#056 Evolution Of A Lightweight Backpacker - Odds & Ends
A look at some of the other odds & ends found in and out of my pack that weren’t discussed in previous gear posts.....
This segment will cover miscellaneous items found in my pack and a few thing outside my pack.
Many of the items discussed can be found at most any grocery store, convenience store, or Dollar General Store. Dollar General is my favorite because they have so many things hikers need and because they are everywhere you look, which makes resupplying in small towns easier.
Prior to my more recent hikes, I’ll mail a box of stuff to to a hostel along the trail. Life is so much easier when you can drop into a hostel, shower, do laundry, spend a night, and receive a box full of stuff, all for one small fee and all in one location.
My food preferences haven’t changed much over the years. I started with simple foods that cover my daily energy and recover needs. No need to experiment or buy expensive prepackaged meals that have more salt in them than this boy needs to consume in one meal.
For health purposes, which I will share with you in my Saturday story-line posts in autumn 2022 and winter 2023, I’ve had to make slight adjustments to some of my reliable food choices to make them healthier. Doctor’s orders.
I generally plan for five to seven days between resupply opportunities. Though there’s no way to measure that mark consistently along the trail, but it’s a decent guideline. You don’t want to carry too much food at one time but you don’t want to run out either.
For breakfast I stick to oatmeal. I’ve always taken the prepackaged flavored oatmeal but have switched, even at home, to plain instant oatmeal with no flavor and no sugar. I add dried fruit & nuts for flavor, more proteins, and nutrients. I’ll portion my concoction out into small sandwich bags for the trail. Each bag will weigh about two ounces.
Instant coffee packets are perfect on the trail, just heat water, mix it in grounds, and sip. Each packet is 0.1oz. I’ve had to ween myself off caffeine. “NOOOOO, not the green packets!”, yelled coffee drinkers everywhere. “Yes, unfortunately it had to be done”, a mournful hiker answered back.
I began carrying packets of EmergenC powder a few years ago, perhaps on the 2020 hike when Covid was still a mystery. I drink it for it’s are high vitamin C content, hence the name, to help keep my immune system strong on the trail. I carry enough to have a packet every other morning. Each packet is 0.4oz
Hydration powder comes in handy on hot days or on sections of the trail where water is scarce. Add one of these packets to your water to replace electrolytes, for quick rehydration, and to replenish lost minerals. These are good addition to your emergency kit on the trail and at home. Each packet is 0.1oz.
It’s not a good idea to eat a lot at a time during the day. It’s better to snack lightly throughout the day on things like peanut butter on a tortilla or trail mix made of nuts, dried fruits, and of course, everyone’s favorite, M&M’s. These foods make you feel like you’ve eaten more than you have, thus helping suppress hunger, while giving you long lasting energy. I usually buy a big bag of mix than portion it out for each day, but beginning this year I’ll buy each ingredient separately, choosing the healthiest nuts and dried fruits, and mix them into three ounce portions for each day. Oh yea, there will be M&M’s in my mix, the best ones, the peanut butter ones. Shhh, don’t tell my doc or my wife.
Each night I eat a tuna packet for a high protein dinner, two if it’s been a hard day and I have an extra packet to spare. Fortunately they’ve begun flavoring them, making it seem like you’re eating something different each night. This year I will carry a few chicken packets for some of the nights. The protein helps muscles recover from climbing up and down mountains all day. Each packet is around 2.9oz each, making them the heaviest food in my bag.
I also carry tortillas for the calories they provide. They are great with tuna in the evening and peanut butter during the day.
Instant potatoes have been a staple for many years, but I plan to cut back on them this year to avoid cooking most evenings.
Everyone’s “emergency kit” is different but several key pieces stay the same. Even mine changes a little from year to year based on the season and where I am hiking. This year’s list looks something like this:
3.1oz headlamp with three AAA batteries (though I’m thinking about replacing my headlamp with one that is researchable or one that runs on 2032 batteries. They are much smaller and lighter.
1.3oz three spare AAA batteries (if I don’t replace current headlamp)
1.8oz medical tape
0.8oz band aids & bandages
0.5oz patches & glue for inflatable sleeping pad & pillow
0.1oz allergy pills
1.3oz hand sanitizer
0.8oz spare lighter
Hygiene kit’s also vary from person to person and sometimes change seasonally or due to type of trip. I carry the bare minimum in my kit when section hiking the AT:
2.5oz one week’s worth of toilet paper
1.0oz one week’s worth individual sanitary wipes.
0.2oz toothbrush
1.2oz toothpaste
0.1oz floss
0.5oz eye drops
1.4oz sanitizer
0.6oz finger nail/toe nail clipper (I’ve never carried any before, but I hope to go farther in 2022 than I’ve ever gone before).
Section hikers have no reason to carry the full AT trail guide book. Some through hikers rip the pages out and have the appropriate sections mailed with their resupply box to hostels along the trail. I usually only hike a week or two at a time so I copy the appropriate pages from AT trail guide. I write notes on the pages that help me piece together details of my hikes so I can write about them later. The whole book weighs about 9.0oz, the copies for the four week section I’m hoping to hike in 2022 weigh about 1.5oz. Most hikers have moved on to trail apps on their phones to navigate the trail. I may some day, but for now I prefer paper folded up in a Ziploc bag and pushed into my front left pocket.
I have a bag for personal things I need in my tent at night. Some nights I like to read, do word search puzzles, or write in my journal (1.3oz) while laying.
In my bag I have an old CrystalLight tube (1.0oz) from when my wife used to drink it. In the tube you’ll find:
0.8oz reading glasses (cheaters)
1.3oz rolled up pages copied from a book & a few pages torn from a word search book.
1.2oz hand sanitizer
0.7oz two ink pens
0.1oz ear plugs, for sleeping in shelters or in crowded hostels
We’ll blast through some of the other odds & ends found in and out of my pack that weren’t discussed in previous gear posts.
2.0oz Sea to Summit pillow, down from a 7.0oz pillow
2.0oz Therm-a-rest foam sitting pad
2.0oz Pack rain cover
Hiking poles
Hiking Boots
Bandanas and Buffs
I switch from using standard camping dry bags to using ZipLock Bags of various sizes for carrying and organizing my gear. There are many reasons for my switch.
Zip Lock bags are more user friendly.
Allow you to see the contents inside.
Are truly waterproof as opposed to many dry bags which allow the contents to become damp it wet conditions.
They allow the contents to contour surrounding gear instead of becoming another tightly packed ball in the pack.
The mouth is wider allowing for easier access inside.
Very inexpensive.
Can be used as small trash bags.
Lighter in weight
I even bought bags large enough to carry my tent in sleeping bag as well. If my tent gets wet at night I can close it up in a bag to keep all other gear inside my pack dry while I hike. I can keep my sleeping bag in a giant ziploc bag to keep it dry when hiking in the rain.
I will bring one dry bag for hanging my food in if don’t bring my Ursack, which is a little on the heavy side, but effective and useful.
Join me next week for the final post of the Winter Wednesday Gear Series. It will be the last Wednesday of winter and we’ve covered all the gear needed for a safe and successful hike.
Next week’s post will be a simple list of my gear choices and the weight of each piece. We’ll find out together if I was truly able to cut a fully loaded forty-two lb. load in 2010 in half for my 2022 AT section hike. All these 0.2oz and 1.6oz items add up fast..