Gear List

Imagine you are hiking for months on end and can only have the items at your disposable that you are willing to carry 20 miles every day. How heavy does your pack end up weighing? Over the last few months Ethan and I have attempted to upgrade our equipment to be the lightest, most durable, versatile and quickest drying items we could find (and also afford). We have managed to get our packs to a combined weight of 43 pounds not including food or water, this is our “base weight”. My pack will weigh about 21 pounds and Ethan’s about 22 lbs to start the trail. Adding food and water to our packs will put us at about 25-35 pounds each day, very rarely exceeding 35 pounds.

Our goal was to both have a base weight at about 20 pounds each. Some ultralight thru hikers can have base weights under 15 or even 12 pounds. These people not only have the most up to date gear, they also are willing to part with items that many hikers won’t compromise on. For example, it is easy to cut a few pounds if we were willing to ditch our stove setup and eat only cold or soaked food. This approach seems a tad extreme to us. The following list is about as minimal as we are willing to make this thru hike.