Truthfully, you don’t need a thing. I’m sure that any reasonably enlightened bodhisattva could glide across the country on simply sunlight, oxygen, and the goodwill of passersby.

But because we wanted to be self-sufficient (and not completely immersed in suffering the entire time), my girlfriend Natalie and I spent a year working, saving money, and gearing up for our 3400-mile walk across America. Though we each had done plenty of car camping, neither of us had backpacked before, so a big part of preparation involved acquiring stuff.

We certainly weren’t the first to do a coast-to-coast walk across the country, so I’m thankful to previous heavyweight hikers Hawk McGinnis, Matt Green, and Nate Damm for publicly sharing their gear recommendations online. Extra special thanks go to Tyler Coulson for writing the best how-to book ever on walking across America and to Kait & John Seyal for actually hopping on a long phone call with me in the final weeks of preparation.

So, in that same spirit of informing future generations of crazy cross-country walkers, here is everything we carried (plus some commentary):

CONSUMABLES