Ask Darwin Q&A #13 (Answers!)

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,Thru-Hike,AT Thru-Hike,Backpacking,Hiking,Camping,Adventure,CDT,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru-Hike,Hiker Trash,Long Distance Hiking,AZT,Arizona Trail,Zpacks,Minimalist,Vanlife,Van Life,Vermont Long Trail,Long Trail Thru-Hike,Off Grid Living

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hey guys it's Darwin here with my weekly Q&A to answer more of your question if you want to ask a question for next week's Q&A you 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 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 my wife and I are planning to hike the 80 next year what size bag in litres do you recommend as a food bag per person so good question Mario really the only real answer is as big as you can possibly get it so starting out on your thru-hike you're not going to want to eat as much food but as you continue on you through hike your hiker hunger is really going to set in and you'll want to carry more food extra chips snack cakes bars stuff like that so when I was on the 80 in 2015 and 2016 I carried a 12 liter v packs Cuban fiber food bed snuggles carried a 13 litre sea2summit food bag so it's really all up to you even though that I had 12 liters which was pretty big so there were some times where I was so hungry coming out of a town and carrying that food that I actually needed some extra room and had to end up putting something like an extra bag of chips or cereal on the outside of my food bag and then waiting til I ate down a little bit to be able to fit that in there so I would suggest anywhere between 12 and maybe 15 liters that should be pretty good and I was able to typically carry four to five days of food in that 12 liter bag and that was a lot of food so that should be enough but again experiment with it see how much food you think that you need to carry per person and then just kind of figure out what size bag you need tell me a little bit about the tats on your arms it's the mountain range any in particular do you play the violin slash viola so as you guys are probably noticed I do have quite a handful of tattoos on my arms just about four on my arms I have some tats all over the rest of me but on my arms yes they do have significance to them the mountain range that he's referring to is this one right here and that is actually a outline a an actual line drawing a thin line out drawing of the Blue Ridge Mountains so back in 2014 before snuggler than I ever even stepped foot on the 80 I was really really in love with the Blue Ridge Mountains going to the Smokies multiple times in doing backpacking trips so I really fell in love with that area so I got that just because those mountains really mean a lot to me and that is my favorite mountain range in all of the u.s. even out here in the West

I love the Blue Ridge for a bunch of different reasons that was kind of my first love when it came to real mountains so that would be the Blue Ridge as far as the violin that he's talking about let me see if I can get that into focus there that is actually a tribute piece for my grandmother who passed away a handful years ago she was a violinist from she was a younger girl the Yellow Rose was her favorite flower and if you look down here there's a little rifle marksman symbol she actually liked to shoot rifles when she was a young girl and she was a rifle marksman

so that is a tribute piece for her aside from that I have a couple other ones I have a Zuni bear that kind of symbolizes my love for the Southwest and then a compass which symbolizes my love for travel snuggles has that exact same tattoo on her wrist just much smaller we got that as a symbol of our love to travel and whenever we decided to kind of break into this new lifestyle that we live but thanks for noticing my Testament I actually need to get a lot more work done an 80 symbol and a couple other thru-hiking symbols so maybe I'll have some more that you'll notice in an upcoming video

I heard you mentioned that you used a small knife on the 80 what is your opinion on knives and multi tools on the trail are they worth it are just extra white so yeah I have used a handful of different knives on backpacking trips and through hikes both in 2015 and 2016 when I was on the 80 I just carried a small Gerber para frame many that was all I ever needed same with any other trail that is typically my go-to knife I also have a small Spyderco knife but as far as my opinion on it like a big knife or a multi-tool I don't really think it's necessary there's kind of a big joke with thru-hikers on the 80 everybody kind of jokes about all you ever really need a knife for is cutting string and cheese and that's true there's never a time I've ever been on the trail both in 1516 when I was out on the Arizona Trail this past October doing a section hike of the CDT that I ever needed a big knife for anything I've never needed a big knife to defend myself or kill something or anything like that so as far as my opinion goes I think they're kind of overkill it's just extra weight you don't really need it really just a small knife to be able to cut a few small things slice some cheese maybe poke a blister or something as gross as that sounds that's all you really need just a small blade nothing big I've seen some people that have carried some really big knives and multi tools and an axe and all that stuff it's overkill man it really is I've never needed anything like that on any trail I've ever done so I'm pretty much convinced that I'll never carry some sort of big tool as far as a multi-tool I just think those things are heavy again there's nothing that I've ever needed a multi-tool for maybe a pair of scissors from time to time and usually I just kind of wait till I get into a town find a pair of scissors and cut something or I just use my knife again overkill for me so but you know that's that's kind of based on everyone's own personal opinion if you feel like you need a bigger knife or a multi-tool that you're going to run into those problems bring it definitely all opinion and all in what you want to carry is the 80 marked very well I have seen some videos and some parts don't look marked all that often though it could just be the angle of the video did you ever get lost no not at all the Appalachian Trail is one of the most well marked and well beaten paths trails I've ever been on if you get lost on the 80 you have done something really wrong or you have your eyes closed so the entire trail is marked with what's called a white blaze the white blaze marks your way all the way from Georgia to Maine or Maine Georgia either way you want to look at it there are a handful of parts on the trail where they're a little bit lackluster so as far as New Hampshire and the whites and it's just because there's not a lot of trees so they're going to use rock Karen's a lot more but even then on a rock Karen so typically be a white blaze but yes the trail is very well marked I've never needed a map I've never needed any type of GPS pretty much it is a straight beaten path you can see the 80 all the way from Georgia to Maine now on trails like the Continental Divide Trail like just did the section last month that's a little bit different there are some parts of trail where you can't see the trail because it's not as heavily walked so it's not as beaten down as what the 80 is is it gets so much foot traffic it is a really really clear path so you can easily see it or on some of the other trails not as many hikers go and do that hike so it's not as beaten down so you really have to pay attention to your navigation skills a little bit better but all that being said the answer to your question yes the 80 is marked very well no I have never gotten lost on it so if you're planning on going out there you should be fine leaving for the Colorado trail and late June my question is if you had to choose one food to eat every day on the trail what would it be so I've never really given that a lot of thought if I had to kind of stop and think about what I eat the most often I think if I had to choose one kind of snack or breakfast to eat every day it would be a pro bar no no there's a lot of people out there that probably just said are they've gotten tired of pro bars I've never gotten tired of a pro bar I really like the super berry and greens one I'm pretty sure I could eat that almost every single day on the trail I love those things from time to time I eat them when I'm not on the trail the only problem with them is they're pretty expensive and then you know the other option is a Clif Bar now Clif Bar I probably couldn't eat every day because I've eaten enough of those that I've grown very very tired of those as far as like a dinner item I think that I could eat mashed potatoes every single night on the trail so some instant mashed potatoes Idahoan with like a tuna packet that's like my perfect meal it has tons of calories it's super tasty it fills you up and it's pretty light and cheap so I would say those are my two favorite meals and the two things probably eat all the time now I'm sure that if I did eat them all the time I would also get burnout on those kind of like Clif bars so I want to try not do that but if I had to choose two I'd probably say those are it I'll be starting the Vermont long trail on June 6 it will be my first hike longer than four to five days so I've never needed a resupply or had any reason to stop at a trail town my question is about hitchhiking what is the etiquette on paying hitches Thanks so I would assume that you're talking about paying for a hitch I've never had to pay for a hitch the thing with being out on the East Coast and up in the north like in Vermont on the Appalachian Trail the long trail whichever one that you want to choose people are used to hikers so if you get out on the road you throw your thumb out dance around a little bit which usually helps people just tend to pick you up as far as paying for a hitch I've never really thought about paying for a hitch only time I've ever had to pay for a hitch was whenever it was a shuttle and there was a fee but most people are super super polite will pick you up they're really helpful because that is part of that hiking and trail community and that's what we call trail magic you know get out there you stick your thumb out and somebody will pick you up and take you into a town but again as far as paying for hitches I've never had to do that never really thought about it and no one's ever asked but I'm sure that if you wanted to you could always throw the driver a couple bucks because I'm sure that they would really appreciate that as well but I would think that most times they're probably going to deny it because they're just used to doing a good deed for hikers have fun on the long trail that's another one that I actually plan on eventually going out and redoing the 80 uses like the first half of the long trail but I really want to do a full through hike from the beginning to the end going northbound so one of these days I'm going to get out there have a super fun time man you're going to really really enjoy that section of trail question about your minimalist lifestyle surely you and snuggles had stuff before deciding to change things up how did you downsize what criteria did you have for letting things go when you did decide to let things go

how Craigslist Facebook marketplace or did you give things away so good question Tara all of the above

whenever we decided to live a more minimalist lifestyle get rid of our house get rid of our extra car and all the things that we had whenever we first started out it was just to go hike the Appalachian Trail and what we did was we got rid of about 90% of the things that we owned and then 10% of the things that we still owned we actually got a very small storage unit and we put it in there because our thought was when we got off the trail we were going to relocate somewhere and we wanted to have enough stuff to get an apartment we got off of the 80 and got back to our hometown in Indiana we had a completely different mindset so we actually went to the storage unit and we got rid of all that stuff and yeah we utilize Craigslist

we gave things away to friends there was a couple consignment stores in town that we took things too we pretty much just started getting rid of everything that we didn't think that we needed so our criteria told the things that we kept were are they functional are they going to be functional in our new lifestyle of traveling so if it was an article of clothing it not only had to be something that we could wear but also something that was kind of tactical so if it was a pair of shorts or a shirt could it be a pair of shorts a shirt that we could also hike in it was a jacket or a sweater could it be something that we could wear in the cold if we were more up north so everything had to have multiple purposes in order for us to keep it so that was our main criteria the other thing was it all had to fit in the van so whenever we originally left Indiana after the 80 all we had was our van so everything that we wanted to own we needed to be able to put in that van but also be able to live in the van comfortably so it couldn't be crowded so most of the stuff that we owned went in our top box but I guess an answer to your question yeah we utilized all of those services pretty much anything that we could find Craigslist we gave it stuff away to friends we sold things to friends we took things to consignment shops we donated a lot to Goodwill and Salvation Army I'd say that we probably donated about 70% of the things that we owned to a thrift store so that you know not only made us feel good because

could give something to someone else and help repurpose it but it was just also easier you know we didn't have to listen on Craigslist and we weren't really that worried about making you know a little bit of pocket change off of some stuff that really wasn't that valuable so most of the stuff that we did get rid of we did donate and then those bigger items we sold we listed on Craigslist we gave them away to friends so if you're planning on consolidating your life and living more of a minimalist lifestyle that's what I would definitely suggest for you alright guys so if you have any questions for next week's QA 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 and then next week I'll answer as many as I possibly can

so recently snuggles and I have launched our Etsy store so if you haven't got a chance to check that out yet I'll leave a link in the description box below go check it out it's pretty much a big collection of all the things that we've picked up along on our travels plus some pendants that we've made from photos that I've taken from my hikes over the years you haven't got 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 snows and I have going on throughout the week plus some photos of past hikes so go check that out if you haven't already if you like this video go ahead and give it a thumbs up subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching you

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