Equipment

I laid out all my gear. On the top row you see the synthetic puffy jacket. I chose synthetic over down because even though it's bulkier, it is kind of the equipment of last resort in my opinion if you are cold and wet. If the down sleeping bag is sopping wet, it is useless. You could sit in the synthetic jacket and gain some warmth.

Then my clothing in a pile: shirt, pants, underwear and socks. Then gloves, and just below the "extra" clothes: pair of shorts, cotton underwear for sleeping, light t-shirt and extra socks. Next is the pack with a warm hat and sun hat sitting on top.

Next row is the all important plastic bag to keep the quilt dry in the back. Then the Nemo Tensor pad, mostly obscured by the quilt. The little blue bag is my wind/rain jacket. Then the quilt. Now the very busy section of gear, like the Kindle, the headlamp, power back and cables, tripod, camera (with extra battery), card reader to upload images from the camera through the phone, headphones, finally the umbrella.

The shelter is on the lower left: a rather small tarp with guy lines, stakes, and a Tyvek ground sheet, then a pillow.

Finally, you see a spoon and a cold-soaking jar (my "cook set"). A lighter, sunscreen, chapstick, a bottle of soap and anti-chafing creme (very important!), a toothbrush. These are sitting on a set of blister tape. There is a bottle to be filled with olive oil at each town. Then the water filter, adapter, and water bag.

The next row down has a covid mask, passport+credit cards, trowel, then an odor-proof bag for food. Finally the hiking poles.

In this picture, you can see the things I'm wearing (mostly), and other things in/on the pack:

Additionally, there are extra things that go in a "bounce box" mailed ahead on the trail a few stops. This contains a better wind/rain jacket for Colorado, thicker gloves, gaitors for snow, snow bails for the hiking poles, extra headphones, soap, a fresh odor-proof bag, and a great "Hiker to Trail" hitchhiking sign Barbara made for me (on the back it says "Hiker to Town"). I shouldn't need that until Colorado where quite a bit of hitch-hiking needs to be done.

I've weighed everything carefully, and despite regarding 10 pounds as a kind of magic number for the weight of the pack without food/water, I'm a bit over, at almost 11 pounds. But I just don't see anything to cut.

The luxuries are:

• Pillow - however, since I sleep often on my side, it is so helpful. I like it too much to remove it.
• Kindle - The thing is, since my phone is my map, it's incredibly important to preserve battery there. And man, I'm such a reader. I just love having this.
• MP3 player - same story as the kindle. I can listen to audiobooks and not burn the phone battery. It's just worth it.
• Extra underwear, shorts, shirt - the problem here is that if I have a chance to do laundry in town, what should I do for pants/shirt? Wearing the same shirt for many days almost hurts after a while. I've thought about this category a lot and tweaked it to this set. I'm satisfied.
• The Nemo Tensor ground pad - at almost 600 grams, this is a huge luxury, and I can't call myself an "ultralight hiker" on this basis alone. But I know that my recovery is based on good sleep. Maybe I'll get tougher later and make do with a smaller inflatable pad, or even a foam pad.

Worries are: tarp too small for heavy rain (hopefully not, but maybe, especially in Colorado above the treeline). Gloves not warm enough (but I'll add the heavier gloves in at the Colorado border). Ground pad springing a leak (this would be really lame, and there is some danger of that. However, the relatively heavy Tyvek ground sheet is my insurance against that).

Whelp...almost time...!

Oh, I didn't mention the shoes. Altrec Lone Pine 5. Love them.

I've got my list on LighterPack too: https://lighterpack.com/r/iw20ey