Time Management on the PCT

My site rickdelong.com is currently undergoing reconstruction, so I am going to post one of my PCT related articles here for the time being. Enjoy!

Time Management on the PCT

With today's lightweight backpacking gear, it's easier than ever to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail in one season. Snow in the spring and fall put natural boundaries on the window of time available to hike through the mountains, and thru-hikers need to get it done in 5 months or less. This article will cover ways of speeding up your thru-hike to finish in 5, 4, or even 3 months depending on your goals and abilities. The recommendations below are a combination of what I did in 2009 based on previous experience and what I would do differently next time. I hiked the PCT in 131 days and feel I could easily shave off 10 days, probably 20 or more.

Basic time-saving methods

Reducing packweight

With some research and effort just about everyone should be able to get their baseweight (weight of gear carried in pack, not counting food and water) to 10-12 lbs or less. The PCT was "made" for ultralight backpacking, with its dry summers, warm days, and gentle grade. If you're much above 10-12 lbs., I'm sure you can give lots of reasons why you need the gear you're taking, but you could make things easier on yourself by subjecting your gear list to some careful scrutiny and consulting with some UL (ultralight) folks.

Every additional pound on your back translates into a slightly slower pace and increased fatigue at the end of the day. For people with baseweights of 10 lbs. and above a frame pack will be most comfortable; those with baseweights of 8 lbs. or less should consider frameless UL packs. You'll be carrying a lot of food with you, so even with a baseweight of 10 lbs. you'll often find your total packweight at 20 lbs. and over, when a frame starts to make a difference in comfort and efficient load transfer to the hips.

The effect of 100 additional grams of gear in your pack may add up to as much as one more day on the trail to complete the PCT. Cut down the extra gear and save many days of time.

Town stops

Different hikers have different attitudes towards town stops. Some love them, others don't. If you want to cut time off your thru-hike, consider keeping town chores to a minimum. Get in early in the morning and get out by noon when possible. It is often hot in towns, and having to walk around on hot asphalt looking for grocery stores and libraries can be demoralizing. If you get into town late, you may be forced to spend the night, losing many hours of trail time.

If or when I do the PCT again, I will make an even greater effort to limit my time in towns and will plan to always arrive early in the morning and get out as quickly as possible. I have many bad memories of baking to death in hot intermontane towns in northern California.

Food supplies

A good strategy for saving time is to buy food from grocery stores where they are large and easy to get to and to get food in packages when stores are small and/or hard to get to. If you can have packages sent from home rather than preparing them yourself as you hike the trail, you'll save a substantial amount of time.

Esoteric time-saving methods

The points listed above are all obvious enough. Now for some of the less-obvious ones — things you wouldn't tend to think of until you are well into your thru-hike.

Avoid fatigue and super-high-mileage days

This is probably the single most important way to shorten your PCT thru-hike. An analysis of my 2009 hike log reveals that much time was lost as a result of trying to walk too far or too fast in one day. For instance, 37-mile days were followed by 7-mile ones. Why? I just couldn't get started the next day and didn't feel like doing anything. A number of times I really got into rhythm of walking fast and let myself get carried away. The next day, my mileage would drop 10 miles or so.

Basically, any time your heartrate is elevated above a certain level for very long (for me probably about 125 BPM), your body is digging into energy reserves that take longer to replenish. It's better to slow down a bit and sacrifice half a mile today than 8 or 10 miles tomorrow as a result of fatigue. The same can happen as a result of very long hiking days.

When I do the PCT again, I'll try to limit my daily mileage to 30 miles, possibly 32 on the very easiest days. Instead of letting fatigue accumulate to the point that I end up needing to rest a whole day or half a day, I'll give myself a bit of extra time for rest every single day, or walk just a bit slower than I could.

Housecleaning on the trail

All clothing should be quick-drying and easy to clean by rinsing. If it's hard to clean, you'll tend to wait till you get to town, where cleaning becomes a time-consuming chore. I highly recommend washing (rinsing) an item or two of clothing a day on the go instead of letting "housework" accumulate. Forget soap — it doesn't make much difference. Instead of aiming for 100% cleanliness, just shoot for 90%. Hang damp clothes on the back of your pack and let them sun-dry.

Same goes for your body. Scrub your groin, armpits, feet, and face on a daily basis — again, aiming for 90% cleanliness. Wash your hair once or twice a week when it's warm and sunny. By doing this you'll spend just a few extra minutes a day rather than many hours at once doing chores in town.

Avoid overstuffing yourself

Ah, the memories of all-you-can-eat buffets at Mazama Village, the 7th Day Adventist Camp, and Timberline Lodge... the feast at Drakesbad, the gorging at Subways... Fond memories indeed, but if I'd simply eaten my fill rather than stuffing myself to the gills, I probably could have finished the PCT an entire day earlier. An overstuffed body requires hours to rest and digest food, as I found out several times on the trail.

Avoid blisters and inflammation

A great deal of time can be lost as a result of blisters and various forms of trail inflammation. Reduce the frequency of blisters by cooling and drying your feet, switching socks, and resting during the heat of the day. Take off your shoes during frequent rest stops. Nearly any anti-blister measures you take will save you time compared to having to treat the blisters and walk slower to avoid hurting them. If you change your stride to avoid tenderness, you risk developing inflammation as a result of walking with an unnatural stride.

Inflammation tends to be worst in the first month on the trail when your ligaments are not yet accustomed to such strain. This is a time to slowly build up your hiking speed to avoid overstressing your body. You will probably save time in the long run by artificially limiting your mileage in the beginning to give your body time to adjust. Perhaps start out averaging just 15 miles a day, than 10 days later get up to 20 miles a day, and 10 days after that build up to 25 miles a day. If you haven't trained before your hike, start at 10 or 12 miles a day. In a month you'll be close to your peak cardiovascular form no matter what.

Cut down on zero days

To get rid of zero days, you must develop a sustainable trail life. That is, you need to do things in such a way that unsatisfied needs such as hunger, fatigue, and grime do not build up such that a long town stop becomes the only solution. You'll need to watch your mileage and avoid overdoing it, make sure you're sleeping enough, keep you and your clothes relatively clean, etc.

A good rule of thumb is this: whenever you have two activated needs, do something about it. For instance, it's probably okay to ignore hunger or thirst for a while, but if you need to poop on top of it, then it's time to stop and take care of yourself. Or, if you're a bit cold but otherwise taken care of, you might just walk a bit faster to warm up, but if you're hungry on top of it, then you should stop, put more clothes on, and feed yourself.

Streamline routines

Trail life is full of routines — packing and unpacking, getting ready for bed, getting yourself ready in the morning, making food and eating, going to the bathroom, cleaning yourself, doing laundry, going into town, hitchhiking, etc. To speed up your movement on the trail, get these routines down to a science. Make them as quick and painless as possible without adding more weight to your pack than is necessary. Then walk at a relaxed and sustainable pace as long as you can without getting too tired.

Sleep quality

Poor sleep has to be made up for later, so make sure you're sleeping as soundly as possible. A thicker sleeping pad may well be worth the weight; 150 grams more weight may provide you with 15 more minutes of deep sleep a night. That will allow you to complete the trail quicker than without the 150 grams. If it helps you sleep better, consider also taking a sleeping mask or anything else that helps you sleep just as well on the trail as in your bed at home.

Avoid finicky gear 

Some ultralight gear is finicky — for instance, poncho tarps. You have to figure out a way to store the tie-outs separately from the poncho, or else use thicker and heavier rope so that they don't tangle. But then you'll have to have a way to remove them in case you need to wear the poncho in rain. For this reason I am no longer a fan of poncho tarps. Your shelter should be quick to set up and fool-proof. Extra time spent carefully storing tie-outs or putting up a finicky UL shelter may negate the benefits of its lower weight. Also, having a few thicker and longer stakes will make it easier (and quicker) to set up your shelter in less-than-ideal conditions.

Conclusion

How you spend your time on the PCT is a personal thing, and there is no "right way" to hike your hike. I am fairly certain that most hikers could do the whole thing in under 3.5 months if they followed all the recommendations here to the best of their abilities. Their bodies are capable of it. However, if you actually hiked the trail at this pace, you would end up leaving nearly everyone behind because most people take over 4 months to complete the PCT. If you're in front of everyone, loneliness may start getting to you. That's one reason why thru-hikers usually don't push themselves to their limits. Furthermore, "smelling the roses" along the way, including town stops, is part of the PCT experience for many hikers. Nonetheless, to finish the hike comfortably within the annual window of 5 months or so, you'll probably need to apply at least some of the principles explained here.

General Advice for a Beginner for a 40-Day Hike

Here's a letter I got and my response below:

1. im going backpacking for a month or so by myself, and you are one of
the people that i know that has done similar things to this and i need
advice. ill be on foot for the most part, sleeping outside, and in the
U.S. i need to know what to pack, and what kind of gear i need to buy,
and what kind of clothes are good for this sort of thing. ill be
walking south, i think, starting sept 7 or 8th. ive neve done anything
like this before, so any advice you can give me would be great.
again, ANYTHING you can think of that a new backpacker should know, i
would like to know. i know that might be a tall order, but i would
greatly appreciate your help.

2. this is what im thinking.

as this is my first trip, and ill be gone for so long, im thinking
pack size up to 60 pounds. a friend of mine is letting me use his
external frame pack, and if i had to guess without measuring it i
would guess it weighs 6 pounds on it own, 12 pounds with the
stove/plates/silverware/canteen that came w it. ill give you a better
weight tomorrow when i weigh it for real. ill be starting in MI, but
heading south. i want to put down a lot of ground, but im not sure
what is a realistic amount to walk in a day. right now im thinking
that i can cover 20 miles a day without to much trouble... does that
sound realistic? could i do more and not be crazy?
like i said, ill be heading south but dont have any plan as to were i
want to go. i just wana walk and dont care where i end up.
my budget is 2,000. the less i can spend the happier i will be, but i
would be willing to spend at least that much. the pack itself is
already acquired, but the things that i know ill be needing are:

footwear
tent
bed roll/bag
rain gear
butane (thats what my stove runs on)
back pack cover
appropriate clothing (i dont know what is good and what is not)

thats what i can think of right now. what otehr things will i be
needing? i plan on picking up food along the way as i go, and in that
regard lots of rice, beans, potatoes, oatmeal, and fruit. im a
vegetarian, otherwise i would go for some jerky as well, but thats
out. any suggestions in the food depo?

in general, im lacking most in practical advice about backpacking, like...
-how far can i expect to go in a month and a half?
-is it safe to walk on major highways on the shoulder, or should i
stick to side roads more, or should i avoid roads all together?
-if i go off road, are rivers and such a common obstacle that will
give me trouble, or are they easily overcome?
-is the threat of people mugging me something to worry about? (ive
talked to 2 people who have done traveling somewhat like this, and
both of them had mugging attempts. :/ is this something that happens a
lot?)

wew! thats just a few of the questions i have. thanks a lot for your help with this. :)



3.ok, ive done some reading on your page and feel a little
more prepared to tell you what im thinking.

like i said earlier, i will be doing this by myself without any
re-supply "points" on my trip, other than walmarts. i think this would
effect my pack size and type, right? im not opposed to buying a new
pack for myself if you think the external i am carrying is a bad idea,
but for what im doing i think it will be ok.

after reading about the PCT, im thinking that doing a trail like that
might better than trying to walk off roads and the like. im not doing
the trip for any one reason, just to see the world from a different
perspective, so completeing a trail wasnt vital to my goals for the
trip, but from some of the reading ive been doing is sounds like i
might cover more ground this way. what do you think? im still
undecided, esspecially as i dont know of any trails in michigan. i
want to go south were it is a little warmer, and the north country
trail ive read about doesnt go that direction.

And my response:

1. I would strongly recommend hiking not along roads, but on established long-distance hiking paths. It is much more scenic and pleasant, you don't have to worry about cars and riff-raff, and you will be part of a trail culture and will meet other people like yourself. Hiking completely alone for more than 2 days is tiresome for most people psychologically, and you may lose interest in not-very-scenic road walking without companions. Also, you'll have the satisfaction of completing a route or a specific segment of a route, which you won't get from road walking. You'll see the most scenic areas in the region and will have bridges to cross creeks and good trail markings to avoid getting lost. Some areas even have pit toilets. That's a lot more hiking infrastructure than you'd get on a road walk.

There are 4 awesome long-distance trails in your region:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Age_Trail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Shore-to-Shore_Trail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_Hiking_Trail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Country_Trail (passes through the U.P.)

Here's a complete list of long-distance trails in the U.S. if you want to find something further south (see the Buckeye Trail, for instance):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-distance_trails_in_the_United_States

2. With a 60-pound pack you will be limited to about 10 miles per day and will be at high risk of knee and ankle injuries unless you have been training extensively. For comparison, in the Rockies Kim was able to hike nearly 20 miles a day with a 20-pound pack and might have been able to work up to 25 miles. I could average between 25 and 28 miles a day on the PCT carrying a pack that typically weighed about 20 pounds. You will literally be able to cover twice as much territory (and thus be able to resupply twice as often and carry twice as little food between town stops) if you can get your loaded (with food) pack weight at least to 30 lbs. After that you'll still be thinking after your trip how you could have shaved off more pounds, because the weight of your pack will really come to weigh on you during your hike. 60 lbs means limited mobility even in towns because you simply don't feel like running around on errands with the pack on. It means fewer detours to campsites to use showers and restrooms, because the extra half-mile just isn't worth it. And when it rains, you'll feel even less mobile with a heavy pack because it's so much effort to take if off and get out raingear and then put it back on. You can take a 6-lbs pack on your hike, but I guarantee you you'll remember my words with regret :)

3. Count on your calorie needs doubling during your hike. I needed 5000 cal a day. Food will cost you at least $10/day if you buy along the way and eat the cheapest foods available. If you're picky and like to eat nutritiously, it could be as much as $20/day. Rice may be a pain to cook. It'll use a lot of fuel (i.e. add more weight) and takes time to cook. Consider taking food that can be cooked by just bringing water to a boil once, and also bringing more food that doesn't need to be cooked at all. Some days you just won't feel like going to the effort of cooking (meanwhile you freeze as your rice is slowly cooking) and will just want to eat as quickly as possible.

4. It will be hard in the remaining time to learn about lightweight gear options, especially since you have little previous backpacking experience. But it's not impossible. Anyone with any experience hiking long distance literally weighs every item they are considering taking and makes spreadsheets showing the separate and total weights. First-timers tend to skip this step and either get discouraged and quit or mail home a huge chunk of stuff from the first town stop. That's why such a large percentage of people who set out to hike the Appalachian Trail quit (something like 3/4).

5. If I had 40 days and a budget of $2000 and no equipment, here's what I'd do:

a. dedicate $15/day for food, or $600

b. put aside maybe $200 for unforeseen expenditures (and whatever else you might have left over after gear purchases)

c. join the excellent backpackinglight.com forum and tell people in the "G-spot" forum that you've got $1000 and want to spend 40 days hiking in the Midwest with as light of a backpack as possible. You'll get tons of responses and good ideas. I would aim for a base pack weight (everything minus food and water) of no more than 15 lbs, even 10 lbs if possible. Then you can go to the used gear forum and look for the gear on sale. A rough budget might look like this (assuming you buy lightly used, but good gear):

1. $275 - down sleeping back to 20 degrees

2. $100 - lightweight pack

3. $125 - lightweight shelter

4. $20 - sleeping pads

5. $75 - trail running shoes

6. $30 - sturdy hiking umbrella

7. $25 - cheap raingear (frogg toggs or something + pack cover, or even a poncho)

8. $250 - other clothing (baselayer + breathable but windproof nylon layer + socks + gloves + warm hat + lightweight jacket)

9. $100 - odds and ends: small flashlight, pot, alcohol stove, spoon, etc.

I think that comes to $1000. The folks at backpackinglight.com can give you more specific options. I'd follow their advice, which tends to be very good. There are a lot of experienced hikers there, and they know all the lightweight gear options available.

Gear Question: JRB Quilt for PCT

Hi Buckwheat!

I've been really enjoying your blog on the PCT and have found some great information. I had a question I was hoping you could answer. I've been considering one of the JRB quilts (Sierra Sniveller) for a PCT thru hike but I am not sure if it will be warm enough for me.How did you find the Rocky Mt. sniveller? Was it overkill or was it just right. Could you also comment on the utility of using it as a jacket. I was thinking if I could use that as my main insulating layer when not hiking that I could save some ounces. Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance and happy trails,
Adam

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the message. I'm glad you've found my blog useful.

The Rocky Mt. Sniveller actually turned out to be just right for me. There were 15 to 20 nights where the temperature was between 25 and 32 degrees (I recorded the temp. each day), mostly in the southern and central Sierra. I am thin and sleep slightly cold, and by this time had lost a little bit of weight. Also, stuffing my quilt in a stuff sack each day had somewhat reduced its loft. I would consider the Sierra Sniveller if 1) I had a bigger stuff sack allowing me to not compress it so much each morning, 2) if I didn't sleep on the cold side, or 3) if I were beginning the Sierras June 15 or later, not June 2 like I did in 2009. A lot of guys were fine in quilts like the Golite Ultra 20 with just 12 oz of down, and the Sierra Sniveller is cut a little wider on top, which is nice especially if you're broad shouldered or heavier.

Like most people, I rarely used it as a jacket but appreciated it the few times I did. For instance, I wore it all the time during Kick-off, when most people froze their butts off standing around all the time in sub-50 temps. I was probably the only one there who was warm. It is slightly clumsy to switch to jacket mode with the tape and drawcords, but once you do it is very warm because it wraps around you all the way to the knees. However, I don't know that I like their hood much. If I did the PCT again I would take this hood I modified from the BPL Pro 90 Cocoon Balaclava: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=26960 (scroll down to pictures). It is a lot more functional as a warm hood for daytime use in addition to the night, and it draws around your face better. It weighs the same or slightly less.

Most thru-hikers find they don't spend much time not hiking and not sleeping. Either they're getting ready for bed, or packing up, or eating while still in their sleeping bag, etc. Only in the Sierras and occasionally in WA did we spend significant time chilling out around fires. I sometimes wore the quilt then.

One thing I would change about my clothes (which were nearly perfect) is taking a Marmot Cocona PowerDry layer instead of a Merino long underwear top and bottom. I have this now, and it is at least twice as warm per weight than Merino. So, I would probably stick with the expensive Merino T-shirt, then have the PowerDry layer (total weight ~ 320 g top and bottom), sending home the bottoms from Truckee, then the wind layer, plus light gloves or mitts, my fleece ear wrap, and the BPL balaclava. Also, I would take Rocky goretex socks (for the narrow-footed) for the Sierras to help deal with cold and wet feet. Most of us had residual toe numbness for months after the 10+ days of daily snow crossings in 2009. Also, I would take this awesome new 25g flashlight of mine instead of the Photon Freedom or a 3-AAA Petzl headlamp: http://www.amazon.com/Fenix-mini-LD01-Lumens-Flashlight/dp/B001K3HJXM The reversible clip allows it to be used as a headlamp if you're wearing a hat or visor.

Finally, instead of a poncho-tarp and bivy combo I would consider a Zpacks Hexamid and a dedicated silnylon poncho for roughly the same total weight. The poncho could be used as an additional layer in the Sierras, even an emergency vapor barrier layer if needed. I got frustrated with clipping and unclipping the poncho tie-offs and trying to avoid tangling. This would give me a lot more room to relax and eat inside my shelter when the mosquitos come out (a major issue).

Best wishes,
Rick

Tips for Staying Clean

I've seen a lot of filthy thru-hikers over the past week and would like to share some know-how for staying clean on the trail, especially in the hot, arid sections.

Where trail grime comes from
Abundant desert dust sticks to any moisture it encounters. If you are sweating, dust will accumulate where there is sweat. The coarser the weave of your clothing, the more dust will collect there as well, if the clothing is moist. Dust does not tend to settle on dry objects, so, the best way to avoid grime is to be dry.

Clothing
Most hikers are wearing long pants and long-sleave shirts. Many or most of these hikers already have dark swaths of grime under their shoulder straps and in other places on the clothing. The weave of this clothing is usually coarse to allow for maximum breathability, and a lot of dust settles in the fabric. Of course, these items are not washed on a regular basis, and hand washing is rarely sufficient to clean them. So, they grow dirtier and dirtier and soon stink up, especially if the fabric is synthetic. Even if you sponge yourself down at night, every morning you put the same filthy clothes back on. Only a laundromat can clean these clothes now, and so there is more reason to go into town and spend hours there, getting a hotel room for convenience.

My alternative is to avoid these problems by keeping as dry as possible by wearing fewer clothes and carrying a sun umbrella. Sometimes it is too windy for brief periods to use the umbrella, but at this point my skin is tanned enough to go without the umbrella for up to half an hour if I need to. I wear airy polyester running shorts whose weave is too tight to accumulate dust, and on top I wear a merino wool T-shirt that I take off if I start getting too sweaty. Sometimes I get a little damp on my lower back where my back touches my pack, but that's about it. When it's colder, I put a fine-weave windshirt on over the T-shirt. This way, I avoid the grime problems that are already beginning to plague many thru-hikers.

Washing
As a rule, it is much easier to wash dust off one's skin than to get the grime out of dirty clothing. My legs can be quickly cleaned at night by passing a wet sponge over the skin. My shorts don't often need cleaning and can simply be rinsed in water. Same with the windshirt. The T-shirt can use a washing about once a week. The only items that need frequent, serious washing are socks and underwear. These can be washed using the ziploc bag trick -- put some water and some soap (Dr. Bronners or shampoo) in a ziploc bag with the items and agitate them, then repeat the process in a bag of clean water with no soap for rinsing.

To wash my body with little water, what I usually do is put some water in a cup, add a few drops of Dr. Bronner's liquid soap, and wash and scrub myself with a small sponge. There is just enough soap to make me feel cleaner, but not so much that I would need to rinse myself off afterwards. Hair washing requires more soap (shampoo) and is usually done separately and not as often.

Hiking Clothes and their Care

This post is about what clothes I'll be wearing on the PCT, and how I'll be caring for them and avoiding thru-hiker stink. 

Shorts
Most of the time on the PCT I'll be hiking in shorts. I have black (unfortunately) polyester running shorts (unfortunately, black) with pockets on the sides. They dry extremely quickly and rarely need more than a few rinses and squeezes to get them "clean." 

Underpants

I'll have with me just one pair of synthetic underpants from ExOfficio. They are comfortable, dry quickly, and I can go without them for several hours as they dry. Rinsing and squeezing is often enough to clean them and takes just a minute, but a bit of scrubbing -- with or without soap/shampoo -- is sometimes necessary. These will need a rinse or wash on an almost daily basis. 

T-shirt

I was initially planning to wear my thin Golite polyester shirt, but it develops a slight stingy smell after the first day of use that is almost impossible to remove. Wishing to avoid thru-hiker stink, I've decided to switch to the Icebreaker superfine 140 Tech T, made of merino wool. It weighs about 150 grams in size L. I know from experience that this fabric stinks up very slowly if ever. When it does need more than a rinsing, shampoo works on it much better than, say, Dr. Bronner's soap (after all, wool is a hair). 

Actually, much of the time I'll be hiking shirtless to keep cool. I'll be protected from the sun by my Golite chrome dome umbrella. I'll be sweating less and drinking less water with the umbrella. 

Wind layer

I have a complete wind layer, including hooded jacket, that weighs 200 grams in total. I'll be wearing this in cooler weather, when it's very windy and not hot, and when I want to protect myself from flies or poison oak. These can be sufficiently cleaned by rinsing and squeezing, and do not stink up in my experience.

Sleeping clothes

I've been debating what to sleep in -- a silk bag liner, or a set of clothes that covers my whole body. If I don't sleep in some extra layer, my down quilt will get very soiled over time. The silk liner is obviously the lighter option, but slipping that on and then trying to enter my hammock will be a difficult feat. That means some sort of long underwear-type layer, which also doubles as hiking clothes for cooler temperatures. If I wear these on the trail, I should try to make sure I have my wind layer on top to keep the dirt out of them and keep them clean for sleeping. 

I'll probably end up taking my Icebreaker merino wool: 150 weight leggings, and Mondo 200 zip long-sleave shirt. Together these weigh 400 grams and will probably be my only insulating layer. These will almost never require washing. If I switched to a capilene top and bottoms, that would only weigh 250 grams, but I think I'm hooked on merino wool. I think it will provide better insulation, as well (which I might or might not actually need).

Gloves

I'll have lightweight and warm possum-down gloves from backpackinglight.com. I love these, but some people complain that they are not durable enough. If you'll be using them with trekking poles day after day, these might not hold up.

I also have a pair of Event rain mitts from mountainlaureldesigns.com. I will probably carry these all the time, because they double as bug mitts. 

Hat

I'll be carrying just a Golite visor over a moist bandanna (which I'll pick up at ADZPCTKO) for sun protection when I can't use the umbrella for some reason. 

For insulation, I'll have a very handy $1 fleece headband and a hooded wind shirt. For very cold conditions I can use the down hood that I use with my Jacks R Better down quilt. I doubt this will happen often.

Socks

I will probably try out a couple Walmart nylon dress socks early on, but I'll have a couple merino wool socks as well. I have some Smartwool socks to use up and expect them to develop holes after 20-40 days of use. Then I'll probably switch to Darn Tough socks, which are supposedly much more durable. If the nylon socks turn out to work best, then I'll have some more of those mailed to me. 

For parts of Southern California and all of the Sierra, I'll be carrying Integral Designs vapor-barrier socks. These keep my feet dry and warm when hiking through snow or constantly wet trails. I have tried gore-tex socks, but they seem to stink up over time. Nylon can be washed more easily, and the warming effect seems greater. 

Socks will require regular rinsing and squeezing and just occasional washing. Shampoo is best for merino wool. 

Insulation

If I feel I need more insulation for the Sierra or Washington, then I will choose either my Montbell UL down vest (160 grams) or backpackinglight Pro-60 parka (~350 grams). The second is a much better choice for cold, windy, and rainy conditions, while the first is greater as an additional layer in dry conditions. 

Also, my Jacks R Better Rocky Mt. No Sniveller quilt doubles as a "serape" and can be worn around camp. It's generally not that practical to hike in, though (only in emergencies when it is not raining/snowing).

Clothes washing summary

To sum up, I can expect to be rinsing out socks and underwear on a daily basis, and two or three other items (shorts, shirt, windbreaker) about once per section. That's not too much work, and should be enough to keep me from getting stinky. Of course, they say that after a while on the trail you can't smell yourself anymore :)