Equipment Comments

A few things came to light on the Eagle Creek/Wahtum trip:

As usual we tend to bring stuff we think we need but don't really. I carried a full 3 liters of water (about 6 pounds) in the Platypus bladder for a two day trip when water was readily available all along the trail. Carrying a small Gator Aid bottle and just refilling as needed would have saved my legs a lot of effort.

I'm so impressed with the mummy bag (The North Face Cat's Meow 20F) and Thermo-Rest Z pad sleeping on top of the snow. Our lakeside camp temperatures had to be in the mid to upper 20's and I stayed warm all night.

The Big Agnes UL2 tent was easy to set up, stake out and very comfortable with plenty of room to sit up and change clothes as needed with minimal effort. At tear down in the morning a pool of ice water had formed under the tent foot print and I never knew it was there. Nice!

MSR's Pocket Rocket is awesome. For $40 and the no nonsense quick setup and operation, it works for me. The guys struggled a bit lighting their super lightweight alcohol stoves and they do work very well but once again I'm choosing just a little more weight for convenience.

Columbia's Omni-Tech rain gear worked perfectly keeping me bone dry and yet breathable so I didn't overheat. I loved that even with a loaded pack I never felt constricted in any manner. The gear worked perfectly for golf and now for backpacking as well.

I came to the conclusion after this trip that my Osprey Aethos 60 is just too big for my needs. I'm not carrying enough stuff to utilize all 60 liters of space. After logging 13 miles each of the two days and slogging through snow going up and down hill I felt every single ounce of weight in my pack. I can save over two pounds going to the Osprey Atmos 50 and be that much more confortable. Thanks to REI's return policy a pack swap is in the cards very shortly.

Equipment Change

I starting thinking over the weekend that my wife might want to join me on a future backpacking trip or just do some old fashioned car camping like we did long ago. With that in mind I swapped out the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1 for the Fly Creek UL 2 person. The other issue is that I'm a big guy and the one person tent just felt like a coffin once I set it up and managed to slide inside. Amazingly the two person version weights only 7 ounces more but has a lot more floor space and a little more headroom inside so I can actually sit up. For an older solo backpacker to have a little more room and comfort at night with not much weight gain it seemed like a good idea. REI's return policy is exceptional. I just exchanged tents and paid the $50 difference in cost between versions. Awesome!

The Big Three Gear List (keeping it light!)

All new gear from the ground up for me. Last time I owned backpacking equipment was in 1976 as a sophomore in high school. Let's just say gear technology has come a long way since then. I should have everything by the end of this month so we can make a gear test trip when the snow clears a bit off the passes. Last September I hiked a 15 mile PCT section from Timberline to Lolo Pass. For our test trip we're going to hike the last 29 mile leg from Lolo Pass down to Cascade Locks so I can claim the whole Oregon section when we finish at Timberline in late July.

1.) Most important gear first, the pack: I chose the Osprey Aethos 60. This pack has really high marks from current owners in on-line reviews. It felt molded to my back right away with an especially comfortable hip belt system. It's a balance between light weight, capacity and durability. Osprey's longstanding reputation for well engineered packs is legendary. On this trip our longest carry without a resupply will be seven days in southern Oregon so my goal was to keep the pack as light as possible and still have a decent capacity. A personal fitting at REI was extremely helpful.

2.) Tent: Big Agnes Fly Creek UL 1, Jeremy used it on his 2010 PCT thru hike and raved about how light it is and how easy it is to set up and tear down. It kept him dry through several days of rain in Oregon and Washington. Extremely durable and well designed Big Agnes FLC1 is an ultra-light one person tent. It weights in at only 1lb, 13 ounces including poles. I also popped for the Big Agnes FLC tent foot print as well.

3.) Sleeping Bag: The North Face Cat's Meow (+20) synthetic bag. Although heavier than a down bag, synthetic is the way to go if you plan on getting wet, and after all we are hiking in the Pacific Northwest. This bag has several excellent reviews on-line by current owners especially with the most recent re-design of the exterior material. It's light weight at only 2lbs, 12 ounces. Included with the bag is a compression sack that really compacts the bag into a size that just fits into the bottom sleeping bag compartment of the Aethos 60.

4.) Everything else: The guys have me convinced that less is the best so I'll be carrying a minimal amount of everything else. It's a fine balance between comfort and carrying too much weight. Example: my mess kit is one cup, one titanium cook pot, and one aluminum spork. For each of us Jeremy designed and built an alcohol stove made from beer cans. It works amazingly well and the fuel is dirt cheap and light weight. I'll have one change of hiker clothes, two nylon base layers, polyester thermals, two pairs of nylon/polyester underwear, Omni-Tech rain gear from Columbia and three pairs of Wigwam hiking socks to rotate out for the entire month. I can't wait to get on the trail!