John Muir Trail Gear List no.1

Backpacking gears are critical. Especially if it is a long distance hike. Gears should be functional, comfortable, and light. 

On this post, I will introduce about my gear used for JMT hike. 

I used basic and light, but not ultralight. I also chose what I had been using for overnight backpacking. It is safe to use the gears I already know. 

 

First, John Muir Trail Map Pack. I love, love, love Tom Harrison maps. Tom Harrison maps are easy to read. Every information you need is there and good size. No need to unfold to look at a map. National Geographic maps has to be unfold every time. Also National Geographic ones are printed on both sides, so it is hard to find even which side I want to look at. Tom Harrison is one side printed.  Furthermore, Tom Harrison maps are very cute!

JMT map pack consists of 13 individual maps (left picture), and $21.95. 

During JMT, completing one sheet was accomplishment. Towards the end, it was kind of sad not to have remaining hiking. 

Next, it is essential. Backpack. 

I used REI Flash 65 litters.  It is S size, so it is acutually 62 litters. It is light. 2 lbs. 14 oz = 1.3 Kg. This is a great backpacking and I really love this. This Flash65 is no longer available, but there are some other REI Flash models available. 

I put everything inside except for sleeping pad (attach the bottom) and water bottles (one per side pocket). 

For just overnight/2-3 night backpacks, I use Osprey EXOS 58 litters (55 litters for S size, $220, 2 lbs. 14 oz). This is also great light backpack. 

Next is sleeping bag. This is important, too. Mine is Big Agnes, Roxy Ann. Women's model. Down, not synthetic. Temperature rating is 15F. JMT didn't get too cold with this sleeping bag in July. I have been using this one for more than 5 years.

Along with sleeping bag, sleeping pad is nice to have to have a comfortable sleep. My pad is the most classical style, yellow foam. The strings to bundle the pad is useful to dry laundry at campsite. Most of the nights, I tied the strings on two trees and dried socks/T-shirt that are washed in the lake or river.

Then next is the tent. My tent is Big Agnes. I love Big Agnes. They have good tents and sleeping bags. Including JMT, I went so many places with this tent. A couple of years ago, the rainfly zipper was not working well, so I sold this with $5. With $5, the person who bought was so glad. I hope he is using this happily. 

Now I switched to a lighter tent: REI Co-op Quarter Dome 1 Tent. This is only 2 lbs. 10 oz. So it is much lighter.  I love REI and REI brands. It is cheaper than other brands and still high quality.

 Now most essential activity for human: eating! I am not as hardcore as stoveless hikers. I still want to have a cup of coffee in the morning and hot dinner in the evening. So I had fuel, lighter, matches, stove, and pot. I love my pot. It is Snowpeak's titanium one. Model name is Snow Peak Titanium Mini Solo Cookset. It weighs only 181 grams (6.38 ounces). Price is a little high ($75.95), but this is worth it. 

On JMT, in the morning I had a cup of coffee. For that I boiled a cup of water by using only the bottom cup portion. It is very quick to boil just 200 mL of water. While I was having coffee, I made ochazuke with upper bigger potion of pot. 

I brought a middle size fuel (~227g) and 80% finished when I reached at Muir Trail Ranch where it was half way. I bought the same size fuel at MTR and it lasted until the Whitney Portal. I brought a lighter and several packs of matches. 

Stove is a quite old thing from Coleman. I brought it from Japan. It had been used for more than 10 years.    

Now I use JetBoil for boiling water, so I don't use the old stove, but still save it for my memory.

Then rain cover for a backpack.

Model is REI Co-op Duck's Back Rain Cover - 60 Liters. My backpack is 65 liters, and 60 liter cover works well. 

Actually I was supposed to bring this but I forgot to bring this for JMT! Oops. Luckily I got a garbage back at Muir Trail Ranch and used for rain. It didn't rain much anyway, so it was okay. 

 

 Another rain gear is rain jacket and pants. I have them from Sierra Designs. This sack contains both. It is super light. This is boy's size. Kids' gears are cheap and good size for small person like me. 

 

 

 

 Water bottle is super super essential. No question.

During JMT, I had 1 litter of real water bottle (left picture) and one 500 mL of plastic bottle. Plastic bottle is light, so it is good. However, in case it might be broken, I carried one real bottle.  The entire JMT, I only carry 1.5 litter of water, because there are so many water sources along JMT.

 To sanitize water, I brought Potable Aqua Iodine Tablets. 1 bottle contains 50 tablets. 2 tablets are needed for 1 liter of water. It takes 35 minutes to be ready to drink. The water will be yellow. Some people use another tablet to quench the yellowness and iodine taste. Personally I wanted to reduce the weight as much as possible, and I don't care about iodine taste, so I just drank yellow water for the entire JMT. 

Another option is to use filter. No need to wait 35 minutes and no iodine flavor for filtering. However, I was worried for the filter clog or break during the trip, so I decided to do only with tablets. A lot of people bring filter, and tablets as backup.  

Another choice is Steripen, but it needs power from batteries. I didn't bring any solar chargers. I didn't carry extra batteries, so iodine tablets are the lightest option. Actually for recent backpacking trips, I use Steripen. Most gears has USB chargers, including Steripen, so I can bring Steripen and a USB charger for many small gears.

 

 

For multiple purposes, I brought a Multi Towel Lite Small - 14" x 10, REI. I used this for cleaning my body. Every evening I boiled a small amount of water and put hot water in this towel. Then wiped my face then body. It gave sort of taking nice bath. I am the person who takes hot shower before going to bed. In Japan, taking hot bath before going to bed is common. So wiping body with hot water gave me very comfortable summary of the day.

Not only that purpose, after drizzling I could quickly wipe some water on the backpack. This towel is very useful for backpacking. 

In California there is strong sunlight, especially in Sierra. Sunscreen is a must item. 

For backpacking, head lamp is an essential item. The surprising fact for my JMT is that I didn't use a headlamp at all.

First two weeks of July, daytime is long. I usually got at at 5:30 a.m. when sun was rising. I started walking at 7 a.m. I set up camp between 5 - 7 p.m. It was light until 8:45 p.m. By that time I finished dinner and everything. It was great. I didn't need to worry about batteries for the lamp.

 

Speaking of July, it is a peak of mosquitoes. Indeed, some lower elevation near river, there were tremendous amount of mosquitoes. When I camped near the river at the bottom of Tally Hole, there were so many of them. I wore always mosquitoes net. Besides I put DEET everywhere! Mosquito net is from Sea to Summit, $9.95.

DEET is Sawyer Jungle Juice 100 Insect Repellent - 98 Percent DEET - 2.5 fl. oz, $8. Make sure DEET is not in the bear canister! It will melt bear canisters. It is important to put DEET inside the ziplock bag and no any other items together!

Now the item only legally required on JMT is a bear canister.  The famous BearVault BV500 Food Container, $79.95.  I put 7 days of food into it. Detail food I brought will be in the next blog article. 

Allowed to bring 7 days of food only can be fit in the canister.....I was worried if I would be hungry. It was okay for the first 7 days, because usually I have less appetite when I go to high altitude. However, once I got used to the altitude, my appetite came back. The second week was always, literally all the time, hungry.  

Not legally required, but first aid kit is essential. I brought bandaid, ibuprofen, hydrocortisone, ethanol. I should have brought kit for blisters. Luckily I got extra bandaids at Muir Trail Ranch hikers' buckets. 

At hikers' buckets you can drop off stuff you don't need it. If you need something and you find it in the bucket, you can get is. I got bandaid, garbage bags, and more toilet papers. 

Lastly, SPOT Gen3 Satellite GPS Messenger. Although JMT has many hikers and usually able to find people to help you, it is always nice to have some safety devices. SPOT is a satellite GPM messenger: you can send text your location to people you already set up in your account. Also there is a SOS button. It will send help for the nearest ranger stations. The device is $149.95, and you need to subscribe service. I had basic plan ($19.99/month) for only the month I did JMT. 

Next post will be about food during JMT.