(Part 4) Top products from r/PacificCrestTrail

1. It's feasible, it will be idiotic if you don't prepare. Just make sure you start in good shape, at a slow pace and your gear is appropriate and has been tested by you. When in doubt, leave it out for gear.
   
   
2. Since you are 26 you should be able to get covered under your parents plan. It would have been better if you had started this process months ago during open enrollment, but they may be able to add you now. If that doesn't work, the next step would be ObamaCare which will probably come with a subsidy for you. After that is finding insurance on the open market - you can probably get a better deal than COBRA on your own. Last resort is COBRA but it's going to be expensive. Start looking now and figure out which will be cheapest.
   
   
3. People tend to hire the person they'd want to have a beer with rather than the person that's best for the job. Having that on your resume will be a definite bonus in almost any career. Just make sure you word it in a way that anyone can understand. If the interviewer is the sort of stickler that can't stand anyone taking a few months off to fulfill a dream, it's probably not your ideal job anyways.
   
   
4. I read and found value from Yogi's Guide, Ray Jardine's Trail Life and A Thru-Hiker's Heart. Skip the sewing though and take it all with a huge grain of salt. Yogi's was great at helping me figure out what to bring and how to resupply. Jardine helped me put the whole thing into perspective and A Thru-Hiker's Heart actually gave me a feel for hiking. None of them can adequately prepare you for the psychological difficulties, that you just need to work through on the trail.
   
   
5. A pistol would be the dumbest, heaviest thing you could bring. The only thing that will attack you out there (and it's incredibly rare) would be a mountain lion. If you are attacked by one, use a rock to defend yourself. Don't bother with a big knife either, you'll only use it to cut open packages and avocados. Something like this is all you need.
   

Some money saving tips:

Go for a 3/4 length pad. Foam pads do not need to be full length as your feet and head can hang off the pad.

Skip the dry bag. A single garbage bag will fill all your waterproofing needs. A simple nylon stuffsack will do the job.

A rain cover is not needed. See above.

Here's some cheaper gloves that will work just as well. You can pick them up at many gas stations here, but not maybe in San Diego.

Go with the down jacket.

You don't need expensive rain jacket/pants. For full protection, these frogg toggs will work just as well. You can even go with dry ducks suit or poncho. It doesn't rain much in California.

An ordinary baseball cap with work just as well. Just add a bandanna to shade your neck.

Your hiking shirt will be fine for after the desert. You can always roll your sleeves up in warm weather.

Personally, I find underwear pointless when I hike.

The best sunscreen size is the 3 oz container that is sold in dollar stores here.

For anti-chafing, any lotion will do the job. So, just snag some from a hotel. I think sunscreen would work as well, but I haven't tested that out yet.

Just use an ordinary spoon.

Use the bear canistering ordering program (or you might try applying to the loaner program.) Either way, you'll save on shipping it to kennedy meadows.

The mosquito headnet is unnecessary. Mosquitoes will be pretty rare. If you do run into them, just hike to a place without them.

Skip the trowel. Use your feet to dig holes.

You don't need a towel.

I wouldn't buy any special water containers. Just use plastic soda bottles for your needs. I've had too many expensive containers break on me to trust them. Never had a problem with a soda bottle.

The external battery for your phone seems unnecessary. My phone could easily last the week between towns if I would turn it off between uses. This included listening to it heavily and even watching movies.

Breakfast: instant coffee and poptarts, once I read the calorie count (200 kcal per pastry, so 400 kcal per pack) I knew that they were the breakfast for me and that we shouldn't be feeding these to kids.

Lunch - meat sticks and cheese, various variations sometimes a roll of summer sausage, blocks of cheese, I quit trying to eat tortillas due to my moustache not cooperating.

Dinner - Instant refried beans and minute rice, I seriously ate this almost every night. The beans come in a foil pouch so I would pour half into a ziplock for another night, boil the water with the rice in it, pour/spoon it into the pouch. Same the pouch for the next night, and these pouches are good for packing out used TP. For variety add taco bell sauce packets, bits of cheese, individual spam packets. Minute rice can be found anywhere. These are my favorite beans, but the price looks like it is going up, they can also be found at Safeway. A couple of stores had another brand of instant refried beans that worked OK too.

Snacks - I would pack pouches of dill pickle sunflower seeds, both for the salt and to break up monotony. I ate alot of granola bars, usually when taking a break and felt like I was running out of steam. I found the cheaper granola bars were my favorite, but when I found cliff bars for $1/bar I would usually buy them even though I was getting tired of them (did you know some of them have caffeine in them!).

Edit: Yellowfin tuna in oil pouches rule! Either I would make extra rice at night to eat for lunch the next day with the tuna or mix it in with the beans and rice. Good fat/calories and the oil doesn't freeze when you are in the mountains like the tuna in water does.

Your main concern should be what to wear for the desert and the High Sierra, since that's when you're most at the mercy of the sun. After that, you can mix it up or wear something cheapo because even though the sun is strong and it's still hot, it's not as insane as in the first 1000 miles. Also the bugs aren't a huge issue after mile 1200 or so, except for Oregon depending on arrival time and year.

You really really want sun protection in the first 1000 miles, so get a long-sleeve shirt. Nylon doesn't start to smell as bad as polyester and merino wool won't last for a PCT thru-hike (my SmartWool t-shirt was torn up after 400 miles on the AT last summer; my friend Bow on the PCT in 2013 said he got 1100 miles out of his before it was basically disintegrating). People use button-down, long-sleeve nylon or blend shirts a lot and to me that makes the most sense. I wore an Ex Officio Air Strip Lite LS shirt, purchased on eBay, and wore it with the sleeves down during the day and rolled up in the early mornings and evenings, when the sun wasn't so direct but it was still warm out. It's loose, vents well, keeps your skin in the shade, wicks moisture ... all the good things for desert and high-altitude sunny hiking.

I love them, and still have 1 that's going pretty well but has a tiny hole now :( Fixed with duct tape... hopefully it holds. I have never been able to find a suitable replacement in Australia. We have garbage bags, sure, but nothing in the same style as the 'Compactor Bags'

Well not at a reasonable price at least. And if the ~$63 packet doesn't scare you, don't forget the ~$58 delivery! Cheapest I found were $6... with $35 delivery...

Ok, so I bought this about 8 years ago, so I couldn't find the exact one, but this is the closest I could find on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Q8JTVC?psc=1 I also didn't pay that much for it, if I remember it was ~$35-40 (the most I'd ever spent on a pillow lol). You might be able to find a lumbar support tempur pedic pillow and use it for your head since they make them smaller.

I also realized that I have this, which I've used for traveling https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/therapedic-reg-memory-touch-round-neck-pillow/1013506582 and used it to sleep on airport benches. It doesn't have the same height as a pillow and I would probably stack a towel or extra clothes underneath for long term sleeping. If you shop at BBB you can always get a 20% off coupon online or in the mail too.

Hope this helps!

Additional blister prevention ideas: an anti-blister balm like foot glide, or a sports tape like leuko tape. I have had success with both methods.

These Creative In-Ears are cheap, sound very good (not only for that price) and if you simply tape the aux thingy (sorry English is not my first language) right from the beginning they will last you forever.
I've been using them for more than 4 years and only had to rebuy them twice.

Watches have good battery life, like years. $13

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-Mens-A158WA-1-Digital-Watch/dp/B000GAYQJ0

I started with a knife but after 500-some miles of not using it once I got rid of it. I used Wescott titanium scissors for rest of the trail. After the trail I tested pretty much all the knives mentioned here and if I'd bring a knife on trail, I'd bring Spyderco Ladybug 3.

A Benchmade Bugout is one of the lightest you can find at 1.85 oz. Problem is they're ridiculously expensive at $140 retail. A great alternative is the CRKT Drifter at 2.4 oz for about $20. I have several CRKT knives and love them.

These are my 2 favorites:

• Swiss Army SD - https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Classic-Pocket-Knife/dp/B00004YVB2
  
• Leatherman Style CS - https://www.amazon.com/Leatherman-Style-Multitool-Stainless-Steel/dp/B0032XVNMQ

Go classic Casio calculator watch. Makes it easier to add up the miles: https://www.amazon.com/Casio-Mens-CA53W-1-Calculator-Watch/dp/B000GB1R7S

Wenger Everyday Esquire Genuine Swiss Army Knife

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Walker-IV-Colin-Fletcher/dp/0375703233
Everything you ever wanted to know about walking (hiking).

Here you go

And to think I use a Zpacks toothbrush kit. 'Sok someone is going to faint now.

20 grams - holy shit, I almost collapse onto my knees everytime I put this in my "clean" bag.

OMG My clean bag weighs 8.5g.

Gotta take a leak so I don't collapse again.