[at-l] my ultralight (partial) phylosophy and gear list (was maps)

[roni_h3000@yahoo.com (roni h)]

O.K.
Her's my 2 cent hiking phylosophy and my (more then 2
cent) partial gear list.  But beware - it's long.

I plan to  start my flip flop thru-hiking in june at
New-York and from there I'll walk north to mnt'
Katahdin and from which (probebly some time in august)
I'll take a bus , train, etc' back to N.Y.  from which
I will continue my hike south and I should finish the
thru-hike by november.  

I plan to start my hike with about 10 lb' of base
pack.
Using such an extremaly limited gear list is not
because of my extreme experience with ultralight ,on
the contrary - it is that I have little hiking
experince and no ultrahiking experience!  

As I see it - the biggest problem unexperienced
(wannabe) thruhikers like me have is that they bring
much too much gear and they start shipping it back
home. If they are determined to become ultralight (as
I am for I believe it's the only right way for me to
hike) they will have more or less have to get a
completly new set of gear - and this isn't likly to
happenn within the 6 months of the A.T. thru-hike.   
By starting in N.Y. (probebly near Bear mountain) in
june I will have my first real ultrlight hiking
experience in one of the most moderate sections there
is - both terrain wise (not too many climbs) and
weather wise (probebly the warmest section in the a.t.
(?) ). These means I can start my gear at bair minimum
without having to compromise my safty (this is one
thing I will not compromise !): 

I will start with an ultralight summer bag, ultralight
backpack (g4) , a Z-rest sleeping pad,hiking running
shows , ultralight top rain gear, shirt and
zipable(long ->short) pants. I will not carry any
spair clothing except for long ultralight silk
underwear which will double both as sleeping clothing
and as an emergency extra hiking layer wich I can wear
in cold days. I am also thinking of starting my hike
using an ultralight tarp which I can construct using
my hiking poles.

Sure - this gear list is a compromise. I might decide
that the summer mosquitos and black flies are just too
much for me even using Deet and I'll decide I wand a
tent. In this case I'll order one by Internet which
will be sent to a post office in mail drop. Or if I
decide I need warmer clothing I'll buy it from town
stores (not having to buy gear I won't use seems to me
to more then compensate financly the fact that I'll
have to buy a few gear Items from expensive hiking
stores).   This might meen I'll have to stand a couple
of misrable night's before I get the gear but I
believe I'll manage them.

The main strategy I plan to use is maximum flexibitly
in the first stage of the hike: I will buy only food
and gear I learn I nead while hiking and not  food and
gear I persume (before the hike) I might need.

This is the reason I'm not happy of maildrops - I will
have to send them myself before the hike and before I
find out what my average preferd distance between
resuply point's is.(I'll have to send myself the mail
drops before the hike because I currently live in
Israel and although I have relatives in the states
asking them to become my "supply base" by sending me
the mail while hiking seems to me too much). By using
prehike maildrops I will be forcing myself to stop at
town's when I might rather just walk on. Doing this a
couple of times seems to me not too bad but doing this
more often (on my northbound section) seems to me just
too big a limitation. 

As I've just started purchasing the gear and as it
will be deliverd to my U.S. relatives I just can't
realy know how much it realy ways so my estimation of
10 lb of initial gear is just a very raw estimation.
As I hike into colder weather I plan to "upgrade" my
gear by purchasing 3-season (ultralight) heavier gear
using my newly learnt hiking experience. 

And as if my two contradictory ambitions of hiking as
lightweight as possible and of using as few maildrops
as possible I have another contradictory "problem".  I
am a map fanatic and as I'll be probebly hiking mostly
alone due to my strange flipflop Itenirary I have now
recognized (partialy due to your letters) the fact
that I'll have to carry heavy (and expensive) maps
which are definetly not ultralight.

But as they say: "life is a compromise".

Thats all for now

Roni




--- W F Thorneloe <thornel@attglobal.net> wrote:
> If you are going "ultrlight," you really shouldn't
> consider the maps at 
> all. ;-)
> 
> There is no absolute number that defines ultralight,
> light, reasonable, 
> heavy and OhMyGod! The usual thing to lightweight
> backpacking is 
> determining what gear is unnecessary. That is a
> pretty personal decision 
> although others can help you Tuckerize and reassess
> your gear. Much of that 
> comes from obsessively weighing every item (and some
> parts of gear) on 
> postal scales and then making hard decisions. Us
> true lightweight hikers 
> (also known as ounce weenies)   would never believe
> another person's 
> (especially a vendor's) weight report without
> rechecking.
> 
> So you are in the usual spot having to decide if the
> item is vital enough 
> to even obtain long enough to weigh. I would guess
> the maps are not that 
> vital.
> 
> Now, you owe us a gear list and weights!
> 
> OrangeBug
>

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