AT Complete! Here’s My Gear List

Hi everyone — This is one blog post I’d wanted to publish for a while, but never had the time while I was on trail!  I hope that it proves helpful to those of you who are still in the planning stages for your AT section or thru-hike.

Backpack and accessories

• Deuter AIRLite 65+10 Backpack
• Gossamer Gear Shoulder Strap Pocket, Medium
• 24″ Bungee Cord – used to secure sleeping pad
• REI Traverse Trekking Poles
• Titanium carabiner
• Nite Ize orange gear tie

Footwear

• HOKA Anacapa Mid GTX Hiking Boots – I’d get 700, 600, and 900 miles out of my three AT pairs with no foot pain!
• 2 Pairs of Darn Tough Synthetic Crew Boot Socks
• REI Merino Wool Socks – this was my “always dry” pair for sleeping, but could be used to hike in a pinch!
• Zhuanglin Quick Drying Aqua Water Shoes

Clothing

• 2 short-sleeve synthetic wicking shirts
• 2 pairs of shorts with liners
• 1 pair of Eddie Bauer Ascent pants
• Under Armour synthetic long-sleeve thermal top
• Mountain Hardwear Ghost Shadow insulated hoodie – This was sent home after the first half of my trip
• North Face synthetic thermal underwear – This was sent home after the first half of my trip
• Under Armour waterproof gloves – These were sent home after the first half of my trip
• Appalachian Gear alpaca hoodie – An absolutely incredible piece of clothing!  Warm, breathable, and never picks up odors!
• Appalachian Gear alpaca beanie
• Marmot PreCip rain jacket

Shelter

• Hennessey Expedition Asymmetric Zip Hammock
• Hammock Gear Economy Burrow Custom Top Quilt (20 degree)
• Hammock Gear Economy Incubator Under Quilt (40 degree)
• Hammock Gear Dyneema Fiber Standard Tarp with Doors (12 foot ridgeline, camouflage)
• Therm-a-Rest Z Lite SOL Sleeping Pad (cut down to 10 folding panels from original 16) – This was such an important piece of gear!  I used it as my sorting table, shelter sleeping pad, or (sometimes) as my hammock insulation layer on really cold nights.
• 4 Titanium stakes (for securing tarp, if necessary)

Stove and cookware

• Snow Peak Giga Power self-igniting stove
• Propane canister
• TOAKS Titanium 900ml D115mm cooking pot, with cover – perfect size when you are cooking 2 packs of Ramen!
• Sea to Summit Cool Grip X-Tumbler – I found this very useful for scooping from water sources in very dry spells
• Sea to Summit polypropylene Delta Cutlery Set (Spoon, Fork, Knife) – I found the separate utensils to be very helpful, as I’d keep my spoon with my breakfast stuff (for oatmeal), fork with my dinner stuff, and knife with my lunch stuff (for peanut butter).
• Small cooking towel

Electronics

• iPhone 13 with AT&T cell service
• iPhone charge cord
• Goal Zero Flip 24 power bank
• Power Bank 10000mAh portable charger, plus charge cord – After a couple of early trail stretches where I was almost out of cell power even with my Goal Zero bank, I bought a second power bank.  I carried both for the last 120 days.
• 2 outlet adaptors for phone charging – Allowed me to charge two power banks, or a bank and my phone, at once
• iPhone earphones

First Aid / Hygiene / Safety

• First Aid Kit – I had one of the smaller Adventure Medical Kits, then augmented it with Tecnu, Aleve, and other things
• 4″ Ace Bandage – This was purchased in the first 10 days, luckily I never needed it after those injuries healed
• Cloth COVID facemask – Memorably I needed this to do laundry in Kent, CT!  But not much other than that…
• 3 oz bottle of Aloe gel
• Toilet Paper
• Chamois Butt’r Anti-Chafe Cream (small 9ml packets) – so vital for very hot or very wet weather
• 1 oz Banana Boat sunscreen
• Ben’s DEET
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste
• Comb
• 2 oz Dr. Bronner’s Unscented Castille Soap (repackaged into a travel bottle)
• Ben’s Bug Headnet – an absolute lifesaver at a couple of points on my trip
• Black Diamond Astro 300 Headlamp – inexpensive model, but it runs on easily found AAA batteries and works well

Other Stuff

• Nalgene 1 Liter Water Bottle
• Sawyer Squeeze Filter, plus Syringe and 1 Liter Water Bag
• Evernew 2 Liter Water Bag – this proved invaluable to either: carry extra water, or to serve as my Sawyer bag (when those broke!)
• Deuce2 Titanium Trowel
• Leatherman Squirt PS4 multi-tool
• Reading eyeglasses and soft pouch
• Disposable earplugs – lifesavers for a crowded shelter, hostel or to overcome cicada noise in the South!
• Three pieces of orange paracord (cut from a 50 foot roll)
• Very small amount of duct tape
• Spare dyneema strips, tarp cord, and hammock S-ring
• Sea to Summit DryLite towel – used to clean my feet each night, and occasionally for a shower
• Orange bandanna

Notable Items in my Osprey 20 lb. Food Bag

• 2 LOKSAK OPSAK Reusable Storage Bags (12″x20″) – I chose to eliminate food odors as much as possible by using two of these clear, smell-proof bags inside of my food bag.
• Olive Oil, as a partial fill of a green 7 oz plastic ginger ale bottle
• Talenti yogurt container – Used for my morning oatmeal/coffee cold soak, the same container lasted the whole trip!
• Propel electrolyte packets – A must have for me, in severe heat I’d go through five of these per day
• Folgers Instant Coffee in a plastic 3oz container – I switched to this from the individual packets due to cost and convenience, and no one on this earth should be forced to drink Taster’s Choice coffee!

I’m more than happy to answer questions that you may have about this list.  Best of luck in your own preparations!