Gear I Would NEVER BRING on a Long Hike!

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

Gear to Leave at Home - https://youtu.be/jFbKxu5KSic

Luci Lux Lantern - http://amzn.to/2Gb7ric

DJI Mavic Pro - http://amzn.to/2GaS9tC

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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Canon EOS 77D - http://amzn.to/2zf5OQ9

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Canon EF 24mm IS USM - http://amzn.to/2zeJuWU

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TakStar Shotgun Mic - http://amzn.to/2kMsAnM

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Targus 360 Trigger Tripod - http://amzn.to/2kMsU5Y

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

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

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

Video Transcription

hey guys it's Darwin here today to talk about gear that I would never take on a long-distance hike

[Music]

so about a year ago I made a video called gear to leave at home during it thru-hike and it got a lot of response essentially I was talking about gear that I didn't necessarily think was necessary on at thru-hike since I put that video out I get a ton of questions all the time whether it's in comments or emails and people just generally asking me if a certain piece of gear would be a good idea to take on their long-distance hike so I decided to compile a list of gear that I personally would never even consider taking with me if I was doing a thru-hike or a long section hike or maybe even a long weekend backpacking trip so number one I get the question all the time about solar panels now personally I'm not a big fan of solar panels I always carry with me just a rechargeable battery and then I charge it whenever I get into towns I've never thought having a solar panel was necessary at all on the trail because most times when you're on the trail you're out in the woods and you're under a canopy so you're not getting a lot of sunlight now if your plan is to go out and maybe just section hike the first 700 miles of the PCT or the first 500 miles of the Continental Divide Trail where you're an all desert all the time and a lot of Sun yeah sure it might be a pretty good idea but if you're out here on the Appalachian Trail forget about it you're in what they call the green tunnel all the time so you're never really getting enough sunlight to charge that solar panel and if you're carrying a solar panel chances are you're also carrying a battery pack so then that's an extra piece of gear that you're gonna have to use with a battery pack anyways you might as well just carry the battery pack and then when you get into a town to resupply say every four or five days charge it up while you're in town or while you're staying at a hostel at night and that is all you should ever need so personally I would never consider carrying a solar panel on the trail

number two is something that I've been seeing in a lot of people's pack setups and I get the question about all the time and that is a lantern some sort of a backpacking camp line turn now this is one of the Luci looks and snuggles and I had this

because we use it in our van and something like one of these Lucy lanterns is great for car camping it's great if you're just needing something to light up your camp at night or light up the inside of your van but as far as carrying one on a long distance hike I think it's totally unnecessary this is not gonna do anything that just a regular ol headlamp can't do a lot of people think well I'll take a Lucy lantern or some other type of tent lantern so at night I can sit inside of my tent I can turn my lantern on and I can read a book again it's nothing you can't do with just a headlamp and the reality of it is most through hikers think that they're gonna every night spend time reading a book inside of their tent but what ends up happening is you get to camp at the end of your day of hiking 15 to 20 miles and you are just exhausted so chances are all you want to do is eat and go to sleep so carrying something like a Lucy Lantern is cool but it's probably not very efficient and I personally would never carry one on a long-distance hike number three is one that's become really popular lately and kind of controversial and that is a drone now before I start giving my opinions on drones let me tell you I am a big fan of drones I have the DJI Mavic Pro and I love this guy I love getting really awesome aerial photography shots from it however I would never carry it on a long-distance hike with me for a handful reasons number one these things are expensive so I don't want to carry something this nice and this expensive out on a trail with me just in case I was to get into some bad weather with a lot of rain or even if my pack fell down off of a cliff or something I don't want this thing to get crushed and all my money go out the window number two is they don't have that long of a battery life so this thing has like a 20-minute flight time so that means I would have to only be able to fly this for 20 minutes between 4 and 5 days and then charge it when I got to town so to me it just doesn't seem very efficient to have this on the trail in the third and probably biggest reason that I don't carry one of these on a long-distance hike is I don't want to annoy other hikers drones are awesome but they are very loud even ones like this which are pretty quiet are still really loud when you're talking about being out in the woods where it's super quiet all the time this can definitely create a lot of noise pollution and disturb a lot of other hikers so because I'm a big believer in Leave No Trace I would never bring my drone on a long-distance hike speaking of noise pollution and Leave No Trace number four would be an instrument there are a lot of hikers that play guitar or trumpet or harmonica or anything like that and I personally am a guitarist as well but I would never bring an instrument on the trail number one like I said it's for the same reason I don't want to disturb other hikers in 2016 out on the 80 we were hiking around a guy that carried a plastic trumpet and to be honest it annoyed the crap out of me it's not that I don't like hearing music every once in a while but when at the end of the day when I get to camp or I'm at a shelter I don't want to hear someone else blaring their music whether it's from a speaker from their mp3 player or from an instrument that they're carrying with them I love having a guitar with me in the van whenever I'm car camping sitting around a campfire as long as I'm not disturbing someone else and playing a guitar but I just wouldn't carry one on the trail with me you know they're heavy they take up a lot of room and you're spending money hundred to two hundred dollars on something that's made of wood and this is if we're talking about guitars and like ukuleles and then you're hiking through super damp rainy weather all the time chances are you're gonna ruin it and waste that hundred to two hundred dollars on something that you don't really need number five is not really a piece of gear but again I've been singing it in a lot of hikers packed setups for their 80 through hikes or their upcoming PCT through hikes and it's one that I thought that was kind of common knowledge to not bring and that is deodorant so do not bring deodorant with you because it is worthless when you're doing something like a long-distance hike regardless of how much deodorant that you're putting on your hiking every day and you're pouring sweat this stuff is not gonna last long and it's not gonna stop you from being a stinky hiker all it's doing is taking up real estate in your pack and like I said if it's not working then there's really no sense in bringing it

so before you throw a stick of deodorant in your pack just remember that you're gonna stink anyways embrace the stink embrace the suck and leave this at home and then the sixth and final piece of gear that I would never bring on a long-distance hike with me is again not really a piece of gear unless you're using it to tote around your gear but a pet I am a dog owner and I love dogs however I would never ever think about bringing my dog with me on a long-distance hike I seem to get the question all the time through emails or through comments if I think that it would be a good idea to bring their pet along with them on their hike of the Appalachian Trail and my answer is always no for a handful of reasons just because you want to hike through the woods for 4 to 6 months and essentially live like a homeless person does not mean that your pet once - now I love my dog Bowie and I love taking her on day hikes but at the end of the day she doesn't want to sleep in a tent with me out in the middle of the woods she doesn't want to get up the next morning and hike she wants to lay on the couch and be a lazy dog and then get up and play whenever she wants to so putting a dog on the trail or a cat for 4 to 6 months is asking a lot of an animal to keep up with you and to do the same thing that you're doing every day so then the second thing would just be logistics so if you're doing a thru-hike like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail or even the Continental Divide Trail there's sections of the trail that go through national parks and there are some state parks as well in national parks there are no dogs or cats allowed on the trail so if you're hiking something like the 80 and you get to the Smokies you have to figure out a place for your dog to go while you hike that entire section of the Smokies it usually takes you about 4 or 5 days and then pick your dog up on the other end then whenever you get to the shannon doze same exact thing then whenever you get to Baxter State Park same exact thing so it becomes pretty complicated to figure out what to do with your pet where to board on where to shuttle them so do yourself a favor leave your pet at home you're gonna meet a lot of people out on the trail and become friends so you don't need to have your best furry friend with you alright guys so keep in mind that this is all just my opinion and these are things that I would personally never consider bringing with me on a long-distance hike but if you find a way to utilize those things and if it makes sense to you by all means try it out and see what works best for you so what's some gear that you would never consider taking on a long-distance hike leave me something in the comment box below and let me know your thoughts 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 snuggles and I have going on throughout the week plus some pictures from some past tags 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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