Peg Leg’s Calendar Year Triple Crown Gear List

When I first got into thru-hiking back in 2017, I had a really heavy and generic backpacking setup that worked perfectly for me. At the time, I really didn’t know myself as a thru-hiker yet, and I didn’t have any specific gear preferences.

Over time I slightly tweaked my setup to lighten my load a bit, as I was deciding to spend a lot more time backpacking. As time went on, I chose to change out a lot of my gear for one reason or another. The hiking gear that I finished the Pacific Crest Trail with in 2022 and started the Appalachian Trail with in 2023 was majorly different from the gear that I ended the year with in 2023 when I completed the Appalachian Trail and also the 5,600-mile Eastern Continental Trail.

 

When you chat with other hikers about their gear, you will find a lot of similarities and trends, but you will also witness a massive variety when it comes to gear styles and companies. By the time I completed the Continental Divide Trail in 2024 and completed my “triple crown” in thru hiking, I had found the gear that works for me.

In 2025, I decided to take that same kit of gear and put it to the ultimate test on the Calendar Year Triple Crown. 

On January 1st, 2025, I set out from Key West, FL to embark on the “border-to-border” calendar year triple crown. My goal was to hike 8,500 miles across the country, adding bonus miles to the traditional Calendar Year Triple Crown so that I would walk from the southern border of the US to the northern one three times.

I started the year out with almost all brand-new gear (mostly new versions of the items from my 2024 packing list), in hopes of making everything last as long as I could. Sometimes one thru-hike puts enough wear on a piece of gear to run it into the ground. My hope was that by starting mostly fresh, I could avoid major gear failures and replacements until later in the year.

To my great surprise, I wound up finishing the year with much of the same gear I started with, only needing to replace a few items along the way. Here’s what I took on the Calendar Year Triple Crown in 2025 (gear list at the end of the post).

The Big Three

Backpack

I used the same backpack for the entire year: the Pa’lante Desert Pack in the Ultraweave 400x. My previous backpack was the same model, but in a different fabric. This Ultraweave fabric was notably more durable, and I somehow had the same backpack for the entire year.

I think if I was doing a long hike like this again, I would want to get a pack perfectly sized to my body. This past year, the Desert Pack worked great and I managed to stretch the carrying capacity to 5-6 days of food at times, even with the smaller size.

Being able to get more than three thru-hikes’ worth of miles out of one backpack was unexpected. In conjunction with the Pa’lante Desert Pack, I also used a Pa’lante Sidebag as my fanny pack. For the first 3,000 miles, I used the same one I had been using for years prior to starting the CYTC. When that one tore ,I replaced it with a new magenta-colored Pa’lante Sidebag, which I absolutely adore. 

Tent

On my previous thru-hikes I had always used the Zpacks Plex Solo Tent, but this time around I used the new Zpacks Plex Solo Lite (on Zpacks’ website, you can toggle between the two versions using the dropdown menu). The weight of the standard Plex Solo is 13.9 oz, while the Plex Solo Lite is 11.8 ounces. I found the Lite version to be just as great; the only notable difference is that the guidelines are thinner on the Lite version.

I really enjoyed this tent, and it weathered every storm I was in. My previous Zpacks tent lasted 10,000 miles as well, and I merely retired it because I wanted to start this past year with a new tent. Now yet another Zpacks Plex Solo has shown that it can last for well over three thru-hikes.

Quilt

Even though I hiked in all 12 months of the year, in all the different terrains that one can experience on the Triple Crown trails, I still managed to use only one quilt, the Katabatic Palisade 30, for the entire year. 

I did add a Sea to Summit Silk Liner to my kit when I got on the AT in late February of last year. Then later on in the year, I got the silk liner back and carried it through New Hampshire, Maine, the Sierra Nevada, and even later in the year on the CDT. I was glad to have it at times, but the 30-degree quilt got the job done otherwise.

I’m sure some people would need a warmer quilt for some of the conditions and temperatures that I was in last year. The Katabatic 30-degree quilt worked great for me, though, especially in combination with my other layers. 

Sleeping Pad

After previous experience on thru-hikes, I was a bit nervous about the number of sleeping pads that I might wind up going through over the course of the year. In the past, I’ve gone through about two inflatable pads per your standard 2000-3000-mile thru-hike.

This year I think I just got incredibly lucky, however. I actually started the year with an old Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite that had already done 1,700 miles along the ECT and 2,700 miles along the CDT. When I started the year with that pad it had hiked over 4,000 miles.

Yet somehow I carried that same sleeping pad for the entire AT, all of the PCT except for Oregon, and the CDT all the way to Wyoming. I really like the Therm-a-Rest pads. My only gripe with them is that sometimes the pad will pop or delaminate, which is always a risk you run. I’m grateful that I made it 70% of the way through the CYTC and the year before that without needinga replacement. When I did eventually need a new pad, I went with the same model and it lasted the entire rest of the year.

Electronics

Smart Watch

I started the year with the Garmin Solar 2 with no intention of tracking my exact mileage every single day for the entire year —although for the first couple of months, I was hiking with someone else who was tracking daily.

When I was about 3,000 miles into the year I wound up getting the Coros Vertix 2S watch and couldn’t imagine hiking without it. Being able to track your exact mileage, elevation gain, view stats, splits, and collect other data while hiking is really nice, especially during the course of a hike like the CYTC. The battery life is exceptional, and you can easily track for 15 hours a day for 2-3 days in a row before charging.

Headlamp

I started the year with a Petzl headlamp that I’d had since my first hike in 2017. It worked wonderfully and never gave out! But I decided to make a change a few thousand miles into last year and switched to the Nitecore NU25 MCT UL 400-lumen headlamp.

It was definitely significantly brighter, though the battery on the Petzl headlamp did last longer. I don’t think I would go back to the Petzl headlamp now. I’ve grown to love the lighter and more compact Nitecore. 

Power Banks

During the Calendar Year Triple Crown I was posting blogs and videos daily, and because of that, I was carrying a whole lot of charge. I carried multiple power banks at a time, but one of them in particular lasted me the entire year: the Anker 325 Powercore Essential 20000 mAH battery pack.

I have used other Anker 20k power banks, but none that I’ve enjoyed as much as this one! My previous Anker bank lasted over 7,000 miles and only broke because it got soaked during a flash flood. The battery lasts long, and it’s predictable and incredibly reliable.

Last year I also carried a Nitecore NB10000 power bank and two NBAir Ultralite 5000mAh power banks. I carried those Nitecore power banks for over 6,000 miles last year, so they also stood the test of time. It might sound absolutely ridiculous to carry so many power banks and also such a variety, but it worked perfectly for my usage last year.

Clothing

Rain Gear, Wind Gear, & Puffy

All of my main clothing items in 2025 were from Montbell, including my rain gear, wind gear, puffy, sun hoodie, and even a pair of rain mitts. And all of that gear lasted me the entire Calendar Year Triple Crown without any issue. I did wind up switching out my sun hoodie after a while, but not because it was torn or damaged in any way. It was just nice to start fresh and get a new sun hoodie at the end of the year as a treat to myself.

The Montbell wind gear was probably my favorite clothing by Montbell that I used all year. It was the perfect layer when it was slightly too cold to just have a sun hoodie on, but you would warm up too quickly while moving in anything thicker.

I used the Montbell Versalite rain jacket and pants for the entire year as well. Both lasted for the entire journey despite a whole lot of wear and tear. Admittedly, by the end of the year the rain pants were torn through at the bottoms from wearing them while hiking in snow.

Alpha 90/120 Fleece Midlayers 

When I started the year down, I had a Sambob Alpha 90 set which included a hooded long sleeve and a pair of jogger-style pants. They were the most incredible midlayers I could have ever asked for, and the only time all year long that I didn’t use them was when I was in slightly colder weather and using my Sambob Alpha 120 instead.

The Alpha material is warm and soft, but also breathable. Yes, it can get snagged on things if you’re not careful or really paying attention. But I managed to make a set last for the entire year just by being a little bit conscientious with it.

The Alpha 120 was great on the Appalachian Trail starting in February of 2025. I kept this thicker Alpha until I headed over to the PCT later in the year. I probably could have switched back to the thicker layer for the CDT, but instead just used the Alpha 90 set for the entire rest of the year.

Sun Umbrella

Even though it oftentimes seems like a forgettable piece of gear, I never would have hiked the Calendar Year Triple Crown without a sun umbrella. I used the Gossamer Gear Lightrek Sun Umbrella for the majority of the year prior to breaking it and switching out for whatever sun umbrella was available to me.

I found that I hardly ever used it on the Appalachian Trail but used it quite frequently on the PCT to avoid the heat, and almost constantly on the CDT because of all of the rain. It is a personal favorite gear item when it comes to hiking the Florida Trail, which is often exposed, sunny, and gets a ton of rain.

Shoes

Over the course of the Calendar Year Triple Crown I used a ton of pairs of shoes, all by Topo. I started in the Topo Specter 2 and wore through two pairs of them. Then switched to the Topo Terraventure 4 when I got to the rockier and rootier terrain of the Pinhoti Trail (versus the road walking of Florida).

At a couple points in the year, I tried a few different styles of Topo shoes as well, including their Ultraventure, Ultrafly, and MTN Racer. My favorite Topo trail shoe is definitely the Terraventure, though.

All of the Topos I wore consistently lasted around 800 miles, which meant I didn’t have to get new shoes too ridiculously often. Hikers are quite particular about their shoes though! So what works for me might not work for everyone else.

Over the course of the year, I wore a handful of different shoe styles, but the brand was always Topo. I preferred the Terraventure model when I was on trail the majority of the time. But I also really enjoyed the MTN Racers (seen in the middle photo above), and the Ultraflys (seen in the far-right photo above). The Ultraflys felt like the perfect middle ground between a road shoe and a trail shoe.

Socks

I used Darn Tough Socks for the entire year and switched them out whenever necessary. I was surprised though that I didn’t wear holes in my socks nearly as often as I would have expected. I think I went through 2-3x as many pairs of shoes last year versus pairs of socks. I never wore sock liners or anything like that, just regular ole Darn Tough Socks. 

My Biggest Advice for Packing for the Calendar Year Triple Crown

If you are going to attempt a thru-hike like the Calendar Year Triple Crown, it would be nice to have as much previous backpacking experience as possible just to make it easier to pick your gear. Being able to practice with a similar version of all of my gear on prior thru-hikes definitely made it easier for me to decide what to take with me in 2025.

I also think that it is not a coincidence that a lot of the gear that I used on my CYTC thru hike lasted as long as it did. While a lot of ultralight gear items are significantly more expensive than similar items you might find in an REI, I do believe that you are paying for a higher level of quality. I can’t speak for the innumerable gear brands that I’ve never tried, but I’ve had a pretty great experience with the quality of gear that I’ve used on my last handful of thru-hikes.

If you’re looking for items that will truly stand the test of time, I would definitely recommend the gear listed above. Over the course of the Calendar Year Triple Crown, I definitely wasn’t “going easy” on my gear, yet so much of it still lasted the whole journey.

Calendar Year Triple Crown Gear List

Pa’lante Desert Pack (Ultraweave 400X)

Pa’lante Sidebag

Zpacks Plex Solo Lite

Katabatic Palisade 30

Sea to Summit Silk Liner

Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite

Coros Vertix 2S Watch

Nitecore NU25 MCT UL 400-lumen headlamp

Anker 325 Powercore Essential 20000 mAH + Nitecore NB10000 + 2x Nitecore NBAir Ultralite 5000mAh

Montbell Wind Gear

Montbell Versalite rain jacket and pants

Montbell Puffy

Sambob Alpha 90 Hoodie and Joggers / Sambob Alpha 120

Gossamer Gear Lightrek Sun Umbrella

Topo Specter 2 / Terraventure 4 / Ultraventure / Ultrafly / MTN Racer

Darn Tough Socks

Some of the items mentioned in this story were donated to the author.