2015 AT Thru Hike Post Gear Set-up

Description

Here is a Break down of all the Gear I used on my Hike of the Appalachian Trail this year. Note: this is the gear that I dialed in & ended my hike with, not the gear set-up I started with.

Music By: Thunder/Dreamer

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Tags: Hiking (Sport),Appalachian National Scenic Trail (Protected Site),Thru-hiking,Gear,Backpacking (Sport)

Video Transcription

hey guys I wanted to sit down today and do a video that I've been wanting to make for a while I wanted to do a video on my entire kit my entire gear kit that I used on my 1,500 mile hike of the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain Georgia to Great Barrington Massachusetts this year I'm supposed to be a full through hike all the way to Maine we had some family problems where we had to get off the trail and it wasn't really feasible for us to finish the trail this year I miss it every single day wish I was still out there

so I thought I'd take the opportunity to make this video where I kind of take my pack and really break it down and show you the gear that I but I didn't necessarily start with because I started with some colder weather gear but what I finished with first off the pack that I used was the Osprey our Osprey whatever you from the east coast or west coast they said Osprey on the East Coast lot they say Osprey over here on the west coast a lot so let's go with Osprey I'm on the west coast yeah Osprey at most 65 to me this is the Cadillac of packs death wanted the Cadillac of packs for doing it through hike this pack had everything I needed it had plenty of room again 65 litres tons of great features

I won't dive too much into this pack in particular I know there are a ton of reviews out there on this pack and I know recently they switched over to the antigravity system which this one's not this is one of the original Atmos 65 with the regular air escape on the back so it doesn't have that anti-gravity system that a lot of people are going to now but this pack for me my base weight without food or water without my trekking poles or the clothes I was wearing every day was right at 16 and a half pounds so 16 and a half pounds for my entire base weight of my that's everything I was carrying on my back pretty much except for again food and water

so yeah let's let's let's open her up let's break it down and I'll show you what I use and show you what works for me

all right guys so here it is this is everything that I used on my hike this year on the 80 all laid out here so let's so let's go ahead and get into some of the gear first off the big three use the Big Agnes copper spur UL 2 that would be the tent the fly and the poles if you wash it in one of my previous videos where I broke that tent down snuggles actually carried the footprint so I carried all of that next what I ended up using as the months got warmer again in another previous video that's the Mount Hardware ultra lamina 45 and that's in AZ packs cuben fiber stuff bag I used pretty much used z packs for all of my stuff sex great lightweight waterproof bags yeah really love their stuff so next was the pad that I used use the thermal rests NeoAir x-lite excellent pad it's not the pad that I started out with I actually started out with a Big Agnes Q core but it wasn't really cut into for me so I switched to this guy next up was something that a lot of people kind of argued about in the beginning if it was necessary or not I ended up loving it and using it all the time this is my thermal rest Z seat it was great and it whenever you know the end of the day you're done hiking the last thing you want to do is sit down on something wet and cold this was great to sit down on a log or a rock sit down on a picnic bench or a shelter and sit on it was also good for multiple things that used it to start fires to get some wind on a fire and also used it as a one screen every once in a while if it was really windy I just kind of put it up around my stove and yeah it blocked the wind a little bit so excellent excellent excellent to use this thing really saved me a lot next let's get into electronics I use the Black Diamond blaze headlamp it was perfect for everything that I needed had the red light in there a couple modes on the light it's not to recharge one it took batteries but I never really ran out of power any time that I came into a town and I kind of noticed the light was getting a little bit dead I switched the batteries

I took the iPhone 4 had it on airplane mode most of the time just to save you know save on battery that and I didn't really want a cell phone out on the trail in case of emergencies use the lifeproof case which came in handy of course with the the witness especially in Georgia and North Carolina used an iPod shuffle don't have my headphones here but did have a pair of headphones it was nice just every once in a while to throw in some music and you know entertain myself on those kind of nasty long days with the charging cable the iPhone charging cable that I had with the power block that I use for all my other electronics and towards the end I picked up this power bank it's a power add got off Amazon it gave me like three charges whenever it spool it doesn't weigh a whole lot worked out great and then it's charging cable so next let's move up here to my Cooke system again I have a video showing my Cooke system but just to run through it again real quick I use the Snow Peak 700 mug titanium ugh and a koozie that I made the Snow Peak lightmaps stove which was an excellent stove again watched that video kind of breaking

on the stove and how it works I used these sea2summit

aluminum sports long handle worked out really good for me this little guy I made at the same time that I made my kuzey and this is made out of a windchill advisory I'll probably end up doing a nice video on it but I was able to put rice sides down in it put boiling water in it it's kind of like a little microwave it hope things cook a little bit faster I really really liked this again I'm going to be doing a video on kind of how I cooked my meals on the trail so watch out for this and I'll explain it a little bit more snow Peaks Hot Lips save my lips on my hot mug carried a Bic mini lighter usually just carried one of them if it started running low I was near a gas station or Dollar General I just pick up a new one carried the Gerber mini para frame knife this knife was great for all that I used it for which was pretty much you know string and cheese great for both never had a situation where I needed a bigger knife it really nicely on the shoulder strap from my pack and I was there when I needed it so nice sharp knife really super lightweight it gets like one point two ounces or something yeah great knife next was I have a little medical kit Durrani's little medical kit I just kind of kept some selling stuff in there uh some ibuprofen good old vitamin I some alcohol swabs moleskin just kind of little things that I needed here and there and then obviously whenever I needed some more I'd pick it up in a store or in a hiker box so always good to have some some first aid with it toothbrush carried a little toothbrush some toothpaste travel toothpaste Burt's Bees got to have Burt's Bees for those chapped lips carried a sharpie and a pen just in case I need to write anything or mark any of my stuff to make sure it was mine and I also carried this little right in the range just little notepad that I was able to kind of just some stuff down in any thoughts ahead next would be my food bag I used the Z packs I believe it's the blast heat set really nice size food bag was really great I could carry up to about five days of food in it again cuben fiber by Z packs top rolls down nice waterproof their spectra Z line cord about 50 feet of it and a Cuban fiber a rock bag also from z packs about this whole kit it was like 50 bucks excellent kit very light kept my stuff dry it was a good hanging kit I highly recommend it down here we got a couple little odds and ends toilet paper have to have the TP very important also in a plastic bag make sure it doesn't get wet and ruined bins a hundred percent DEET bug spray good pool or mosquitoes somewhat good for ticks I still got some ticks I definitely still got some mosquitoes but it's definitely good stuff

next would be my water filtration system I had the Sawyer squeeze the the regular Sawyer squeeze and about a quarter way into the trail ended up picking up one of these little adapters here hooking this tube up to it and picking up one of these platypus

these two-liter bags with the quick-connect on it and ended up using a gravity feed system definitely liked that a lot more than squeezing the bags definitely save some time a lot easier a system to use and have a little bitty cup that I made out of a plastic bottle use that to be able to dip water out of really shallow water sources really good to have next let's go up here bug net was great I picked it up in Pennsylvania mosquitos get really bad in Pennsylvania New Jersey New York especially in Massachusetts saved my face a lot of times so bug net this would be my Z PACs cuben fiber rain cover really nice size rain cover covered my whole pack kept it pretty dry for a rain cover again really love Z pack stuff check out their stuff up here are the trekking poles that I used I used the copper Dale trail master corpse really held up great pose didn't have any problems with them there's a flick lock version put some duct tape there if you know about duct tape on some poles it's good to have in case you got a fix to fix a quick repair fixed a couple holes in my tent with that and a hole in my jacket so ya don't take better have it next would be my camp shoes I used the vivo barefoot camp shoe I think that the pair comes in at like two and a half ounces man

they were great shoes they were good for walking around town they were nice and airy wear a pair of nice thick socks with them at camp and they were good camp shoes good to get those boots off every once in a while this is my Marmot Zeus down jacket 800 fill down jacket and as you can see it fits in its nice little pocket this really really love this jacket I'll probably be doing a separate video review on the jacket so look out for that it also doubled as a pillow at night so I would fold it up and you can see it's kind of big enough where I would just sleep on it use it as a pillow so multifunctional next would be my Outdoor Research helium 2 HD jacket again it you know folds up in a nice little little pocket it becomes very compact this thing is as excellent it's one of the best rain jackets I've had I've had a moment precip this thing really kept me dry really nice and lightweight next I had a couple buffs that I used the 80 buff here and a regular green buff use those for pretty much as a bandana wiping sweat picking up a hot pot off of my stove used a buff for pretty much everything man buff love them oh yeah by the way use smart water bottles for my to hold my water nice and light easy cheap carry two liters and then I would just filter right on in the bottle

anytime you started getting nasty you know you could pick these up at a Dollar General keep it going for the gas station easy to replace cheap light good option so up here I have Z packs cuben fiber closed bag and inside my clothes bag I had an extra dry fit shirt an extra pair of shorts my tights that I held on to pretty much my entire hike in case they got a little cold I can pair them with a pair of shorts and turn into a pair of pants and a pair of extra socks so yeah I'm not really gonna open that up but that's everything that's inside of there nice to have those extra dry clothes these are the boots that I wore our shoes these are the marrow Moab ventilators they were excellent for me I went through three pairs and over 1500 miles really nice light weight really airy when they got wet they weren't waterproof but when they did get wet they dried out really easy dirty girl gaiters if you haven't watched my review video on these guys yet definitely check them out I really really love these Gators nice light weight I went with the Batman print pretty sweet these were the clothes that I wore so a pair of mount hardware running shorts with the liner inside of them nice lightweight synthetic fantastic I wore a Nike Pro combat t-shirt and that's the exact same this one's gray the one in my bag is orange so really love these shirts they're nice venting on the side a nice dry fit dries out quick light breathable good shirt the socks that I went with were dawn tough love Don tough socks had two pair of them they lasted me the entire trail these things can really take a beating darn tough socks check them out made him Vermont wigwam sock liners I wasn't a big fan of liners at first and then when I was in North Carolina somebody suggests that I switched to him that would help with blisters after I switched whom I didn't get a single blister so love sock liners were the liner's the darn tough on top of them and then I had a backup pair of both really love that system and then of course the Hat that I wore that I picked up in Virginia from Devil's Backbone brewery really awesome place really awesome brewery really awesome beer love this hat still rock it all the time I kind of can't go hiking without it it's definitely my hiking hat so yeah so that was everything that I took again my base weight with everything here came in at 16 and a half pounds and then all the stuff that I wore fully loaded with about three to four days of food and two liters of water took me up to about 24 to 25 pounds so I was pretty happy with that don't know if I would change a whole lot I probably go with a different sleeping bag yet again i sat from that I really loved the system that I used it really helped me out and it was really good for me so hopefully the video helped and you planning for your thru-hike or just any backpacking trip yeah so again that is what I used on the Appalachian Trail leave me some comments some feedback in the comment area below like or dislike my video subscribe to my channel and as always thanks for watching