Ask Darwin Q&A #40 (Answers)

Description

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

Hiker Trash Holiday Gift Guide - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2017/11/21/hiker-trash-holiday-gift-guide/

Sawyer Squeeze - http://amzn.to/2AaQ3dg

Joby GorillaPod - http://amzn.to/2AaJWpt

ZPacks Pack Cover - http://www.zpacks.com/accessories/pack_cover.shtml

Pack Liner - http://amzn.to/2Ag4D0G

OR Transcendent Beanie - http://amzn.to/2Bst6jy

Pack Towel - http://amzn.to/2iY6uzE

Sea to Summit Alpha Spork - http://amzn.to/2Acghfp

Manfrotto Mini Tripod - http://amzn.to/2A9LW0E

Food Resupply Video - https://youtu.be/7WSxld60VuU

AZT Section Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2017/09/22/darwins-2017-azt-section-hike/

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

*** WAYS TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL ***

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

(Help Support my 2018 PCT Thru with a pledge as low as a $1/month)

Visit our Etsy Shop! - https://www.etsy.com/shop/TravelandTrail

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

- Camera -

Canon EOS 77D - http://amzn.to/2zf5OQ9

- Lense -

Canon EF 24mm IS USM - http://amzn.to/2zeJuWU

- Sound -

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

- TriPod -

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

------Intro & Animation By: BlackStrap Media------

https://blackstrapmedia.com

------- Music By: Mike Boren --------

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!

Contact information:

Website: www.darwinonthetrail.com

Instagram: Darwin_Onthetrail

facebook: www.facebook.com/darwinonthetrail

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 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 what are your thoughts on pack covers did they work for you on the 80 so yeah I did use a pack cover on the 80 and for some of you that are not familiar with what a pack cover is it's essentially a cover for your pack to help with rain it just usually stretches on the outside of your pack and it acts as a guard from any dampness or anything soaking into your pack material now the pack cover that I use on the 80 in 2015 and 2016 was the Z packs cuben fiber pack cover pretty expensive for what it was but sometimes those things can be a little bit heavy so I just went ahead and went with it and it worked pretty decently but to be honest I don't think that a pack cover any pack cover ever really does a good job keeping your pack completely dry because even though I had it on there there are tons of times were in a downpour my pack would still be soaking wet and things on the inside would be what as well now I did use separate stuff sacks on the inside to keep the important things dry like my clothes like my quilt but a pack cover just does an okay job now personally if I was gonna go hike the 80 again I would not use a pack cover I would use a pack liner so there's a couple of different companies that make a pack liner which is essentially one big roll top sack that you put inside your pack then stuff everything in then roll it down and then shut your pack cuz I know a lot of people that use those out on the trail and they worked awesome and another thing you can do if you want to save a little bit of money is use a trash compactor bag they're pretty cheap they're pretty tough and they do a great job and most of them are big enough to fit in like a 60 to 70 liter pack so that is what I would suggest can you please tell me which skull cap you're wearing in the video so I would assume that you're talking about my beanie here this thing was actually hand knitted for me by a friend back home in Indiana she knitted it for me right before we were about to take off in 2014 and do traveling and hiked the 80 not only did she knit this for me but she also knitted the one that snuggles wears all the time it's funny I have a bunch of different skull caps and beanies like the one that I use on most of my backpacking trips which is the Outdoor Research transcendent down beanie but at the end of the day this is my favorite and it's the one that I always grab because it's super comfortable it looks pretty cool and it was handmade for me yo whatup Darwin its Eve from Jersey a few questions in regards to showers and baths on the trail

people are taking them out of hostels and public churches who's supplying the towels like I can only imagine that hotels are giving you towels when you rent a room but at hostels and churches i see that rei sells lightweight towels how do you feel about towels on the trail just some thoughts love your channel keep the videos coming even Jersey holla back so yea that's actually a really good question and one that I've probably never thought of there are a lot of places on the 80 especially that will give you a towel when you stay with them so obviously you would expect a towel from a hotel if you're staying in a hotel on the trail but most of the hostels that we stayed in also supplied you with the towel now not all of them but I would say most of them do I've personally never used a packed towel in any of my gear setups and I think it's a pretty good idea to have especially if you think that you're gonna be on a trail where maybe it doesn't have a whole lot of hostels or hotels but I've just personally never carried one I seen a lot of people carrying them in 2015 and in 2016 on the trail and any of the times that I ever needed a towel and the place that I was staying didn't supply one I just kind of air-dried myself or if we were taking like a shower and a campground or something I would take paper towels and just kind of Pat myself off until I was dry a pack towel would probably be a good idea if you're putting together a kit for a thru-hike of the 80 what do you think about dehydrating your own food have you ever tried it so yeah I actually have dehydrated my own food in the past

last year when I was getting prepared for my through ride of the Arizona Trail I D hydrated about 50% of the food that I took I was making my own meals with ramen and mashed potatoes and beans but I was dehydrating certain vegetables to put them in there to give myself a little bit more nutrients you want to check that video out I'll put a link up here in the corner and it's pretty much a whole video on me dehydrating my meals and putting those meals together now I plan on doing some more dehydrating for my thru-hike of the PCT next year but you know living in a 5x8 cargo trailer out in the middle of the woods it's kind of hard to dehydrate food but we're gonna be spending a little bit of time at a friend's house in Southern California so I hope to dehydrate a bunch of vegetables there what is the oldest piece of equipment that you still use so I actually had to think about this one for quite a while because I'm a big gear geek I go through a lot of gear I'm constantly switching it out trying to figure out what works best for me at the time but there are two pieces of gear that I have had for as long as I can remember that I still use to this day the first one is not necessarily a piece of gear it's more of a garment and that would be the köppen top that I'm currently wearing it's just kind of a fleece top that's a quarter zip I've had this thing for probably close to six or seven years I picked it up whenever snuggles and I were first starting to get back into backpacking and it's great I absolutely love it you'll see it in a ton of my videos and a ton of my pictures I am always wearing this thing it is my go-to piece of clothing when it's kind of chilly outside I don't take it on long trails as much as I used to but I do wear it like almost every single night at camp I wear it in town a lot on day hikes it is definitely my favorite piece of gear and I don't think I could get rid of it one of these days the stitching's will probably fall out and I'll just have to get rid of it but right now it's still going strong and then the other piece of gear I would probably say that I've had the longest is my sea2summit long handle spork again I've had that thing for about six to seven years and it's been on absolutely every single trip with me whether I'm carrying a cook system or I'm going stove us I always have that long handle spork with me hell I even use it in camp at night whenever I'm just cooking on our regular stove I've thought about switching it up to a titanium one I just don't have the heart to do it I love that thing and it's always in my pack hey Darwin is Metro coming to you from the Appalachian Trail a quick question for you as you are prepping for your upcoming PCT trail through hike my question for you is how often do you get out on a weekly basis to hike and when you go out to hike how how far do you go on average I'm looking at like just trying to get a gauge on how often you hike and how far you go love your channel love your videos keep it up so I hike I'm probably four to six days a week every opportunity that I can get I get out on the trail as I've said it in the past going to the gym is a great workout but there is no better workout and no better training than just getting out on a trail in hiking now we're at right now right outside of Flagstaff we're about 500 feet from the Arizona Trail so it's super easy for me just to go jump on the trail and do a day hike whenever I want to right now I'm doing hikes between I would say like six to ten miles almost every single day sometimes I go hiking in the morning before I you know go run errands and shoot videos and stuff and a lot of times I do some night hiking like last night I had a really good night hike for about eight miles just to get my eyes used to the trail at night without using a flashlight or headlamp and even whenever we lived in Albuquerque New Mexico most times before work in the morning I would get up I would drive to the foothills and go hike some of our local trails

I usually couldn't get in that long of a hike but I would usually hike for at least an hour and I just treat it like going to the gym a lot of people get up in the morning before they go to work they go and hit the gym and lift weights and stuff I get up and I hit the trail how often should you back wash a Sawyer squeeze are any other squeeze filter how long should you do it so I try to bat flush my Sawyer as much as I possibly can now even though this Sawyer squeeze filter and most of the squeeze filters out on the market do come with some sort of a syringe or some way to back flush it I have never carried one of those with me on the trail in my experience pretty much anytime you come into a town whether you're at a resupply point you're staying at a hostel or a hotel you can usually always find the hiker box that will have one of those syringes in it I usually just grab it i back flush the crap out of my Sawyer filter about three times until I get water that's running clear no more muddy nasty water and I just put it back in the hiker box for the next person and like I said usually it's on my to-do list for town whenever I get to any town is look for a way to back flush my filter the more you back flush them and the cleaner you keep them the better your flow rate will be and the longer the filter is gonna last now know there's a handful of like little attachments and stuff that you can get to put on a smart water bottle to use out on the trail but I've never tried one of those I just said in my experience there's really never been a time that I haven't gotten to a hostel or a hotel or something and haven't been able to find one of those syringes do you have a recommendation for a certain tripod that you bring with you when backpacking I know you list one in your description that you use for the videos like these but I'm just curious if you use a different lighter option for actual backpacking slash hiking so Caleb there are a ton of different tripods out on the market that are super lightweight super compact but the ones that I always use out on the trail are the Joby Gorillapod

now when I'm doing something like a longer distance hike if I'm on one of the major trails like the Continental Divide or the 80 or the Arizona Trail I'll use the Joby Gorillapod mini it's super tiny it weighs barely anything and it allows me to get really good shots and then the other one that I use is actually a bigger one but again it is a Joby Gorillapod I think it's called the action gorilla pod or something I don't know it's red and black that is the one that I use a lot whenever I'm doing day hikes if I'm in a national park or I don't mind adding a little bit of extra weight to my day Peck that's the one that I'll grab there's one that I've seen that a couple hikers really like I think Manfrotto makes it it's like a little weird ball with three legs on it that one's also really popular because it's super lightweight and it's super compact but I personally and make Joby Gorillapod kind of guy are you still using a quilt instead of a traditional bag when you first switch did you have a problem with it being drafty how did / do you deal with that what's the coldest it's been on a hike and was your quilt warm enough so David I have three quilts now I actually have two enlightened equipment quilts and then one Underground quote I have a thirty a twenty and ten so it all depends on what weather situation that I think that I'm gonna be in and the coldest that I've had my 10 degree quilt down to was I think a nine degree night and it did perfect now I sleep a little bit warmer now as far as it being drafty one thing that I don't think that I've ever talked about and what most people don't talk about with a quilt is most quilts come with a pad strap so the quilts have little bitty buckles or little loopholes on the side of the quilt and then they come with an elastic cord that has a connector that clips to that so you can strap the sides of the quilt down to your pad so as far as a draft I've never had a draft come in unless I wasn't using my pad straps and the only time I don't use my pad straps is when there's a lot warmer outside and I don't think that I need them so I think that that is a big misconception about quilts that they get drafty so in answer to your question am I still using quilts yes I am I don't think that I could ever go back to a traditional bag I was never really that comfortable in a traditional bag because I always felt so restricted I toss and turn a lot when I sleep and I sleep on my side a lot so a quilt just gives you so much more room it's lighter it's more multifunctional and to me they're just overall better all right guys last question of the week okay so in a previous QA you discussed the big three trails and mentioned some of the smaller trails that you'd like to through hike so my question is why don't more people do the smaller ones before taking on one of the big three when that help folks prepare mentally and physically and have a chance to work with their gear before hitting the monsters so that is a phenomenal question and funny enough it's one that I recently had a discussion with another hiker about now the big three would obviously consist of the Appalachian Trail the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail and all of those trails are over 2,000 miles now all of the smaller trails would be something like the Arizona Trail the Colorado Trail maybe the Florida Trail which are gonna be right around five to eight hundred miles now are they smaller yeah do they take less time to through hike absolutely but the whole common about them being mentally easier I don't think so at all here's why the smaller trails do not have as big of a trail community as something like the Appalachian Trail and there's not as many people hiking those smaller trails so I think if it's your first time hitting a trail you're gonna have an easier and better time out on something like the 80 versus something like the Arizona Trail because there's less room for error and what I mean by less room for error is there are more hostels there's more resupply points water is more available in sections of the trail there are more Outfitters so when you go out for the first time if you're out on the 80 you can make more mistakes and learn as you go and develop as a through hiker a lot better than say if you set out on something like the Arizona Trail where there's not a lot of water there's not a lot of people out there to help lift you up and talk to and kind of kill that loneliness sometimes there's not a lot of towns to resupply in so mentally the trails would be much harder because you don't have the type of services and the type of trail community that you have on a trail like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail which is why a lot of people choose those two trails as their first trail and as far as the physical point goes they're all hard and if you can hike 500 miles you can hike 2,000 miles now if you're looking at a smaller trail because of time restraints yeah absolutely hiking the azt hiking the Colorado Trail makes a lot more sense because they are shorter trails so you can get a through hike in in a smaller time period but as far as being physically or mentally easy not at all so that's just my two cents but I think that if you're going to be planning for your first through and he had the time to do it go out and hike the 80 it's a great trail with an awesome trail community and it teaches you a lot about trail life and being a piece of hiker trash alright guys so hopefully you had an awesome Thanksgiving snuggles and I ate a bunch of Indian food and did a bunch of hiking so I'd say we had a pretty good one if you haven't checked it out yet snuggles and I recently put together a hiker trash holiday gift guide so if you're looking for that perfect gift for the hiker trash in your life I'll put a link in the description box below and you can go check it out for yourself if you want to leave a question for next week's Q&A you can either leave it in the comment box below or 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 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 you

[Music]

[Applause]

you