Ask Darwin Q&A #23 (Answers)

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Big Agnes CopperSpur UL2 - http://amzn.to/2uBpjin

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,Thru-Hike,AT Thru-Hike,Hiker Trash,Hiking,Backpacking,Camping,Adventure,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru-Hike,CDT,Minimalist,Long Distance Hiker,Big Agnes,CopperSpur UL2,FlyCreek UL1

Video Transcription

hey guys it's Darwin here with my weekly Q&A to answer more of your questions if you want to ask a question for next week's Q&A you can either leave it in the comment box below or send me a video question over to Darwin on the trail at yahoo.com

and the next week I'll answer as many as I possibly can all right so let's go ahead and get into this week's first question Darwin I live in the Phoenix area and do a lot of desert hiking and want to stick with the freestanding tent due to the terrain could you recommend one yeah Rob actually I could recommend a couple one of my biggest favorite freestanding tents are gonna be the Big Agnes tents so in 2015 and 2016 on the 80 snuggles and I carried the copper spur UL 2 and I absolutely love that tent super versatile we beat the hell out of it put a lot of miles on it and it stood up great so like most all other Big Agnes tents it uses what's called a Dec pole system or a DAC or however you want to say it and it's a really awesome fast pitching system we were always able to pitch that tent super fast on the fly especially like if there was a downpour or something and the other really cool thing is with that system and a footprint you can actually set the tent up without the tent inside of it so just as a tarp tent which I've done a handful of times it's also good to do if you're in a downpour so you don't get your tent what now even though that is a two-person tent I know a lot of people that have used it for just a one-person tent to have that extra room for their pack and their gear and stuff but if you want something a little bit smaller there's always the Big Agnes by Creek ul 1 I definitely suggest checking that one out as well same thing it has that deck pole system it's super well made and the other great thing is Big Agnes has an awesome lifetime warranty on their tents they'll always fix something if it breaks so if your zipper breaks get a certain tear in your tent one of the poles breaks Big Agnes always has your back especially if you are a through hiker and doing a long distance trail so there's a lot of really good tents out on the market but as far as the ones that I would suggest I would say definitely check out the Big Agnes hey Darren

Lauryn in Newfoundland to love your post love your videos love your hints and tips and just want anything ever all the trails that you have done I've never heard you mention that you're doing anything internationally such as coming to Canada and just wondering if you ever have done that and any obstacles or any hints and tips and doing that love to do the 80 and PCT and stuff like that just never done any major hiking in down in the states only here in Canada would love know your thoughts and answers thanks for everything thanks for your videos and hints and tips keep them coming so I would absolutely love to do some international hacking but as most of you know I have some trails to tackle here in the States first and then after that after I'm out of the trails to hike here in the US I'll probably venture out right now snuggles and I really have our heart set on going down to South America and do some hiking around the Patagonia there's also a really great long distance trail in New Zealand that I would absolutely love to do so international hiking is on my list I just haven't got to it yet just because there's so much stuff for me still to explore here in the States but give me a few years and I might see up there trailers should I say you know teenager you know adolescent how would you talk to your parents about the topic of wanting to take on such a momentous challenge I mean something that is really you know a life-changing experience and that they might not be so keen on the idea of you trying it first because you know you're leaving home for so long and I just really love to know what you think and so first off let me say that it's really awesome that you want to go do a thru-hike of the 80 that's amazing especially at your age I wish that whenever I was at your age I would have thought about something like that it probably would have been a little bit easier on me and at this point I would have had a lot of Trail miles but exactly what you just said man just talk to your parents and tell them exactly what you just told me that you want to do this amazing thing you want to go out and experience this totally different world just tell them that and definitely do your research you know make sure one of the big things that that happen whenever snows and I were gonna go hike the eighty even being adults and even being married for eight years you know we told our family and they instantly started hitting us with facts and questions about don't you think it's dangerous what are you gonna do for money are you gonna take a gun all of these things so do your research learn some facts so that way whenever you do tell your parents that you want to go do something like this by yourself and leave home for that long you have some comforts to give them right you want to tell them that there's tons of different people out on the trail that you'll constantly be around other people talk about the different communities and towns and and trail angels so that way they don't think that you're going to be hiking off into the woods for months on end with without anyone seeing you and you having no touch with civilization so let them know comfort them and let them know kind of what you want to do why you want to do it and just you know tell them how passionate you are about it that is awesome and it's so awesome that you want to get out and hike the trail again I wish that at that age that I would have looked at something like that and I also wish that most people around me would have looked at something like that I think it would have turned me into a completely different person and I probably would have grown up a little bit different so like I said just tell them exactly what you just told me be passionate about it give them some facts let them know that you're gonna be okay and then start planning for your hike have you ever been caught pooping no not yet there's a couple times out on the trail where someone was getting really close to me and I just kind of had a stay quiet but no one's caught me pooping yet it's probably bound to happen pretty soon though hey darlin ran here after every years hiatus from the trail I plan on getting back on it and looking forward to doing some we called section hikes being in my 50s I definitely need to reduce my pack weight now and particularly my base way so I'm looking to go to a quilt like you've done and my question is so to use a quilt liner or a bag liner of any type and it's so what type and do you change it out from the winter - the summer - something lighter or do you use something like the reactor series that gives you a lower temperature thanks a lot and appreciate the videos so no I've never used any type of a liner a bag liner or a quilt line or anything I just have a separate set of clothes that I sleep in at night so I carry two sets of clothes when I hike what I'm hiking in and then what I wear at camp so I know a lot of people will use some sort of a quilt or sleeping bag liner mainly because they don't want to get the inside of their bag dirty but one of the ways I'm able to keep my weight down is keeping things like that out of my pack and I just simply change clothes whenever I get to camp at night and sleep solely in those clothes

and then I just hike in the same clothes every single day so I always have that clean set of clothes to get in my quilts at night to make sure that I don't get it super nasty and then just like a liner whenever I get to town I just wash them and I always have that clean set of clothes for when I sleep at night now the only time I've ever used some sort of a sleeping bag liner was actually when I was out on the trail in Damascus I had sent my 15 degree bag home picked up a 30 degree bag and there was this hardcore cold spell that came through Virginia and it got freezing cold at night so I had to pick up one of those reactor liners just to add it to my bag to make sure I had some extra warmth but I never really used it as a clean liner or anything and then I had it for probably about three weeks and ended up sending it back home so I would say if you're worried about keeping your weight down and keeping it more simplistic don't worry about a bag liner just have that clean set of sleeping clothes to make sure you're not nasty and up your bag hey Darwyn Randy here just curious when you guys are on the trail how do you care for your glasses do you carry extra ones do you carry a hard case do you carry sunglasses what's your plan if you break or lose them I love your channel sir kudos you guys have a great day thank you hey Randy so we've never really done anything special with our glasses I pretty much just hiking my glasses they get a little scratched up they might get a little banged up but I don't carry an extra pair I don't carry any type of hard case or even a soft case I just wear my glasses all the time luckily out of all the miles that are gonna haven't had a problem with doing that yet I haven't broken a pair these glasses in particular have actually been the entire length of the Appalachian Trail they were out on the Arizona trail of the Continental Divide Trail and they're gonna be going out on the PCT with me too now I have had a change of lenses within the last two years but that's it

I usually don't really worry about it I'm not that hard on my gear my glasses tend to just stay on my face all the time at night I take my glasses off I hang them in my tent from a little loop that's on the top of my tent and I don't really worry about it now for the PCT even though I've set it in a bunch of my videos that I don't hike with sunglasses I've actually finally picked up a pair of prescription sunglasses that I will be using for the PCT next year so I'll probably have some sort of little soft bag or soft case to put these in where I am wearing my sunglasses but most of the time I don't really worry about it I just find a good safe spot in my pack maybe roll them up in my shirt or my jacket and then hopefully I just kind of take the risk and they don't get broken alright guys so last question of the week hey Darwin I stumbled upon your YouTube channel just a couple of days ago and I got to tell you I can't get enough of the videos I do have a quick question though how are through hikers taking time off of work to complete their tracks I know that you've mentioned that you and snuggles took upwards of six months or more to complete your through vitals are people simply saving up sick days vacation time and cashing it in all at once are they in a profession that allows them to take sabbaticals or are they simply quitting their jobs and just reapplying for their positions when they get done I happen to be a school teacher so I'm really getting inspired to maybe take some summertime months and maybe try doing the ATN sections over the course of several years and maybe get a completion on it

thanks for taking my question so that's a great question and I've kind of answered a handful of times in other videos but I figured I would answer it again because I get that question a lot it's kind of all of the above there are a lot of different ways that people go to do a thru-hike so there's people like retirees that have worked in their entire life and then whenever they retire it's kind of a gift to themselves to go out and do something like hike the Appalachian Trail in 2015 we hiked with a guy named rube that spent his entire life working for the government and then he decided to retire and his retirement gift to himself was hiking the 80 then you have a lot of people that are out on the trail that are simply between things so whether they're between a job they're between high school and college or they're just taking a year off of college to do something like a long distance hike and lastly you have people like snuggles and I who pretty much just gave it all up quit our jobs to go hike the 80 in hopes that we would find something new when we got back so obviously that is one of these scariest things that you can do and it was definitely hard and nerve-racking for us to do but everything worked out now I am lucky to have had a lot of different types of jobs had a lot of different types of experience I've worked in a trade so I feel like I can always find some sort of work somewhere but snuggles and I have now done it twice where we've pretty much we just work we save up that money and then when the time comes when we know that we want to go we quit when we go hike so it really all depends but I would say all of the above there's tons of different ways to go about doing a thru-hike and taking that time off to do it the most important thing though is start to plan for it and then figure out how you're going to take that time I think that there are a lot of people that don't do things like going for a long-distance hike or traveling the world that are almost kind of scared that they won't be able to find something when they get back or they're scared that the job they have won't give them that time I'm sure I'm gonna catch some flack for this but do what you're passionate about experience those things that you want to experience because you never know when it could be too late and your

never gonna have that chance again so if you want to do something like through hiking the Appalachian Trail through hiked the Appalachian Trail do whatever you can and take those risk because you only get one life to live and it's totally worth it good luck planning for those sections of your hike I hope that you really love being out there take that time off get out there and see that trail alright guys so if you want to leave a question for next week's Q&A you can either leave it in the comment box below or send me a video question over to Darwin on the trail at yahoo.com and then next week I'll answer as many as I possibly can so as an update of what's been going on with snuggles and I in the past week we moved out of our apartment and moved in to our mini camper so we're now in there full-time in a friend's backyard and we have exactly a month until we hit the road and head out to Joshua Tree California so coming up in the next handful of weeks I'll be doing a full tour and video of the inside of my camper at the outside and show you guys what we're gonna be living in on the road we're still hardcore trying to get everything dialed down for our weekly vlog series that we're gonna be starting in September from the road and if you haven't got a chance yet go over and check out the episode zero that I put up last week of our travel and trail vlog and let me know what you guys think and then finally I got my tickets booked for PCT Trail days at the end of this month from the 18th through the 20th I'll be out and Cascade Locks in Oregon just outside of Portland so if any of you guys are out there get a hold of me we'll meet up we'll talk about gear you guys can ask me some questions maybe we'll have a beer camp together but I'll be out there for those three days if you haven't got a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I've been posting a lot of new photos lately of some of the things that snuggles and I have going on throughout the week plus some pictures from some past hikes if you found any value in this video go ahead and hit that like button subscribe to my channel if you haven't already as always guys thanks for watching and I'm gonna leave you with a video clip that a viewer sent me not too long ago so enjoy and I'll see you next week Darwyn personally and again we are hiking on the Aska trails in Blue Ridge Georgia we just wanted to say thank you for the recommendation on the trekking poles thank you so much it's really saved me with my knees um the first two days that we were out really killed and we went yesterday and got some trekking poles and it's made this so much easier today so thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience because it's definitely helped us yeah thank you so much and please keep up the videos it's a little bit of a view of the mountains for you just in case you miss it you

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