2020 May 11-Sep PCT

  •   Category Price Weight
  • Clothes, Worn $179.95
    3.49 lb
  • Sleep $569.00
    2.23 lb
  • Pack $81.00
    2.06 lb
  • Clothes, Carried $407.74
    1.68 lb
  • Shelter $625.00
    1.17 lb
  • Electronics $74.00
    1.09 lb
  • Water $34.00
    0.49 lb
  • Ditty $15.45
    0.27 lb
  • Kitchen $24.00
    0.48 lb
  • Toilet $1.00
    0.17 lb
  • Navigation $60.00
    0 lb
  • Sierra $0.00
    0 lb
  • Total $2071.14 13.13
    lb
    • oz
    • lb
    • g
    • kg
  • Consumable 0.26 lb
  • Worn 3.49 lb
  • Base Weight 9.38 lb

Prev: Mar 15-Apr AZT

Next: 2021 Jun 24-Sep CDT SOBO

I was overall pretty satisfied with my gear, I was prepared for what I encountered and I used almost every item I carried.

That being said, I carried more gear and food than I needed out of inexperience and fear and I would do things a bit differently next time.

Items I never used once:

  • fleece balaclava: baselayer hood + buff + jacket hood were enough when it was cold
  • Sea-to-Summit Nano Mosquito pyramid net: thought I'd need it for Yosemite and OR, didn't need for Yosemite, never did Oregon. bug headnet and wind jacket+pants enough

Items I used infrequently and wouldn't bring again:

  • warm socks: wore once or twice while sleeping. can live without
  • mp3 player: most people i met listened to music or podcasts but i didn't mind just not listening to anything
  • second trekking pole: broke a pole in WA and ended up enjoying using 1 just fine, especially when carrying less food weight

Items I did use frequently but would change:

  • food: send all boxes and really minimize weight by maximizing cal/oz. I really enjoyed traveling when I did (all boxes+less food) in WA. I carried so much goddamn food into the Sierra out of fear and it made it that much harder. I also stressed out running around town trying to resupply
  • fanny pack: got tired of having one more thing to put on/take off/adjust. ditch, keep phone in shoulder strap pocket and the rest in my pack
  • tent: swap to a shaped poncho tarp (Gatewood Cape)
  • trekking poles: only bring 1, but more durable and one that collapses shorter like a z-pole
  • mix bottle: i didn't really need it -- i only used it when i stopped for lunch, in which case i can just use my pot
  • trowel: probably leave at home and use found objects instead. in the places where it did work like forests there were sticks around, and in places with compacted or very rocky soil it didn't work anyways...
  • sunglasses: tried to use cheap shitty ones but I found a pair of Goodrs on trail and ended up loving them
  • bear can: downsize from BV500 to a BV450, since your food won't fit any of them anyways
  • pack: after reducing TPW with above changes switch to a frameless pack with a decent hipbelt like an MLD Burn

Other changes:

  • would do all my resupplies via boxes and i would optimize location by their distance from the trail. for example, i would never do Kearsarge Pass again (although I'm happy I did it once, King's Canyon is spectacular)
  • will be more hesitant to criticize someone else's decisions -- the PCT is long, hard and messy. Things will go wrong and you will make mistakes and do stupid things, it's just how it is
  • would hike longer hours as long as my body permits it. I found that my feet were the weakest link; at 5pm my feet would be killing me even though the rest of felt like I could keep going
  • wouldn't carry water at all in the Sierra as there is water every <= 5 miles
  • wouldn't bring sunblock to WA, sun hoody + existing tan was plenty

Resources:

  • https://www.pctplanner.com/
  • https://pctwater.com
  • https://www.postholer.com/snow/Pacific-Crest-Trail/1
  • https://www.thehikinglife.com/2017/05/triple-crown-gear-list-2017/
  • https://old.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/
  • http://alxngyn.com/pages/mcdonalds/index.html