What We Pack - Part 1 - Evan's Pack (Fall 2019)

Hey what's up everybody this is Evan from Adventure Happy. It is September, middle September. Hiking season's drawing to a close at least the three season portion of it is and I figured I'd take this opportunity just to go through and show you guys what I've been using for most of our backpacking trips this year. So this is kind of my standard three season backpacking gear list. There's obviously some variations I'll try to touch on as we go along but yeah this is basically just gonna be a quick rundown of what I typically carry. I'll be throwing weights up as we go along just so that you guys can follow along at home. I'll also link a lighter pack link in the description below so if anyone is interested in the full breakdown and links to all this stuff it'll all be there. Okay all right so I'll start out with the stuff that I typically carry. Shoes these are Innovate Rocklites. Absolutely love love love these trail runners they've been really really good. These replaced my last Sportiva Wildcats not this season but the season before and yeah I've really been impressed with these so far. Highly recommended. To go along with those I have a pair of gaiters. These are Dirty Girl simple little stretchy trail running gaiters. I was not totally sold on these until I figured out that it's a better idea to super glue or Gorilla Glue the Velcro to the running shoes. Makes it a lot more likely that these will stay on and keep things out of your shoes so I actually really like these now. Socks these ones happen to be Darn Tough. I usually just buy whatever light hiking socks ankle length are on sale so Darn Tough socks. Underwear I've got just some Ex Officio boxers. These things have been great. This is a give and go model. Got them on sale. Pack a three for a pretty good price. These things are excellent. Just a plain old synthetic t-shirt. This one happens to be from Arcteryx but honestly I'm not too married to any kind of brand for a hiking t-shirt. Again just happened to be on sale so that's what I went with. I prefer to hike in shorts if I can so these are just some regular gym shorts. These ones happen to be Under Armour. Just yeah whatever I could find on Amazon for cheap. Now hiking in shorts not always an option if it's kind of cool. Sometimes you need to layer up so I've got a pair of leggings again Under Armour just to add a little bit of warmth in those cool mornings and also for you know wearing around camp underneath my rain pants. A pair of sunglasses just some cheap SunCloud sunglasses I got at Mount Equipment Co-op. I did spend up and I got the ones with the polarized lenses because I like the way that it looks. Trekking poles don't always bring these. I've found that hiking with a dog a lot of the time these kind of get in the way often but I do really really like having them. I have kind of a bum knee so the support of having these is excellent but again sometimes they just kind of get in the way so I kind of play it by ear with these. Sometimes I'll just bring one sometimes I won't bring any but they are nice to have when I have them. These ones are Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Corks. Really really impressed with these. They're excellent. Nice and light. Flick locks. I would never buy a trekking pole with a twist lock because they always fail. Yeah really happy with these. One of them is kind of chewed up though unfortunately. A squirrel or something got to that. I'm gonna get some new grips for them eventually. Yeah so that's pretty much it as far as stuff that I typically carry and or wear on the trail. Oh and guess one other thing cell phone. Everyone's got a cell phone. This has pretty much replaced my GPS actually starting this season. Switched to Gaia GPS on the phone and I love it. It never had a problem doing any of the track. Always get a good lock. Yeah excellent product Gaia GPS. Leave it in airplane mode on your phone and I mean it'll easily last a three-day trip without having to charge your phone. Assuming you're not doing anything else with your phone. I also read on my phone. I don't bring any like a book or anything like that so cell phone very important. We are probably going to get a Garmin inReach Mini this off season for next year's trips because just the functionality of having SOS and and whatnot would be would be nice to have. All right now let's get started with the pack. All right where to start here. I guess in the hip belt pockets. One of them's empty right now because it's just where I keep my snacks while I uh while I hike. The other pocket here is just miscellaneous things that I want to have at hand. I've got a lighter and uh ferro rods in case I need to start a fire. Got that stuff handy. Got a flashlight. My Benchmade Griptilian knife and a good old-fashioned compass. I do bring a map and compass as a backup on all of our trips because batteries fail. Electronics fail sometimes and it's important to know where you are. Sorry getting a little parched. Not used to talking this much. Water bottles. Two one liter smart water bottles is usually my go-to. I'll fill them up accordingly to how easy I think it's going to be to find water on the particular trip. Yeah but I usually carry one to two liters depending on on where we are what we're doing. Bear spray. Always got to carry bear spray when you're in the Canadian Rockies. This is just on a little paracord bracelet that I made so I can clip it to the outside of the pack and I have a little bit of extra cord handy in case I need it. I think this actually expired this season. I'm gonna have to get some new bear spray this off-season. Oh well. On the outside of the pack here I always carry my tent on the outside because it's a big heavy item and it balances out the water very nicely. This is a gigantic Sierra Designs Convert 3 tent. This is just the body. This doesn't even include the poles or the vestibule or anything. Danny typically carries that. I should mention Danny is going to do a video like this also covering all of her stuff. Since we typically hike together we share some gear so keep that in mind if you're watching this. This doesn't cover everything you would need to go on a trip by yourself. We're able to split up a little bit of stuff so I carry the tent body. She's got the poles and the vestibule and whatnot. Love this tent. Huge. Super comfortable. Absolutely bomb proof. Great for winter trips. Great for when we have the dog. Yeah love this tent. It is really really heavy. All right in the front pocket. Oh yeah I guess I didn't say. The pack. Gossamer Gear Gorilla 40 liter pack. Absolutely love it. There's a full review I've already done on this and there will be more reviews coming on some of this other gear. If you have any requests for gear you want me to review first feel free to put it in the comments down below. Yeah 40 liter pack is perfect for me for up to five days. I can carry everything I need and this thing looks almost brand new still after three seasons of use so can't recommend highly enough. Pack cover. This is a ULA Silnylon pack cover Danny got me for Christmas. Not much to say. It's a pack cover. It's very light. Very compact. Bear line. Just some reflective cordage. I think I've got 50 feet here with a carabiner on the end in case I ever need hang a bear line. I like reflective cordage because it's easy to see. Top pockets. Don't keep much up here. I've got my toiletry kit which is a toothbrush and some toothpaste. I don't have contacts or anything like that so I don't need to get all fancy. That's pretty much all I bring with me. If I need to wash myself off I'll just do it in a creek. Headlamp. This is the Black Diamond Revolts model headlamp. Really really like this thing. It is rechargeable which is nice. It's also open a little bit here. Close that up. Took a chip out of the corner of it somewhere along the way. Oh well. What was I saying? It's rechargeable which is really nice. Got a nice dimmer switch. Red light mode. Yeah really nice fully featured headlamp. Not the lightest option out there. There's obviously lighter ones but this one's a really good one. All right that's it for on the outside. My sit pad which also doubles as the back on the Gossamer gear here. It comes with a sit light pad for the back. I kind of wore that one out so I just used a couple of pieces of a Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite pad to make my own. It's really nice to have. Very handy. Okay so near the top I generally keep some stuff that I might need along the way. Toilet paper. Self-explanatory. First aid kit. I've got some band-aids. Got some other dressings in there. A little bit of super glue. Hand sanitizer. Some Leuco tape. Some antihistamines. Tylenol and Advil. What's the stuff you use for mud butt? Imodium. Stuff like that. Just you know and a backup contact case for Dani because she doesn't have to wear contacts on the trail. I think this weighs I don't know maybe six ounces or something like that. Yeah you can kind of customize what you think you need. Little emergency kit. Basically in here I've just got a backup lighter. It's a tiny little Leatherman. Some matches. Duct tape. Some twist ties or zip ties and things like that for gear repair. An extra water bottle cap. Little things like that. Miscellaneous junk. A bandana just in rain gear. Outdoor Research Helium 2 rain jackets. Really like this thing. Super light and pretty breathable. You know it's pretty much just waterproof. Slightly more breathable than a garbage bag. It's pretty much all you can hope for for these things and they all do wet out eventually. So I mean if you're going to be spending any time out in the backcountry just you know be prepared to you're going to get wet eventually if it starts raining on you. My cook kit. I typically carry the cooking stuff. So in here we have fuel. A couple of aircraft aluminum sporks from Sea to Summit and a cheap little titanium windscreen that we got off of Aliexpress. Took about three months for delivery but it only cost about four bucks. So is the brand. We found them on Amazon. Titanium pots. Come with a little frying pan type lid and then inside we nest another cup that has the stove, another lighter, then some salt and pepper, olive oil, hot sauce and a little bandana for cleaning up. So yeah just basically everything you need in one little spot. All right now I'm getting into the part that I keep inside of my bag liner so I keep everything in here dry. I've got my rain pants in here. They don't necessarily need to be dry but I never actually use these for hiking in. These are just for around camp for keeping the chill off, for cutting the wind and when my shorts are wet from hiking in the rain all day I just put on my leggings and throw these on and pretty much good to go. Just makes it a lot more comfortable hanging out around camp. I've got a light pair of wool liner gloves, a fleece hat and a buff. Keep your extremities warm stuff. Mid-layer this is the mountain hardware ghost whisperer down jacket. Can't recommend this highly enough. It's a fantastic piece of gear. I've had this for four years now and the only like damage to it that I can see is a little rip that I got in the corner but I didn't even happen on trail. It happened at my work where I snagged it on the corner of like a little piece of metal. Yeah mountain hardware amazing amazing piece of gear. Wish I'd got the hoodie model. If I'm doing shoulder season trips, actually just more and more as I do more trips, I've really started carrying this as well. This is just a nice light montane fleece. Yeah it's got a hood which is nice and I like having something that I can hike in if I need to. I wouldn't ever really want to hike in this because when you hike you sweat and down gets wet and it's not ideal. This is great for around camp for keeping you nice and warm but you need something to be a little bit more active in. I really really like lightweight fleece for that. So I mean obviously your mileage may vary and I do kind of mix and match based on what kind of trip we're looking at doing. Some trips if it's going to be warm I just bring this because it's a little bit lighter. You know a little bit more versatile I would say. You can use it in more situations whereas that is just pretty much like you're at camp you want to warm up. That's what it's great for. Sleeping stuff here. I've got a little pillow. This is a Exped air pillow ultra light. Tiny little sucker. It's kind of an uncomfortable fabric. Feels kind of plasticky up against your face. So what I do is I take my buff and I put it over top like a pillowcase and I sleep on it and that's nice because this thing's like really really really light. But yeah that makes for a much nicer night's sleep. In here we've got a Therm-a-Rest Neo Air X-Lite. Everyone knows what these pads are. I think at this point they're probably the most popular backpacking sleeping pad for a reason. They are exceptionally light and exceptionally warm for their weight. I've had no issues with durability. I know sometimes these things pop on some people but as long as you're careful should be okay. Although I think this one might be developing a slow leak because the last couple of times I've used it I have had to blow it up at around five o'clock in the morning. I'm gonna have to look into that in the off season see if there's a leak issue going on there. Another optional piece of gear. This is a tarp. 8 foot by 10 foot Aqua Quest cheap Amazon tarp. It's all nylon I believe. If it's a trip where we're gonna be setting up a little base camp we're gonna be spending some time hanging out at camp. I like bring a tarp so we can set up a cook area and things like that. I would not necessarily bring if we're doing a multi-day trip or moving camp every night because I'm not gonna go through the effort of setting up two different shelters every night. But yeah really nice to have if you're gonna be hanging out in the same spot for a couple of days. Yeah we'd like to upgrade obviously to a nicer lighter option like one of those fancy Dyneema composite fabric tarps in the future but I mean those things cost a fortune so maybe someday. What else we got in here? Battery bank. This is an Anker 20,000 milliamp hour battery bank. It's totally overkill for a three-day trip but I mean it's what I have and I have a bunch of electronics that I need to keep charged so I bring a lot of battery juice and I only ever ran out on our like one of our seven or eight day trips. That was the only time I ever ran out of battery power. Even then I think I made it through yeah on our GDT section I made it all the way through with this and one other 10,000 milliamp hour battery bank so this wouldn't have been enough but probably good enough for four or five days even with all the amount that I filmed. Speaking of electronics, this is the Z-Packs front pack. I keep this attached to the front of me so all my electronic stuff is handy. I'm not going to go through everything in here. I'll actually probably do a separate video talking about electronics, camera gear, all this stuff. Yeah but I do have a separate pack that's not going to be included in all this covering all the electronics stuff so yeah that's what that thing is. What else we got in here? Okay getting down near the bottom. Food. This is a Opsac odor proof bag. These things are great. I use this in conjunction with an Ursac which I don't have packed here today but if we're going somewhere above tree line or near tree line where finding a decent bear hang is going to be an issue or we're not staying at an established campsite where there's going to be set bear storage, bring this and an Ursac, tie it off on a tree. I like that so much better than hanging in a bear line. It's a lot less effort and seems to work really really well but if we're staying at like an established site in the park somewhere where they've got bear lockers or a bear hanging system already in place and I'll typically just bring a like a silnylon dry bag and throw my food in that instead of bringing this thing but yeah for more rustic trips this thing's great paired with an Ursac. These geese are ridiculous. And all right finally getting into the sleep system. I don't really want to unpack all this so I'll just run through what's in here. This is a Sea to Summit dry bag, silnylon dry bag. I keep my quilt in its own dry bag just in case. I have a pack liner in here. This is just, I got this from Gossamer Gear when I got the pack. It's getting pretty worn out so it's probably time to get a new one. So I've got that, I've got a pack cover but I just really don't want my quilt getting wet during the day so I have it in its own stuff sack along with my sleeping clothes. So I've got icebreaker, merino wool top and some extra underwear, extra socks for camp and an extra pair of hiking socks and yeah that's pretty much it. That's all that's in here. Yeah so I'm not gonna unpack all but yeah that's basically my sleeping kit and that's it. That is what I bring on your average weekend backpacking trip in the Canadian Rockies. Cool all right well let me know if there's anything else you guys want to know. Yeah I know I didn't go into much detail on a lot of this stuff. This is just meant to be a quick rundown of what I typically carry. I will do some full reviews on some of these pieces of equipment so if anyone has any requests on stuff that they really want to see reviewed please throw a comment in down below. Also if you have any comments just like any advice on ways I should be improving my kit I'm always open to some suggestions there. So yeah let me know if there's anything else you guys want to know and like I said look out for another video coming soon from Dani doing the same thing going over all of her gear that she typically carries on our weekend trips. All right thanks for watching everybody and stay tuned. See you out on the trail.