Gear List: Long Trail Section Two

I made a lot of changes to my gear list on my last Long Trail section hike from Clarendon Gorge to Bromley Mountain, particularly around my sleep system, changing from a hammock to a tarp tent. Despite some condensation issues with the tent in high humidity conditions, I'm going to stick with a tarp tent because I prefer the extra living room when you have to hide from the bugs before you sleep in the evening. I may switch to a Tarptent Squall 2 which has slightly better airflow than my current Six Moons lunar solo for my next section, depending on weather forecasts.

My base weight on this trip was 12.2 pounds. I also brought 6.5 pounds of food and other consumables, and carried about 4-6 pounds of water, when refilling, bringing my max pack weight to about 23-25 pounds. This lightened up as I ate my food.

On this last trip I noticed some comfort issues with my Mariposa Plus pack during high mileage, where I experienced shoulder fatigue because load transfer to my hips was suboptimal. I've also had some problems with the new Gossamer Gear hip belt pockets which slide off and fall to the ground whenever I take my pack off. This is real annoying and can't be doing my digital camera any good. My next section is going to be much harder and it is  likely that I will switch back to my Six Moons Designs Starlite pack for this trip. The Mariposa is still a great pack, but it shines when you are going very light and don't have to carry a lot of food or water. The Starlite is good for heavier loads, longer distances, and has a much better hip belt pocket system with very little weight penalty.

By now, you've probably learned that I fiddle around with my gear list on each trip. Every trip is different: different distance, terrain, weather conditions, water availability, bug conditions, etc. and I don't believe that you can have just one static gear list for all seasons.