my stuff

It didn't take long for me to realize that my pack would become my key identifier on the trail. My very first day, having not seen another human for hours, I saw an old man walking toward me on the trail. He passed right on by but yelled out behind him…"how much does your pack weigh?" I knew. I had weighed in that morning in an attempt to understand why it was so impossible to get on and off. It was 45 pounds, fully loaded (more on that below). "Forty-five pounds!" I yelled back and he walked on. I heard him shout just as he disappeared over the ridge, "never carry more than 40." Thanks??

Many people who spend time hiking the Appalachian Trail are given (or rather, find themselves with) a trail name. I didn't plan on anything like that…I was alone and wasn't having long, philosophical debates about the universe or the meaning of life with anyone so how would I get a trail name? Well, this exchange with the old man was my first clue. Along the way, everyone person I met asked me what my pack weighed and what was in it. As I moved through the week, people I would me would say, "oh, you are the one with the heavy pack!" Word was traveling fast. 

Normal pack weights range between 25-35 lbs, so understandably I was on the high end…but I was traveling alone (carrying everything myself, not splitting the weight will anyone) and I was not coming off the trail (many hikers take breaks and go into town to resupply or they ship things to themselves to pick up at predetermined points along the trail)…but that was sophistication and confidence far beyond my experience levels. I only knew I would be in the woods and didn't want to find I had left behind that one key item I needed for survival. Oh, and I had NO idea what those items might be, so I came prepared. And so, over the course of the week, I would become known as Uber. My official name anointed to me by a group of fellow hikers after much hype about my speed despite my pack weight. 

If you are wondering — here is a list of exactly what was in my pack. 

One person lightweight tent (a sort of mesh coffin)

Sleeping Bag

Sleeping Pad (inflatable)

Pillow (inflatable)

2 pair of shorts (always hiking in one of the two)

1 tank top

1 short sleeve Smartwool top

2 long sleeve tops

1 down jacket

1 headband thing that looked cool and I just had to order it envisioning my hippie look perfected…never wore it :(

1 pair of long underwear pants

1 pair of thick wool socks

2 pair of thin wool socks

2 pair of sock liners (I wore these with a pair of thin wool socks and changed them twice a day so I was always wearing dry(ish) socks.

1 sports bra that could have hiked on without me by the end

Stove

Fuel canisters for stove (I had no idea how much fuel the thing would use, so I carried my own gas station)

Multiple freeze dried meals that only require you add a cup of water. These were delicious – but I was also starving, so…

2 packs of ramen noodles that remained the only food left in my sack at the end

5 packets of peanut putter

9 coffee singles from Starbucks (plus 9 sugars)

1 package of tortillas (heavy, but I stand behind this decision despite multiple comments about their weight)

1 baggie of raisins

3 baggies of sunflower seeds (3? Really?)

7 packets of oatmeal

5 energy bars (vastly understocked on these as they were about all I was eating throughout the day. I ended up buying them off other hikers every chance I got)

2 packages of pop tarts (I tossed these at my first opportunity. They were too sugary and made me feel awful. Now I hate pop tarts)

Water filtration system

1 water bottle

A 3 liter water bladder with tube so I could drink throughout the day. PS. Did you know 1 liter of water weighs about 2.2 lbs?? I know that now.

My skincare regiment (5 products, so yeah…you got me on this one…but I would do it again)

Small bottle of soap (for what??)

Aleve. Lots and lots of Aleve.

Bandaids

2 high absorbency towels (one small & one medium one). Once wet, these NEVER dried and they weight about 10 pounds wet :) but it was still nice to have them

Headlamp

Small lantern

Toilet paper

Small shovel that I never used

1 poncho

1 pack cover

1 cable to string up a bear bag

1 pair of Crocs (ps. I now re-love this company. Thank you CROCS!)

Titanium coffee mug

1 metal spoon

1 notepad (which I would later burn in a campfire without a single word inside)

A pencil

1 personal locator device (so I could be tracked by my friends & family back home or send SOS messages)

My iPhone – which was actually just a camera for this trip

2 extra battery chargers

4 extra AA batters

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (yep, all 900 pages of it. oh how close I came to burning this)

1 trail map in a baggie which I would check 400 times a day

1 folding knife. I never knew where this thing was…it was really a gesture.

A small baggie that contained my id, my debit card and $100 cash in small bills. I came back with all but $5 which I spent buying bars off other hikers.

A tiny bottle of bug spray that I only bought on my way to the trail on day 1 but ended up using like mad! It doubled as a sort of body spray, improving/masking my odor.

A big bottle of sunscreen that rarely needed or used.

A compass

*purposefully omitted - underwear. Nope, none.