Ask Darwin Q&A #51 (Answers)

Description

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

Deuce Of Spades Trowel - http://amzn.to/2BQF4lP

The Buff - http://amzn.to/2DX4obU

ThermaRest Z-Seat - http://amzn.to/2DX4EaS

Sea to Summit Spork - http://amzn.to/2DWFt8t

The Trowel Video - https://youtu.be/tyL9guVCRHM

Rim to Rim to Rim Video - https://youtu.be/y1HUOWZZUPU

Pinhoti Trail Gear List - https://youtu.be/EsCCh6nGwlM

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/

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*** 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

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https://blackstrapmedia.com

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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,Pinhoti Trail,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 all right let's go ahead and get into this week's first question what is a trail angel so Corey a trail Angel is essentially someone that comes out to a long distance trail like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail or really any trail and does something for hikers now that can be leaving trail magic at a trailhead like food or water or it could be a simple act as giving a hiker a ride to town you know hikers go out to two roads sometimes and they hitch and pulling over and giving a hiker a ride so that is what a trail angel is it's somebody that takes time out of their day to just help a hiker and help someone in need on a trail there are a lot of trail angels out there and some really famous ones at that you might have heard of Miss Janet who's actually on the Appalachian Trail she's probably one of the most well-known trail angels she just kind of drives up and down the trail hoping hikers when she can during thru-hiking season being a trail angel is really awesome and I know I personally have always really appreciated what someone does for me on the trail and that's why I like to personally give back whenever I am next to a trail any time that I can I have a permit for Mount Whitney that's in quotations how do you feel about the man requiring us to get permits and permission to go outside it's not a permit and a permission to go outside the whole concept of a permit system to do something like climbing Mount Whitney or through hiking the Pacific Crest Trail or hiking through a national park is Leave No Trace it's all about crowd control there are so many people out there that want to do the same things like climbing Mount there are a ton of people that climb Mount Whitney

every single day and there's nothing wrong with that I want to climb it you want to climb it everybody wants to climb it but if we let everyone climate at one time it is a massive massive impact to the environment and then the environment starts to whittle away and then we don't have anything to climb so I think that a permit system is a good idea and I don't feel like permit systems are the man trying to get me down I'm willing to do my part and get a permit to do something if that means protecting our natural resources after watching your review of the deuce of Spades and you're probably using it for a while how is it holding up is it the tool of choice for the PCT yeah so you guys might have seen the video that I made called the trowel necessary or unnecessary is essentially a video that I did kind of eating crow about carrying a poop shovel on the trail I used to not do it and then I had a change of heart over the last handful of months and decided to start carrying a trowel to help promote good Leave No Trace principles and yes I am still carrying the trowel

I love the trowel and it's holding up great the deuce of spades is a very lightweight point six ounce trowel and I to be honest I kind of didn't think that it would hold up as good as what it is I thought it would kind of start to bend after a while but every trail that I've been on since I picked that trail up and every time that I use it it always works great the only thing that I could probably say about it is because it is made of a thin aluminum the handle can kind of dig in your hand a little bit whenever you're really getting down into the dirt trying to dig a cat hole so maybe wrapping some duct tape around it or even thought about maybe wrapping some of my leuco tape around it instead of putting it around my trekking pole which is where I typically keep leuco tape instead wrapping that around the handle just so you get a little bit better of a grip and that metal is not digging in your hand but yes an answer to your question the deuce of spades trowel is my trial of choice for the PCT what is hands your favorite piece of gear that's a hard question I have a lot of favorite pieces of gear but I think that if I had to pick one piece of gear that always goes with me it doesn't matter where I go it doesn't matter what type of trip that I'm doing if I'm going stove 'less if I'm using a stove I'm going altra light or just light is my buff I have a green buff that I bought a long time ago way before I ever got into long-distance hiking I picked this buff up and it has been with me on every single trip so I think if I had to pick a favorite piece of gear that little insignificant piece of cloth is probably gonna make the cut it is my favorite just because it's always with me and I've used it for everything I've used it to dip in water and wipe myself off I've used it as a blindfold at night I've covered my ears with it

I've used it in sandstorms in the desert using it as a mask I've used it to pick up the cup off of my stove because it's super hot that thing has holes in it where it's been burnt it sure smells awful even if I wash it like a hundred times it'll still smell bad but I think that that buff is my favorite piece of gear just because I've had it so long I go through so much gear all the time and I'm constantly trying new things and switching out any things so I think that the buff is probably the longest lasting piece of gear that I do have and it is my favorite do you need a backcountry permit to camp during a rim to rim hike in the Grand Canyon in March as far as I know you have to have a backcountry permit no matter what month that you go and camp in the canyon now if you're saying camp in the canyon during your room to room yes 100% every single time now if you're doing what I've done both times that I've done a run dirham I have started on one rim and did the entire thing in one day and camped on the other rim you don't always have to have a permit if you're planning on going from rim to rim in one day and the north rim is open so in March it would definitely be open no you do not have to have a permit but you still do have to buy a small campsite it's called a backpackers campsite on the North Rim campground now if you're going in say December like the one that Nemo and I did we had to actually get a backcountry permit to camp on the North Rim because the entire North Rim was shut down there was no services so yes we did have to get a permit so it really all depends on where you're gonna camp what time of year that you're gonna go but if you plan on camping in the canyon in March yes you do have to get a backcountry permit and I would highly suggest going ahead and starting to look into that because there's a lot of requests to do those trips into camp in the canyon so permits get filled up pretty quick what are some core gear that will always be on you / with you on any trail no matter what or where it is in any condition you're in well one of the pieces of gear would definitely be that buff that I was talking about that buff always goes with me no matter what number two would probably be my arse pad or butt pad or sip at or whatever you want to call that I love that thing for only two ounces I think that the butt pad is an awesome piece of gear to always have with you and as I've explained in the past I don't just use it for a butt pad but I also use it to start fires like a big fan I use it as a windscreen for my stove if I'm cooking I put it between my knees at night when I'm sleeping so my knees aren't knocking together so the butt pad is always always always in my pack my sea2summit alpha aluminum spork funny enough I've even bought a titanium spork thinking that I was gonna replace it and I still have it

so the sea2summit spork is definitely a core piece of gear for my pack setup and aside from that well I think that's it you know whenever I do different trails I'm constantly switching out gear jackets and tights and shoes and packs and all kinds of stuff but I would say that those three items are always in my pack set up no matter what trail that I'm on I always take those with me do you have a Kindle or other eReader app on your phone I can't imagine hiking or camping without being able to read in the evening how do you spend your evenings while out there I do not have a Kindle or any type of an e-reader the only thing that I really do is all download podcast and then every once in a while I will download like a audiobook and I'll listen to that while I'm not on the trail nine times out of ten though whenever I get to camp at night I'm usually pretty wore out and I'll think it'll be a really good idea to like listen to an audiobook I'll put my headphones in I'll lay down in my tent and maybe two minutes of CO buy and I'll pass out and go to sleep so I've never really been able to have enough attention at night to just sit there and read so that's one reason that I definitely don't carry any type of an e-book because I just I would probably never ever read a book so no no phone app or an e-reader or anything on my phone but I do download podcast and occasionally an audiobook my boyfriend and I are starting the pen hodie around March 10th just wondering what you're doing about the first 19 miles since the majority of it is road walk we are assuming there won't be any places to set up camp will you just do more than 19 miles on your first day to get back into the woods yeah so Road walking is not really a thing for me anymore whenever I first hiked the Appalachian Trail you know because we're so privileged on the Appalachian Trail to where 99.9 percent of it is Trail I could never imagine doing a really long road walk like 19 miles but pretty much every other trail the PCT the CDT the Arizona Trail all of the other long distance trails that I've been on there has been tons and tons of road walking so road walking is not really a thing for me anymore now it's just kind of normal from what I understand on the PCT there will be a lot of road walking I think there's like two days of road walking and when I did that section hike of the Continental Divide Trail last April I did a ton of road walking through New Mexico so yes I will be probably doing it over 20 mile a day the first day just to get off the roads to get back in the woods I'm not gonna skip it if there's a road and it's technically part of the trail and it's mileage I'm gonna walk it because I always go from point A to point B I don't really like skipping sections of the trail so yes I will be doing the road walk all right guys last question of the week what's the difference between a thru-hike and a section hike from my knowledge a thru-hike is a long distance hike completed within one hiking season from start to finish and a section hike is a short segment of a thru-hike do miles matter or crossing state borders so yep you pretty much hit the nail on the head a thru-hike is going from point A to point B in technically one hiking season now it's a thru-hike is kind of one of those things where depending on who you're talking to it means something different I am about to do a 335 mile through hike and it's a thru-hike because the trail is only 335 miles so it doesn't need to be 2,000 miles to be a thru-hike necessarily so no it does not have to be any certain type of mileage because there are a ton of trails out there that you can through hike and no it does not have to be any state borders the Arizona Trail is a good example of that that's an 800 mile trail but it goes from the Utah border to the Mexico border so you never really cross the state border you're always in Arizona and then yeah a section hike is just doing a big ol section of a trail so a good example is last year whenever I did my section hike of the Continental Divide Trail it was about a hundred and twenty miles section now that entire trail is you know almost 3,000 miles are right at 3,000 miles yeah but yeah I just went out and did a hundred and twenty miles section so no miles do not matter and no you do not have to cross a state line for it to be a thru-hike it just going from point A to point B on a long-distance trail alright guys 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

you haven't had a chance yet and you want to follow my thru-hike of the pinhole e trail go over and check out my Instagram I've been posting a lot of new photos throughout the week of some of the things that snows and I have going on plus some pictures from some past hikes she 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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