Gear and other thoughts

I spent quite a bit of time reading reviews and looking for fairly specific pieces of gear. I was looking for a combination of the lightest, most durable and most comfortable equipment. For the most part I was able to find everything I needed to get at LL Beans which worked out rather well since the employee discount made it much more reasonable. One of the few things that LL Bean did not have a satisfactory selection was trekking polls. REI had a much better selection that included a set of ultralight polls that I think should work great. Here is the list of clothing items that I plan on bringing:

• Stowaway Gore-tex Jacket
• Stowaway Gore-tex Rain Pants
• Polartec Base Layer Top, Lightweight
• Polartec Base Later Pants, Lightweight
• Smart Wool Hiking Socks, Midweight x6
• Smart Wool Hiking Socks, Lightweight x4
• Smart Wool Trail Running Socks, Lightweight x4
• Tropicweart Zip-leg Pants
• Timberledge Shirt
• Super 200 Fleece Jacket
• Seirus Hyperlite Soundtouch Gloves
• Merrel Chameleon Arc Ventilator Shoes x2
• Gore-tex Cresta Hiking Boots

Not all of those items will be with me at all times. I will be starting the trail with the Cresta hikers and three or four pairs of socks. The Cresta hikers come much higher up the ankle which is something I wanted for potential snow hiking. However, they are also much heavier and bulky then a trail shoe which I will switching to later on trail. I completely guessed on sock volume but I figured it would be nice to get some fresh socks mailed down to me at different points along the trail. The gloves and base layer items will get shipped home once I feel fairly sure that am past most of the potential cold weather. Now for the list of gear:

• MSR Hubba Tent
• Phantom Sleeping Bag, 15 degree
• Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Sleeping Pad
• Leatherman Skeletool
• Gregory Baltoro 65 Pack
• Sea to Summit Ultralight Pack Cover
• Pinnacle Duelist cook set
• MSR Whisperlite Internationale Stove
• 16oz MSR Fuel Canister
• Black Diamond Ultra Distance Z-Poles
• Extra Carbon Tips for Z-Poles
• MSR Titan Cup
• SteriPen Adventurer Opti Water Purifier
• Black Diamond Head Lamp
• Polarized Sunglasses
• MSR Dromlite 4L
• 32oz Wide Mouth Nalgene
• Cheese Cloth for straining water
• Suntactics Solar Charger
• iPhone 4S
• Sleeping Bag Liner

And here is what both of those lists together actually looks like... When it is all unpacked and out it looks like quite a bit of stuff. Somehow it all fits down into my bag, with 10 to 14 pounds of food. It is rather amazing. A few notes about that gear list. The stove is not even close to the lightest or most compact but I already owned it (basically the only item I did not purchase new for this trip) and it is incredibly fuel efficient which is nice advantage. The Nalgene water bottle is also not the lightest option but I needed a water bottle with a wide enough opening to fit the SteriPen inside to kill the bacteria. The Dromlite is larger then I probably need but since it is a bag it doesn't take up extra space or much weight even if I only keep roughly 2 liters of water in it at a time. All in all, the suggested retail for the clothing and gear comes to something close to $3,500. Thankfully I was given some of the items and almost all of the rest I got with a significant discount at LL Beans. I haven't calculated out the weight yet but it isn't to far off of my goal.

With just ten more days until I leave I have been perusing the hiker count statistics collected by the Appalachian Trail Club at http://www.appalachiantrail.org/about-the-trail/2000-milers. some of the interesting stats about last year are that of the 1,700 people starting in Georgia planning on getting to Maine, 849 made it half way and 414 succeeded in their goal. Also, 59 south bounders finished the trail, 30 flip-flop hikers and 120 section hikers finished their journeys as well. While a roughly 25% completion rate doesn't sound insurmountable by any means it serves to remind me that there is a somewhat decent chance that this journey might end prematurely. I feel that I can handle the mental part of the trail but many people's journey is cut short because of injury or illness that is mostly out of their hands. Hopefully perseverance, strong mental strength and a little bit of luck will all come together shortly.

If you want to pretend to hike the trail but feel that your computer chair might be a more comfortable location for such an activity check out this 4 minute time lapse video http://vimeo.com/20218520. Things that I found interesting about this video include the fact that the hiker hit snow quite a ways into the journey at about 1 minute into the video and also how prominent the trail conditions change when the hiker hits the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The southern parts look well groomed but up here around the northern terminus of the trail it is rocky and covered in roots. On the up side that is basically the only kind of trail I have ever hiked so I will be ready, I better be.