Ask Darwin Q&A #18 (Answers)

Description

** Stuff I Mention in this Video **

How I Pack My Gear - https://youtu.be/85X1rKirm-I

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

Canon G7X Mark ii - http://amzn.to/2ue5Ykd

My Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/darwinonthetrail

GutHook Apps - http://atlasguides.com

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

Thunder Dreamer - https://thunderdreamer.bandcamp.com

Snuggle's Blog - https://darwinonthetrail.com/the-snuggle-diaries/

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*** Gear Used to Shoot this Video! ***

- Camera -

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

- Lense -

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

- Sound -

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

- TriPod -

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

------- Music By: Thunder/Dreamer --------

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,Thru-Hike,AT Thru-Hike,Backpacking,Hiking,Camping,Adventure,Hiker Trash,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru-Hike,Arizona Trail,AZT,Colorado Trail,CT,Grand Enchantment Trail,GET,Patreon,Canon G7X Mark ii,WhiteBlaze.net,Guthook App

Video Transcription

hey guys it's starting here with my weekly Q&A to answer more of your questions 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 I haven't got any video questions and quite a while so take your camera take your phone shoot a video of you asking me a question so I can feature it in my video come on guys I give you my video every week send me a video and let me feature you in my Q&A alright so let's go ahead and get started with this week's first question what are your thoughts on sandals on the trail focus can't choose anti-cycling Footwear I see a lot of people starting to make the change towards more minimal footwear out on the trail so my thoughts on sandals are the same thoughts that I have on trail runners the same thoughts I have on big high-top hiking boots whatever is comfortable to you and what is going to be the most comfortable while you're out on the trail everyone has a totally different preference for Footwear so whatever makes you feel good makes you feel like you have support and can get you to the end of that trail is all that matters now I personally wear trail runners so lately I have not been taking camp shoes I've just been using my trail runners at the end of the day just switching out my socks and then just putting these on kind of loose I used to carry camp shoes whenever I was on the 80 but lately I've just been kind of switching off of that as far as hiking in sandals I have personally never hiked in sandals but in 2015 I hiked with a guy named tornado Tim to hike the entire trail in Chacos so complete open toe sandals got all the way to Katahdin and he was super comfy never had a foot problem the entire time he was out on the trail so again I just think it's all and what you're comfortable with minimal is definitely my game and what I want to shoot for which is while I hike in trail runners versus boots but it's all up to the individual it's all preference so hike your own hike brother do you have any suggestions on how to save space in your pack

that's a good question Matt and my answer is going to kind of sound smartass and I am NOT trying to make it that way

get less gear so the best way to save space in your pack is simply by using less gear keep shaking down that pack and making sure you really have what you need and getting rid of those things you don't really need is one of the most important things about backpacking and a great way to learn in advance as a backpacker and how to pack your pack is really deciding what you need and what you don't need obviously the less stuff you have the more space you're going to have in your pack so you might even get a smaller pack because you don't need all that space another thing that you can do is if you have to have that extra gear use compression bags so make sure you can fit things into a small tight little compression sack get it down in your pack so you can stack and make more room a few months ago I did a video called how I pack my pack where I showed you kind of how I stack things and both of my packs both the one that I carried on the 80 and 15 and for my PCT through hike gear set up so go check that out I'll put a link in the description box below and a little tab over here in the corner somewhere so go check that video out if you want to see how I do mine but again the best advice I can have is get less gear and you're going to have more room in your pack for the important things like food dude what is the song in your intro so the song in my intro is a song called what would your lover say and it's by the band Thunder dreamer thunder dreamer is a phenomenal band I've known those guys for years I grew up with a handful of them I'll put a link in the description box below if you want to go check out their Facebook and their band camp they actually just recently got signed to a record label and released a brand new album called capture so go check that out give those guys some support I use a lot of their music and a lot of my videos if you check out my videos from 2015 and 2016 out on the 80 pretty much every single one of those videos that's a thunderdrum or some crazy talented guides and some awesome jams hey Darwin was there ever a time where your shoes fell apart well on the trail in the middle of No where if not do you worry about that happening if so what did you do so yeah she's pulling apart all the time especially on the 80 special when you're going through Pennsylvania you shred shoes so the best thing to do is just simply making small repairs which is why I always carry duct tape around my trekking pole I've had to patch holes I've had to take duct tape and completely wrap my soul around and keep it from flopping I've seen some really crazy shoes out on the trail some people that have just been trying to get the most miles that they possibly can mine haven't gotten too crazy beds where I've had to really doctor him up but I did have to do a lot of repairs to snuggle shoes in 2016 because by the end when we got to Maine her shoes were completely shredded and since we only had like 100 miles left 200 miles we didn't want to get her a new pair of shoes yet so we got as much life as we possibly could out of them they were shredded man so mainly just duct tape when we got into a town we bought a little bit of superglue and shoe goo to try to put the sole back on and try to patch some of those holes there's a lot of things that you can do to repair your shoe and get as many miles out of them as possible now after a while if your feet are hurting it's time to get some new shoes so maybe you should consider getting into a town and getting a new pair of hikers but now I've never been worried about if I'm out there hiking and my shoes fell apart like I said I always carry something to repair them I'm not a hiker I'm a photographer any tips I'm packing DSLR camera equipment on your kind of hikes so I'm also a bit of a photographer I've been getting into it a little bit more lately obviously with doing these vlogs especially cinematography so I do shoot on this big Canon Rebel t6i camera it's massive I love shooting on it when I'm on a tripod but there's no way I would ever carry it on a hike one it is huge - it's really easy to break it if it gets wet or something like that and three it is really heavy and takes up a lot of room in my pad so actually I recently got one of these guys this is the canon g7x mark - and this is what I'm going to be doing a lot of my trail shooting with now it's definitely a little bit heavier than say a GoPro or something

but the the quality that you get from the filming is absolutely amazing plus it shoots amazing still photos that time-lapse does all that so this is my new rig that I'm going to be carrying on the trail and replacing my GoPro with usually I shoot with a GoPro but I really been wanting to kind of step my game up and give you guys a little bit more of a cinematic experience when I'm out on the trail so this is my new toy this is what I would suggest for you if you are a photographer and love taking those pictures they're a little bit pricey but I'll put a link in the description box below to this camera if you want to go check it out and it's definitely a great replacement for your massive DSLR camera you mentioned you would like to do some 700 to 800 mile trails any in particular that you're looking forward to good questions so yeah I have mentioned a lot lately that I think after the PCT my main focus is going to be knocking out some of those smaller trails so right now the top three on my list especially because I'm here in New Mexico are the Colorado Trail which a lot of hikers have started doing that trail super beautiful I haven't spent a whole lot of time in Colorado so I feel like that's a great way to see that state is by hiking the CT number two is the Grand enchantment trail the granite Chapman trail is actually a trail that not a lot of people know of the grand enchantment runs from Albuquerque New Mexico to Phoenix Arizona or from Phoenix to Albuquerque whichever way that you hike it so it's actually right behind me I'm here in the Sandia Mountains it traverses over the sand is then heads north then heads west over to Phoenix so that is definitely one that I want to check out I've hiked a couple of small little sections of it up here on the Sandia Crest but I'd really like to do a fool through hike of that and then the third trail that I really want to do that is smaller is the Arizona Trail now this past October I went out to do a fool through ride of the Arizona Trail on my bike going from Utah to Mexico I had a lot of problems I messed up my knee so I did have to pull off of that so number one that's on my list of trails to complete finish and kind of battle I only got about 250 miles into that tree

and then had to pull off but while I was out there the whole time I was on my bike because I am a huge hiker all I could think about was through hiking it how amazing of a trail it would beat it through hike so yeah those are my top three the Colorado Trail the Grand enchantment and the Arizona Trail who knows maybe I'll even take all three trails and kind of link them together because they sort of come close to each other as far as how their paths cross so maybe I'll do like a mini Triple Crown or something I don't know don't hold me to that that might not happen but if I thought well snuggles be hiking the PCT also so that is a question I've been getting a lot lately no snuggles is going to be setting the PCT out I'm going to be doing that whole trail solo so the whole time I'm out on the PCT snuggles is actually going to be taking care of a lot of my media making sure that you guys get to see me on the trail and some other stuff with all the media that we have going on so she's going to be the main epicenter and the brain of this whole operation the other cool thing is because we are going to be living a life on the road her plan is to kind of travel up the trail as I'm hiking and come out and meet me for some section hikes she really wants to hike the JMT

the John Muir Trail so she's definitely gonna be coming out to hike that section and then going to be kind of following me all the way up to Washington and obviously picking me up when I get up there so you will see a lot of snuggles out on the PCT but no she's not going to be doing a full through hike of the PCT she has a lot of other things going on with her media with her riding and she's wanting to dive more into that while I go out and hike that trail hey Darwin and snuggles did you two sleep in separate sleeping bags or did you combine them and sleep together in a double size sleeping bag so no we slept in separate sleeping bags for handful raisins if we were like mountaineering up in some crazy high altitudes somewhere in Colorado or Wyoming we would probably be sharing a sleeping bag to keep warmer whenever you're doing something like a thru-hike like on the 80 you are constantly nasty and sweaty and sticky so just the thought of being in a sleeping bag with somebody else rehgar

if it's my wife or not kind of makes my stomach churn it's bad enough that I have to be in there with myself sticking to it

I definitely don't want to be sticking to someone else now for winter camping that's a great idea we don't have a double sleeping bag or a couple sleeping bag we only have separate ones but I think even then now we probably wouldn't sleep together it's just man after a long day of hiking that just sounds nasty you're hiking the PCT and Bigfoot steps out in front of you on the trail what will be the first thing you grab him I grab Bigfoot and give him a big-ass hug then I probably grab my camera and take a selfie because number one that would probably be the ultimate selfie and two could probably make some pretty good money off that all right guys last question of the week comes from Ron how do you prepare for trails that you have never hiked before where do you get the updated trail info such as water locations what to see or avoid campsites etc so Ron there are a lot of great resources to get information about the trail obviously before I do any trail I spend months doing my research watching videos reading posts seeing what other hikers have experienced and what they know about the trail that I'm about to go out obviously there's a lot of really good resources here on YouTube so I always make sure that I scan the tube and see what I can find on the trail but also finding forms like white blaze is a really good website where a lot of people keep updates on trail conditions joining a trail Facebook page so I'm a member of a lot of different Facebook groups for the PCT the CDT is the 80 the Arizona Trail so go check those out because people are always posting things while they're out on the trail to keep you updated and then aside from that checking out an app like the gut hook app is a really great one not only is it GPS a map it shows you where water caches are but also people leave comments and show you and tell you some things that have changed so there might be a water supply in one certain place and if

read in the comments section under that somebody might tell you that it's already dried up or that it's falling great so there are a lot of really great ways to research and prep for a hike check out all of those resources but again I try to do as much research as I possibly can to make sure I'm prepared so I'm not putting myself in a dangerous or unprepared situation 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 like I said 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 aside from my weekly Q&A is I'm going to be starting a monthly live Q&A session over on Facebook that's an invite only for my patrons go check out my patreon I'll leave a link in the description box below you can find out more information about that live Q&A get signed up and help support my channel if you haven't got a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram and 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 of 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 you

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