Ask Darwin Q&A #30 (Answers)

Description

** Stuff/Gear I Mention in this Video **

EE Recon Bivy - https://enlightenedequipment.com/recon/

Routes Podcast - http://routespodcast.com

OP Sack - http://amzn.to/2jHXLVe

WhiteBlaze - https://whiteblaze.net/forum/content.php

ZPacks Nero - http://www.zpacks.com/backpacks/nero.shtml

SuperFeet Flex - http://amzn.to/2hgxIQr

AT Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2016/05/03/darwins-2016-at-gear-list/

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Canon EOS T6i - http://amzn.to/2kACQOU

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Canon EFS 24mm - http://amzn.to/2mSAXSn

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TakStar Shotgun Mic - http://amzn.to/2kMsAnM

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Targus 360 Trigger Tripod - http://amzn.to/2kMsU5Y

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,AT Thru Hike,Thru Hike,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,CDT,PCT Thru Hike,Backpacking,UL Backpacking,UL Gear,Hiking,Hiker Trash,Camping,Adventure,Arizona Trail,AZT,OP Sack,Enlightened Equipment,Zpacks,Zpacks Arc Blast,Zpacks Nero,Recon Bivy,Whiteblaze.net

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 then 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 how do you feel about Vivi's or ground sleeping with just a sleep mat and sleeping bag so good question and believe it or not actually last night I slept in a bivy in the past I've actually been not a big fan of Vivi's but I figured I would finally give one a try since I finally found one that I think that I like so I actually picked up an enlightened equipment recon vivvy and last night I took it out slept in it and I'm actually really digging it so the Recon bivy is actually what I'm gonna be using for my section of the Arizona Trail at the end of this week I'm gonna go out for 10 days try to put down about 200 miles and I'm carrying a bivy and a tarp setup so some nights I'll use the bivi and then other nights I'll actually just throw my pad on the ground and cowboy camp as you are asking about so I'm typically a tent guy but lately I've just been trying to get a little more minimal on smaller trips like that so I'm giving them try now but yeah

last night I slept on a bit do you have any podcast that you listen to or suggest to hikers to listen to while on the trail so I used to not be a big podcast fan I used to just listen to music and in about the last year I finally started picking up on some podcast so I don't always listen to hiker specific podcast some of my favorite ones are a fat man on Batman with Kevin Smith I'm a big Batman geek so I love listen to him rant about comic books and stuff there's a podcast called The Art of Manliness that I like to listen to you because they talk about really historical things with Teddy Roosevelt John Muir and some certain men in our history that have kind of helped influence nature and stuff and then the hiking specific podcast that listen to are obviously pox and Puss which is a very popular 80 podcast but they haven't put one out in quite a while the trail show which isn't too bad sometimes I really can't take those guys they a little bit too much for me and not really trail specific and then the podcast that I've really gotten into lately there's another YouTube hiker named John Z and a couple months ago he actually started a podcast called routes now John's podcast is completely different because he doesn't really talk about the major trails he talks to hikers that are setting their own routes and planning their own through hikes that no one's ever done so it's a super super interesting podcast I definitely suggest checking that one out he only has a couple of episodes and right now I think he's only putting out about one a month but definitely worth checking out super super interesting podcast aside from that there are a lot of different trail and hiking podcast just kind of search through your thing and I'm sure you'll find a lot of them hey Darwyn josh from new hampshire here doing a section hike of the carter moriah trail and the Wildcat Ridge trail there's Mount Washington in the background love your videos keep up the good work question for you is do you swap out your insoles I bought a pair of the ultra Lone Peak 3.5 s absolutely love them did 14 miles of them yesterday as a first hike just wondering if you swap them out for a little bit more arch support or if that's something you would recommend normally I put super feet in my rugby cleats and whatnot I didn't know if that would be a good insult to put in these shoes thanks for taking my question and keep up the good work like I said earlier love your videos oh man that hike looks great I really missed the White Mountains so have fun up there yeah so in answer to your question I do swap out my insoles so I actually use the super feet flex I don't like the typical super feet because I think that there are a little too stiff and they give a little bit too much arch support like the green ones but I've been using these for a couple years now and I really dig them they're just a little bit of extra support but they're not overkill which is why I like them a lot I've never been one to use the insole that comes in a shoe whether it be the ultras or Amero or a running shoe or anything I just they never work for me so I always use something else like the super feet flood by now I imagine you're pretty good at guessing pounds and ounces how much do you think that awesome beard weighs in it it weighs nothing how do you store your food while hiking in the desert since there isn't always a tree to hang food from that's a great question Gaby and one that I've actually recently had to really think of because I'm about to head out and do this section of the Arizona Trail so typically any of the sections that I've ever done in the desert I've just taken my bear bag my Z packs bear bag and I've taken it away from my tent and tried to hang it in some sort of a bush or something like that every once in a while I'll take it and put it in my vestibule and I haven't had any problems but lately as you might know I've decided to go stove 'less so I'm carrying food that's not necessarily being cooked at camp so it's not admitting as much smell so recently I picked up what's called an Opie sack which stands for odor Prusak it's essentially this really big ziploc bag and now I'm putting all of my food in here rolling it up and just putting it right outside of my tent or my bivy or whatever and I haven't had any problems yet no I'm still one of those hikers that's always on the fence and I rather hang a bear bag but you had those situations when you're in the desert and you can't really do it so you just kind of have to risk that now I try not to put it inside of my tent because just in case there is a mouse or a squirrel or something they're not gonna eat a hole in my tent to get to my bag so as long as I set it right outside if something is going to get my food they won't destroy my gear and I'll eventually do a full review on the opie sack and let you guys know what my final thoughts are on using this for a bunch of miles but so far I've really been digging it so I took a vacation up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula recently and I'm from the Lower Peninsula around the Detroit area and I noticed when I was up there like we did mostly driving around just to like different locations and I noticed that the NCT went through like the most beautiful parts of the vacation that we took

and no I'm I've just recently like started getting into hiking and I want to start going on longer hikes I haven't did anything over ten miles yet so I don't really know what to expect you know doing a longer hike and I was wondering if you have even thought about doing the NCT or have done a section of it since I remember watching one of your videos you said you were from I think Indiana and I mean that's not too far off of you know or Michigan Zach or maybe you know someone who's done the NCT and what to expect so good question and I have personally never done the north country trail I know a handful of cats that have for what I understand it can be kind of a challenging trail in some sections now as far as planning for a thru-hike of it or anything like that my suggestion would be maybe looking into some references like white blaze net even though that is a website for the Appalachian Trail if you go into the forum there's actually a section that has a little breakdown of each long distance trail so you can find stuff on the Ice Age Trail you can find stuff on the Arizona Trail and find stuff on the north country trail and get some references there aside from that I don't really have any information on that one I've never done a lot of research on the north country trail even though I lived in Indiana I just never got up that way I'm sure you can also find some Facebook groups for the north country trail of people that are going out to either hike sections are doing a full through hike but really my suggestion with any trail is always do a little bit of research find out where you can get on where you can get off get your gear ready and just get out on the trail and discover it yourself discover it through trial and error that's always the best way if you were doing the 80 again would use your Z packs bag or your Osprey and how big if at all was your comfort trade-off between the two packs so if I was going to do the 80 again I actually wouldn't use my Osprey at most 65 I wouldn't use my Z packs arc blast I would actually use my new pack that I just got which is the Z packs Nero it is a very ultralight pack where you're going to be rocking about 5 to seven pounds as your base weight that's the pack I would take if I was doing another 80 hike the reason is is because I've done the 80 and I know kind of the ins and outs of how to do the 80 how fast I can do the 80 what sections I can do bigger miles on the towns to resupply and I would actually take a much much much lighter kit I think once you've done a trail for the first time and you kind of know it and you know what to expect and you know what your comfort levels can be I think that you can do it much lighter much faster and just in a completely different way plus I would like to redo that trail and do it ultralight do it a lot faster and do bigger days because now I know that I can handle that so yeah if I was gonna go out and reheat I would be carrying my Nero pack I probably be carrying a tarp setup I'd be going stove 'less and I would carry barely any water storage just because I know that I can hydrate really easy all the way along that trail now that's not for everyone and that's not good advice for someone that's gonna go out and hike it for the first time but I think that if you know your comfort levels and you end up really knowing that trail I think you can do it completely different so that's what I would take all right guys last question of the week can you name five people that inspire you on the trail and off Teddy Roosevelt my grandmother my through hiking buddy knots because that dude is a super inspiration tons of trail miles on that guy any national park our national forest ranger that is the coolest job you can have and I have a ton of respect for those people in my entire family for reasons that you guys wouldn't even expect 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 the next week I'll answer as many as I possibly can so at the end of this week on Saturday I'll be hitting the Arizona Trail and doing about 100 to 200 miles section going out for 10 days so it all depends on how many miles I can put in in 10 days I'm shooting for 200 I'm gonna start just south of Flagstaff and head south so well how many miles I put down aside from that snow goes and I have about two more weeks that were going to be here in Flagstaff then we're going to be hitting the road and heading out to Southern California to Joshua Tree National Park you have how to change it go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a lot of new photos lately of some of the things that snows 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 and as always guys thanks for watching 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