Tag: gear

HMG backpack

*** UPDATE – I DON’T LIKE THIS PACK AFTERALL. It gave me a rash and was too delicate. BACK TO ULA!! *** I feel like a total traitor to ULA but this is my new pack. It’s so sexy I couldn’t resist. In fact, I once dated a guy pretty much because he owned this pack. (And went after another super hot HMG owner this summer 💋💋💋) As you can see I’ve already added some custom mods at the sewing machine. Stoked for big 2016 hikes and other stuff! Interesting footnote is this pack ended up doing the route I picked it for: Hayduke, but on someone else’s back: Dan’s. Funny thing is, I have never met Dan, neither when I sold him the pack (online), nor when we hiked the same trail a week apart.

Sierra High Route Part 4: Reds Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows

This ~50-mile stretch of the Sierra High Route took me four days. I left from Reds Meadows near Mammoth Lakes on a Wednesday afternoon at 12:30pm and came out in Tuolumne Meadows on a Sunday at 11:00am with heels on fire – I wanted to make breakfast at the diner! Day 1: Devil’s Postpile to Superior Lake July 15th. It began with a pleasant enough jaunt along the PCT/JMT towards Devil’s Postpile, a mind-bogglingly geometric statue sculpted by no other force than Mother Nature. Mostly hexagonal (44.5%) and pentagonal (37.5%) rock posts — some of them near perfect — arise out of the ground up a couple hundred feet. They cracked into this shape when a mass of volcanic lava cooled slowly gazillions of years ago, and then were smoothed off by glacier movement at the top to show their continue reading…

Backpack Choices for a Thru-hike

(UPDATE 2023) I realize these days all the “cool” kids want a tissue-thin artisanal custom sub-2-lb backpack for their thru-hike. If that’s you, maybe you don’t need this article. If you’d prefer to carry something sturdy that can actually handle water carries, snow gear carries, and possible longer stretches, then this post is for you. (UPDATED 2019) Here is a run-down of all the popular backpacks on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Also included are a couple pack comparison charts for you, looking at a range of the most common and reasonable packs for normal people. I hope this helps your selection. Please correct any mistakes or omissions in the comments below. Index Common Packs Outliers Other Ideas Considerations 55-60L Comparison Chart 65-70L Comparison Chart Common Backpacks of the PCT (As of 2015) Here is a list of packs that continue reading…

PCT Gear Review

I was really comfortable with my gear along the Pacific Crest Trail, so I thought I would share it with you, and explain why it worked. Please note beforehand that I purchased all these items with my own money after carefully researching them, and was not given anything for review. The following are my opinions. If you look at this photograph with me, I will talk about the items shown, left to right, one row at a time. Click a link to skip forward to that gear item.