Ask Darwin Q&A #48 (From the AT!)

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

My Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/darwinonthetrail

UGQ Bandit - https://ugqoutdoor.com/top-quilts/bandit/

EE Accomplice Quilt - https://enlightenedequipment.com/accomplice/

EE Enigma Quilt - https://enlightenedequipment.com/enigma/

EE Revelation - https://enlightenedequipment.com/revelation/

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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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,Pinhoti Trail,Long Distance Hiking

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 when you do the PCT this year do you plan to sidetrack and climb Mount Whitney and Mount Shasta so I do have a permit to climb Mount Whitney I haven't decided if I'm gonna do Shasti yet but whitney is a definite yes because when else am I gonna be able to climb the tallest peak in the lower 48 so yeah I do plan on climbing Whitney Shasta is still up in the air we'll see when we get there have you ever heard of underground quilts and how many through hikes do you think sleeping bags or quilts will last so yes I have heard of underground quilts I actually own a ugq bandit which is a 10-degree quilt that underground makes now if taking it out on a few trips I did use it on my rim to rim to rim hike of the Grand Canyon but I haven't got it out on the trail enough to really give a full-on review of that now like I said it is a 10-degree and typically I'm a warm sleeper so it has to be pretty cold for me to use a 10 degree quilt but I would say within the next few months you could look forward to a review on that because I do plan on doing one once I get more miles on it as far as how long will a quilt or a sleeping bag last on through hikes it just all depends on how well you take care of it proper storage of a downed product and good cleaning will make it go a long way now if you take it out on a thru-hike and you don't store it right and you keep it compressed and you never clean it no it's not gonna last very long at all maybe one maybe two through hikes but if you take care of your down products the last for a long time hey Darwin it's Pete time on the Ice Age Trail and Wisconsin beautiful day here today it's a Saturday what do you do with these things you take an extra pair some sunglasses what if you break them I usually take an extra pair and says sunglasses I was just wondering if that's overkill see on the trail hey Pete so no I do not have an extra pair of glasses that I do carry with me on the trail I just used these which is probably why they're so scratched up I actually just recently got a pair of prescription sunglasses and I take them on the trail from time to time I do plan on carrying them on my PCT through height but I've never really carried sunglasses on the trail either I'm just a one glasses kind of guy I do have an extra pair of glasses that I keep at home just in case I'm out on the trail and these guys do break I can always have snuggles or someone else send them to me in a mail drop but I always Rock the same pair my wife wants to know what do you do for meals when you're at home so the food that snuggles and I eat when we are at home or living out of the camper or in our van is pretty much the same thing we eat on the trail we eat a lot of quinoa and couscous and things that are pretty easy to cook and you can kind of make one pot style what I mean by that is food that you can just throw into one pot maybe just boil some water and easily put a meal together it's funny we ate like that out a lot on the trail and I guess it just kind of went forward and it's just it's simplistic I can still get the calories and the nutrition I need you know every once in a while I'll get some meat like some chicken or something Grill that up and then throw that in with it but yeah basically dry easy to cook meals like quinoa couscous beans and rice something simple good nutrition and easy to fix my wife and I are planning an 80 through hike in 2019 and are getting our gear together we have been considering the enlightened equipment accomplice quilt to save weight in our packs any thoughts on use for a two-person quilt while on the trail um if it works for you go for it you guys know I love enlightened equipment I love this stuff they make and like all of their quilts personally snuggles and I would never carry a two-person quilt because when you're out hiking all day on the trail you become really gross you sweat a lot you get wet you get sticky you stink so the idea of two people being in the same sleeping bag together pretty nasty just like a big stinky hiker burrito so we're not a big fan of that however it might be something you want to look into maybe go out on a trip sometime and even though it's gonna be a little bit more weight maybe carry like a light comforter or a bigger quilt and try it out just laying that over the two of you and maybe putting your pads together before you make the investment and by an enlightened accomplice but again personally I think that if you both get like an enigma or a revelation that would be perfect and it's also good just in case you ever get separated a lot of times even though snuggles and I were at camp every night together we did hike separate a lot and things do happen on the trail so it would be really good for you both to have your separate sleep systems just in case something was to happen you were to get separated you wouldn't be without a way to be warm at night in your tent hey Darwin we're here in the beautiful outer on that today it's about 11:00 for show before the wind chill we're here at Ostia bully you said that you wanted to do some more winter backpacking hiking and camping all those temperatures as you actually go backpacking in Kent again so how cold would I be willing to go down to I don't know I've done some backpacking down into the single digits in nine degrees one night in five degree weather that's about my breaking point if I have to choose I'm not a big fan of being cold at night as I've explained multiple times I have poor circulation in my hands and in my feet so if my feet are cold when I'm sleeping it's not good but I am always down for doing things that I'm not usually comfortable with that's kind of how I got into long-distance hiking and bike packing and everything else that I've ever been into so I guess I would probably just knowing me get down pretty low into the negatives but if I had the choice I heard they're just hiked when it's like this outside it feels like fall out here and that's the best time to be out on the trail will you be posting QA videos while you're on the pin holi trail and on the PCT curious to know so the plan is no I will not be doing a weekly QA like I do every Tuesday I'll pretty much be going to one video a week now on the pin holy trail my plan is to shoot a couple of q A's early so we still have those to post and I'll probably skip one Tuesday but when I get on the PCT no Q&A is on Tuesday I'll be going to one video a week and that will be my video from the trail every once in a while I might pepper in a live QA if I get the chance but one thing that I will absolutely do is my live Q&A for my patrons over on patreon so if it's something that you're interested in I'll put the link in the description box below you can go check out patreon you donate a little bit and then you get exclusive content like you get to watch my videos early but I also do that monthly live Q&A and I'm gonna try as hard as I can to do those from the trail when I'm in a trail town how are you preparing for the Ct I'm doing a smaller thru-hike so some of you don't know On February the fourth I actually start a mini thru-hike of the pin holey trail and the pin holey trail runs from flag mountain in central Alabama and it actually ends at the Benton Makai Trail which is about 70 miles west of Springer Mountain which is the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail so that's pretty much how I'm prepping for my PCT hike I'm gonna go out and do a three hundred and thirty-five mile trail really make sure that all my gear is dialed in and then I got good hiker legs I'm ready to go on April the third hey Darin I was wondering down to what temperature are the glove liners still effective for keeping your hands warm before you have to switch to actual gloves Thanks the glove liners that I have I'll go down to about 40 maybe 30 degrees they're really just to start getting me going in the morning but if it's super cold and it's rainy I do have a pair of zhi packs virtus rain mitts and those are pretty much made to go right over my glove liner to give me a little bit more protection from the rain and the cold I used to carry big bulky gloves on the trail but once I start hiking I really warm up and I would only wear them for like a half a mile when I started out in the morning so because of that I kind of ditched the heavier gloves started using a glove liner just because they're lightweight and they get the job done within that first half-mile to a mile my hands are warmed up I take them off and I'm ready to go for the day then at the end of the day when I get to camp I might throw them back on as the temperatures drop in but like I said if it gets really cold it's super windy it's super rainy that's whenever the rain mitts come into play all right guys last question of the week can you share your advice and experience with snakes on the trail especially the 80 encountered a rattler this past summer and after searching was shocked how many spotted on the 80 so funny enough I have never seen a snake on any of the other trails that I've been on aside from the Appalachian Trail

big snake real big snake in 2015 snuggles and I seen a ton of snakes on the Appalachian Trail the majority of the snakes that you see are a black snake they're these big massive black snakes and then as you move a little bit more north up the trail getting into Virginia like the Shenandoah or Pennsylvania that's where you're gonna see the timber rattlers which are these big massive scary as hell rattlesnakes they're just massive and it's funny I seen more of those in Virginia in Northern Virginia right in the Shannon doors then I seen on the rest of the trail and before that I never even knew that there were rattlesnakes in that area of the country I always associate Rattlers with the desert but funny enough I've never seen a rattler in the desert so just like any other animal out on the trail if you don't bother them they're not gonna bother you just keep an eye out you know everyone smile look down on the trail listen for that radler make sure that you're not stepping on a snake and giving it a reason to strike at you all right guys so last qat we were in Virginia on the Appalachian Trail and right now we were right next to Neal's gap in Georgia right here on the 80 so we're gonna be hanging out here for a little bit right before I start my pin holy trail through hike I'm gonna get out on the trail try to get my legs in shape get my gear dialed down and hopefully run into some of you early starters out here on the 80 now I do plan on doing a meet-up in Georgia so if any of you guys are in the area and interested in that there is a little tab over on my YouTube main page called the community tab if you don't know what that is yet it's something new that YouTube rolled out and it allows me to post pictures and videos polls tons of different stuff to get your guys's feedback I think in order to get those notifications you have to go up next to the subscribe button on the main page and hit that little bell if you hit that Bell you'll get all the updates from the new videos that I'm putting out any time I'm gonna be doing a meet up some little pictures here and there between videos and recently I've started getting your guys's feedback and starting some polls to find out what you guys want to see me make more videos of in the future if you want to leave 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 if 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 snows 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

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