Preparing for the Appalachian Trail (The BIG Three)

With the end of March start date less than three weeks away, I’m finally getting some last minute items to finish my gear list. I started purchasing some of these items last year in May, before I even decided to hike the Appalachian Trail, and then slowly started adding more and more. When I was recovering from my shoulder surgery and had Amazon to keep me company, most of my equipment purchases had occurred at that time, it’s crazy to think that was 4 months ago!

Choosing equipment as an indecisive person

It has been quite a journey choosing between all the different types of equipment out there. Not only are there millions of options but it is quite expensive. I’ve been lucky enough to have people give me gear recommendations and ideas for things I never thought I’d need, but I will say that doing research, browsing Reddit, and watching YouTube videos about gear has been my go-to. See also: tsn3. If you’re new to backpacking or just looking for good gear ideas for a hike, the Appalachian Trail and Ultralight reddit communities are a great resource.

Being on the fence, some of the gear choices I made have been back and forth for months and only recently pulled the trigger. For this post, I’ll focus primarily on the Big Three, which, unsurprisingly, are your biggest costs when purchasing your equipment. Recently this month I was lucky enough to have a cold front here in Florida where overnight temperatures were in the low 30s and I had a chance to test whether my options could handle colder weather.

The big three

For those who don’t know what the big three are, which I was until a few months ago, the big three are your sleeping system, your shelter, and your backpack. There are many items you can cut back on to make your hike more affordable, but these are considered the ones you should skimp on the least.

sleeping system

My sleeping bag was probably one of the things I had the least doubts about. I’m going to opt for a sleeping quilt from Enlightened Equipment Revelation made with duck down and rated for 20 degrees. I had heard a lot of good things about this one and the reveal quilt is nice as it can be opened completely once summer hits its peak. It’s a little pricey, but for most of these high-value purchases, the companies are very good at maintaining their product. I place the sleeping bag on my sleeping pad, which is like an air mattress but much smaller and lighter. I chose a Nemo Tensor All-Season Sleeping Pad and a Trekology Inflatable Pillow. I tested this setup at Lake Louisa State Park for two nights. I found that my back was quite uncomfortable with the sleeping mat, but after doing some research online, I found a good one. TIP: Do not inflate the sleeping mat completely as it will be more uncomfortable for your back. After getting some air, it was much more comfortable and my sleeping quilt kept me warm all night when the temperature dropped into the 30s. I will say though that I could have used a hat to keep my head warm.

Shelter

For my shelter, I decided to camp in a tent, since this is my first long-distance backpacking trip. I’ve slept in a hammock before and it was fine, but I’m worried about finding a good spot to set up on the trail. I bought a Big Agnes Copper Spur for two people last year and was able to test it several times. I like this tent overall, but the only caveat I have is that the material, which is the HyperBead fabric, seems very flimsy to me. I even managed to find a hole in the tent door after one use, which was a bit disappointing. Because of this and the fact that the floor is made of the same material, I purchased a Tyvek floor sheet on Amazon that is smaller than the bottom of my tent so that rain doesn’t flood in the middle of the night. I found this works very well when I tried it, although Tyvek can be quite wrinkled and noisy. I hope I don’t bother anyone along the way hehe. For the hole, I patched it on both sides with tenacious tape that holds up so far. I’m not entirely sure how this tent holds up in rainy weather, but I’m about to have six months to try it out.

It was very nice to have a ground sheet, especially at this campground. Excuse my breakfast!

Pack

I went back and forth for months about which package I should buy. Since having shoulder surgery in October, I was and still am really worried about carrying weight on my shoulder for six months and 2,200 miles, so I knew I needed to reduce weight by purchasing an ultralight backpack, which is a low-weight, minimalist style backpack. I initially really liked the Six Moon Designs Minimalist V2 backpack, but it was a little heavier and more expensive than the one I chose, which was the Durston Kakwa 55. I chose this backpack not only because it is very light but because it has load lifters for the shoulders, which is perfect for relieving pressure. Plus, one of the side pockets tilts down so I can reach back to grab water without pinching my shoulder. Believe me, I’ll give you an update on how the pack is doing once my shoulder starts acting up, but fingers crossed we don’t have that problem.

Next post 🙂

I thought it would be fun to do another post before we start the 29th about the smaller topics people ask me about all the time and the questions I’ve been asked most often. Also, I still want to thank you for coming to my in-store talk at the end of these, but is it too soon? Thanks for coming to my in-store talk!

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