AT 2010

In 2010 we hiked the Appalachian Trail northbound from Georgia to Maine.

Here are a few facts about our thru-hike:

We started on March 17th 2010, and finished on September 10th 2010, averaging somewhere around 12 miles a day.  We took many “zeros” (days off) due to illness, so our actual average if you exclude those is much higher.  Both of us got giardia on the trail, and let me tell you, it is not fun.  We’ve learned to purify all our water now.

Appalachian Trail

Gear List:

Dirt Stew
Item	Manufacter/Model	Weight (oz)	Season
Backpack	Gregory	56.44	ALL
Pack Cover	Sea to Summit	4.66	ALL
Tent (without poles)	Big Agnes/Copper Spur UL2	44.62	ALL
Sleeping bag 35C	EMS	27.27	Summer
Sleeping bag 0C	Big Agnes	60	Winter
Sleeping pad	Thermarest/Prolite(S)	11	ALL
Sleeping bag liner	Sea to Summit	9.59	ALL
SteriPen	SteriPen/Journey	4.59	ALL
3L Platypus	Platypus	4.13	ALL
1L Powerade bottle		1.23	ALL
Stuff Sac	Sea to Summit	1.02	ALL
Stuff Sac	Sea to Summit	0.78	ALL
Databook		3.81	ALL
Gorillapod	Joby/Gorillapod	1.66	ALL
Headlamp	Pretzel	2.72	ALL
Hanky	Bandana	0.98	ALL
Camera	Cannon/S90	5.08	ALL
Cell Phone + Charger	Verizon pay as you go	4.6	ALL
Pot with lid	GSI Outdoors/Halulite Microdualist	10.34	ALL
Stove	MSR/Micro Pocket Rocket	3.99	ALL
Fuel	Canister	8.92	ALL
Spoon Long	Sea to Summit	0.67	ALL
Spoon Short	Sea to Summit	0.28	ALL
Bic Lighter		0.78	ALL
Plastic bowl	From Halulite Microdualist set	1.59	ALL
Spare t-shirt	Champion	6.88	ALL
Fleece	EMS	7.27	ALL
Long underwear bottoms	Ice Breakers	7.76	ALL
Long underwear tops	Ice Breakers	7.76	ALL
Spare Underwear	EMS	3.32	ALL
Pair of Socks	Darn Tough	2.19	ALL
Rain Jacket	The NorthFace	13.55	ALL
Rain Pants	EMS	11.29	ALL
Beanie hat	Smartwool	1.98	ALL
Flip Flops	Old Navy	7.9	ALL
Neck Warmer	Columbia	1.23	Winter
Primaloft Jacket	REI	16.08	Winter
		(oz)	(lbs)
	Summer	280.65	17.54
	Winter	314.61	19.66
Worn:		(oz)
Shorts		4.2
T-Shirt	Champion	6.38
Socks	Darn Tough	2.19
Shoes	Various
Trekking poles	Leki	19.68

 

Dormouse
Item	Manufacter/Model	Weight (oz)	Season
Backpack	Golite/Quest	45.5	ALL
Pack Cover	Sea to Summit	6.14	ALL
Sleeping bag 35C	EMS	26.88	Summer
Sleeping bag 0C	Kelty	62.72	Winter
Sleeping pad	Thermarest/Women’s Prolite	15.45	ALL
Sleeping bag liner	Sea to Summit	10.05	ALL
Tent Poles	Big Agnes/Cooper Spur UL2	16.26	ALL
Tent Stakes	Big Agnes	2.5	ALL
3L Platypus	Platypus	4.13	ALL
1L Gatorade bottle		1.23	ALL
Headlamp	Pretzel	2.72	ALL
Hanky	Sea to Sumit pack towel (cut)
Journal	Rite in the Rain	3.81	ALL
First Aid kit		17.81	ALL
Camera	Cannon Powershot	5.29	ALL
iPod Touch	Apple	4.05	ALL
Spare sports bra		2.36	ALL
Spare underwear		0.92	ALL
Long underwear top	Patagonia synthetic	4.44	ALL
Long underwear bottoms	Patagonia synthetic	4.27	ALL
Fleece	Patagonia/R1	9.07	ALL
Rain Jacket	The NorthFace	10.44	ALL
Rain Pants	EMS	10.05	ALL
Pair of Socks	Smartwool	2.54	ALL
Flip Flops	Old Navy	5.82	ALL
Gloves		1.2	ALL
Hat	Mountain Hardware	2.47	ALL
Primaloft Jacket	REI	11.15	Winter
		(oz)	(lbs)
	Summer	215.4	13.46
	Winter	262.39	16.4
Worn:		(oz)
Tanktop	Champion	3.99
Shorts	The NorthFace	2.96
Sports bra	EMS	1.98
Pair of Socks	Smartwool	2.54
Shoes	Various
Gaiters	Dirty Girl	1.2
Trekking poles	Leki	18.87

 

Some comments on gear:

We used a Big Anges Copper Spur UL2 as our tent.  This tent was great, and we still love it.  It is a quite bit heavier than tarps and net tent combos, but it was very comfortable, and felt like home.

We started our hike with a Steri Pen, but it broke about 600 miles into the trip.  After that point we just used bleach.  Bleach is recommended by the US government in emergency situations to purify water, so I cannot speak on the long term effects, but it is by far the lightest option we’ve found.  To use bleach, we transferred a small amount of bleach into a small eye dropper and used it at the rate of 2 drops per liter.

Dormouse used a Golite Women’s Quest backpack, which she loved.  Golite even replaced her backpack with a new one free of charge in the middle of the hike due to some issues with the pack.  Their customer service was tremendous.

Dirt Stew used a Gregory Z55 pack, and also had issues with his pack.  Customer service at Gregory was much less good than Golite.  He was told to arrange to send his pack back for repair, and he only wound up sending the top lid back since the logistics for fixing the rest of his pack seemed too complicated to deal with.  He hiked many hundreds of miles with a broken shoulder suspension strap.  He did send his back pack after the hike was over, and Gregory did repair the problem, as well as several others without charge.

If you are looking for our blog posts from this this journey, click here.