Ask Darwin Q&A #22 (Answers)

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,Thru-Hike,AT Thru-Hike,Hiker Trash,Hiking,Backpacking,Camping,Adventure,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Trail Days,PCT Thru-Hike,CDT,minimalist,Long Distance Hiker,Hammock Camping,Trail Etiquette

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 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 after my backpacking trip this weekend I noticed trail etiquette is almost gone what are your thoughts on why people don't practice trail etiquette anymore

like stepping aside going down to people going up that is a great question that and not too long ago I actually made a video on trail etiquette on the Appalachian Trail in specific but you know that can be kind of applied to any type of trail things that you should do and things that you shouldn't do whenever you're out hiking to help respect others and help respect the trail and respect nature so definitely check that out if you get a chance I'll leave the link up here somewhere in the corner and you can definitely go check that out but as far as why people don't practice good trail etiquette I don't know man

that's a really good question I'm really kind of old-school on the way that I think in a lot of things not only on the trail but just in everyday life driving communication skills so sometimes it really drives me like batshit crazy that people just can't be respectful to one another the road would be such a better place if people just had a little bit of etiquette and everything and respected each other but definitely go check that video out because I kind of break down some of my pet peeves on certain trail etiquette things you should do things you shouldn't do but as far as why people don't practice it your guess is as good as mine do you pay any attention to your weight while you hike do you lose a noticeable amount of weight or fat on long through hikes or do you try to eat enough to stay the same great question grant that is a huge contributing factor try a lot of thru-hikers have big time problems during their long-distance hikes when you're out there you are burning a ton of calories and losing a ton of weight statistics kind of show that men lose a ton of weight while they're out there and women lose a lot of weight but also gain a lot of muscle which is super interesting and this happened to snow was an i and 2015 I lost a dramatic amount of weight now I did keep that in mind before we went out and hiked the trail and I actually started eating a lot and gaining weight before we hit the trail because I knew that I would have a problem set now me having a triathlon racing background and a racing career I was pretty lean before we went and hiked the trail and we were pescetarian which is a vegetarian that only eats fish for eight years so before we went and hiked the trail we actually started eating meat and heavy fats again just so we could gain weight because I knew that when I got out there and I was active every single day and putting in those miles that I would shed a stupid amount of weight so I do the same thing now before I hit a trail even before I do a section or maybe even a weekend trip I'll load up on calories before I go and try to gain weight because I know within that first week our first two weeks I'm going to shed a ton of it and I want to make sure that I keep healthy whenever we got into a town on the 80 there's kind of this big thing going around about getting fat you know you wouldn't say we're going to go get some food or some town food say we're going to go get fat and that's why through hikers eat so damn much is because your metabolism just shoots through the roof and you burn through that stuff so fast so if you're planning on doing a long distance hike definitely keep up with your calories make sure you're eating enough because if not you can lose too much weight it can make you sick and it can cause injury no a couple hikers in 2015 and actually had to in their hike because of nutrition problems so definitely keep up on that get fat before you hit the trail and make sure you're eating enough calories was your process of becoming a minimalist challenging or if not your term I'm just asking about your simplistic / basic style I like it do you and snuggle see this as a forever thing so good question Deb is most of you might know if you've been following my videos and watching my q A's in 2014 my wife snuggles and I sold about 95% of the things that we own to live this more simplistic minimalist lifestyle for a handful of reasons we mainly did it because we were going to go out and hike the 80 and we didn't want to come back to all

this stuff we wanted it to be easier on us plus we were wanting to relocate and do some traveling after we did the trail so to do this we we kind of consolidated our life and started living this more minimalist lifestyle now the more that we lived it the more that we really got into it and the more minimalist we've become in about a week we are actually moving into a mini camper for time who are about to hit the road again in September to live in even more minimalist lifestyle so an answer to your question Deb was it challenging at first yeah you know we had this big house two cars we had careers I even owned a recording studio that we ran out of the basement of the house so we had all of this stuff I was a big-time musician had a lot of guitars and equipment and amps over the entire year of 2014 we slowly started getting rid of the things that we decided that we didn't necessarily need at first how the process started was we started looking at things that we hadn't used in a long time and we decided if we haven't used this in a month we need to get rid of it because we're not using it in everyday life so it's not really that important it's just stuff sitting around and then as we started to do that we started to think about well what do we really need to live are these things essential do they have multi purposes can we use them in a more minimalist lifestyle no we got rid of them we sold things we donated things we gave things away and as we started doing this and the ball started rolling it started getting easier and easier and now we don't even think about it it's a really easy decision we kind of look at an item and say how many uses can I get out of this am I using it every day yes yes it stays if no we just get rid of it and as you get used to that lifestyle it's much much easier and then you don't even think about it it's just kind of how you live and as far as if snuggles and I see it as a forever thing I don't know we kind of take it day by day we don't really know what the future holds for us you know we have some ideas of things that we want to do but you never know one thing that I've learned and like the 10 years we've been married and all the stuff that we've done is you can never count on anything what we're doing now I would have never dreamed we would have been doing just two years ago so having like those plans and those ideas for the future they're nice to have and it's a good guideline to go off of but I don't count on anything so who knows in like three years we could have some huge house and a swimming pool in Europe you never ever know so you kind of just take it day by day we love living simplistic and it definitely works for our lifestyle and what we like to do darling if the snow in the Sierras is as deep next year as it is this year what's your plan hike or bypass good question I've been thinking about that a lot so if you guys have been following along you might know from last year I said I was going to hike the PCT this year I didn't for a handful of reasons one snows and I wanted to kind of completely shake up the snow globe again and start traveling more and invest more time into the channel and videos but - I saw that the Sierras were just getting slammed with snow and I really didn't want to kind of risk my hike I'm a hardcore traditionalist when it comes to hiking I like starting at Point a and ending at point B I don't like flipping around cutting up my sections and I knew that if I took the risk and went out and hiked this past April I was probably going to have to bypass the Sierras flip around and do a hike that I wasn't really interested in doing so that's another reason that I push it off till next year now as far as what I'm going to do next year if we get the same type of snow year I don't think that we will just because that was a very rare snow year I think it's like one of the biggest that they've had in like years and years and years but if for some reason the snow is bad I'm probably going to try to push my hike off till a little bit later maybe the end of April maybe going into May and then just see how it is whenever I get out there so if that happens I'll probably push it off a little bit later that way in those first seven hundred miles before I even get anywhere near this year's it'll have time to melt down a little bit where I would be hiking through it like now and I won't have to deal with as much snow but I have no problem hiking in the snow giving some crampons and ice axe you know I kind of anticipate that happening anyways but I definitely don't want to be hiking if there's like six foot of snow on the ground would you ever sleep in a hammock when you're hiking or is it uncomfortable no I like hammocks I haven't really done a lot of hammock camping just a little bit which was like two years

but I eventually want to get more into hammock camping not only to kind of have more knowledge of hammock camping but also I feel like if you're a solo hiker hammock King can sometimes be a little bit of a benefit a little bit easier and if you're hiking in the spring or summer you don't need as much gear now hiking in the winter obviously you need more gear like an under quilt a top quilt but hammock camping is something that I will eventually get into just not right now I'm in the desert so there's not a lot of trees to hang hammocks but once snuggled and I eventually get back out on the East Coast and back to the Blue Ridge Mountains I'll definitely be taking up a little bit more hammock camping mr. expert I have a question should I go salmon fishing in Arkansas or get back on the CDT to get miles done to get that triple crown need to make that decision by August 10th Tom toasted so Tom Healy is actually a hiker trash buddy of mine he also goes by toasted toad I met him out on my CD t-section hike in April of this year and we put in a handful of days together we traversed that whole Gila River section together he's an awesome hiker and he was going for his Triple Crown this year so he's already put away the 80 he's put away the PCT and he's working on a CET but he had some knee issues which I can definitely relate to toasted man fishing sounds awesome especially because I know that you are a huge fisherman but if you get back out on the CDT August 10th August 11th around that time I'll definitely join you for some sections now next month I'm definitely wanting to get back out there especially here in New Mexico maybe even in Colorado so get a hold of me I would love to get back out there and hike some sections with you

fishing sounds fun but you have a triple crown to get Sara so get out on the trail toasted you mentioned you like to get on the trail early sometimes before daylight do you use any kind of reflective gear no no reflective gear just a headlamp and yes I do like to get out on the trail early don't really know why you would need reflective gear because there's no headlights or cars out there just a headlamp or workman all right guys last question of the week comes from Steve and Steve says our shelters on the 80 for through hikers more than section hikers sorry to be a bother with

my question just been bugging me for twenty years since I was told I could be kicked out of a shelter when I was 13 with my Scout troop thanks so Steve it's actually the opposite man shelters on the 80 are for everybody the ATC has built those and trail clubs and states have built those for everyone to enjoy so whoever told you that was lying to you or maybe they were just misinformed but those shelters are for everyone now like I said it's kind of the opposite in the Smoky Mountains and in the shanties it's actually backwards if you are a through hiker or a section hiker and you're in one of those shelters and someone comes in that has a backcountry permit for that national park through hikers can actually be kicked out of the shelter which was kind of crazy to me but it's true because those hikers have a certain backcountry permit that says they can only stay at that shelter for that night they actually have a right to kick you out of the shelter but I've never ever ever heard of anyone being kicked out of a shelter because they want through hiker it is for everyone to enjoy it's why it's there it sucks that for 20 years you've been thinking that but no if anyone ever says that call them out on it now again if you're in a national park it can be different because of a backcountry permit was actually going to answer that a couple weeks ago and I just got too many video questions but I'm glad I finally got to answer your question man alright guys so if you want to leave a question for next week's qnet 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 next week I'll answer as many as I possibly can so I wanted to start taking a little bit at the end of each Q a every week to kind of tell you guys what I have going on and what my thoughts are for the future for the channel for videos so I figured I would fill you in so snuggles and I have about one week until we move in to our camper full-time one week and we'll be living in our camper we'll be giving up our apartment and then in September we'll be hitting the road again headed out to Joshua Tree National Park in that entire area just to travel explorer to hike and to live full-time in that camper on top of that in September snuggles now we'll be starting a weekly travel vlog series called travel and trail and if you didn't get a chance yet on Sunday I posted episode zero which is more kind of a test footage so definitely go check that out I'll put the link up here in the corner somewhere if you want to go check out episode zero of what is to come in September and the last thing on my plate for next month is number one I'll be going out to do a section of the CDT

somewhere in New Mexico or Colorado and then August 18th through the 20th I'll be flying out to Cascade Locks Oregon right outside of Portland to go to PCT trail days so if any of you guys are in the area want to get together want to chat have a beer talk about gear maybe even do some hiking I'll be out there from the 18th through the 20th of next month you haven't had a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a lot of new photos of some of the things that snuggles and I have going on throughout the week plus some pictures from some past hikes so definitely go check those out 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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