[pct-l] A quick introduction & some initial questions :)

[Jim & Jane Moody]

RG, 



Welcome to the list.  You posed too many questions for me to respond to all at once, so here's a partial. 



One pot to heat water in and a cup to drink from.  The cup also comes in handy at certain water sources to dip and pour. 



Pepper spray - leave it at home. 



Towns - 3 to 5 days is a more reasonable average, especially in the southern part and the Sierra.  If you plan it right, more frequent resupplies in town can mean less food to be carried and therefore a lighter pack. 



Good luck, 

Mango 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Redwood Guy" <redwoodguy at gmail.com> 
To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 9:47:58 PM 
Subject: [pct-l] A quick introduction & some initial questions :) 

Hello Everybody, 

I am new to the list (as of this week) and wanted to drop an introduction 
email :) 

Over the last few months I have been giving some serious consideration to 
doing the PCT in 2011, probably starting on/with the ADZPCTKO schedule. 

A brief bit about myself: I am 36, male, single (happily-grin), 6'1 in 
height, and a tad over 210 pounds - and loosing about 10 pounds a month (180 
is my goal, down from 288 at the first of the year) -- and I live in the 
most beautiful location in America (no, really grin)... the middle of the 
Redwoods (around Eureka CA). I have a fairly successful business developing 
security communication software (and social community websites when I am 
bored) and have been doing that for ~10 years. It has allowed me to travel 
almost all of the CONUS and parts of the Caribbean. I will admit that trying 
to find a way to have somebody take over my business for 4-6 months is going 
to be hard. Even harder, I suspect, will be the fact that I am single and do 
not own a house (travel too much to justify it) and thus I rent. A very 
tough decision I will have to be make will be do I keep paying for rent for 
a place I am not at, in order to secure it for when I am done, or, do I just 
try to find a place when I get back. Those are just two of the major "life 
decisions" I suppose I have to work through before I even determine whether 
or not I can do the PCT in 2011. Thankfully, those are about the only two 
big issues. 

I started planning for long distance hikes around the first of the year and 
I had no gear at the time. I grew up in the Mojave desert (Victorville, 
Apple Valley, Lucerne Valley) and spent a few years in Big Bear. I have 
hiked pretty much every range between Big Bear and Barstow, Lucerne Valley 
and I5. Of course, all of that was 20 years ago. Since I moved out the 
desert and into the Redwoods I have not done any major hiking until the 
first of 2010. But I have tried to get serious about it. The largest problem 
I have here where I live is that the vast majority of it is at or near sea 
level. Getting above 3000 feet is just not possible in the middle of the 
Redwoods. I am planning a few trips over into the Trinity Alps in the next 
month or two and maybe over to Lassen before it gets snowed in, in a quest 
to get some higher elevation hikes in. I suppose I should head over to East 
Sierras too, to try to get a 9-10,000 weekend in too. 


I was really wanting to bounce some initial questions off all of you in 
hopes to giving me some guidance and insight into some future purchases. I 
would be grateful for anybody that would take the time to give their 
perspectives. I will preface the fact that I am not a DIY kind of guy. I 
have no objections to mending gear, but making them is not in my scope of 
pleasurable activities - lol - which really makes no sense as I am a 
software engineer by day. Guess the aspect of building software never 
carried over to building gear. Odd. 


In regards to my base weight: I have been able to go from 30-pounds at the 
first of the year down to a base weight of 15-pounds, for a three day hike. 
I am trying different methods/setups of gear to try to get this down to 
12-pounds, which I think is going to be my target base weight. I would love 
to hit the 10 range but I am not sure if I can and still remain comfortable 
at that point. By "comfortable" just let me say what I mean by that... 
having grown up in the desert, I have come to both respect and loath snakes 
and scorpions - grin. The Mojave Green is perhaps my most feared creator on 
the planet lol. I use to hike hundreds of miles a month through the most 
forsaken places between Big Bear and Barstow and those darn Mojave Greens 
where the vain of my existence. Than, there is the stupid little scorpion... 
lol... if seeing a Mojave Green will make me scream like a little girl, the 
scorpion will make me screen like ... well.. I'd rather not go there LOLOL. 
Suffice to say, by "comfort" what I really mean is I have zero desire to let 
things crawl on (or under) me at night. So, all that to say this: I could 
probably do a 10(sub?) pack but I am not willing to do the tarp-only option. 
I really do want a full-enclosure for my sleeping habitat. I am thinking 
along the lines of a TarpTent (but not sure which yet) but I will address 
that below. 


In regards to the big-three: 

I have two packs at this point. The larger is the ULA Circuit (36 oz / 4,200 
cu in) and the smaller is the ULA CDT (17 oz / 3,200 cu in). I am really 
considering trading my Circuit for a OHM, however the one thing stopping me 
from doing that is that when I get into the required bear-canister-country, 
I am not sure if the OHM (nor the CDT for that fact) will be large enough 
for everything plus the canister. Can anybody with experience/knowledge of 
the OHM/CDT confirm if you can get the canister plus the rest of your gear 
into either of those packs. I do not yet own a canister (not required where 
I live, so I just tree-bag food) so I have no idea of the canister/pack-size 
issue. I suppose in the same regard my follow-up question would be... is the 
OHM and the CDT just in general too small of a pack for generalized use on 
the PCT? Is the Circuit at 4200cuin about what I guy needs to make it all 
work? The CDT is a great little pack but lacks the internal support bar. 
Granted a pad can compensate, but is the CDT taking it too far for a 
thru-hike of this length? 

In regards to my tent: Well, this is a tough one for me. I have been "one of 
those hammock guys" since I started into getting outdoors at the first of 
the year. So I do not even own a tent at this point. I should mention that I 
am 6'1 in height. I should also mention that I use/carry Gossamer Gear 
Lightrek 4 Trekking Poles.  At this time I am giving serious consideration 
to the following tents: (1) TarpTent Moment [reason: ease of setup seems to 
be amazing with this one, but not the lightest]. (2) TarpTent Contrail 
[reason: slightly more fiddling with the setup each night, yet a few ounces 
lighter due to trekking pole requirements] (3) Gossamer Gear The One 
[reason: even more fiddling with setup it seems, and almost always out of 
stock, but it is 8 ounces lighter than the Contrail]. I had/have also 
considered the MSR Hubba HP for the Sierra region, but the two extra pounds 
just kills me to consider. However, I have no real-life experience with any 
of these. I suppose the popular answer would be "they are all good, 
regardless of which you pick" but perhaps some of you have personal 
experience that you could share that c/should sway me to one over all the 
others?? Again this goes back to my "no creepy crawly things" so having a 
fully enclosed system is what I am after. 

In regards to my sleeping bag: Honestly, I do not have one of these yet 
either. In the hammock world we use under/over quilts plus a whole lotta 
cloths when it gets really cold, so I've never spent the bucks for a nice 
sleeping bag. But, I need to own one if I am to make this work. I have very 
little understanding of the different bags out there and the technology 
behind them. I understand the differences between down and synthetic and so 
forth but that is about it. I do know that I am usually cold at night. I 
seem to not enjoy the cold and am often cold. Anything below 40 or so and I 
get really cold. I am working on solving this by sleeping in a colder room 
and trying to adapt. I also know that I loath mummy bags. I am a side 
sleeper and tosser and need my knee room to bend due to an injured knee (not 
enough to keep me from doing long trails, but enough to make me know it is 
not happy at times) so I would love to have some feedback on sleeping bags. 
Obviously to start with: Do most folks use two bags depending on their 
location on the trail? One for the desert region and than swap it out for 
another one when they get out of the desert, or do most of you just pack a 
single lower temp bag and unzip it while you are in the desert? I guess the 
next question would be, just how low of a temp bag do I need? 30? 15? What 
is realistic when it comes to the high mountains? I have only spent a single 
night in the Sierras (east side) a few years ago, and I froze my butt off 
lol. Anyway, any suggestions at all when it comes to a sleeping bag would be 
great. I think I would like to place a top-end price of $350 on my bag. 
Maybe slightly higher if there is something beyond exceptional in the 
350-400 range that everybody just totally loves. 


So with the big three out of the way. Onto the smaller details. 


Stove: I have been a huge fan of alcohol stoves. I have tried most of them 
and have fallen in love with the Minibulldesign mini-atomic. It can go for a 
good 10 minutes without refueling. Which has been long enough to cook all of 
the meals plus drink I have cooked over the last year (with the exception of 
pancakes I had once LOL... read: serious pleasure meal lol). So I guess the 
question than becomes how much fuel one has to carry. To those of you who do 
use alcohol stoves... do you tend to carry 4, 6 or 8 ounces? Or, more? Do 
you actually carry a couple of 8-ounce containers and only refill from a 
post office resupply box every 8-12 days, or do you just carry a couple of 
ounces and resupply ever couple of days? Been really wondering about this 
one. Also, if you put your 12-ounce bottle of heet into three containers 
(say: 8, 4 and 2 bottles) their total weight (full) is 11.70 oz. The heet 
bottle by itself (full) is 11.20 oz. If you just carry an 8oz bottle it is 
8.10oz. and if you combine 2&4oz bottles it comes out to 3.55oz. Which is 
the option you choose? 

Pots: Yeah, this is another one of those "whatever you prefer" situations, 
like so many other things. I will simply leave my question about cookware to 
this: Do most of you carry a single pot for both cooking and drinking, or do 
most of you carry a small pot for your drinks and another one for cooking? 

Water containers: This seems to be an interesting issue. Those who are 
bottle-water-containers only and those who use hydration packs. I understand 
the weight difference of this issue (argument?) and I am in no way 
challenging that whole issue. But I guess what my question is, is just 
that... is the argument here strictly a weight issue? Are there reasons 
outside of weight that allow for the acceptable use of of Platypus style 
bladders. Or, does this whole issue come back to the "how often we walk into 
a town" issue? I must say, this is one perplexing issue. I do both, just 
depends on how much water I think I will need. If I am going to need more 
than 2L of water, I just throw my 3L Platypus bladder into my ULA pack and 
any additional 1L water bottles I might need. Again, perplexed by this one 
issue. 

Dry sacks: Do the vast majority of you place just about everything inside 
dry sacks inside your backpack, or, do you just put your sleeping bag and 
cloths in dry sacks - and thus safe yourself a few ounces? 

Pepper spray: From what I have been able to gather, the vast majority of 
folks do not carry pepper spray (or such). Those who do seem to do so mostly 
in Central Cal for potential bear issues. Here in the Redwoods there seems 
to be an over abundance of idiot dog owners who fail to keep their dogs 
under control. It seems as if at least once a month I almost get into a 
fight with crazy women after their dog gets a face of pepperspray. 
(Honestly, not sure which is worse, the dog who charges and thus learns I 
fight back, or the lady who goes crazy because I felt threatened and choose 
to defend myself against her dog that "has never bitten anybody" - yeah, 
well, I'm not going to be the first lady! Control your dog, sheesh.) Anyway, 
rant over -giggle- those of you who do choose to carry, do you just take a 
small 2oz container, or a 4oz, or go for the bigger bear 7 or 13 oz 
containers? 

Shoes: This is one of those areas that I am having to really adjust myself 
too. From the time I was old enough to have a hunting license and go hunting 
I have used boots 365 days a year. I cannot remember a time in my life 
(except for those days when work use to require an real suit) when I have 
not had boots on. But, as so many have been teaching me, the lighter your 
pack gets, the less the need for heavier boots. Makes sense. At work I wear 
5.11 boots that weight in at 24.50 ounces each(!!). After reading through 
some of what is being used on-trail these days, I have picked up a pair of 
Brooks Cascadia 5's to try out. I'll be doing an 11 mile trip in them to 
give them an initial try this weekend. So, I guess my question here is 
really all that I have explained. Are the vast majority of folks moving away 
from boots and into the realm of using "trail" jogging shoes? Should I look 
for a pair of light boots and stick with them, or go the shoe route? 
Obviously this is one other of those "which works best for you" so this is 
really just me trying to get a general idea of what the trend is at this 
point. 

As for cloths... I think I will just leave that for a whole other post. No 
doubt I have already asked way more questions than probably anybody out 
there is going to be willing to answer. 


I have just one last question... and my only non-gear related question: 

It seems like the vast majority of folks, based on what I have read from 
trail journals, seem to stop into towns every day or two, or three at the 
most. I do not want to sit here and say that I would not end up doing the 
same thing (I've never done a trail over 5 days, so zero experience) but it 
would seem to me that stopping in towns every 48-72 hours just really makes 
the trip much more... well, a lot of things. Civilized, longer, less weight 
to carry (could be a good thing), personally cleaner on the hygiene part of 
things, so on and so forth. But on the other side of this, I just seem to 
wonder if not heading into town so much would make things... well, less of 
all those things. Are there a percentage of folks doing the PCT who do not 
head into towns every couple of days? It would stand to reason that with as 
many people on the trail these days that a percentage of the folks decide to 
extend out their trips to town. What is the general idea behind heading to 
town so often, and for those that do not, do you find not heading to down as 
more pleasurable when it comes to quality trail-time? 

I am very much looking forward to perhaps getting to meet many of you, learn 
a great deal, and perhaps spend some time on some trails together! If there 
is anybody out there in the Redwood area I would love to know I am not 
alone! 

Thank you everybody! 

John Abela 
_______________________________________________ 
Pct-L mailing list 
Pct-L at backcountry.net 
To unsubcribe, or change options visit: 
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l 

List Archives: 
http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/