I mean everything.

Except food and water.

This isn’t going to be one of those posts where I show you most of what I’ll be carrying with me on trail. It’s not going to include a gear spread photo with no explanation of what anything is. I won’t show off my cool expensive gear, but leave out the little and boring things. And I definitely am not going to tell you it all (inexplicably) comes to a base weight of 10 pounds. What I present to you below is an all-encompassing peak inside a thru-hiker’s pack. Grab a beverage and a snack, this is gonna be a long one.

Ultralight-ish

On the spectrum of “cuts off their toothbrush handle to save 0.1 ounce” to “carries a camp chair” I fall somewhere in the middle. Although I consider myself strong for my petite female stature, I am somewhat limited in how much weight I can physically carry. On the other hand, I’m not so much of a minimalist that I’m willing to forgo every creature comfort. If it ensures I’m happy, healthy, and hygienic enough to finish the trail, it’s worth the weight, in my opinion.

I haven’t tracked my base weight diligently in the past. As much as I love me some spreadsheets, I’ve never nerded out on meticulous ounce-counting. I’d ballpark that I usually have a base weight around 20 lbs, and a full pack weight between 30-35 lbs with food and water. That number also fluctuates depending on the season (colder = heavier clothes, sleeping bag/pad, etc.) and what extra gear I’m required to carry in certain areas (e.g. snow equipment or a bear canister).

20 lbs might be on the heavier side by today’s ultralight standards (base weight of 10 lbs or less). I’ve always carried about that much and am used to it. As long as I’m comfortable carrying my pack on a daily basis, I don’t really care about the number on the scale or stress over cutting ounces. Am I going to even notice a difference of 4 ounces shaved here or added there? Probably not.

I do own a lot of gear from “ultralight” brands and am mindful and continually reevaluating what is truly necessary for me or not. In other words, weight is a factor for me, but not the only consideration. A few “unnecessary” luxuries can go a long way in keeping you mentally sane on the trail.

Disclaimer

Obligatory all-of-my-opinions-are-my-own-and-I-am-not-sponsored-nor-being-paid-by-any-of-these-brands statement.

All of My CDT Gear

Pack

I love Hyperlite, the end.

P.S. They are light but actually comfortable and durable and I will look no further for my thru-hiking packs. You can try to convince me otherwise. I’ll probably just smile and nod.

This particular pack has a little over 2900 miles on it already between the LT and the PCT. It had some abrasions and minor holes that I patched up with Tenacious Tape. I’m hoping she can hold out for one more thru-hike (maybe two??)

Shelter

Andrew carries this – I keep him around for good reason. We’re late adopters of the non-freestanding tent, but now that we have one, we love it! 500 miles into the PCT we made the switch from a Big Agnes Copper Spur two-person to this Zpacks three-person. The best part is we now have more room for activities AND it weighs less than the old one. Highly recommend it to any thru-hiker couples out there.

The Triplex kept us safe and dry in some crazy rain/hail storms in the Sierra and only collapsed in the middle of the night once when an unexpected summer solstice snowstorm dumped a few inches on us. I’m curious to see how it holds up in the rumored winds on the continental divide. It has around 2100 PCT miles on it and seems to be going strong aside from some minor wear and tear.

Sleep System

Bedding

I have two Enlightened quilts, one 20 degree and one -10 degree. Their Convert line is my favorite because it has a full zipper, but cinch cord bottom. You can zip/cinch it all the way like a traditional sleeping bag on cold nights, unzip it completely for a flat blanket when it’s warmer, or do a hybrid – zipped with the foot box open so you can stick your feet or legs out the bottom. 

Like my quilts, I have two ratings of pads, both by Exped: the 1R for warmer weather and 5R for colder. I find the pool float style vertical baffles comfortable and the rectangular (as opposed to mummy) shape is ideal if you like to star fish your legs when you sleep like I do.

Inflatable pillows somehow always leak on me. Hence why what’s left of my pillow is just the exterior pillowcase. I customized it with two elastic straps that wrap around my pad and keep the pillow stationary. At night I stuff it with my puffy coat. This works when it’s warm out, but when it gets colder I like to wear the puffy to bed. I have a Sea to Summit Aeros Ultralight Pillow that I’ll have sent to me to use as the insert at that point. Open to any blow-up pillow recommendations if anyone has one that has lasted them awhile!

34 year old toddler with no shame

Those who know me well know that every night I, a 34 year old adult, still shamelessly sleep with my childhood teddy bear named Cubby. When I started thinking about the AT, I realized this was going to be a problem. I didn’t want to bring Cubby along both for weight/space and preservation reasons (she’s old and delicate and I’m trying to keep her around until I literally die). Leading up to the trail I received as a gift the cutest solution: a mini Cubby.

At just 1.3 ounces, Cublet has accompanied me as my ultralight emotional support teddy on all of my thrus. While I miss being away from Cubby for half a year at a time, it’s nice to have a small reminder of her with me. Fun fact, at the end of the CDT, Cublet will be the first known polar bear to complete the triple crown.

Worn Clothes

I go for a mid-height shoe because my ankles like to roll. People say you’ve got to wear low tops so your ankles get strong blah blah blah… but I don’t know if that’s actually true. Maybe if you were to do targeted ankle strengthening exercises pre-hike. I was still rolling my ankles well into the AT wearing low top Altras. It wasn’t often, but when it happened, it was full-out, down-to-the-ground ankle rolls. I’ll take a little extra support to ensure I don’t seriously hurt myself.

I can’t do a zero drop shoe either. My Achilles tendons were in excruciating pain for the first 700 miles on the AT until I finally gave up and switched to a boot. I wore Hoka Speedgoat Mids for a little less than 2000 miles of the PCT and had no complaints, so I’m sticking with them. 

As for shoe accessories, I use the purple Superfeet insoles and Dirty Girl gaiters. I put these insoles in all of my hiking boots and running shoes and have found them very comfortable. The gaiters do a great job of keeping debris out of your shoes and your socks a little cleaner. 

I wear bike shorts and boy short underwear because I tend to chafe pretty badly in the groin area. As much as I’d love to be able to weary a breezy hiking skirt or flowy running shorts, I need things to be TIGHT in that region to prevent rubbing. I’m also not a huge fan of fabric swishing around my legs from a sensory standpoint. I like the sleek and smooth “second skin” style feel of leggings and bike shorts.

Packed Clothes

It may seem redundant that I have two buffs. I use one as a headband and the other as a tube top. Unfortunately I can’t use one for both purposes because wearing them as a top stretches them out and renders them too loose for my head. The purpose of the tube top and shorts is for wearing as town / laundry clothes in the summer. I don’t enjoy sweating my commando ass off in my rain gear when it’s hot outside. When it’s cooler I don’t mind it and I’ll send these home.

The Fjallraven leggings and Melly hoodie are versatile items for me. Sometimes I hike in them and sometimes they are nice to have as camp clothes for cooler nights.

I like to have a rotation of two pairs of underwear: one I’m wearing, the other rinsed out and drying on my pack for the next day. I’m strict on trail hygiene and get the ick about dirty undies so I personally need them to be somewhat “clean” every day. For socks I wear one pair for the first half of the leg and the other for the second half.

Rain/Wet Gear

The most unusual item I have here are the wet shoes. Andrew and I bought these specifically for the creek crossings in the Sierra on the PCT and they worked well for us. I don’t like to get my shoes and socks wet when fording. Hiking afterwards with swamp feet is uncomfortable for me, gives me blisters, and wet shoes/socks just don’t dry out as fast as people say they do (in my personal experience, YMMV).

Crossing barefoot isn’t worth the risk of cutting or otherwise injuring my feet. I kind of need those things a little bit. These wet shoes are made of neoprene so the wetsuit effect keeps your feet warmer in frigid water and they have grippy tread on the bottoms to prevent you from slipping and falling in. Or, if you do fall in, like I did in the San Joaquin River and almost got swept away, they’ll help you get back on your feet (tried and tested!) When dry, they double as a camp shoe.

For when swampy feet are unavoidable, such as on washout rainy days, I have these SealSkinz socks. They claim to be “waterproof” but even if they do soak through, they at least keep your feet a little warmer (that wetsuit effect again). They are also good if you’re going to be doing a lot of hiking through snow (originally purchased during the PCT for this reason). Sometimes I’ll sleep in them if they’re not wet.

Cook Kit

The Hyperlite food bag is a new addition. Our Zpacks ones have been through the LT and PCT and were getting a little worn out so we got some new ones for the CDT. I decided to repurpose the old ones as dry bags for our cook and poop kits. They were bigger than necessary so I sewed them smaller to save some ounces. DCF (Dyneema Composite Fabric) is expensive, it feels wrong to get rid of it when it can be reused.

I’m bringing both a food bag and a bear canister because I can only cram about six days worth of food in this can, max. If we hike any longer legs than that, I’ll put the food for the first day in the bag. Once we’re out of grizz bearritory, I’ll send home the bear can and roll with just the food bag. 

Low key afraid of grizzlies

I was surprised to discover that bear cans aren’t actually required in grizzly country on the CDT. I’m bringing one anyway because 1) I’m way too lazy to hang my food every night. The weight tradeoff is FAR worth not having to deal with that frustrating and time-consuming task. 2) I’m low key pretty afraid of grizzlies. It’s probably just because it’s an unknown for me; I’ve never recreated in grizz country before.

I considered an Ursack to save weight, but Reddit stories of mangled sacks full of inedible, bear-slobbered food was a turn off for me. You also apparently have to tie them up just right and then find something to tie them to, and again, laziness. Also I just feel more comfortable having the best protection for my food possible, aka a bear can.

Hydration Kit

I love this non-mainstream filter! Unlike the Sawyer, it has threads on both ends so it can easily screw onto both a Cnoc bladder and a Smartwater bottle without the need for the blue coupling. It also doesn’t have those silicone O-rings that tend to bust and fall out of the Sawyer. 

When we get to areas where there’ll be the potential for long water carries, such as the Basin in Wyoming and New Mexico, we have another 3L Cnoc we’ll have sent to us. Our total water capacity will then be 5L each. 

Let’s get down to the itty bitty nitty gritty.

For toiletries, first aid kits, repair kits, those types of items, some hikers carry a lot, some carry next to nothing. I’m in between. I know from experience what I actually use and what I don’t. I’m going to highlight the items I can and can’t do without in these categories.

Electronics Kit

What’s in my electronics kit:

• On my pack shoulder strap:
  • Garmin InReach Mini 2 aka “Gary”
• In my hip belt pocket (within a tiny DCF stuff sack from a Zpacks pack cover):
  • Petzl Bindi Headlamp
  • Skull Candy wired earbuds with USB-C adapter
• In my fanny pack:
  • Cell phone – Samsung Galaxy S24+
  • Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
• In my electronics dry bag from Zpacks (packed within my pack main compartment):
  • Nitecore NB 20000 Gen 3 Power Bank
  • Anker USB C Charger Nano 65W
  • Multi cable (USB-C to USB-C (x2), Micro USB, & Lightning)
  • USB-A to USB-C cable
  • USB-C to USB-C cable

I have a lot of cordage, but Andrew and I sometimes like to pop in and out of towns without staying the night. When you don’t have all night to charge, it’s convenient to have enough wires to plug in everything at once rather than waiting for one thing to charge, then switching to another. Highly recommend a multi cable, mine’s just a cheap one from Amazon but I used one of these the whole PCT and it worked fine.

Just in case I’m low on juice in my power bank, I bring both wireless and wired ear buds. I only ran into this situation once on the PCT, but am anticipating generally longer legs on the CDT where I need to prioritize keeping my phone, headlamp, and Gary charged over my earbuds. The thought of being without music or other audio entertainment when I need it to get through a climb or a boring stretch of trail or a mentally challenging day – can’t handle it. So it’s worth having a backup.

Toiletries Kit

What’s in my toiletries kit:

• Hairbrush with 2 hair elastics
• SPF Chapstick
• Flosser picks
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush
• Tampons
• Dr. Bronner’s Soap
• Razor
• Foot file
• Prescription meds

I’ve never brought floss on trail before but I’ve gotten into a good habit of flossing every night at home. Flosser picks are super lightweight so I’m going to bring some and see if I’m too lazy to actually use them or not. My hair tangles easily and I will end up with one giant dreadlock if I don’t brush it nightly, so I have a mini hairbrush.

Most people give up on shaving entirely on thru-hikes. I’m one of the few that carries a razor. It’s primarily for hygiene and comfort over aesthetics. My body hair is pretty thick and coarse and doesn’t feel nice to me under clothing. I also tend to get rashes when it grows out. I’m guessing it’s because the hair traps in dirt, bacteria, whatever other funky stuff more than when my skin is clean shaven. The rashes always go away once I get to town and am able to shower and shave. Another possible benefit to shaving on trail: ticks prefer hairy areas of the body.

My heels get INSANE callouses when I’m thru hiking. If I don’t regularly file them down with this little cheese-grater-esque tool they get super uncomfortable and I’m more prone to getting deep blisters underneath them, which are even more unfun. I broke the handle off, true thru-hiker style, to save some space and weight.

First Aid / Repair Kit

What’s in my repair / first aid kit:

• Backup mini lighter
• Original shoelaces for my Hokas 
• Exped sleeping pad patches and glue
• Zpacks tent spare zipper pulls
• Spare tent stake
• Extra Smartwater bottle cap
• Extra Versa water filter plug
• Zpacks DCF square patches and tape
• Gear Aid Tenacious Tape patches 
• Dirty Girl gaiters extra velcro strip
• Sewing kit (thread, needle, thimble)
• Victorinox Multi Tool (scissors, nail clippers, nail file, knife, tweezers, toothpick)
• Sharpie
• Laundry detergent sheets (10)
• Compeed blister patches
• Ibuprofen
• Gas-X

First Aid Commentary

My philosophy on first aid kits is that if anything insignificant happens (I get a cut or the shits) I can deal until I get to town. If it’s something significant (serious injury or medical event) nothing in a first aid kit is going to do a whole lot to help me. Gary, our Garmin InReach, is our best tool in one of those scenarios. Bandages aren’t necessary, I just let a minor cut bleed until it clots and then clean it with a baby wipe or some water and Dr. Bronner’s soap. Antibiotic ointment or alcohol wipes are a redundancy because I carry both the soap and hand sanitizer.

Imodium and Benadryl are staples in a lot of peoples’ kits. I don’t carry them. Imodium doesn’t particularly work for me, and I’d rather let whatever illness pass through the system than temporarily block things up. I have no known allergies so I’ve never once reached for Benadryl. What I do carry in the meds category are Ibuprofen and Gas-X.

Ibuprofen is great for muscle soreness and headaches. Gas-X ensures the tent remains a fart-free zone, and my marriage survives the hike. Does anyone else get extra gassy from the hiker trash diet? Just us? I looked it up once and I found that it likely has to do with the high protein content in all the bars and freeze dried backpacker meals. Besides the stench, it’s relieving to get rid of the post-dinner bubble gut.

Another key item in my first aid kid is Compeed blister patches. They’re a gel or silicone type material with an adhesive backing. You put them on a blister and it basically gives it a bunch of extra layers of pseudo-skin. If they don’t get water-logged they’ll usually stay on for a few days. 

Repair Commentary

I’ve done my fair share of repairing items in the field – usually patching abrasions/holes and sewing up tears. A repair kit is so worth not having to wait until the next town for an easy fix. This is especially true if you bust an inflatable sleeping pad; without repair essentials you’re going to have some rough nights sleeping on the cold, hard ground.

The multi tool is my favorite item in the kit. I primarily use the nail clippers to keep my nails trimmed and drain blisters. The scissors are useful for cutting thread and repair patches to size. I’ve used the small knife on occasion to cut open an avocado we packed out from town. Luckily I’ve never had to (yet), but the tweezers could come in handy if we ever need to pull a tick off of us. 

Spares Commentary

We have a number of spare parts. Smartwater bottle caps are small and easy to lose. I’ve always been thankful to have an extra when that happens. This is especially important in desert areas with long water carries – you don’t want to be down a liter in carrying capacity because you lost something so seemingly insignificant yet so crucial as a cap.

I can’t tell you how many forgotten lone tent stakes I’ve found at campsites. It’s a lot. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s where this random yellow one came from. I’m a stickler for counting out all twelve of ours every morning when we pack up the tent. But in the case we do accidentally leave one behind, or one gets pounded so far into the ground that we can’t get it out, or one becomes dysfunctionally bent, we have an extra.

The spare zipper pulls were kindly given to us by Zpacks. By the end of the PCT, our original tent zipper pulls had started separating from the zipper teeth causing large open gaps when we tried to zip the doors shut. This further resulted in Andrew waking up to a mouse chilling on his chest in the middle of the night. As it turned out, we didn’t need new pulls, we just had to clamp down the original pulls with pliers and it now zips normally again. I figured we’d bring these extras just in case. 

Packing for my fears & inconveniences

I’m highly food-motivated on trail. They say “you pack for your fears.” Well, I’m legitimately afraid of losing my lighter (or it getting wet and not working) and not being able to eat a hot, hard-earned Mountain House at night. I’d be very sad if no one else was around to borrow a lighter from and I had to eat cold, crunchy, watery, semi-rehydrated food. I don’t know how you Cold Soakers do it. This is all to say: I bring a little backup lighter just in case.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve had more than enough experiences where the town laundromat detergent dispensers are out of stock. Then you have to walk another mile down the street to buy some, which is inevitably going to be way more than you need, and walk all the way back, when you’re supposed to be resting your legs. I’m over it. I actually carried a bag of tide pods for a few hundred miles on the PCT that I had to buy because a laundromat was out, and then I didn’t want them to go to waste. We used them one by one in the following towns and I was even able to give some out to other hikers when detergent was absent. This time I’m opting for a lighter option right off the bat: laundry sheets.

The sharpie is great for addressing packages at the post office when mailing things home, and for making signs when you’re trying to hitch out of town. Don’t worry, I don’t use it to deface backwoods infrastructure with my signature (and you shouldn’t either).

Poopy Kit

Big baby wipes fan here. They’re heavier, but they get you so much cleaner than toilet paper and you don’t have to worry about them getting wet, because they already are. They’re also good for more than just bathroom breaks. You can give yourself a little face, feet, pits, and bits bath at the end of the day if you’re feeling particularly grungy. Or everyday, treat yo-self!

“But you can’t bury wipes!”

Nope, but you can’t bury anything other than poop on the western trails. This was new for me coming from the east coast where they allow you to bury your TP. After 6.5 months on the PCT I’m accustomed to packing out what I wipe my ass with; it doesn’t faze me anymore (packing out a “wag bag” of actual shit during our Mount Whitney trip was another level unlocked).

Honestly, at this point, even if I did go back to using toilet paper instead of wipes and I’m backpacking in the east, I’d probably still pack it out now. It’s much more LNT (Leave No Trace) and not that big of a deal. Just bring an extra Ziploc bag to keep in your poo poo kit.

Miscellaneous

I don’t believe Packtowl makes this UL version anymore. At least it’s harder to find nowadays. It’s crazy light and absorbent. Great for drying off after creek bathing, a ford, or a rainy day. Can also be used as a rag to wipe the morning condensation off the tent.

I used to have one of those little Therm-A-Rest butt pads, but while on the PCT decided I wanted something a little bigger to stretch out on during breaks. Andrew and I bought a full-sized egg crate style foam sleeping pad and cut it in half so we each have one.

In addition to a comfy sit pad, I use it in a few other ways. It functions as a “welcome mat” in my tent vestibule, something you can stand/sit on while taking off/putting on your shoes as you come and go from the tent. I’ve also put it under my blow-up pad on very cold nights for some extra insulation between me and the ground.

Lastly, it’s comforting to have a back-up option if my inflatable pad ever catastrophically fails. It’s nice knowing I won’t ever have to sleep directly on the ground, no padding or insulation. I have a history of poking holes in my pads by drying them out on a pricker bush, or accidentally swiping them over the spikey ball of a yucca plant. It’s an appropriate insurance policy for me.

I lied.

So technically, that wasn’t everything. I don’t currently have three items I’ll be carrying. Those are:

• bear spray
• GNP permit
• CDT hang tag

The bear spray we’ll have to pick up once we get to East Glacier since you aren’t allowed to fly with it. I didn’t have any on hand to put in the picture because people don’t use it in New Hampshire. It’s really only necessary and required when you’re in a grizzly bearea. In fact, in some black-bear-only areas they actually prohibit it. I’ve heard it’s because people tend to harm themselves with it much more often than it helps with the extremely rare black bear attack.

We also don’t have a Glacier permit yet. The advance permit lottery is happening on Saturday. Fingers crossed we can get in and choose our itinerary ahead of time. If not, we’ll get walk-up permits once we get there. It would be nice to have that sorted beforehand though. Same situation for the hang tag. We need to have our anticipated start date narrowed down a little better (which we won’t have until we know whether we have an advance permit or not, and the dates on it) in order to register our hike with the CDTC. The tag itself we’ll pick up in Glacier.

Full Gear List

Since The Trek provides us bloggers with a nifty integrated gear list feature, I did list out every single thing shown above (Link here: Toddler Snacks’ Gear List). It has more detailed information such as item weights, prices, and links to where you can purchase them. Since we’re starting in the summer, the above gear spread has all my warm weather clothing. My gear list additionally includes all of my cold weather clothes I’ll switch to as the seasons transition to fall, and/or when we get to Colorado and will be at higher elevations.  It also includes items Andrew and I share. I left the weights at zero for anything not carried by me so my base weight is accurate.

Base weight?

All of the above gear that I am starting the CDT with weighs in at a base weight of 21.3 lbs. This number includes some items I’ll be ditching at the soonest opportunity: my microspikes, bear spray, and bear can. They are not exactly light; together they add a little over 4 lbs to my back! So, without those, my summer gear base weight is really more like 17 lbs.

Unfortunately, we’ll be in grizz territory for approximately the first 1000 miles, so it’ll be awhile with the can and spray. The spikes I’m assuming will get sent home pretty quickly. I’m not expecting to see a ton of snow as a SOBO, especially if this year’s below average snowfall trend continues (See: CDT Snow Conditions). I’m really just bringing them as a “just in case” and hopefully won’t actually use them much, if at all.

So there you have it. ALL of my gear from large to tiny and everything in between. Stay tuned for my next post where I’ll tell you more about the eight items above that are new to me that I’ll be testing out on the CDT for the first time!