Long Trail Gear
I’m now just a few days away from my Long Trail trip. I’ve finally gotten all my gear together so this seems like a good time to do a quick post showing what I’m taking. I spent the past several years refining my backpacking gear. This year I also spent quite a bit of time figuring out what to replace and what to just not carry to lighten the pack weight. Currently without food and water (but with radio), I am looking at just under 18 pounds. I was hoping to be lighter, but it always tends to get heavy at the last minute.
Here’s all the gear I’ll be carrying on the Long Trail:
I don’t want to go into too much depth on everything, because that would be boring. I’ll just go through things pretty quickly. I might explain why I’m going with a particular piece too. From top left to bottom right, here we go.
Carrying
ULA Equipment Circuit with a shoulder strap pocket (1083g) - Light, carries a lot of stuff, and big enough to carry a bear can. I won’t be carrying one on the Long Trail, but sometimes I like to go out west.
MLD pack liner bags (70g) - Instead of a pack cover, I’m going with liner bags instead. I don’t know why, I just thought I’d try what everyone else seems to be doing.
Clothing
Outdoor Research Helium II (200g) - Very light rain jacket that gets great reviews. This replaces my older, heavier EMS rain jacket that is also developing holes.
REI Co-Op Fleece (240g) - Very light fleece that doubles as a pillow when crammed into a bag. This replaces my older, heavier EMS fleece that is also black so is weird to wear with black pants.
Home made hat (62g) and Smartwool gloves (40g) - Just in case it’s cold on the few alpine summits or when sitting around camp at night.
Misc. short sleeve shirts (150g each) - I like these more than the neon wicking shirts. I’m taking two and I’ll just switch them out every day.
Long sleeve wool shirt (217g) - In the winter, this is my base layer. This time it’s for sitting around camp, alpine summits, and pillow filler. I might ditch this on resupply day, but it’s been a pretty cool summer so maybe not.
Scrub pants and underwear (242g) - These are for sitting around camp and sleeping. I need to give my hiking clothes a chance to dry out.
Misc. socks (80g each) - I’m taking two thin pairs of hiking socks to switch out every day, plus one thicker pair for night or it there’s an especially cold or rainy day.
Arc’teryx underwear (67g each) - I’m hoping these will prevent chafing. They’re expensive, so I’m taking two pairs and swapping them out.
Sandals (250g) - I don’t like wearing boots longer than I have to. I’ll change into these as soon as we get into a shelter.
Zip-off EMS hiking pants (400g) - For the most part I’ll be wearing shorts, but I think there will be enough rain or wind on the taller peaks for pant legs.
Sleeping
Enlightened Equipment Revelation quilt (600g) - The big bag on the left is my quilt, not yet stuffed into a bag. This is a 30F model I had custom made a few years ago before their lead times got ridiculous. For most of the year it’s more than sufficient.
MLD Grace Duo Tarp (600g) - I am hoping to be able to stay in a shelter all the time, but just in case one’s full, I want a shelter. The tarp is very light and pretty fast to set up. There’s also a plastic ground sheet and eight stakes. The stakes are useful for my antenna, too. For just this trip, this replaces my TarpTent Double Rainbow.
Therm-A-Rest ProLite (623g) - I don’t like the air mattresses because they leak overnight and eventually develop holes.
Everything else
First aid kit (193g) - Most first aid kits you buy have a lot of junk you don’t need. This one I put together is bandages, neosporin, ibuprofin, excedrin, tweezers, gauze, and a couple other minor things.
Long Trail map (41g) and Silva Explorer Pro compass (44g) - It’d be hard get lost on the Long Trail. The map is more so I know what SOTA summits are coming up, how far to the next shelter, and so on. The compass is just in case I do actually get lost.
Waterproof notebook and pencil (95g) - The notebook is for my radio log and taking notes on the day’s hiking when we get to a shelter. I’m not going to write detailed journal entries at the time. A pencil is supposed to work better on the paper than ink would.
Rope, Small light, and Clip-on sunglasses (100g) - The latter are whatever I found at Wal-Mart, probably when we were on some other trip.
The blue bag (420g) contains small things I might need throughout the day - a bug head net, knife, bug spray, sunscreen, and anti-chafing cream. This does kind of add up to a lot, so some things might get ditched part way through.
The grey bag (253g) contains hygeine items - toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, medicine, ear plugs for sleeping in shelters, and baby wipes instead of showers. The small pill bottle on top is caffeine. I think that will end up in the food bag.
SOTA gear - I’ve already talked about this.
Sawyer Squeeze (110g) - This is for filtering water. It’s like the Mini, but a little bit bigger and a lot faster.
Big Dig trowel (17g) - Sharp enough to cut through small roots because the ground here is tough. Also, hand sanitizer and toilet paper.
Anker 10000mAh battery (191g) - For charging my phone. I’m hoping to get four charges out of it. My phone will go in the shoulder strap pocket of the pack for quick access. It’s also my GPS and camera for this trip.
Ursack AllWhite (214g) and OpSak (43g) - The OpSak is an odor barrier, and the Ursack is a bear bag. All my food and trash will go inside, and then I’ll tie it up somewhere. Some of the shelters are completely enclosed, though, so I probably won’t have to do anything there.
Sea to Summit spoon (11g) - Long handled, for reaching down into those bags of food. Much better than a short one.
Platypus SoftBottle (55g each) - The red one is for non-water drinks. That way I know it’s had food in it and it needs to be stored in the bear bag.
Not shown
Sea to Summit bug shelter - I’m not sure whether the bugs will still be bad or not, but this is cheap and light protection just in case. It’s useful both under the tarp and in a shelter.
Waterproof bag for phone - Small enough to go in that shoulder pocket, but also clear and touch sensitive so I can still use the phone.
Packing
Not really shown are stuff sacks. My clothes go into two - one for things I might need throughout the day (like a fleece), and the other for camp and the next day. The sleeping bag gets stuffed into a pretty small bag, and the pad gets rolled up. All the food gets packed into the Ursack.
I’m then going to use two liner bags to divide my pack into two big tubes. Food goes at the bottom of one, spare clothes go in the bottom of the other. Everything else then gets layered on top from least useful to most useful, with things like that small blue bag, snacks, and my radio gear on the very top. The rain coat, water filter, toilet paper, and trowel go on the outside.