Whoa... so glad I stumbled upon this thread. Lots to think about. Thanks everybody.
Whoa... so glad I stumbled upon this thread. Lots to think about. Thanks everybody.
Nice read. My problem is my fears are usually centered around the unpredictability of the weather. I have seen it get 25 degrees below the forecast, so Now I always want to pack for that.
What do you folks do for clothing? Other than warmth layers, do you bring extra socks or underwear, spare shirt? I always seem to pack an extra pair of socks and boxers, and a shirt for my weekend backpacking trips, but (hopefully not tmi), I never use em. Im okay dropping some societal decency and living in the grubby clothes for too long so long as they arent soaked.
My gear weight has gone down a lot since switching to a hammock, and paying attention to what I use on the trail. I love the idea of comparing calories to weight - that seems a great way to shave off excess food. But the clothes are always my big fear that I pack.
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- I have a hiking shirt, socks and pants.
- Fresh pair of boxers each night unless it's more than 2 nights; then I'll start "doing laundry" and hope the other pair dries in time. TMI, but I ran out of TP once, so I took out my knife and sacrificed a pair of boxers. Worth losing $3!
- Also socks and a shirt just for sleeping, which is always nice to have for backups as well. Dry, clean sleeping clothes is a must.
Food sucks. I went pretty basic for my 4 night/5 day trip coming up and it's 5 pounds of a 10L drybag pretty much full. That's a huge chunk of my pack. No way around it really unless I want to eat 12 clif bars the whole time.
Regardless of trip length, I always carry one full set of clothes in the pack.
1 pair of wool hiking socks
1 pair of boxers
1 pair of hiking pants (prAna Stretch Zion pants or REI Adventure Pants)
1 t-shirt (lightweight and synthetic)
1 pair of mid weight synthetic thermal pants
1 lightweight synthetic thermal shirt
Scarecrow on Instagram
"If somebody tells you there's a rule, break it. That's the only thing that moves things forward."
-Hans Zimmer
75% of the time, I find myself having to change out of everything except for the boxers. This is typically due to the wet weather that I hike and camp in. More often than not, I hike in the rain. Other times, I may have an incident where I fall in to a river or lake while exploring and working on photography (yeah, I'm that clumsy guy. Haha). The thermals are just there to either sleep in, or I'll use them early in the morning because it's generally just pretty cold in the high country during the morning hours (usually upper 30's or low 40's during the summer when I do most my hiking).
In short, I carry what I do because of the nature of my hikes, and my activities (often times) warrant the need for the extra clothing. YMMV
Scarecrow on Instagram
"If somebody tells you there's a rule, break it. That's the only thing that moves things forward."
-Hans Zimmer
This thread shared a lot of good insights. Living in the Pacific NW, rain is pretty much inevitable. But a hiker can only carry so many changes of clothing. So I'm interested in the ways that others deal with 3, 4, 5 day trips in wet conditions. Any gear recommendations or great techniques?
I've never done a lot in the rain, but I think a lot of people keep a dry set for sleeping/camp. The other set is just always damp since you may not be able to hang and dry it even over a 12hr period in camp. That's as good as you can get, so just put those damp clothes back on and get moving to stay warm. Doesn't sound pleasant, but it can work.
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