Ask Darwin Q&A #35 (Answers)

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** Stuff/Gear I Mention in this Video **

Altra Lone Peak 3.5 - http://amzn.to/2yH7OAi

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AZT Section Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2017/09/22/darwins-2017-azt-section-hike/

AT Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2016/05/03/darwins-2016-at-gear-list/

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------Intro & Animation By: BlackStrap Media------

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------- Music By: Mike Boren --------

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,AT Thru Hike,Thru Hike,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru Hike,Backpacking,UL Hiking,UL Backpacking,UL Gear,Hiking,Hiker Trash,Camping,Adventure,Arizona Trail,AZT,Long Distance Hiking

Video Transcription

hey guys it's Darwin here with my weekly QA to answer more of your questions if you want to ask 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 alright guys so let's go ahead and get into this week's first question what is your advice for keeping your feet warm when they get wet and it's cold like in slush and rain especially when using trail runners that aren't waterproof like ultra lone peaks so Lane pretty much like I've said for the past two years I just deal with getting wet so anytime that I'm hiking in water or crossing a river or has some sort of a slush icy mix I just deal with it and the reason that I hike in a shoe like the Lone Peak or any trail runner or any trail shoe that has non waterproof and non gore-tex is because I know regardless even though I might try try try as hard as I can I'm not gonna keep my feet dry so I want a shoe that can dry out quick whenever I get to camp or whenever I'm done hiking for the day so the good thing about lone peaks is I might dredge through a bunch of really cold water and it might totally suck while I'm doing it but I know that when I get to camp at night I can take them off and those shoes will dry out quick and usually they're pretty good for the morning and I can throw them back on so it's all about embracing the suck well on your hikes has there ever been any water source that you would not drink from so yeah when I was out on the CDT in April actually the first water source that I came to on the first day was this little cattle tank that was actually being charged and pumped by a windmill I went to dip my water in I got a nice big Sawyer bag filled I went over to start filtering my water got one bottle filled went back and then I noticed there was this big nasty dead rat floating in the bottom of the tank and I just couldn't do it I couldn't drink from it especially because and most people don't know this the Legg actually still exist in New Mexico which is absolutely terrifying so yeah that is a water source that I definitely wouldn't drink from and then there was one time out on the 80 whenever we saw a dead deer carcass that was just up the stream and we definitely didn't drink from that water source so pretty much if there's any dead animals anywhere near the stream I'm not drinking from it because you never know what type of disease that you can get hey Darwyn love the youtube channel keep the videos coming I was just wondering is there any where you fight overseas that you would recommend or anything like that no man I've actually never done any hiking outside of the States I've never been outside the states believe it or not but I do have plans to hit a few places overseas not necessarily Europe yet I have a really big passion and a desire to go to the Patagonia in South America and then just all through South America on the Peruvian coast so that's where I would like to hike next that's out of the States and then there's also a really awesome long trail that's in New Zealand that I've heard great things about that I'd like to check out too when doing a thru-hike how do you choreograph receiving gear and supplies from friends / family through the Postal Service so I'm actually gonna do a whole video on mail drops and kind of how you do it pretty much what you do is either you do it or you have a family member do it you grab a flat-rate shipping box you put all the stuff you want to put in if you're sending it to a post office you want to put general delivery and then the area code that the post office is in your name please hold for hiker and then your estimated time of arrival I usually make sure that the package is mailed out at least one week in advance and then when I get to the post office there it is now as far as choreographing it with family members and stuff I pretty much just call them like a week in advance before I get to a certain resupply point and tell them hey this is where I'm gonna be at on this date and how to address the box and I'll usually send them a text with the exact information that they need to put on the box do you listen to music on the trail if you do do you use headphones or a phone speaker what kind of music so I always use headphones and that's because I totally believe in leave note tres even with music so I cannot stand when hikers use the little speaker and they put it on their pack or if they have their phone speaker turned on because even if they have awesome music and I'm really into it I don't want to hear someone else's music on the trail because sometimes maybe I don't want to hear music for the day I want to be in nature and I want to hear the sounds that around me so I always make sure that I use headphones to respect other hikers as far as what music do I listen to

I have a super eclectic taste in music and I listen to all types of stuff from punk to metal to classical to blues to jazz I'm a huge audiophile so I listen to everything I've actually considered starting to put together a hiking playlist and then putting it over on my website for you guys to check out and just kind of look at what I listen to when I'm on the trail hey Darwyn my name is Daniel I am coming to you from Pennsylvania I apologize I do not have a trail name yet but hopefully in the future I'll have one I had a question about hiking trailers I had seen them online and I was just wondering in the course of you're through hikes it's just something that you've run across or people actually using them and if you have seen one has it been a looked like a good idea or is it just impractical just kind of curious about it saw them thought they were interesting contraptions and I just thought I'd like to hear some comments and again thanks so much for your channel love all the stuff that you share it's been a huge help alright thanks a lot bye yeah I've totally seen those hiking trailer things and I'm not buying it it's that's a really goofy idea to me and maybe it works maybe it works for someone else for me personally no I wouldn't be interested in that I'm gonna use a pack all the time I just if someone could like show me the science and explain to me how that's better than carrying a pack with a good load support and a good hip belt to really displace the weight I might try it aside from that yeah I just think it's another one of those kind of goofy hiking things that someone's come up with that no one really needed but I guess you could say that about any gear why aren't you pushing your patreon more outside of the description box it's pretty buried there I'm sure there are plenty of subs that would love to help contribute to your PCT hike next year let them know how good point so yeah I do have a patreon account and it's in the description box below and it's also up here somewhere at the top of the YouTube page you can find a link to that and pretty much how patreon works is you pledge at least a dollar a month and that helps me to do long distance hikes like the PCT next year or even helps me make videos like the one that you're watching and then I have a ton of great rewards from stickers to patches to being invited to a live Q&A that I do once a month which actually I have one coming up this weekend and yeah I don't know why I don't plug it that much but thanks my dad was wondering how do you prevent and take away muscle cramps when you're on the trail so I pretty much deal with muscle cramps the same way that I dealt with them when I was a runner and a cyclist and that is trying to roll them out as much as possible so at home I have things like a foam roller or like a tennis ball or even a thing called the stick where you can really get in and roll those knots out of your muscles but when I'm on the trail I actually use my trekking pole so I'll fold my trekking pole down to its smallest size and then when I get to camp after I stretch I'll take my trekking pole and I'll roll it up and down on my muscles on my calf on my thighs on my quads and try to get those knots out of my muscles so one I get good sleep and two i'm reenergized and ready the next day for the trail now I know some hikers that actually carry a tennis ball with them and they roll out their muscle that way and then last year on the 80s snuggles and I met a girl named roller because she carried a muscle roller and rolled her muscles out at every camp every single night so there's a ton of ways to do it but that's how I did hi darling can you recommend a program for making video footage I've got a lot of great shots and I'd like to maybe put them together I've never worked in that medium at all so if you have any suggestions I'd appreciate it Thanks so yeah there's a ton of really great editing software you know if you have

some footage that's on a camera or your phone or a GoPro or something there's a lot of really great programs out there and you know you can go crazy and get something like Final Cut which is an Apple product you can get something like Premiere Pro and those are pay for services and software that you have to pay for but there's a ton of really great free software out there too believe it or not most of the time I'd say about 90% of the time I edit all of my videos on iMovie which is a free program that comes on any Mac and it works great I'm able to color grade I'm able to put in transitions put in titles and make like I said about 90% of these videos are made on iMovie and it's a free program so I would definitely suggest that but if you're looking to do something a little more professional you might look at final cut or premiere pro because those are really awesome programs - all right guys last question of the week trail names do you have to be a through hiker to have a trail name I've had a lot of people tell me it's a big no-no if you don't through hike I have also been told if you're a hiker then yes also is it bad trail etiquette to sign the books along the 80 if you aren't through hiking are they just for the through hikers or can anyone sign them so good question and good two-part question number one know you don't have to be a through hiker to have a trail name anybody that's hiking anyone that's on the trail deserves a trail name now I'm very old-school about how I feel about trail names and I think that you should have your trail name given to you and I think that you should earn it I've noticed a big thing in the last couple years that there are a lot of hikers that are giving themselves trail names and that's fine but the whole magic of a trail name is the trail kind of gives it to you another hiker gives it to you because it's something that you said something that you did because you remind somebody of a certain person so that's how you get your true name and I think it's really special to let the trail name you now as far as the log books no again I think that anybody can sign an 80 log book the Appalachian Trail the Pacific Crest Trail the Continental Divide Trail those trails weren't just built for through hikers those trails were Bill way before through hiking even existed so anybody could go out and enjoy the trail so it doesn't matter who you are yeah absolutely you can sign your name in a log book now get out on the trail earn yourself a trail name and sign that logbook alright guys so if you haven't noticed the last couple videos I've been doing I'm actually sitting in between Death Valley and Sequoia National Park I'm about thirty miles from the PCT at Kennedy Meadows and right now we're just pretty much hanging out in the desert snuggles and I have been doing a ton of traveling and I've been getting ready for my PCT through hike next year I'll probably be doing a couple more small trips but mainly snows and I right now are just on the road and hitting a ton of national parks so not only do I want you to leave some questions for next week's Q&A in the comment box below but also send me some suggestions and some ideas for some videos that you guys would like to see whether it's a trip video some tips and tricks a certain gear video let me know and I'll do my best to put that on the list you haven't had a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I've been 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 acts 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]

[Applause]

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