The big 3 on gear list

The big three items on your hiking gear list is your shelter - tent, sleeping items - pad/quilt or bag and what backpack will hold all of your gear.

The first item I started with was the back pack. This started March and April. Before that I had purchased the AT guide book, started changing all the elevation markings to treadmill incline numbers . My plan was to hike the AT on the treadmill as training since at that time of year Tony was saying it would be 2022 before a hike would be doable. It was in the too hard box. Tony dubbed my workout “ Hiking the Appalachian Trail without breaking a nail”. Later in the month he bought me an early birthday present at Cabelas. A backpack.  I had been using one of the boys old Boy Scout packs and couldn’t cinch it up around the waist to make it sit on my hips, plus it weighed like 5 pounds by itself. At Cabelas a 3-4 pound pack is a good buy. I hadn’t fully started researching the ultralight gear companies. I still use this pack for training, it’s holding 40#s nicely.
The more I watched YouTube videos of thru hikers and searched gear, the more I wanted to do the trail in 2020. For a while it was one week on trail in PA. Then I tried to finagle a month out of the plans to do Virginia line through West Virginia/Maryland and into PA. I’m not sure when it happened but Tony asked if I really wanted to try the whole thing. Yes!!!. I’m pulled to do it.
Didn’t take long for me to research more on gear to know I really didn’t want a 4# pack on a thru hike. I now will carry a Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60L . 2.08#

Item two was the tent. By now I new it needed to be ultralight. I started with a Lanshan UL 2.

A knock up of the more expensive higher quality Cuban fiber tent made by ZPack. I tried this tent out for about five nights (some in a row) in the backyard. I finally had to call it quits. If you are tall you will know how frustrating it can be to sleep in a bed with a headboard and footboard that doesn’t  allow you to stretch out. It’s for sale with the tyvek, and extra poles to help hold sides out to give more space. I’d say 5’9” is as tall as you want to be. It’s 88”s in length.
I went searching and posting questions on FB until I heard about lighthearted gear having a tent with 100”s in length. Yay!

Mine is gray on top and plum on bottom. 

Sad thing to note, I asked where I could sale my old tent on a special 2920  thru hiker page on FB and the algorithms on FB made the page look like I was selling the tent On that group page . The one group I really wanted to be apart,  so I can meet people before the trail, and I got band from the page. Oh well.  My tent weighs in with stakes, arrow, and ground cloth. 3.07# oh, yes, in the previous post picture you will see an arrow by the tent. Why spend 30$ to buy a carbon pole to raise the vestibule when a broken knocked arrow has been hanging around the back yard for years With nothing to do.

Item 3 sleeping bag and pad. I really wanted to save money on the bag so I made a quilt from a kit a company that sales ripstop nylon had available. I knew I would have to test it’s limits and found those last Friday night. I have since ordered the Enlightened Equipment Revelation with collar.

It is a 22.25  oz. treated down quilt with foot box that can be opened. My previous quilt was 2 1/2 pounds. This will be helpful for I’m going heavy in the air mattress part. A Nemo tensor insulated long and wide mattress

. It is heavenly. Comfortable for side sleeping and doesn’t sound like crunching chips when you turn over.  I also have a bag liner and a sea to summit extreme liner which can add 15 degrees of warmth to the system. These 2 together add more weight especially since I had to add a strip of fabric to the extreme to make it longer. The extreme liner will actually be my pillow with an air pillow. The pillow issue, as a side sleeper, has been the toughest to nail down.  I really want comfort and not blow up pillow hardness. Also I cant seem to sleep on my side if I have earplugs in, hence I’m trying a portable white noise maker that sounds like the fan in our bedroom. Luxury items, luxury items, luxury items. Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

It’s coming together

Welcome to my new blog page. I hope to share my journey along the Appalachian Trail with you here. This will be done from my phone while on trail. Hopefully when I hit a clearing or town I’ll be able to download some pics and info. With that said, I’ll say this: grammar nazis - comments will go in the next cathole I have to dig, negative comments you want to make because you think I’m crazy can be expressed as “I will pray for you” .
Yeah, I know, you think I’m crazy. Well, you are not the only one. Many times I’ve said the same thing. I don’t know how many times a week I question my sanity, but, I was doing that before I planned this hike.
I’ve been collecting gear for the last couple of months, and think I’ve got 98% of what I need -

Somehow we are upside down🙃

not counting food.  This has been a fun ordeal, which I’ll touch on later.

I have sold the End of the Trail wall hanging to help cover cost of gear. This weekend I received a call about my car. It is now sold. I feel like everything is coming together saying Go, Jane , Go!

They say to budget 1k per month on the trail. Hopefully the car purchase will give me enough time to finish. I definitely don’t want to get sucked into the town/hostel vortex where a lot of hikers spend way more than planned. I’ll be sending most of my Gluten Free resupplies to cut down on time in town. I do know of a few hostels that I’ll seek out in New England that offer slack packing services. Slack packing - they keep my heavy  pack safe while I carry only food and water for the day. They then pick  me up at a designated spot and bring me to the hostel where I  pay to stay and receive a shower and chance to wash clothes. Some include a meal. Most will also allow a resupply package to be sent to them.

Start date : April 17th, 2020. I should be doing the Approach Trail around noon. The Approach trail doesn’t count as part of the AT. (Unless they change it this year) it is 8.8 miles up to the top of Mount Springer. The approach trail starts at Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia. There are 604 stairs in front of the waterfall going up . I hear you have to do them to have “Gritching rights”. There is a road that can get you  closer to the top, but it’s sketchy.  Hoping the stair master will prepare me for those stairs  and more.  The Appalachian Trail starts at the top of Springer Mountain with the first white blaze- a 2” by 6” rectangle painted on a tree or rock or anything else along the trail. ‘Follow the white blazed trail.  follow the white blazed trail’. Did you hear the munchkins chanting at you. I did. Blue blazes take you off on side trails to water, shelters, waterfalls, or parking lots. Word of caution try not to camp near the roads and parking lots. These shelters get the day hikers who might be creepy and not part of the tramily- trail family. There is a Leave no Trace rule for hiking the A.T. Or any trail. Pack it in pack it out. That’s your public service announcement for the day. You are welcome.