u/LastReplacement5

Just how exactly is it done? I have so many questions!

Does the US have one national post office? May I send a parcel ahead to the main post offices in each major town? Do trail ranger stations at each town accept them? What’s wisest? Do hotels accept them if I’m planning to zero there? How slow is delivery - e.g. if I fly in to Denver from Australia, do some food shopping and then immediately post a parcel ahead to Copper Mountain, is a one week delivery time realistic so that it’s there waiting for me when I hike in?

Please talk me through how this is traditionally done!

Where to find dehydrated refried beans in Australia? I’m wanting to try Andrew Skurka’s famous favourite dinner for longer light-weight through hikes.

I’ve made this at home and it was good! But He‘s using dehydrated beans and that’s what I’m having trouble finding. Apparently they’re everywhere in California - particularly a Mexicali Rose brand - because Latin American food is so loved but it’s trickier here in Aus.

I’ll be trying dehydrating my own soon using Woolies tinned refried beans but thought I’d ask if anyone’s tried this and knows where to get store-bought dehydrated refried beans?

Hi everyone, I’d love to hear your thoughts about where I should base myself for 2-3 nights in Denver before starting the trail. I’m an Aussie who’ll be flying in specifically for the CT in July/August in a future year soon. Aside from my need to acclimate to the altitude, I have a few hopes/needs/wishes:

- a nice transfer from Denver Airport (honestly I’d prefer a taxi/uber rather than public transport and am happy to pay for that). I’ll likely be flying domestically from San Fran if I get to choose - hoping to avoid LAX.

- close-ish to trail head (so I can get moving nice and early on departure day)

- good grocery stores to buy all my food (I’ll likely be cold soaking) like dehydrated refried beans, ramen, trail mixes, jerky, all the usual stuff

- a post office to send food boxes ahead to myself

- some good cafes/restaurants nearby in case my wife joins me before departure or even for the beginning portion of trail. She likes good dining options! She likely won’t do all of this trail - I’ll mainly be solo. Maybe the hotel should have a great restaurant in house?

- quiet enough locality to sleep well. Jet lag will be a thing. I don’t need pumping nightlife

- what else will I need?

Thanks so much in advance for your thoughts!

Hi everyone, if you’re able, I’d welcome your input!
QUESTION: Will this upper body layering plan work? Will I be warm enough? Dry enough? CT SOBO August 2029

Layer1: Sun Hoody & Trucker cap

Layer2: Alpha Fleece & Beanie

Layer3: Rab Phantom Hooded Rain Jacket

That’s IT for my top half. 

I’m wanting to leave both my puffy and wind jacket behind to save a little weight and volume. Instead I plan on “multi-using” that rain jacket either as a wind/rain shell or puffy (when combined with fleece) as needed. I know it gets cold sometimes overnight! If extremely cold, my sleeping bag will still be on hand while I’m sitting around camp. I know there’ll be rain many afternoons with potentially wild storms!

You can take a look at my full gear plans here if you like.  https://lighterpack.com/r/s8olwx - I want to be light on my feet and gentle on my body with a minimal setup, but I don’t want to be silly!!

Looking forward to this trek even though it’s long term planning at the moment.

Dear r/ultralight,

Please may you convince me to adopt cold soaking and not bring a stove of any sort on my future planned Colorado Trail attempt? I’m nearly there… help me!

If I can ditch my stove, I think I can drop my base weight by around 195g. Additionally I could remove fuel from my daily weight budget of consumables and save a little pack volume.

For anyone interested: https://lighterpack.com/r/s8olwx

Are you willing to share your fave recipes?
I could try them all at home first to practice, right? That might further convince me!

Don’t you just feel like some hot food sometimes? What about if it’s a really cold day?

https://lighterpack.com/r/s8olwx Hi everyone, my current gear plans for a CT solo hike give me a base weight of 3.964 kg (8.74 lb). [update: see edit notes below]

I’d love it to be lighter, but honestly am struggling to find further sacrifices to make or better gear to choose to significantly drop my weight. I don’t want to be risky or stupid or unnecessarily uncomfortable. I do want to ENJOY myself!

Are my bear and altitude plans satisfactory?

I’d really value your suggestions, especially since some of the big ticket items are not bought yet and there’s time to steer my choices. I’ve done many shorter trips with sub 6kg (13.2 lbs) total weight on shoulders including consumables, but I know the CT is more demanding than my Australian, lower altitude, warmer experiences.

A recent longer trek I did exposed issues with my old kit: the consumables needed for 5 day sections brought my total weight on shoulders up around 9-10kg and I was NOT pleased with that. I learnt some valuable lessons about food choices on that trek (thanks, SKEP!)

I’m now hungry to push into far lighter territory, hence these plans and shakedown request

[EDIT: four changes made to my plans in response to helpful comments:

1. I’ve removed a Montbell plasma puffy and instead will layer my rain jacket over fleece hoodie for cold/wind/rain (-143 grams)
2. In the absence of a puffy, have upgraded my fleece from a senchi designs alpha crew neck to their alpha hoodie (+12 grams)
3. Removed groundsheet (-92 grams)
4. pivoted to lighter food bag: Adotec 14L Grizzly Bear Locker (199g) + OdorNo 2-gal HD odor barrier liner (16g). (-177 grams)

TOTAL REDUCTION of 400 grams 😀🙏 Thanks all for your suggestions and encouragement.
]

Hi everyone, I have a 5-day Cooloola Great Walk trek in a few days.

How does my kit look, and have I set up my lighterpack lists acceptably enough for the r/ultralight community’s standards?

https://lighterpack.com/r/3uwl3q

Thanks in advance for your input! Be kind!

Hello everyone… an Aussie here, planning a month-long wilderness trip in the US for late summer 2029. Which trails should I do given I only want a month? My timing is flexible in the window spanning July/Aug/Sep.

I’d LOVE to do PCT but don’t have time. JMT is next on my mind but I worry I’d need more time to build trail legs and acclimate to altitude, and permits look tricky to get. It looks incredible, but maybe I should save it for a future PCT trek?

I’ve never hiked in the US before.

If you had a full month, would you do JMT, or go elsewhere? I'd love to hear how people would structure a month under these limitations, and which other 3 to 4 week options I should look into.

My gear is mostly sorted, I’m pleased with it! Base weight under 8 lb, core elements being an x-mid 1, Pa’Lante Joey pack, CCF pad, S2S traveller bag that might need substitution because it’s only 7C, but it’s lightweight. I’ve worked hard to minimise my kit all round and love hiking with it. It is dialled in for warmer Aussie trips so will likely need some tweaking for altitude

Hello everyone… an Aussie here, planning a month-long wilderness trip in the US for late summer 2029. Which trails should I do given I only want a month? My timing is flexible in the window spanning July/Aug/Sep.

I’d LOVE to do PCT but don’t have time. JMT is next on my mind but I worry I’d need more time to build trail legs and acclimate to altitude, and permits look tricky to get. It looks incredible, but maybe I should save it for a future PCT trek?

So… right now, I'm looking at doing the Tahoe Rim Trail and then continuing to either Rae Lakes Loop or heading up to Oregon or Washington for lower elevations and self-issue permits. Tahoe looks like a good intro for me to build up to PCT in future. I’ve never hiked in the US before.

If you had a full month, would you do a Tahoe and Rae combo, or go elsewhere? I'd love to hear how people would structure a month under these limitations, or if there are other 3 to 4 week options I should look into.

My gear is mostly sorted, I’m pleased with it! Base weight under 8 lb, core elements being an x-mid 1, Pa’Lante Joey pack, CCF pad, S2S traveller bag that might need substitution because it’s only 7C, but it’s lightweight. I’ve worked hard to minimise my kit all round and love hiking with it. It is dialled in for warmer Aussie trips so will likely need some tweaking for altitude