Ask Darwin Q&A #41 (Answers)

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,AT Thru Hike,Thru Hike,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru Hike,Backpacking,UL Hiking,UL Backpacking,UL Gear,Hiking,Hiker Trash,Camping,Adventure,Arizona Trail,AZT,CDT,Long Distance Trail

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 just to let you guys know next week I will have a special guest with me here on the QA and he is another through hacker so whatever questions that you leave for next week make sure there are general enough for both of us to answer I'm Kyle from Canada and my question is are you planning on going stove 'less on the PCT as well as are you going to go for your Triple Crown so Kyle I am gonna be going stove this on at least the first 700 miles of the PCT the reason I want to do that is because I'll be going through the desert and going stove oh I can use a little bit less water when I am cold soaking versus boiling water to cook and then cleaning my pot and stuff I'm mainly doing it just because it'll be much more simple on me and it's less gear that I have to carry through that desert section since I'll be carrying extra water an umbrella extra desert gear plus I just personally like going stove 'less it's just a convenience thing for me like I've said in other videos at the end of the day sometimes I just don't want to cook and being able just to put a little bit of water and some food shake it up and let it set is amazing because I don't have to worry about that extra camp chore and then I think that I might be picking up a stove in Kennedy Meadows for the Sierras but I haven't decided yet so as of now that first 700 miles yes I will be stove 'less and then if I go stove us for the rest of the trail I don't know now as far as your question about am I going for my Triple Crown not really I hiked the 80 I'm gonna hike the PCT when I get done with the PCT my goal is to not go and hike the CDT I've set it in the past I really like the Continental Divide Trail but as of right now I have no plans on thru-hiking it just yet my plan is when I get off of the PCT I want to go hike a bunch of smaller trails as you guys know I've been doing a lot of section hikes this year of the Arizona Trail so I would love to eventually through hike

that trail and then head back out to the East Coast and do a lot of smaller through hikes so I might hike the CDT in the future but for right now no plans for a Triple Crown how many miles do you get out of a pair of hiking shoes Steve I usually use the rule of thumb between 500 and 700 miles now back when I hiked the 80 I used to wear the maro Moab's and those I could usually get about 700 miles out of a pair since I switched to a trail runner because now I use the ultra Lone Peak 3.5 they're not as heavy-duty so they can break down a little bit faster and because technically they are a running shoe I've always had a rule of thumb with running shoes right around 500 miles since I used to be a big-time runner and a triathlete I always went by that rule because if I ever pushed a shoe over that I would start getting leg problems my knees would start hurting I would start having an IT band syndrome so I'm always really really careful not to push a shoe too far past its prime once that foam starts breaking down it can definitely cause problems in the long run now on my last pair of ultra three-point O's I think I got like 450 miles out of them and then I switched to the three point 5s and I'm still rocking those and the haven't worn them out yet but we'll see how far I can push them before they kind of start giving me problems I think it all depends on what shoe that you're wearing and what type of hiker you are some hikers just tear up she's faster than others because they're just rougher on their shoes they stomp down a little bit harder they smack rocks so it really all depends on the hiker and the chute a Darwin Lee Miller here from Southeast Michigan we're on November 24th it's a fantastic 45 degrees Fahrenheit and in my opinion a great time to hike question for you on how best to pack out a wet tent what can advice can you provide on that one in which by the evening it's as dry as possible any wetness hasn't transferred into the inside of the tent and I'll give you a couple conditions number one let's say it is a fall day in southeast Michigan and any evaporative drying is at a minimum and also it's not a $600 Dyneema tent but rather a less expensive one that tends to absorb water thanks so that's a pretty killer question and I might have answered that in the past but what snuggles and I did on the 80 when we had a wet tent as we would carry two gallon ziplock bags and then if we woke up in the morning and our tent was wet from either rain or condensation we would take the tent and we would stuff it into a gallon ziplock bag and then we would take the fly as a separate piece and put it in another gallon ziplock bag we would put it in the tent stuff sack then I would put it in my pack and then in the middle of the day when we got to a break point either for lunch or to grab some water and we saw that the Sun was out maybe it was a little breezy we would actually get the tin out and we would get the fly out we would find a place to hang them usually between two trees and let them dry out and that stuff would usually dry pretty fast we would pack it back up that way when we got to camp at the end of the night we would have a dry tent now on that not so rare occasion that it rained all day so we woke up it was raining we were hiking and it was raining and we never really had a chance to stop and dry the tin out those are the days that we would kind of give in and stay inside of the shelter I think that there was only one time that we set up a soaking wet tent and had to sleep in a wet tent and if you've ever done that it is awful nobody wants to sleep in a wet tent while it's still wet outside so now that I carry a little bit lighter weight of a tent that dries a lot faster and the pack that I carry has that big mesh pouch on the back like the zi packs ark blast or the nero if i wake up from my tent is damp from condensation I'll just take it I'll crunch it up and I'll put it in that big mesh pocket and just allow it to dry throughout the day while I'm hiking and that usually does the trick and if it doesn't like I said I just stop whenever I'm taking a break I find a place to hang it and let it dry after completing a long-distance trail like the 80 or PCT do you find enjoyment completing small trails on the lines of 20 to 60 miles or has completing a long-distance trail kind of ruined you after seeing and doing so much no not at all I am a hiking junkie so whether it is a 2,000 mile trail a 20 mile trail a three-mile trail I love being out on the trail and hiking and I hike every opportunity I get it's Arpi for me so going out just to do a smaller trail no it's no different than me going out to do a bigger trail now whenever I do a smaller trail I'm a little bit more relaxed and kind of take my time just because to me doing something like a long-distance trail is is more of work it's like going to work every single day you got to put in your miles for the day you got to get to that next point because you've got to complete that trail going out to do a smaller hike like a four mile hike or a 10-mile hike or a 20 mile hike you can be a little bit more relaxed and I think it's good to have those smaller hikes if you are a long distance hiker because like I said sometimes a long distance height can feel like work so going on a smaller hike and just enjoying yourself being in nature is what it's all about is redundancy important or does leaving stuff at home lighten your load enough to justify taking the risk being out and about with broken gear that's a good question and I think it's all up to the hiker now as far as having extra stuff on the trail I've learned through hiking a bunch of miles that anytime I took that extra stuff I never really needed it I know there's a lot of hikers that will say what's better to be prepared because you never know when you're gonna need something but yeah I don't know if I really want to give that a completely honest answer because a bunch of people will tear me up for saying stuff like that the only thing extra that I ever really carry is I carry an extra pair of socks and then a pair of dry clothes to switch into whenever I get to camp at night so usually that's the shirt that I sleep in and then my tights and that's it aside from that no I don't carry like an extra knife or an extra flashlight I will carry an extra battery for my flashlight just in case you know my power goes out but that's not a lot of weight I don't carry four extra pairs of socks I don't carry like double of everything in my medical kit just in case but it's all up to the hiker if that makes you feel more comfortable to carry extra stuff on the trail just in case then by all means do it hey Darwin it's Franziska here with hike Oregon I'm wondering about these fuel canisters this is the eight version I know they make a smaller four ounce version I generally have carried these but I'm always unsure of how long this is going to last on a backpacking trip so I always end up with like tons of fuel left over but I don't want to be in a situation where I don't have enough fuel so my question to you is how do you go about measuring how long this is going to last you I would be preparing water for coffee and oatmeal in the morning and then I would be cooking a meal at night so for two cooks a day how long with this last you I am the worst person to ask about that because I'm probably just as bad as you are and like most people I do the exact same thing I grab a can of fuel what I am using a stove and I just use it until there's barely a little bit left in there and then I usually switch out and get another one

however I do hold onto those cans there's actually probably three of them sitting in the back of my gear box right now and I try to use those whenever I'm like here at camp at night or if I randomly want to make like a cup of coffee or a cup of tea in the middle of the day I'll try to use that fuel up so I'm not wasting it not just throwing away fuel I know that there is some sort of a trick that you can do by floating your can of fuel and water and it'll tell you exactly how much fuel you have but I've never done it like I said I'm just as bad as you are one thing that a hiker friend taught me a while back is instead of carrying one of the really big cans is carrying two of the smaller cans so you know that whenever you run out of one that you always have an extra one and then whenever you get to town you can just grab another small one and it might be just like a little bit heavier because obviously you have more material with two cans versus one can but that's a good way to make sure that you don't run out of fuel on the trail with all the advantages of using a drone with 4k and wide range of options I see people using drones for their videos on hiking and other stuff you ever thought about using one I know maybe the cost could be a little expensive but they are making them cheaper and easier to use just a thought so I do have a drone if you've watched any of

the episodes of travel and trail which is a monthly vlog that snuggles and I do you'll see some drone shots in that I'm a big gear geek and a camera geek so yeah I bought a drone quite a while ago I have the DJI Mavic Pro and I love the thing you're right it is super fun to fly it gives amazing 4k footage however I have personally never carried it on a hike and on the trail and I only ever really use it whenever we're just kind of traveling around or say maybe we're out on a big piece of land or property I'm very old-school when it comes to respecting national forests and national parks I would never ever fly it like in a national park which we visit a lot of I wouldn't fly it in a National Forest if there are restrictions like the one that we're in right now and I personally don't carry it on the trail because one I think it's heavy even though they're not crazy heavy it's still kind of a goofy piece of gear for me to have getting that awesome shot that aerial shot is just not worth the wait for me I rather just carry a smaller camera and get all my shots that way and then the other thing is I don't want to make other hikers mad there are a lot of hikers that are out on the trail to enjoy the quiet and the serenity to hear birds and the wind and I don't want to be flying a drone around because they're pretty loud they make a lot of noise even the nicer ones like my DJI Mavic Pro even though it's a quieter drone it's still loud and it can disrupt other people's hikes so yes I do have one I absolutely love it but I would not carry it on the trail all right guys last question of the week I always watched your Q&A videos and I was wondering how do you live with snuggles in your small home can you perhaps make a video of a day in the life when you're not on the trail I'm kind of curious how your home looks on the inside like where do you go to the toilet and do you have a shower so I have teased a lot in the past year about doing a video like a tour of the inside of our 5x8 cargo trailer I just haven't done it yet one I personally think that you guys it's boring you guys wouldn't want to see a day in the life of us live in a trailer it's not that exciting and there's really not much to film it's a 5x8 space that just pretty much has a bed in it and then in the back is where our kitchen is so we just open it up and our kitchens there and we have to access it from the outside so if I made a video like that it would just be super boring and the other thing is you know that is our private home that's more of our private life so I've kind of been on the fence of doing it just because I don't know maybe that's one thing I don't want to share with you guys now as far as do we have a toilet inside no again it's a 5 by 8 space so because we usually camp out in National Forest we just use the bathroom outside just like whenever you're camping we'll go way out into the woods we'll dig our cat hole we'll do our business and we'll bury it so it's pretty much like we're camping all the time and then as far as a shower goes we usually access local gyms fitness centers or YMCAs and we'll buy either like a week or two week pass or sometimes a month or two month pass and then we'll just use showers at the local fitness center but yeah it's pretty much like we're camping all the time and we love it that way as far as how do I live with snuggles in such a small space it's cramped but we use the outside a lot so we utilize the outdoors a lot which again is what we love and it's why we did it and I don't know maybe one of these days I will make a tour of the trailer for you guys but as of now I'll just leave you guys guessing alright guys so if you want to leave a question for next week's QA you can either leave it in the comment box below or send a video question over to Darwin on the trail at yahoo.com and then next week I'll have a special guest through hiker here on the QA and we'll both answer your question if you haven't had 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 and as always guys thanks for watching [Music]

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