Eric's Gear Guide 101

I used a JetBoil. I shared it with Boo Boo -- she sent her alcohol stove home in ME. It's only supposed to boil 2 cups, but if you're really careful you can fit nearly 4 cups in there. She carried a titanium pot and we pretty much always had ramen, lipton sides, or (she would carrry) mountain house dinners.

There is a jet-boil multi-person cooking system (a pot). It's not quite as slick as the JetBoil personal cooking system (not everything fits inside so neatly). You could consider one of the other canister stoves (since in the group system you loose the nifty integrated wind shield anyway). There are also alcohol stoves (the lightest, by far), the problem is just finding denatured alcohol.

Regarding a shared tent. I think you all would do better to carry two two person tents, rather than one 4. One 4 is probably lighter (but one person ends up carrying most of the weight -- yes, you can redistribute other things). I found that I don't sleep really well next to lots of people (most hikers have to get up to pee in the middle of the night due to our hyper-hydration), so my tent was a wonderful escape from that. It also may be possible some days/nights that you wont want to camp all together (for whatever reason). A two person tent is small enough that one person can carry it for themselves alone if need be.

One decision to make with tents is how much weight to commit to the problem. Ideally as little as possible. Tarptents are light, but all require you to stake them down (not really a problem, even in PA) which makes them harder to set up on tent platforms and on open rock faces. About 6 weeks into your journey the nights will get cold and the bugs will disappear, meaning after that you won't need a tent at all. One thing I never did was just bivvy out under the stars. It's one thing I would have liked to have done.

Ok, since you'll probably find this helpful, here is everything I carried (as best as I can remember... and well... after 1200 miles you know your gear pretty well):

Granite Gear Vapor Trail Pack (Men's M, with women's M hip belt)

Compactor trash bag (as a pack liner)

Henry Shire's Contrail Tarptent

Tyvek Sheet (as ground cloth)

Mountain Hardware Phantom 45 degree down bag

REI silk/jersey bag liner (great! protects the bag, washable! I might have preferred silk sans jersey though)

Sierra Designs stuffable "rain" coat (only occasionally useful, wouldn't probably carry it again)

Jetboil Personal Cooking system

Clothing:

1 pair rain-gloves from REI (rarely used, occasionally nice to have)

2 bandanas (one blaze orange) from REI

EMS "Techwick" thin tanktop

Mountain Hardware Mountain Kilt (sadly, these are discontinued I think)

REI long-pants, few pockets (too heavy! I'd use scrubs, or something lighter for camp instead)

REI long-sleeve shirt (also too heavy! button-up was useful though)

REI fleece vest (awesome)

2 pair Darn Tough Medium thickness coolmax socks (awesome, I can tell you more)

1 pair SmartWool thin socks (weren't useful for hiking, only camp)

Vasque Velocity trailrunners, w/ Orange SuperFeet insoles

Misc bag:

EPI Pen (heavy, 4oz, only one I know carrying one)

Petzl Tikka XL headlamp (I would go with a Zipka if I did it again)

Cheapest/smallest cingular pre-paid phone (I can comment on carriers if you like)

couple batteries, (tiny) sewing kit, super glue

Bennadryl, Tums, Pepto Bismal, Ibuprofen

Bandaids, etc. there was a good first-aid kit guide on white blaze

Duck Tape!

3 small REI stuff sacks (one for camp-food, one for misc bag, one for clothing)

1 medium REI stuff sack (snacks, never was full, could have been small)

1 pair Crocs (I would have gotten blaze orange ones if I had found them)

1 swiss army knife (all you really need is a small blade and scissors)

1 "Light My Fire" spork thing (useful, but they break, especially trying to eat icecream)

Aquamira treatment drops (filter might be better for a group)

(Travel) Toothbrush, floss, toothpaste

Hand Sanitizer

DEET (for ME)

1 Martin Backpacker Guitar ( and carrying case), "Eva" is her name, btw. :)

40ft of nylon rope (rarely used, only need one rope for the group)

Emergency Mylar Bivvy (never used, probably wouldn't carry)

1 2L+ Platypus water bladder

1 1L Platypus water bladder

1 Platypus Bite valve and drinking hose assembly

1 16oz Gatorade bottle (for mixing gatorade in camp)

I started out with the companion but sent it home, mostly I borrowed Boo Boo's maps, or looked at her Wingfoot.

I started out with poles, sent them home in NH.

A few things I learned:

1. Weight. Matters more than you'd ever believe. I tried to be under 30lbs when I started (was closer to 35 starting). My pack was about 15lbs base weight at the end. 26 with a couple days of food and water. 31 with Eva. I thought sooo many times about sending Eva home (and so many others I was incredibly happy to have her there). You can feel pretty much every oz. Don't overload your pack. The Vapor Trail is only rated to 30lbs. It feels great at 25, sucks (and falls apart) at 35.

2. I realized half way through this wasn't a 6 month hike. You're taking a lot of small hiking trips, the first one is about 8-10 days long (you can get to a real outfitter from Monson). If you can live with out it for 10 days, do. It's relatively easy to get stuff sent to you, or get it at towns (especially once you get out of ME). Also, the SOBO hike isn't as "forgiving" of poor starting decisions -- SOBOs can't drop 30lbs off their pack 30 miles in, they have to carry it for 120 miles before they can send stuff home for real, plan accordingly. With 4 of you to share things, you should be able to all start with less than 30 lbs (including food and water).

3. Ideally, solve the shoe problem before you go. I bought the wrong shoes initially (but didn't really know it, because the foot box just ripped out 50 miles in, leaving my feet room to expand). I have hard to fit feet and finding shoes on-trail is double-hard. Your feet will expand, but mostly the ball of your foot will get wider. If the balls of your feet hurt, your shoes are too narrow. Ideally, find shoes that fit before hand, and then just plan on ordering new ones (possibly a size larger) ahead of time from REI/EMS to be at the next PO for you. I wore SuperFeet, I'm not sure they entirely lived up to the hype. (That said, it is my opinion that noone has solved the shoe problem yet. When we did our biggest day -- 43 miles -- we all felt fine at the end of the day, except our feet were *killing* us. Your feet will probably always be your greatest weakness -- once your ankles and knees strengthen up, that is.) It seems everyone wore trail-runners eventually. I saw very few people hike the whole thing in boots. Your ankles and knees hurt the first few weeks, then stop.