My recent hike in the Olympic National Park has now been my longest single backpacking trip. We were out 7 days and 6 nights; the temperatures ranged from around the high 30’s (F) to likely mid 60’s (F), and we had a bit of sun, wind & rain. Conditions we experienced included: dirt paths, grassy meadows and scree fields, crawling under fallen trees & through grown over bushes, and across small streams. What I am trying to say is, this was a perfect opportunity to test my gear in some ways that I have not done so before.

Before leaving for my hike, I spent plenty of time debating about what to take, and what not to take. I did my homework by watching the weather reports, reading up on the past average conditions, and thankfully getting first hand reports from folks that live in the area. I took this information and applied to my previous experiences, so even though I had never been there, I had a good idea of what I could expect. In the end though, what I carried worked, and worked very well. I could not have asked for anything more…

So, as normal, I wanted to do a post hike gear talk video and cover some of the items that stood out to me on the hike. Each item can be seen in the video above, but I will list them out here too…

I am not going to type out my thoughts on each one, so if you are interested in my thoughts on them I will direct you to the video (above). Short story though, as I said already, the gear worked very well on this hike, and I honestly couldn’t have asked for anything better. If I were to be heading out the door today to do the same hike, I would re-pack the same stuff…



If you have any additional questions about the gear in the video, feel free to ask, of if you saw something else I was carrying that I did not cover in the above video, feel free to ask. I love talking gear, so I don’t mind… 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

~Stick~

Disclaimer: I am a Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassador. I am not obligated to write about any of the gear mentioned in this post, nor am I being paid to do so. As most of you should know, I just love talking about gear, and feel like I learned a lot about some of my gear on this hike and felt that I would pass that info along. Hopefully, it will help others make a better, more informed decisions about some of these specific pieces of kit…