Mountain Laurel Designs Vision Quilt

“Alright so first things first this is the AT, not an actual wilderness hike so I wouldn’t worry too much about gear. From the looks of it you could get on there as is and be fine. Weight recommendations (and I will make recommendations) aside, my one piece of advice having done several long trails is that you need to care about fitness and logistics. There’s no such thing as logistics on the AT so just worry about fitness. Try and make 10s everyday for the first week, and then add 5 miles every week or so till you’re pulling 20s. Put some thought into who you hike with. I personally hate AT culture (it’s a bunch of wannabe hippies with trust funds that care more about smoking weed than being outside). Anyhow, now that I’m done shitting on the AT let’s get into your setup. **BIG FOUR** -You don’t need a stuff sack for your tent. (-1.0 oz) -They make cheap lighter pillows. (-2.0 oz) -X-mid pitches taut with only 4 stakes, you only need 5 stakes if you want a backup. (-1.8 oz) -Do you need the full length of the thinlite? You might be able to save some weight by cutting it some. *-sidenote: that is a really heavy quilt, if you ever want to make a major purchase you could do some weight savings here. It’s probably also waaay once you make it north in the summer. I’d recommend buying a mountain laurel designs vision quilt to mail to yourself when you get up north, and then mail your 20 deg. back home* **CARRIED CLOTHING** - You won’t need gloves in March (-1.75 oz) - Beanie, hoodie, and hooded puffy? How despicable. Get rid of the beanie. (-1.15 oz) - Get rid of the frogg togg stuff pack and the rain pants. Just carry the upper, I’m primarily an east coast hiker and I’d never carry anything more than windpants anytime of the year except winter. (-5.0 oz) -OkayOkayOkay I get it. Camp shoes are great. But 7.4 oz??? They make flip flops that weigh like 3 oz. (-4.4 oz) - What is the purpose of these shorts? You have sleep pants. You have hiking pants. Get rid of them. -(4.0 oz) -Excellent choices with the alpha direct **KITCHEN/WATER** I personally cold soak. Others may know more than me. To my eye untrained eye your cooking setup looks fine, though imjustsayingyoucouldsaveawholepoundifyoucoldsoaked. Who said that? **ELECTRONICS** -Get a nitecore NB10000 (-2.0 oz) **HYGIENE** -Wet Wipes? WET WIPES? WTF do you think this, /r/bushcraft ??? (-1.15 oz) -So I do shave my legs on thru hikes. I just do it in town, so I don’t have to carry the razor (-.3 oz) **MISC.** -Knife and scissors? Why? (-1.0 oz) -I appreciate the pepper spray. Like I said, the AT community is… special. It’s basically the burning man of American thru-hikes and attracts the exact same kind of creep. **FIRST AID** Okayokayokay. This may come as a surprise but your med kit insufficient. You need to be able to pack a wound, splint a fracture, treat minor pain at a BARE MINIMUM. Add some med-tape, gauze, and a few band-aids and you’ll be fine. **CONCLUSION** The a”