I attempt the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
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We are getting closer and closer to my start date! So, it is time to start reading up on trail conditions. To assist me, I found a past hiker with the trail name of Ramdino who posts weekly on YouTube. I hope that you check him out. I signed up on his list of hikers, so you might hear my name mentioned.
There is snow up in the mountains as high as 18 inches. I suspect that it will be melted by my March 6th starting date, but just to be sure, I’ve added my Kahtoola MICROspikes to my gear list. My wife and I hiked the Monches segment of the IAT on Saturday. There was still plenty of snow and ice on the trail and I had no problem staying at my full hiking pace with them on. They are also good for traction on mud.
I will be monitoring conditions. They weight 13.1 ounces, but provide X-Mode traction in snow. Better traction means fewer calories burned. I can always return them after the Smokies.
Just as my last blog post is published, I receive an advertisement from zPacks. They have a new flashlight / headlamp that meets all my requirements. It is the A5 Hat Clip Flashlight, a lightweight flashlight with a clip that allows it to be used as a headlamp. It also has a lantern mode. It has a USB-C port for charging, so I do not need any different cables. More importantly, it weighs just .8 ounces and costs just $36. My Zebralight H52W weighs 2.9 ounces and a spare AA battery is .7 ounces. That is a 2.8 ounce weight savings for not much money. Needless to say, I bought it immediately.
I brought up my gear boxes from the basement and into the sunroom that has been converted into the Quartermaster’s Office as I’m now just forty days from the start of my attempt of the Appalachian Trail. I have multiple stations set up.
The first station is for my gear. I have a small scale and my tablet open to LighterPack.com. I am not assembling a brand new kit. Much of my gear from the PCT is still in excellent condition. It pays to take care of you kit. Nothing escapes the scale, even if I weighted it before.
To protect me on the PCT, my daughter gave me a Pokémon keychain to clip outside of my backpack. She chose a Manaphy for me. For those of you who are not Pokémon masters like my daughter, Manaphy is a water-type. Julia felt that a water-type would be a good match for the first 700 miles of desert. I would never go thirsty. As I completed the PCT, this keychain has become a good luck charm.
The good news is that Manaphy has dropped .1 ounces in weight. When I weighed it back in 2018, it was .6 ounces. Today it is .5! With that weight savings, I can afford to take a bandage! Who am I kidding? I’m five years older than my last 2,000 mile hike. I’ll use that weight savings to carry more Ibuprofen!
My sawyer squeeze is also getting a checkup. I bought a brand new one a long time ago. Although I have not used it before, I find that running clean water through it before you leave means that all the air bubbles will be pushed out. When I connect it for the first time on trail, it will work right away. I have a 2.5 liter dirty water bag that has a loop in it for an easy gravity hang. The 2.5 liter capacity allows me to gather enough water for dinner, cleanup and late night tea.
I’m still considering some gear swaps. My headlamp is a Zebralight H52W. It was great on the PCT. It’s only downfall is that it requires a AA battery, which means I’m carrying a spare, which is extra weight. I cannot remember if I even changed batteries on the PCT. I avoid night hiking unless I absolutely have to, so I used it sparingly. I have also considered dropping from a 20,000 mAh power bank to a 10,000 mAh. That would save me some weight. Mostly all minor changes.
The next station is for my food. My first resupply is Neels Gap Mountain Crossing at mile 31. It is a full service resupply point and it is right on trail. I just need enough food to get there. I will be dropped off at Amicalola Falls State Park which is 8.8 miles south of the Southern Terminus, so I’ll need an extra days worth of food. The approach trail is going to be tough from the get go. It is a 3,000+ foot climb over eight miles. Should be fun!
It is funny. When I finally reached the Northern Terminus of the PCT, I was rewarded with an 8 mile hike to Manning Park and civilization. For the AT, I’m rewarded with bonus miles right from the get-go.
I am hoping that everything runs smoothly, but if my flight is delayed for some reason, I’ll have a day’s worth of food. So, if I arrive too late to hike to the start on March 6th, I’ll just camp at Amicalola Falls State Park and start the next day.
I also need to ship a box to Fontana Dam, NC at mile 164. As I understand it, the resupply options there are weak, so I’ll pack five days of food, which is more than enough to get to Gatlinburg at mile 208. So, before I leave, I’ll ship a box there. I will resupply on trail the rest of the way.
My second resupply box isn’t needed until Harper’s Ferry at mile 1026. I’ll have time to sort that out before I get there.
I went on the zPacks website and found a brand new Plex Solo in blue in the bargain bin for $60 off. I bought it immediately. There are a couple of reasons why the tent might be in the bargain bin. The single biggest reason is that it is a return. I know that many people new to backpacking purchase a specialty tent only to discover that they are completely different than the camping tent they have always used. Backpacking tents are tiny! zPacks tents are as minimal as they come, which makes them seem flimsy, but I can attest that they are very well made. I could take my Hexamid. Despite a PCT thru-hike, it is still waterproof.
Another possibility is that there is some minor material defect, such as blotchy color. I do not care about how it looks. It is going to get dirty very quickly. There also might be some minor sewing defect that needed to be repaired. It will be taped and it will have the same guarantee as an unblemished tent, so I’m good with that.
This tent is different than my Hexamid Solo Plus. On the good side, the Plex Solo weighs 5.8 ounces less. While I’ll miss the removable bathtub, the bathtub on the Solo Plus will do a much better job of protecting me from splatter when it rains. Finally, zPacks makes the zipper very easy to repair in the field. For an additional $0.50, I also purchased an extra #3 Pull Zipper slider which I will add to the repair kit. Set up is pretty much exactly the same. I was able to pitch my tent in less than two minutes in the dark by the time I made the Canadian border.
The one big negative is that this tent will be smaller than the Hexamid Solo Plus. Although I’m 5’9″, I bought the tent for someone 6’5″. That left plenty of room for gear. I’ll have to get used to that.
One other change I’ve made is that I will go with a zPacks Food Bag instead of my Bear Vault BV500. I received plenty of helpful advice after I blogged what I was going to do. There is a short three mile stretch were the bear vault is necessary over the entire hike and most shelters have places to hang or a bear box. A zPacks food bag weighs 1.5 ounces while the BV500 weighs 43 ounces, so that is some significant weight savings.
With that, my kit is complete. Now back to training!
Yes – bear canisters provide the most surety
and flexibility to ensure bears on the A.T. do not access human food,
therefore providing the best protection for bears against becoming
habituated to humans and human food. A fed bear is a dead bear.
There is more detailed information on the ATC’s webpage on Bears.
For most of my PCT hike, I carried a zPacks food bag.
The proper thing to do is to suck it up and carry the canister. It weighs 2 lbs. 11 oz. However, a full one-liter Smart Water bottle filled weighs 2 lbs. 5 oz. On the PCT, I often had to carry three filled Smart Water bottles and I’ll never have to do that on the AT, so it is a wash. The canister also makes a fine camp chair, so it serves a dual purpose.
I’ll probably be one of the few who properly follows the rules. I’ll try not to judge the action of others.
I hiked the PCT in 2018 with a zPacks Hexamid Solo Plus. It was an outstanding tent. Its light weight allowed me to carry a more robust sleeping solution because I’m a side sleeper. That means I need more cushioning for my hips, so I carry two sleeping pads. A good night sleep is critical for a successful hike.
What I really liked about the Hexamid, was the removable bathtub. I could use the bathtub as a floor if I cowboy camped separate from the rest of the tent. I also took it out when it rained and kept it in the dry portion of my pack. When I made camp, I would put up my tent, and away from the rain I would install the bathtub. I could then strip out of my wet clothes and my tent was completely dry.
That doesn’t mean that it was perfect. It suffered from a critical zipper failure at Crater Lake. The zipper no longer properly zipped. I used some safety pins to pin up the insect netting. It wasn’t a big deal as the mosquitos were not bad in Oregon and Washington in 2018. I had on night when I set up camp at a stealth site where ants got in. Nothing wakes you up like an ant crawling on your stomach in the middle of the night!
Despite my best efforts, dirt entered into the throat of the slider so the slider was no longer able to lock the elements. Yes, backpacking teaches all the proper named of the different parts of a zipper. The top and bottom stops; the elements on the tape; and the slider. The slider has a pull tab connected to a crown with a body and the throats.
Once I was home, there were instructions on zPack’s website on how to repair the zipper and had I been in a better communication situation, I could have fixed it in the field rather easily. All I needed was a new slider and to clean the elements. I had a scissors, Tenacious Tape, and a needle and heavy duty nylon thread. I fixed it and it works fine. I also needed to fix a couple of holes in the bathtub and the fly. There are many many pokey things looking to make pin holes in your gear on the PCT. Tenacious Tape is your friend.
Regardless, a tent made with Dyneema Composite Fabric is designed for one thru-hike. All that packing and unpacking is not good for it. I still use this tent for backpacking and camping, but it is not going to last another 150 day hike.
So, as I wrote, I am deciding on a new tent. zPack’s doesn’t make the Hexamid Solo Plus anymore. It has been replaced with the Plex Solo. The Plex Solo is lighter, but has a dedicated bathtub instead of a removable one. Because of that, I started looking around at different models. The Durston Gear X-Mid Pro 1 was very intriguing to me.
The Durston Gear has a unique layout, using two hiking poles to set up, but only requires four tent stakes. My Hexamid required 10 stakes. Although neither tent has a removable bathtub, the amount of cowboy camping I’m doing on the AT is rather limited. Between the rain, condensation, and bugs, I’ll be in my tent pretty much every night.
So, that means it all comes down to the zipper. It is what failed before.
There was no documentation on the Durston Gear site about zipper repair. I asked on Reddit and received very limited feedback. Basically, I need to take better care of my gear. Well, I did take good care of my gear, but sleeping on dirt means your zipper sits in the dirt.
zPacks, on the other hand, has you covered. To fix the zipper on the Hexamid required some cutting and sewing. On the Plex Solo, the zipper slider is designed to be quickly replaced in the field. They even have a video on YouTube on how to do it.