Ask Darwin FINAL Q&A - #57

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

Roam Rings - https://www.wheredoyouroam.com/silicone-rings

Columbia Silver Ridge Lite - https://amzn.to/2pYj2dS

Pinhoti Trail Gear List - https://youtu.be/EsCCh6nGwlM

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

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

Video Transcription

hey guys it's Gerald here with my last weekly Q&A to answer more of your questions

so as some of you I'm sure know by now this will be my last weekly Q&A for quite some time now the reason is I'm going to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from four to five months so obviously I can't make a weekly Q&A from the trail because I'll be busy hiking now I've gotten a ton of emails and comments from you guys

thanking me for the q and A's and sad because I'm not gonna be doing them but you know I got to go hike that's why I have this channel is because I hike and I love to answer questions about hiking now when I get back off the PCT I'm not gonna be doing weekly Q&A anymore I'm probably going to go to a monthly QA but I will still answer your questions I promise before we get into this week's questions I do want to say a few things first off when I started this YouTube channel back in 2015 I just gotten off the Appalachian Trail and I had hardcore post trail depression now if you guys don't know what post trail depression is it's just something that hikers go through when they're trying to adjust back to normal society since they've been in the hiking community for four to six months so my whole purpose of this channel was for me to connect back to a hiking community that was out on a trail that I wasn't near so I wanted to build a hiking community online and off trail and the reason I started these q and A's was pretty much just to connect with the audience a little bit more I was doing gear reviews and making advice videos but I wanted to create that hiking community off trail so that's where these stemmed out of really it was just a secondary video that I was making every week just to put out more content but it has become insanely popular and I wanted to thank all of you so much for coming adding your questions sending video questions interacting with the Q&A giving me things to think about and helping us all educate each other now I know there are some of you out there that don't like the Q&A is because you think that I answer the same questions every week and there's stupid questions and stupid answers but the reason that I do them is because there is no stupid answer and there is no stupid question some of us have been doing this for quite some time there's some of you out there that have never stepped foot on the trail and everyone constantly has questions about what to do where to do it how to do it and what advice they need to do it with so that is where these stemmed out of thank you all so much for letting me communicate with you and letting us build a hiking community together all right so let's get into the reason that you're all here and let's answer some questions now for this week's QA I formatted it a little bit different we're gonna start off answering some normal questions then we're gonna do nothing but video questions and then the last segment of questions is going to be what I like to call a Q&A shootout or I'm just gonna answer a bunch of really short questions really fast now that you're down to the final week before the PCT do you have any special final preparations do you carb up on pasta or have any special meals how do you know that you're ready to go Gorby good question no I don't have any final preparations usually my final preparations are trying to get a bunch of stuff done right before I leave now obviously I'm busy shooting a bunch of videos so you guys have something to watch until my first PCT hike video comes out but aside from filming videos and editing and doing all of that I've also been really busy building out my new van so I posted some pictures over on Instagram of that build snuggles and I bought a new van at the beginning of the year and then we've been working on converting it out so we can sell our trailer and move into it full-time just because it'll be a little bit easier it's more of a simplistic design and that's what we're all about aside from that I'm pretty much just spending time with snuggles and getting out on day hikes as much as I possibly can to get ready for the PCT in those situations where you have to embrace the suck what's going through your head

do you just zone out and trudge on or do you think about anything whenever I'm out on the trail and I'm embracing the suck how I embrace the suck as I stop and I think about this sucks I'm cold I'm wet I'm hot I'm hungry this this climb is terrible my legs hurt my knees hurt but with all that being said I rather be out doing that I rather be embracing the suck than sitting in an office cubicle somewhere and having somebody else telling me what to do and being depressed and dealing with that nine to five everyday job now I did that for years and it just wasn't me and being out on the trail whether it's great or whether it's not is my freedom it's my therapy and it's it's how I get through life so when I embrace the suck I just simply think about there are things out there that suck much worse than this and I rather be embracing the suck out on the trail than embracing the suck in an office what do you do with your wedding band while hiking recently got engaged and I always find myself putting mine in my bag

because I don't want to lose it slash get it dirty John I still wear my wedding band now it's not the one that snuggles and I whenever we got married it's not the wedding band that we used during our wedding but it is a silicone wedding band it is made by a company called Rome and both snuggles and I wear them we wore our regular you know gold wedding bands up until about three years ago and then we just got rid of them just because I'm on the trail so much and I'm such an active person I never really wore it it just kind of sit in a box anyways so we do have it in storage in a lockbox because it is still something special to us but what we wear every single day is just a regular silicon wedding band that way if it does get messed up if it does get dirty I can just throw it away and I can get another one

Rome is really cool because you can buy a whole pack of wedding bands so instead of just buying one you actually get a whole pack of them and then you know if one gets nasty or it tears up you can just throw another one on so I have like a whole pack of these black wedding bands and if I break one I just grab another one you want to check out Rome's website I'll put a link down in the description box you can go look at all of their different colors and styles and stuff and then maybe think about ordering one because that's what snuggles and I did why do you wear leotards under your shorts kind of look like a girl but that's fine if that's the look you're going for so I'm assuming by leotard you mean my tights that I constantly I can so the reason a lot of

long distance hikers and just hikers in general wear tights is because they're light they're good leg coverings instead of pants and they just keep you warm you can use what's called the through hiker layering system so I hike in a pair of shorts normally and then I have my tights

so if I'm cold and I'm hiking I can throw the tights on under my shorts and it creates pants I can sleep in just my tights at night to keep me a little bit warmer and yeah maybe I just want to look like a girl all right guys next up are the video questions hey Darwyn it's your senior fan club of Gilbert Arizona hey we're getting ready to go to Alaska in June and I don't think I've heard you talk about whether or not you've encountered a bear on the trail and if so what did you do about it we're super excited and we can't wait to see your videos from the PCT yeah I've seen a ton of bears on the trail now I've never seen a brown bear or a grizzly bear or a polar bear or panda bear but I have seen a ton of black bear on the Appalachian Trail they're pretty much like big raccoons they are everywhere

especially whenever you get into states like New Jersey we seen a ton of bear in New Jersey really out there on the trail they're more of like a nuisance than they are a danger honestly now there are some bear attacks that happen every once in a while and maybe one to three a year now I know I just said that and there's gonna be a bunch of either gonna throw a bunch of information at me I don't know for a fact however bears out on the 80 and black bears in general or more of just a nuisance it's really Grizzlies and brown bears and obviously polar bears that you have to worry about and how I deal with them I just leave them alone there's no sense in annoying a wild animal out in nature whether it's a bear or a moose or a deer or anything leave it alone chances are it'll leave you alone practice good Leave No Trace principles don't leave your food out properly hang your bag in a tree so a bear has no reason to even come into your camp and you should be fine hi Darwin I'm Eric this is Emery we're out here on the Florida Trail in Orlando Florida and I think I have a unique question for you so I'm a cameraman who films outside for a living in Florida where it's always hot it's always humid and it's always raining a lot during the year and I'm looking for clothing that will protect me outside because I don't wear sunscreen because I don't want to get all over the equipment so I'm looking for something that will like totally protect my body from the Sun it will be light and breezy enough to keep me cool because it's so hot outside and it will also wick away sweat from my body and keep me safe from the rain if you could help me out with that that would be amazing and bonus I could wear it hiking and that would be even better so thanks a lot love your videos see you later high-five Emery I'll get that later so the hiking shirt that I typically wear is the Columbia Silver Ridge light shirt I talk about it a lot in my videos and you'll see me wearing it all the time it's the long-sleeve colored light blue shirt it is wicking it is good sun protection it has a big vent in the back so it helps your back breathe so that is what I would suggest there's a couple different brands out there I think REI makes one if you want to go like a little bit cheaper I thank Patagonia makes one I think pretty much all of the major outdoor apparel brands makes some sort of a long-sleeve wicking sun protection shirt so check those out but the one that I really like is the Silver Ridge long-sleeve Lite as far as pants they do make Silver Ridge pants as well that are pretty much made out of the same material so check those out - hey Darwyn this is Adam here in the Arboretum in Morgantown West Virginia my question for you is about down I've just got this down jacket that very pleased with but occasionally some of the feathers come out is that normal and if it is how long before a down jacket usually loses its oops thanks love your channel yes that is totally normal down jackets just shed feathers what actually happens is because of the baffles and the stitching there's a little bitty holes where obviously the stitch goes into the material feathers just kind of worked their way out the other thing is if it's a certain type of down feather that is in the jacket like duck fell down versus a goose fill they have more stems on them so the end of the feather and those actually will poke through the material like the cell nylon and then they come out that way so yes it is very normal for a down jacket to shed down as far as when does a down jacket just kind of crap out um it really all depends

I would suggest finding out what the manufacturer recommends for washing your down jacket and then just keep it washed every few months because whenever we're hiking and we're sleeping all the oils and dirt and stuff in our skin definitely gets into that jacket gets into the down so definitely take care of your jacket wash it properly check your manufacturers suggestions on washing it if you treat it right it should last you a long time alright so the next series of video questions is from a school there's a certain teacher that has been following my videos and his entire class is going to be following my videos on the PCT so this is a few of his students that had a few questions I'm a sixth grade student I love a charter school my question is how do you wash your clothes on a trail thank you for your video hey Sophia so I don't usually wash my clothes out on the trail now every once in a while I will maybe take my shirt off that I'm hiking in and if I'm near a stream or a waterfall or something I'll take it off I'll get it wet and I'll wring it out just to get some of that sweat and grime out but as far as actually washing my clothes I wait till I get into a town so if I'm staying at a hostel or a hotel or some Trail Angel picks me up and takes me back to their house that's where I wash my clothes I don't like washing my clothes in the woods just because I don't want to take soap and get it into the natural environment into the water into the soil even if I'm using a pure castile natural soap it's just one of those things that I don't do so most times I stay pretty grimy and pretty gross out on the trail but occasionally I will rinse my shirt out in a stream or a waterfall my question is how many months does it take to hike the PCT thank you for your videos okay so most people will take about four to six months to hike the PCT I believe that five months is usually the average now I am personally going to be shooting for a four month through hike now that's two thousand six hundred and fifty miles so if you want to take four months and divide that by two thousand six hundred and five I'm sure you can come up with how many miles that I'm gonna have to hike every day I don't really know yet but I'm gonna be shooting for four months and if I have to go five months that's fine but averagely four to six months so what do I think about when I'm hiking um I think about a lot of things usually really random stuff so I will be hiking down the trail and any random song that I haven't heard in years will pop into my head out of nowhere sometimes it's like a theme song from a cartoon that I remember watching when I was a kid so like the Transformers theme song will randomly pop into my head and I haven't heard it since I was like ten years old so that happens a lot and then aside from that I just really think about I guess life in general as deep as that sounds it's just kind of what you do you reflect a lot when you're out on the trail you think about things that you're gonna do when you get off trail you think about the moment that you're currently in a lot of times I really think about the next trail so when I'm out on the PCT I'll be thinking about the next thru-hike that I'm ready to go and hit

on the trail thank you Shania I have a super eclectic taste in music and I listen to just about everything right now out on the trail what's on my phone I've been listening to a lot of Chris Robinson Brotherhood if you haven't checked them out I highly suggest them just really easy cool music I listen to a lot of that every once in a while whenever I'm just having a hard day and I just need to push out those miles I'll listen to something a little bit heavier I think currently on my iPhone right now I have a royal blood album and a Black Flag album so it's something a little heavier and a little grungy and then a lot of times just because I want to be in the moment I'll listen to something very atmospheric and very Airy so I'm a huge fan of two bands in particular a band called explosions in the sky and a band called Seguros which is my favorite band so I have a lot of them on my iPod and it's what's called post-rock it's just very easygoing music it just really hopes you get into the mood being in nature and being on the trail and kind of paying attention to your surroundings I think there's a couple hip-hop albums on there there's some blues albums on there I love jazz I listen to just about everything and I constantly swap back and forth depending on what my mood is during the day all right guys this last series of questions is what I like to call Q&A shootout I'm gonna answer them as quickly as I possibly can with the shortest answer to get as many as I can in before the end Darwin do I need a bear canister on the pan holy trail no not that I know of I didn't carry one I don't know anyone else that carried one I just carried a bear bag a hanging kit and threw it up in a tree TCT no bow or so bow why no bow and because why not I hiked the 80 no bow so I'm gonna hike the PCT no bow I think all the major trails I'm gonna hike northbound and then for smaller section hikes and smaller trails I like the idea of hiking those southbound I don't know it's just kind of something you get into a groove of I'm a northbounder so I'm gonna be hiking the PCT northbound - have you done the Colorado Trail do you plan to no I have not done the Colorado Trail yes I totally plan to it's very high on the top of my list of next thru-hike so I might be doing that one next or I might not but yes I'm gonna do it are you shaving off your beard and cutting your hair before the PCT no what is your peoples obsession with my beard in my hair it's not going anywhere I like it it's staying

Darwyn do you bring vitamins on through hikes yes everyone smile I do bring a multivitamin sometimes I'll bring just something like zinc or magnesium to help me sleep at night the funny thing is every time that I bring them I always forget to take them so yeah I do bring them but most times I don't take them and then the last question is not really a question it's more of a statement and that is we'll miss you Darwin so thank you so much I've been getting a lot of emails and a lot of comments of people acting like I'm going bye-bye and I'm not coming back so I'm not going anywhere I'm still gonna be doing a video a week I just won't be doing the Q&A s for four to five months so I will be doing a hike video once a week from the trail so keep an eye out for those and hopefully you guys follow along with those hopefully you're not just here on the channel for the QAS the reason I do these videos is so I can go out and hike and I can gather information to share with you so please follow my PCT thru-hike videos I can't wait to bring you along alright guys so that is it that is all of the questions that I have time for this week and for the next four to five months again thank you all so much for making this Q&A series what it's become and hopefully when I get back we can start up a Q&A series and probably do a monthly one 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 throughout the week plus I'll be trying to post a picture a day from the PCT as long as I have signal the other thing is if you want to follow my wife snuggles as she travels on a road trip up and down the west coast you should check out her Instagram too she posted a lot of pictures of van life and writing and pretty much what she has going on so go check her out and follow snuggles on the trail as well 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]