Ask Darwin Q&A #31 (Answers)

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

ZPacks Nero - http://www.zpacks.com/backpacks/nero.shtml

Zpacks Arc Blast - http://www.zpacks.com/backpacks/arc_blast.shtml

GutHook CDT App - http://atlasguides.com

Spot Tracker - http://amzn.to/2ywFXQd

Garmin Etrex 20X - http://amzn.to/2jRx3cS

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,CDT,PCT Thru Hike,Backpacking,UL Backpacking,UL Gear,Hiking,Hiker Trash,Camping,Adventure,Arizona Trail,AZT,Zpacks,Zpacks Nero,Zpacks Arc Blast,Guthook App

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 what kind of foods do you recommend for short and long hikes so I recommend any food that is super high in calories it's kind of a hard question it all depends on what trip that you're doing but a big rule of thumb for me is I always try to find as many calories per ounce that I can get typically I look for foods that have at least a hundred to 200 calories per ounce cuz I know that when I'm out on the trail whether it's a short hike or a long hike I need as many calories as I can possibly get because I'm constantly burning a lot of them and obviously I want to carry the lightest calorie dense food that I possibly can so I always used that rule of thumb a hundred to two hundred calories per ounce what happened to your ultralight on a budget series so nothing happened to it I just haven't made episode 3 yet I've actually started picking up a handful of pieces of gear that I've been kind of messing with here and there and testing and I'll be putting that video together probably within the month lately I've really been focusing on my section hike of the Arizona Trail which I'm actually on right now even though I'm here I'm on the trail yeah I'm on it right now so keep an eye out for that within the next month because I will be doing an episode three if any of the rest of you out there don't know what we're talking about I've started doing an ultra-light gear on a budget video series I'll put a link up here if you want to check out the first one and then you should be able to find the second one as well what do you think of personal location beacons for lone hikers that's a good question Sammy I don't have anything against them I have personally never used anything and I'm assuming that you're talking about like the spot or a Delora me or any of those other GPS beacons that people carry on them I have personally never carried them the only time I think I would ever care I was trying to set an F KT our fastest known time on a trail so I could have that to track my progress aside from that it sounds terrible no one ever really wants to watch my progress on a trail so I don't ever carry one and then so far I've never been in a wilderness situation on a hike to where I really felt that I was really out in the middle of nowhere and I needed one just in case something happen to me but as far as are they a good idea or not yeah sure absolutely if you're willing to carry that weight and you have somebody back at home that's really worried about you and wants to follow your hike I think they're awesome especially the spots they weigh like barely anything they are sort of expensive but they're nice to have just in case something happens so my question is I'm considering doing a CDT hike next year because well you know this kind of stuff getting a little addicted to it and I'm a little bit concerned about navigation because the CDT

isn't quite as well turfed out as the 80 or the PCT so I'm wondering if you have any navigation tips like whether you use a GPS like a Garmin whether you use a navigation or GPS app for your iPhone etc so thanks so much love your videos and best of luck on your PCT next year Thanks yeah so that is a really good point and whenever I was out on that section hike of the CDT this past April sometimes it can be sort of hard to navigate that trail now what I personally used was gut hooks app and Lay's app which are two phenomenal apps but if you're not into the whole app thing I know there's a lot of people that still hike that trail with traditional maps they'll carry certain sections of the map and the route with them just in case they get lost and then when they get to the next section they'll throw that out and then pick up another one that they've resupplied themselves I know some other hikers that have been out there and actually carried a GPS I hiked with the guy in April named toasted toad that had a Delora me which is kind of like a GPS phone thing and he used that a lot but he all so use that in conjunction with the get hook app the only time I've ever used a GPS on a trail as last year when I went out to bike pack the entire Arizona Trail I had a GPS but not really for navigation it was more to track my progress because I had planned on taking that data and using it for something I was actually gonna be writing a guide for doing that trail it didn't work out so all that information just kind of got dumped to the side but yeah I would suggest if you're gonna be completely through hiking the CDT you know download gut hook on your phone have a paper map as well and if you feel like you need a GPS grab one of those too because that trail can definitely be hard to navigate in some areas do you plan for any future bike packing um no I actually have kind of put bike packing on the back burner and it's just because I have that thru-hike of the PCT next year so because of that this this next year I'm really gonna be doing a lot of smaller backpacking sections and hiking sections trying out different gear really figuring out what my main setup is gonna be for the PCT and just to be able to make more hiking content now I absolutely love bike packing and I really got obsessed with it last year for a few months if you guys didn't notice and I will eventually return to doing more bike packing specific videos but for right now yeah I have nothing on the books it's just kind of on the back burner and it's all about hiking and getting ready for the PCT what means to charge your photographic equipment do you use on the trail and are there any solar chargers you recommend the PCT has many sections where wall sockets are few and far between so that's a good question and I've touched on it a handful of times I've never used a solar charger I thought about picking one up just to test it and kind of give my thoughts on it because I've never really spent a lot of time with it when I was out on the Appalachian Trail having something like a solar charger is completely worthless because you're totally in a canopy of trees all the time so you're never getting Sun now out on the PCT or the CDT in the big desert sections it's totally a different story you could totally use a solar panel and it would be great but I've always just carried a battery pack so actually right now my phone is charging with this guy which is a blitz wolf nine thousand milliamp charger so sometimes I'll just carry something as big as this and this is usually enough between towns to charge my phone a couple times and charge my camera a couple times and then other trips if I know that I'm gonna be going longer sections I'll carry a bigger battery pack like this big rad power which is twenty two thousand milliamp so it really all depends on what trail that I'm doing and what battery pack but I've never carried a solar charger I always just carry one of these battery packs and that does me fine every time that I come into a town to resupply while I'm resupplying I'll take that I'll plug it into a wall and do all my errands do everything that I need to do in town and then usually by the time that I'm leaving town and getting back on the trail my charger is all charged up and I'm ready to have power again on the trail Darwin one of y'all heading back over to the East Coast y'all you must be over at the East Coast we actually plan on heading back to the East Coast as soon as I finished up with the PCT

next year so it will actually be heading back out and our plans as of now is we're going to be heading to Virginia right around the 80 to probably like Damascus Virginia or Daleville because during the thru-hiking season for 2019 we want to be out there to do some trail Anglin we want to do some trail magic we want to rehire of the trail and then we also want to do some trail work for the ATC so probably the end of next year definitely 2019 we'll be back out there and we'll see it so you chose the Niro over blast unless you have to carry water I own the arc zip because I have to carry a lot of water in the Texas desert but I'm very interested in purchasing the Niro when would you use the blasts over the near oh so that's a good question and I've actually been getting a lot of comments on that so the reason I picked up the niro was to do a very small ultra light kit and that's just for section hikes I'm only using that for this section of the Arizona Trail and then I might be doing a small section of the PCT kind of late fall into the winter because we're gonna be out in Southern California but aside from that I'll use my arc the entire time on the PCT and any extended through hikes so I'm not done with the Ark or anything I'm just using that for more of longer hikes where the Nero is really put together and that whole kit that I put together in that pack is for smaller faster hikes I'm a big fan of trying new things and always doing different types of hikes trying new gear I'm a huge gear geek so pretty much if Z packs puts out a new piece of gear I try like hell to get my hands on it because like I said I'm a huge gear geek and I love playing with that stuff in the field you're sounding a little congested which made me think when doing a section or through hike what do you do if you get sick take a zero push through good question I sound kind of congested and probably in my last video especially because we are in the mountains right now and it's actually pretty damn cold here I think this morning it was like 43 degrees so because we are at higher elevation it is chillier so it stuffs me up a little bit in the morning now as far as if I get sick on a thru-hike I've actually knock on wood never been sick during a thru-hike I've never gotten the flu I've never gotten any of that stuff while out on the trail so I've never had to deal with it that being said if I did get sick out on the trail yeah I would take a zero or maybe even a string of zeros take my mileage but take care of myself take a little bit of medicine get some rest because I wouldn't want to get crazy sick while I was out on the trail and have that take me off the trail all right guys so the last question of the week is not really a question as more of a comment but I figured I'd answer it simply an observation don't label me a hater as you have others it appears that over the arc of your videos you're transitioning from an efficient hiker to treating hiking as a triathlon or some other athletic pursuit the emphasis seems to be on banging out the miles not enjoying the miles you bang out there is a difference and one you should be clear on as you train another generation of hikers don't get me wrong some of the advice and insights made my 10 day epic in the winds this summer far more enjoyable and epic so greatly appreciated but the shift to treating a day in the wilderness as just another there are others already there all right Bart so number one I don't think you're a hater at all you actually bring up a great point and one that I've wanted to touch on for a while now my hiking style constantly changes and the types of hikes that I do constantly change I've never said there's one right way to hike or one right piece of gear to have if you follow along with my channel for the past two years you'll notice this trend of it constantly changing so if you watched my channel two years ago for that first year it was about nothing but the Appalachian Trail why I just gotten off the Appalachian Trail and I was about to start hiking the Appalachian Trail again once I got done with the Appalachian Trail all of my videos shifted to bike packing I did nothing but bike packing videos for about four months straight before I went on my bike packing trip of the Arizona Trail after that they went back to general backpacking from there all of my videos went to PCT prep and they're gonna go back there but lately all of my videos have been about going ultralight and going faster because I am currently right now on the Arizona Trail and for that trail I wanted to go crazy ultralight and I wanted to go fast why I've never done that trail before I've never done that hike before and I'm constantly trying and doing different hikes that I've never done so my media is constantly changing with what I am currently hiking whether that's a long-distance trail whether that's just a section a bike packing trip hell if tomorrow I decided that I wanted to take up mountaineering all my videos on my channel would go to mountaineering videos my channel has never been about one type of backpacking or one type of hiking it has always evolved with what I am currently doing and like I said I never stay doing the same thing so right now my videos are basically based around the Arizona Trail because that's what I'm currently hiking now as soon as I get back from the Arizona Trail all my videos will go back to planning for a PCT through hike which I won't be going so ultralight so I don't think that you're a hater at all but I do want to make that clear that I like doing different hikes and I like messing with different gear because that's just who I am and that's what I like doing and regardless I have all he's been a fast hiker you can ask snuggles even back in 2015 and 2016 I like to hike big miles and I like to hike fast that's always been my style I've never said not to or that I don't and things like going stove us back in 2015

snuggles and I went stove us for about a month just because it was too hot to eat so I've always done these things it's just what videos and what advice you hear me say and you see me do basis that opinion I've always tried to drive that point to you guys as much as possible that as backpackers and as hikers we have to constantly evolve try new things use different gear do different trips try new food because there's no one right way or one wrong way to hike or backpack all right guys so 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 Gavin got to change it go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a lot of new photos lately of some of the things that snuggles and I have going on throughout the week plus a ton of pictures from the Arizona Trail because I'm trying to post at least one picture a day as long as I have signal if you found any value in this video go ahead and hit that like button subscribe to my channel if you haven't already as always guys thanks for watching [Music]

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