Sweating the small stuff

Always be prepared

Welcome back! My previous guide, Why’d you bring that?, covered most of the big ticket items I’m bringing on this thru-hike, and I hope it gave you some useful insights into my decision process. My goal with this series isn’t just to show off my collection of fancy equipment; I also want to help aspiring thru-hikers think about what’ll work for them.

With that in mind, let’s talk about curating the little things: first aid kits, repair items, and electronics. I use the word “curate” advisedly - your perfect first aid kit is going to look different than mine, as it depends on your body’s specific needs and your tolerance for discomfort.

However, before we even start on that, I completely forgot about one critically important gear choice in my larger post: SHOES! How could I possibly forget about shoes? Healthy feet are the foundation of a sucessful thru-hike, and nothing can ruin a trip faster than bad footwear. The hiking shoe of choice for probably 80% of thru-hikers I’ve met is the Altra Lone Peak trail runner. I use them, Constantine uses them, everybody loves to complain about how they’re not durable and yet we continue to stock up on Altras every time they come on sale. It’s true that Altras are not especially durable - I used Merrell Moab FST trail runners for my first thru-hike on the CDT, and one pair lasted approximately half the trail, or 1500 miles. After that, I switched to Altras. Why? Well, despite their tendency to disintegrate after ~700 miles, Altras are simply the most comfortable and functional trail shoe I’ve used. They have a unique combination of zero-drop offset with a medium stack height midsole, meaning they allow you to maintain a natural forefoot-first walking gait while still cushioning your foot from the impact of the ground. The tread is a nice mix of aggressive and shallow lugs, and their unique shape means toes have room to spread out and grip the ground the way evolution intended them to. I have much better balance in Altra shoes because of that, and the midsole hits the sweet spot between the sensitivity of barefoot/minimalist shoes and the protection you need on pavement or rocky trails. They also have built-in gaiter attachments, which saves me from having to glue on velcro. Zero-drop shoes do take a little bit of getting used to, so I wear minimalist or zero-drop footwear all year long in order to maintain strength in my arches and calves. Yes, even in winter! Mukluks are the original winter boot, and they’re naturally zero-drop. As a side benefit, having strong feet helps me ski better too.

It would be irresponsible not to mention that I never, ever buy the Gore-tex version of trail runners for any thru-hike. Gore-tex is great if you’re primarily trail running and might encounter streams and puddles on your route, but when thru-hiking in wet conditions or snow, your feet will often be submerged and water will come in over the top of the shoe. Gore-tex doesn’t breathe as well as open mesh and it takes forever to dry out, leading to sweaty, damp feet and blisters. I also don’t buy boot-height footwear for this reason, even though Altra makes a mid version of the Lone Peaks. Unless you’re carrying 60lbs+ on uneven ground, you just do not need that much ankle support, and the thick material of any hiking boot will impede a natural stride and result in more blisters. Since I switched to Altras, I haven’t had a single serious blister on any trail, and when I tried out a brand that was an allegedly more durable dupe, I got the worst firefoot of my life.

Honestly, I could write an entire dissertation on the biomechanics of thru-hiking and the architecture of the foot - I am a boot-fitter, after all. Maybe I will, but I should save that for another post. Moving on! I’ll tackle electronics first, since it’s the simplest category. Basically, your power system on trail is made up of three elements - phones (and other powered devices), battery banks, and charging ports. Phones are an easy decision. Just use the one you have! Since my entire life revolves around thru-hiking, I’ve held on to my Galaxy A8 from 2018, and only reluctantly let go of my busted 2013 Nexus 5. As a career thru-hiker, I prioritize phones that take additional Micro-SD cards for storage, and I’m committed to regular wired headphones. Headphone ports are getting more and more rare on new devices, but Bluetooth connections use way to much power for thru-hiking and I break my headphones too frequently to invest in a USB-C connected pair. I like knowing I can replace my current shitty headphones with an equally shitty set at any gas station, and I’m too stubborn to carry a backup like Constantine does. I just want a fancy smartphone with a headphone port, Samsung! Why can’t you give me that?!

I’m carrying a 26,800mAh battery bank on this trail, but I used to use a 10,000mAh version and it worked just fine. Why the switch? Well, batteries are getting better and better, and on this trail we’re going for speed. My 10,000mAh brick could charge my Nexus four and a half times, but only gives my Galaxy three complete charges. Lithium batteries also degrade over time, and my older battery bank wasn’t PD fast-charge enabled, so it had to be plugged in for 10 hours to completely refill. This limited the maximum length of a section to six days, or eight if I really pushed it. With my phone in airplane & battery-saving mode, I can have my headphones in all day and only use about 50% of the built-in battery. Audio entertainment is essential given the amount of roadwalking on this trail, and I didn’t want to have to get a motel once a week. With a 30W wall charger, my new PD-enabled brick can charge up in just a couple of hours, and I can listen to Ologies all day long.

Wattage is an important factor when choosing a wall charger and cable combo, and good equipment can end up saving you a lot of money. Considering the costs of motel stays and developed campgrounds, a power-delivery system that doesn’t require you to stay overnight is cheaper in the long run. Higher wattage = faster charging, as long as your device is capable of receiving it. Technically speaking, it’s actually the amperage that determines the rate of charging, but all high-watt wall chargers are capable of at least 2.4A output, which is plenty. The Power Delivery or PD designation that’s become increasingly common on USB-C chargers is a standard that allows your device and your charger to talk to one another, so your device will never draw power at a faster rate than it can handle. The wattage specification on your brick typically refers to the maximum output of all ports of the device, but if you scroll further you’ll usually be able to find the maximum input power as well. It’s worth comparing different versions of the same capacity batteries - casings vary in weight, and high-output batteries typically require more reinforcement. There’s no point getting a 60W output brick when your phone can’t even use it, and it doesn’t particularly matter how long it takes your brick to charge your phone. The key metric to look for is the input power - a faster charge time is worth the money. For that reason, I strongly suggest investing in the highest-wattage PD wall charger your brick can handle. Oh, and by the way, get the shortest cables you can. Ounces make pounds, and 1ft cables are a bit lighter and much easier to wrangle into a ziplock bag. I also always bring a spare - all the battery capacity in the world doesn’t make a difference if the charging cable’s frayed. High-quality cables also have less electrical resistance, so they’ll help your wall charger perform at its best.

That brings us to repair kits. I’m perhaps unusually well-prepared for gear failure on a thru-hike, but that’s because I’ve had a lot of gear fail on me. When I first started adventuring in 2016, I was pretty much completely broke, so I had to make cheap, low-quality gear work for the long haul. I’m also a professionally-certified bike mechanic, so I’m pretty good at fixing stuff. Here’s whats in my repair kit, as a refresher:

-Park Tool GP-2 sticker patches
-1x Big Agnes pad replacement valve
-0.5oz Superglue
-Dental floss
-1x sewing needle
-2x safety pins
-1x Sawyer replacement o-ring
-1x Sawyer syringe for cleaning water filters
-1x spare bottle cap
-1x spare Bic mini lighter
-3x AAA batteries

This kit, plus my pocket knife and ingenuity, are all I need to fix any problem that may arise. I used to carry an adhesive tent patch as well, but I realized I could patch tents with superglue and duct tape so I stopped bringing it along. A lot of thru-hikers will only carry duct tape as their repair kit, and that works okay as a strategy to get to the next town. As I said, I’m unusually well-prepared. Park Tool sticker patches are perhaps my favourite thru-hiking hack, and I’ve been trying to spread the good word. I imported them from my previous long-distance cycling life, and they’re worth more than their (minimal) weight in gold. They actually don’t work that well on bicycle inner tubes, but for patching sleeping pads and silicone water bladders? Perfection. They’re designed to stand up to a much higher pressure than you’ll ever be putting on your gear, and the patch itself is a bit flexible, so it conforms to the contours of a sleeping pad without releasing the glue. In the same scenario, duct tape will only change a fast catastrophic leak to slow and annoying one.

Superglue is of course a multi-purpose item, and it comes in handy for all kinds of things. It fixes trekking pole handles, mends broken tents, and holds tattered Altras together until the next post office. It can even be used in lieu of stitches for deep but minor cuts (although I do not officially recommend this). You can get teeny-tiny 15ml tubes of superglue at most hardware and dollar stores, and it’s worth bringing along.

Dental floss, sewing needles and safety pins are even more useful than superglue when it comes to pack and clothing repair. Dyneema packs can’t be sewn back together, which is part of the reason I prefer nylon, but you can use superglue, a bit of fabric, and duct tape to mend rips. Dental floss is better for repairs than thread for two reasons - first of all, it’s multi-use (you can use it to take care of your teeth, obviously), and it’s much, much stronger than cotton thread. Plastic dental floss also has some stretch to it, so it’s more forgiving of poor sewing jobs, and you can light the plastic on fire and melt the knot into fabric when you finish a seam. This stops it from pulling through delicate ripstop nylon weaves, and after slapping some duct tape on top you can pretty much consider it a permanent repair. Safety pins are great for holding sliced-up straps together, and they can also replace broken zipper toggles and tent clips.

The replacement items in here are pretty straightforward, but I’ll call out that spare bottle cap in particular. I once dropped both my clean bottle caps in cow shit while filtering on the CDT, and went thirsty for a day and a half as my water splashed away with every step. It’s such an easy little thing to bring! I do make sure to keep my clean bottle caps in my pocket now, but you never know.

Our last stop for today is first aid kits, and once again I’m unusually well-prepared. As I mentioned up top, your first aid kit is going to look different from mine, and I like to carry remedies for the small-but-annoying issues my body presents me with. Here’s what’s in my first aid kit:

-Toothbrush & mini toothpaste
-Foil emergency blanket
-6x strips of KT physiotherapy tape
-6x Nexcare blister strips
-6x Band-aids of various sizes
-2x rubbing alcohol wipes
-1x Neosporin antiseptic ointment
-20x Aleve (naproxen pain reliever) in a little ziplock bag
-4x Pepto-bismol tablets
-4x Benadryl anti-histamine capsules
-4x Tylenol T3s with codeine (leftover from dental surgery)
-1 container of Renew Life Women’s Probiotic (for IBS relief)
-1x fluconazole pill & clomitrazole ointment duo
-Luna menstrual cup
-2x spare hair ties
-Small plastic comb
-5x pairs of continuous-wear contact lenses
-15ml contact lens solution & case
-Prescription glasses & case

The last half of that list is very particular to me. If you’ve got 20/20 vision then you don’t need to carry contact lens supplies, so that’s three things off the list right there. If you don’t get periods then you don’t need a menstrual cup, and you might not need fluconazole either - it’s a treatment for yeast infections. I don’t get them all that frequently but they suuuuuuuck on trail, and it sucks even more when you’ve only got a gas station for your next three resupplies. I will normally ask my doctor for a ten-day Macrobid prescription to take with me as well, but I didn’t get a chance this year. Macrobid is an antibiotic used to treat UTIs, and the gnarly hygeine conditions on trail mean that you’re likely to get one if you’re at all susceptible. Since we’ll be able to take showers rather often on the NCT, I’m not that worried about it. I’ve also had fewer problems with this since I started using baby wipes instead of toilet paper. If you’ve got shorter or more manageable hair than mine, you likely don’t need a comb and extra hair ties, but my massively thick mane eats hair ties for breakfast, and combing it helps distribute sweat and oil down the lengths and makes my scalp less itchy between showers. The probiotic pills are certainly a Magpie-specific item, although if you’ve got digestive issues then I suggest you give them a try. My stomach hates processed food and colour additives, and taking a daily probiotic seems to help.

The rest of the list is less idiosyncratic. The most common first aid item on trail is some kind of NSAID pain reliever, like Advil or Aleve. Ibuprofen is so universal on trail that it’s earned the nickname “Vitamin I”, but I find naproxen works better for everyday aches and pains. You actually don’t want to be popping anti-inflammatories like they’re candy - you need to be able to calibrate your exertion to your level of pain, and there’s some research that connects ibuprofen overuse to lowered testosterone. While inflammation gets a bad rap, low levels of acute inflammation are necessary for your body to recover after exercise, so you need put down the Advil and let your monocytes do their job. Pepto and anti-histamine tablets are also pretty common, although some hikers will carry Immodium instead. Anti-histamines can help with hayfever of course, but I primarily carry them to treat bee stings and contact dermatitis from poisonous plants.

Rubbing alcohol and antibiotic ointment also help take the sting out of poison ivy, and they’re important for treating punctured blisters and wounds. I haven’t gotten a major blister since 2018, but I do carry Nexcare strips to prevent small hotspots from growing bigger. The Nexcare bandages work better than anything else I’ve tried for friction relief, and they adhere to skin fairly well. If it’s in a tricky spot like a joint, I’ll use a small strip of KT tape over top to secure it. It’s very important that you don’t use duct tape to treat blisters! For some reason this advice is all over the hiking internet, but the adhesive in duct tape is a skin irritant and can even cause chemical burns. It will only make your blister take longer to heal, so stick to something skin-safe like Leukotape or KT tape instead. I favour KT tape because it’s also useful for supporting sore joints and preventing injury - check out their website for more info. The last medication I carry is somewhat less accessible, but it’s worth adding to your first aid kit if you can swing it. I’m talking about heavy-duty opiate painkillers, like Tylenol T3s. Mine are leftover from dental surgery, but I’ve heard that some doctors will prescribe small doses specifically for this purpose. Hopefully you’ll never have to use these, but if you break a bone or sustain another major injury deep in the backcountry, you may have to rescue yourself. If I break my collarbone on trail and have to hike to the next road, I want some serious pain relief. In this scenario my cotton bandanna would also come in handy, and I debated including it in the first aid list. You want something with you to make a splint or a sling, even if it’s just spare clothes.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to bring an entire bottle of anything. Presumably you’re going to resupply at some point, so only carry enough to get you to the next town. The same principle applies to determining battery capacity and repair item quantities - determine the needs of your longest expected section, add a day or two of cushion for emergencies, and tailor your packing list to that.

I have one last simple trick for you before I go: Put a your spare lighter and foil emergency blanket in a ziplock bag and seal it up. If you take any crucial medications, put a dose or two in there as well. Now put it in your pocket. Good. Don’t ever take it out! This is your mini emergency kit. If you’re fording rivers safely, you know to unclip your hipbelt and chest strap before you wade in, so you can shed your pack if you get snagged or washed away. But what happens when you make it to the other side, soaking wet and freezing? Your mini emergency kit means you can light a fire and keep yourself warm overnight while you either hike out or wait for rescue. If you lose your pack for any reason, this will give you the best chance of survival for not very much weight.

That’s all for now! I hope this was helpful to you, and do let me know if there’s anything you’re still curious about. If I have time before we hit the trail on Friday morning, I’ll write up a post with some of my thoughts on trail food and nutrition, but it’s gonna be a busy last day tomorrow so I’m not making any promises.

Talk soon!
Magpie