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Re: [at-l] gear changes, adds or removals

>For those of you who attempted/complete an end to end this year: I was
>wondering how the contents of your pack changed during your hike. What
>things did you add or delete or swap.   Hopeful

Hopeful,

I'm pasting in a mail message I sent to Dwayne Rich, which may be of help.
I carried way too much for most of the way, however, so take this for what
it's worth.

Robert

============= PASTE MESSAGE BELOW =================

I'm probably not your best gear info source, because I was pretty
stiff-necked about sticking with what I started with. Maybe you can learn
from my mistakes, though.

I had two sleeping bags, a 25-degree Mountain Hardware Two-Bit Bag, and a
50-degree (20-degree upgrade) Mountain Hardware Upgrade Bag, which could
also zip into the heavier bag and make it a 5-degree winter bag. Both were
synthetic, semi-rectangular, and extra long, so they were pretty heavy
individually, and VERY heavy when used together. I used the 25-degree bag
from Springer (April 1) to Troutville (mid-June). It was a very cold spring
until that time. I never had a problem being cold, even when the weather
dropped into the 20s in the Nantahalas, and it snowed. But I should say
that at the time I was overweight, and that gave me some additional
insulation. I found the same temperatures to "feel" much colder up in
Maine, when I'd lost weight and my bag had been washed several times. I
used the summer bag from Troutville to Glencliff (mid-September), and only
had one day when it was insufficient, in the first week of September when
the temperature dropped into the low 40s. From Monson to Katahdin I carried
both bags, zipped together. That said, I think the summer bag was overkill
for most of the summer. I usually found it too hot, and wished that, like
many of my fellow thruhikers, I'd gone with a fleece blanket or bag
instead. Those proved very satisfactory for July and August, when we were
grinding through Northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New
York, and Connecticut. They're light, and they're all most people need. If
I were to do it again, I'd get one and trade off between the three bags.
But I also found that the hikers who went with expensive down bags found
them to be more adaptable than the synthetic ones I was using. Most of them
went from down directly to fleece, without the intermediate step of a
summer bag.

My pack was consistently among the heaviest of the successful thru-hikers'
packs, so I'm not a good model. I'm also a big guy, so even after I'd lost
75 pounds of fat, I could still legitimately carry a 50-pound pack and say
that it wasn't more that 1/4 of my weight--a good excuse for carrying junk.
I didn't weigh the pack very exactly, though. My guess is that it was in
the low 60s at Springer, though I didn't weigh it till Hot Springs, after
I'd dumped a lot of gear. It was 55 pounds walking out of Hot Springs with
six days of food. In mid- summer, when a lot of my friends were hiking with
30 pound packs, I was still carrying about 45. With two days' supply of
food in Pinkham Notch, NH (White Mountains), I was at 54 pounds. My guess
is that it went back up to 60 or above at the beginning of the Wilderness,
when I had seven days' worth of food and the two bags.

Unfortunately, I've lost my starting gear list to a computer crash. Here's
what was in my pack when I got to Monson (not counting food). I never
weighed the items individually:

BED AND SHELTER
The 25-degree bag, a full-length Ridgerest, a 3/4 length ultralite
Thermarest (I carried both!), an emergency blanket that doubled as a ground
cloth, a Quest Starlight tent (about 5 pounds, with stakes).

KITCHEN
a Pur Hiker water filter, bottle Potable Aqua pills,  MSR Dromedary bag,
two Nalgenes, MSR Whisperlite with windscreen and 22-oz bottle, aluminum
backpacking pot/pan set, insulated plastic cup, lexan spoon, two butane
lighters, pot scrubber.

CLOTHING
Hiking clothes: Silkweight Capeline shirt, Polartec 100 Fleece, REI
Switchback hooded Gore-Tex shell, polypro balaclava hat, fleece mittens,
nylon Patagonia brimmed hat, drawstring running shorts, capeline briefs,
coated nylon rainpants, gaiters, 3 pairs Smartwool socks, one pair sock
liners, one bandanna, Vasque Superhiker II boots.