Tag Archives: Gear for the trek

Gear – Pt. 2

Most ultralight gear is hidden on the internet and not really available in brick retailers. You have to dig and listen to other backpackers weighing in, which is what I did. Thus most of my gear is pretty standard in terms of the ultralight approach.

Two items are, however, unusual and deserve mention:

stove disassembled crop

Stove Assembled crop

ITEM #1:

The Vargo Woodburning Stove- Most backpackers cook with some kind of fuel. It’s messy, heavy and, yes, has a tendency to run out. On the other hand, a chef can adjust the heat and cook along recipe lines. I figured I’d burn everything anyway, so why not do something fun? Dinner will go something like this: Set up wood burning stove in two seconds, add tinder and sticks thru door. Put cup of water on. Boil water. Pour over something and eat it. Sounds good from my sofa.

ITEM #2:

This one is a little more out there. Shitting in the woods is simple. Dig a hole out of the way and go shitting in the woods with toilet paper. It’s complicated. What to do with it? Bury it in the hole? No, as it often gets dug up by animals and then it gets blown around and always in your direction. Blowing TP in the wilderness is a damning statement on mankind. So you carry it out. Yeah, very pleasant ziploc bag on that one. So here is what I have come up with. Never go anywhere without it. Give them as a Christmas present.
Ass Blaster
What is it? The humble 9 oz. lavette bottle. Also known as the perineal irrigation bottle. A manual version of the heated Japanese toilet water jet. I just call it like it is – the Ass Blaster. Shit, squeeze and shoot from desired angle, eight ounces will clean you right up, and drip dry. Cover up a hole and get back to the trail. Weight: 0.9 oz. Cost: $1 -$2. Available on Amazon. No need for TP. A real game changer. Maybe a revolution is in order.

Steve Halteman
San Diego, California
Hiking the PCT for the Kids of Escuela Verde

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

Gear – Pt. 1

Or what to bring? Or how to bring angst into your life by dwelling on the unknowable? What do you need and what do you want are separated by a gulf of pounds. This is the angst.

Some background. Picture a banana. At one end of the curve is bring nothing. At the other end is bring everything. These are absurdist extremes. Every backpacker will land on the curve somewhere between. The current popular movement in backpacking circles is called ultralight. This refers to the base weight of your pack. The base weight means the weight of your fully loaded backpack minus your food, water, fuel and clothes you are wearing. To be ultralight, the base weight must be under 10 lobs. To be sub-ultralight, it must be under 5 lbs. On the banana scale that is moving toward the nothing end of the spectrum. In the past, I’ve carried packs with a base weight of over 40 lbs. I think there was a live animal somewhere in there. (The top laugh getter on a long backpacking trip is to secretly and steadily add rocks to your buddies’ pack over the course of several days. Get it?)

So where am I? I’ve spent days researching ultralight gear. As I want to move away from the bring everything philosophy. But I want to retain some measure of comfort over the next four months or so. The angst returns as the banana ride continues.

I won’t bore you with every detail of what I settled on, but here are the big four.

4 main pieces of gear_copy

Shelter:
Hexamid solo tarp
(weight – 1 lb. 2.3 oz)

Sleeping:
Jacks are Better down sleeping quilt
1/8″ thick sponge mattress
Full-length Thermarest inflatable air mattress
(weight – 2 lbs. 11 oz)

Backpack:
Gossamer Gear Mariposa
(weight – 1 lb. 11 oz)

Kitchen:
Vargo titanium woodburning stove
Vargo .9 liter titanium pot
Ziploc 4-cup mixing cup
chopsticks
Lexan spoon
mini lighter
mini swiss army knife
(weight – 14.5 oz)

TOTAL WEIGHT: 6.42 lbs

Add in the rest of the gear and my base weight settles in right at 14.5 lbs on the banana curve. I’ll let you know how that works out for me, but when food and water are added, I should end up in the upper 20’s pound-wise.

Steve Halteman
San Diego, California
Hiking the PCT for the Kids of Escuela Verde

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!

An Asian Approach to the PCT

Getting organized. Not my strong suit. Over the last month or so I’ve collected my gear, but put off the dread. That being food. Love to eat it, don’t love to make it. Nor do I enjoy figuring out how calories per ounce and thus how many ounces of this or that per day I must ingest. The PCT kindly requests that you consume between 4000 and 6000 calories per day. If you ignore this request you’ll be ready for a fashion shoot by the Canadian border. So I’m in a bind. Can’t cook, need to eat and wondering how many jars of peanut butter one can consume in a given day before the jaw joints are pulverized. Impasse.

My dilemma was solved by an impulse. As i drove down the road with my sisters and nieces one day I saw this sign. “Rancho 99 Asian Food Market” Enlightenment through advertising. “Right I thought, my answer is to shake things up.” So I pulled in, went in, and filled a cart. My young nieces assisted by gathering random products and saying “here uncle steven, eat this!” Why not, it takes a village. Money spent brings commitment. The first few weeks on the trail will be an Asian buffet. I’ve seen Asian meals prepared before, so my learning curve shouldn’t be too steep. Hands on, I’ve made ramen in school. I’m optimistic. Though some of the package instructions for cooking I’ve looked at are simplistic to the point of doubt. Twenty lines of Japanese characters followed by the word “boil.” And my metric measurement skills are shaky. I will persevere. And when persevering fails I will invent. And I will eat my Asian creations because there are no alternative food trees is the desert. Hunger will trump palet in every hiking situation (or fuckuation as my Aunt Pat loves to say.)

Steve Halteman
San Diego, California
Hiking the PCT for the Kids of Escuela Verde

If you’d like to help out and donate, please click here!