How the heck do we decide what to carry for 5 months?
We made some efforts to lighten up our packs for this length of a trip. On the John Muir Trail, I carried two Alite Monarch chairs totaling over two extra pounds. While it seemed worth it at that time, our mileage on the PCT needs to be quite a bit higher and I don’t think we’ll be sitting around as much anyway. We’re not really in the category of ultralight hikers, more just lightweight. At some point in the future I will post updates on which gear lasted and what needed replacing on the trail (hopefully not much).
For now, here are our tentative gear lists. These lists will be a work-in-progress until we actually hit the trail… and possibly afterwards as well:
We’re lucky that we can share some of the weight. Typically, I carry the tent and Christa carries the cooking stuff. That way we both need each other and can’t split up for the night (joking).