33 days - Gear specifics

We leave for San Diego in 33 days! A lot of people have been asking specifics about some of the gear we are using. This post will hopefully answer some of these same questions for everyone. First of all, as the gear list stands now, we have many items that some would consider luxury items. In fact almost every piece of gear we have could be traded out for a more minimalist/lightweight/expensive piece of gear. We chose the gear we did based on weight, comfort, price, warmth, and gear we already owned. When you are walking 20+ miles a day and carrying everything on your back, weight means a lot. Here are some of the main gear choices we made.

Tent- Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 
A lot of people choose to use tarps or tarp tents instead of a freestanding tent. We chose a freestanding tent because we want the option of having more protection from the elements and it is extremely light weight for a 2 person tent. We can always choose to cowboy camp or sleep without the rain fly.

Sleeping bags- Western Mountaineering Alpinelite and Apache 
We got these bags from IME in Utah and we couldn't be happier.  In January we slept outside with no tent and we stayed warm all night in our bags (it was about 10 degrees F).  As long as the down doesn't get wet, these bags will work great.  To ensure that these stay dry, we each got a eVent dry sack. 

Water purification- Sawyer Squeeze
This is a new water filter this year.  It is only about 3 ounces and gives you water immediately.  We debated using aquamira and a steripen but these were too time consuming or high maintenance.  The sawyer squeeze filters very quickly and it is guaranteed for 1 million gallons!

Stove- Caldera cone set alcohol stove
This stove uses liquid alcohol for fuel.  A lot of people make their own alcohol stoves, but because the fire danger is so high this year we decided to buy a sturdier one.  We have yet to try this out but we will let everyone know when we do. 

Shoes- Saucony Peregrine and Montrail Bajada
Yes, we are using trail runners, not boots or hiking shoes.  These are more comfortable, lightweight, and dry faster.  Nate decided on Montrail Bajadas and Jenna, Saucony Peregrines.

These are only a few of the gear choices that we struggled with but we now feel confident in our choices.  We can't wait to get out there and we wish luck to anyone who has started already.

cheers,
Jenna and Nate

Gear

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for the infrequency of posts. We will start posting a lot more. The much anticipated gear list is up and posted on the gear list page of our blog. Just a few things to keep in mind about the gear list. The gear list weights may be slightly more or less than what we have indicated. This is due to human error and the fact that it is impossible to get a precise weight on everything. Also, the gear list is not complete, nor will it ever be. Things will change, and items will be added and discarded throughout the course of the trip. The individual weights of items are mainly for reference, what is important is the total pack weight.  Yesterday we laid out all of our gear and then packed our packs up. Here is the gear all laid out.

Here is the picture after it was all condensed into stuff sacks.




The total base weight of Jenna's backpack was 13.5 lbs and Nate's was 15.5. Base weight is the weight of everything that we will be carrying excluding consumables (water, food, and fuel) and items that we will be wearing while hiking.  We felt that this is a little bit heavier than we both would like, however this was just a preliminary test.  For a first test run of our packs, these were pretty awesome weights.

Cheers!
-Jenna & Nate