I’m leaving in about 36 hours. Finally have shipped resupply boxes, and stopped re-thinking all my gear choices: time’s up. I’ll continue to tinker on trail, sending home or abandoning stuff that’s not worth the carry, swapping in new items, etc. It’s customary to photo and catalog all this stuff for reference. Such as if I go missing, what colors of whatever did I have with me? Purple, green, orange is a theme of pack, quilts, hammock, fleece. And a giant silk paisley shemagh.
Lighterpack.com is a service that helps gear nerds compare kits. Below is mine. At over 17 pounds base weight (base weight is everything that’s not either consumable or worn most of the time on my body), I’ve fallen off the ultralight wagon, but I can easily see winnowing this down to 13 pounds or less once I’m secure enough of warmth to send extra cold gear home. Much of the chub comes from my hammock stand, necessary for the 700 miles of desert at the start, that I expect to send home once I’m in reliably forested areas: the Sierra. Oh, and the chair. Yeah, I’m glamping, at least to start.
Wow, I’m totally geeking out on your gear list.
There are many levels of deep geekery here. Chances are I’ve made a video about many line items. Ask away!
Camp chair because old man. Is there an old guy going with you? So what is a bidet cap? Just curious.
It’s a bottle cap I modified to be a bidet squirter. The trail is well enough used, and in the desert especially, buried TP takes forever to break down if animals don’t dig it up first, so Leave No Trace (LNT) principle mandates that you pack out used TP. In some very sensitive areas you’re to pack out even fecal matter. I don’t want to pack TP in or out when avoidable, so I will use a bidet to minimize or eliminate the need. Also buttcrack hygiene is essential to avoiding flaming monkey butthole syndrome (FMBS) so dry wiping just doesn’t cut it. I added a photo, so you can see my bidet if you reload the list.
Bringing a chair is widely mocked as the mark of an amateur, unserious hiker who has no chance of finishing, having such poor weight discipline. But it’s a very light chair, and recovery is important to this 56-yo man. I’ll ditch it after the desert when I will have reliable trees to hang hammock for resting.