just a handful just in case I need to clean something I have a patch kit for my thermo rest in case I puncture a hole so it's not just a first-aid kit for me but it's also a first-aid kit for my gear I carry a piece of velcro which I don't really need anymore

I used to use this whenever I strap to my dirty girl gaiters to my shoes because the velcro would eventually pop off but now that I use an ultra shoe it has that velcro built straight onto the shoe so I probably don't need to carry this anymore I have a little thing of ibuprofen and some tylenol just in case I do get some swelling or in case I just need to make my legs feel better or a little bit of pain relief a little bitty sewing kit that I keep a needle and some thread in right now I have a bunch of floss in there because I use floss to repair my pack in case I need it a small pair of nail clippers because I always like to keep my toenails trim back so I'm not getting black toenails or any type of ingrown toenail problems so that is a big one big time first aid and then I carry leuco tape and that's it that's all I carry in my first-aid kit very simple and out of all miles that I've ever hiked that's all that I've ever needed I need to make some sort of a band-aid or something I just use leuco tape and a little bit of toilet paper and that does me fine so you don't really need a whole lot whenever you're doing a long distance hike you don't really need a whole lot in general you'll see some people that'll have just some massive first-aid kits with tons of stuff in them a snakebite kit all of that again out of all the miles I've ever hiked I've never needed any of it that has done me just fine as far as the bonus question um I would say that probably my needle and thread and not just because I use it to repair my pack or to sew on a patch or something but I also use it to pop blisters so if I do get a blister I use the old needle and thread trick where you take it you thread it through the blister through two sides then you cut off the thread and you leave it in there that way it lets the blister drain so I definitely use my needle and thread for a couple multi-purpose things and then like I told you Luco tape I don't carry the big roll I usually take this and I wrap it around a pin so I have it as my leuco tape holder and I use it as a pin aside from that that's probably the only multi-purpose first-aid stuff that I have again thanks guys so much for hanging out with me at PCT days well if you guys are having a blast at Glacier tell it I said hi because I'll be up there next year so I want to give a huge shout out and congratulations to Eric Fleckenstein Congrats on tying the knot and hopefully your marriage is full of a bunch of awesome adventure and some long kick-ass hikes and by the way snake Gators come on man have you not been watching my videos you not learned anything leave those big bulky things at home and get you some dirty girls snake Gators you know what I'm talking about I had a killer time and Cascade Locks Oregon last week at PCT days I ran into a lot of you guys and thank you so much for stopping me and saying hey it was awesome to chat with all of you guys I hope to do more meetup things like that soon I'm actually thinking about putting a meet-up together whenever we get to Flagstaff Arizona so keep an eye out for that because I will be announcing that probably within the next couple speaking of PCT days yesterday I posted a brand new video from our travel and trail vlog series episode 0.5 where I'm hanging out at PCT days so if you haven't checked it out yet I'll put a link up here in the corner make sure you check that video out and if you want to see more I actually made a bloopers slash outtake video from that entire weekend and it's over on my patreon page now that is a patron only exclusive and if you are a patron make sure you go check that out you haven't had a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a lot of new photos lately of some of the things that snuggles and I have going on throughout the week plus some pictures from some past hikes if you found any value in this video go ahead and hit that like button subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching [Music]

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