Updated August 22, 2025 11:51AM
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1,706 Miles on the PCT: The Gear Thru-Hikers Actually Rely On
After more than 1,700 miles of rugged terrain, these are the trail-tested essentials that proved indispensable to Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers
Each summer, my hometown of Ashland, Oregon, fills with Pacific Crest Trail hikers coming in from the Siskiyous to restock, take a zero day, and do laundry. By the time they reach Ashland, northbound hikers have covered 1,706 miles by foot. When it comes to gear, they’ve had plenty of time to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and which items they can’t imagine living without. Southbounders have travelled fewer miles but still often have over a month of trail time under their Altras.
I love speaking with PCT thruhikers about their favorite gear because of how dialed their kit is by the time they reach Ashland. This year I hung out in our local outdoor store, Mountain Provisions, on a hot August afternoon and asked five hikers what gear they can’t live without on the trail.
At a Glance
- Budget Wind Pants ($39)
- Buff Neck Gaiter ($23)
- Sea to Summit Dry Bag ($40)
- Ocarina Flute (~$50)
- Unbranded Glasses (Priceless)
- Kula Cloth ($20)
- TentLab Ultralight Trowel ($15)
- Shoe Goo Adhesive ($5)
- Toaks Titanium Pot ($27)
Trail Name: None (She goes by her real name, Emma)
Hometown: Boulder, Colorado (originally Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Direction: Northbound
Days on Trail: 118
Favorite Gear Item: Budget Wind Pants from Amazon
“They were twenty bucks and I don’t even know the brand,” Emma said. “They are cool and warm, and they resist water.” She remembers a desert windstorm early on, when she pulled them on for the first time and felt instantly warmer. “That was a game changer.”
baleaf Women’s Hiking Pants
Trail Name: Cheerio
Name Etymology: A combination of eating a lot of Cheerios and greeting her trail family with “cheerio” on mountaintops.
Hometown: Perth, Western Australia
Direction: Northbound
Days on Trail: ~109
Favorite Gear Item: Buff Neckwear
“It’s my luxury item,” Cheerio said. She uses it as a pillowcase, headband (“if I want to jazz up”), a top, neck warmer, whatever the moment calls for. “It’s just mult-iuse.”
Buff Neck Gaiter
Trail Name: Smitty Bin Yaeger Man Jensen
Name Etymology: Named after a one-off SpongeBob character wearing a beer hat—he once hiked with two water hoses jerry-rigged to bottles.
Hometown: Navajo Nation, New Mexico/Arizona border
Direction: Northbound
Days on Trail: ~80
Favorite Gear Item: Sea to Summit Big River Dry Bag
After swapping out 75 to 80-percent of his kit, Smitty is surprised his heavy-duty dry sack made the cut. “It’s more durable than the lighter ones. I can use it as a pillow or a sitting pad. I can beat it up and don’t have to worry about it.”
Sea to Summit Big River Dry Bag
Trail Name: Ocarina
Name Etymology: She carries an ocarina, a 12-hole vessel flute that looks like a sweet potato, and plays music on trail.
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Direction: Northbound
Days on Trail: 131
Favorite Gear Item: Ocarina Flute
“It’s a conversation starter,” Ocarina said. She plays it on breaks, sometimes surprising hikers who hear music in the woods. Her favorite tune? Song of Storms from The Legend of Zelda. “It makes me happy and makes other people happy, too.”
Trail Name: Loaf
Name Etymology: “I was listening to Meat Loaf on some big climbs, and I also like to loaf around.”
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Direction: Southbound
Days on Trail: 42
Favorite Gear Item: Unbranded Glasses
Loaf didn’t think he’d bother with glasses. He said he figured he’d just let the mountains blur a bit. “It’s nice to see all this stuff,” he said. They’ve saved him more than once, including on a recent 24-hour push when the 2:00 a.m to 3 a.m. stretch “would’ve been basically impossible” without them.
Trail Name: Rascal
Name Etymology: “I was on the AT a couple years back and was about 100-miles in and everyone kept calling me little animal because I wanted to do big miles,” Rascal said. “Eventually we were sitting at a free pancake breakfast from one of the many First Baptist Churches in the south and I said, ‘I just want a good trail name goddammit,’ and slammed my hands on the table. They said, ‘Alright little rascal, calm down.’”
Hometown: Burlington, Vermont
Favorite Gear Item: Kula Cloth Pee Cloth
“It’s a woman-owned, woman-operated company and they made these little microfiber triangles that we all hang off our packs. It’s so nice to not smell like urine all the time.” While Rascal highly recommends this product, she didn’t have any specific buying tips for the machine washable antimicrobial cloths that feature one waterproof side to keep your hands clean. “Whatever your favorite color is.”
Kula Cloth Pee Cloth
Trail Name: Three Dinners
Name Etymology: “In 2019 I was hiking in the Pyrenees and I thought company was coming that did not. I ate all three of our dinners. An English guy said, ‘Your trail name must be three dinners’ and I have kept it.”
Hometown: Narvik, Norway
Favorite Gear Item: Tentlab The Deuce #2 UltraLight Trowel
Trail Name: Roo
Name Etymology: “It’s short for kangaroo. I had a jacket that had a little pouch and I’d throw all my things in there and call them my little Joeys.”
Hometown: Eugene, Oregon
Favorite Item: Shoe Goo
“I think I can maybe double the life of my shoes by just coating little holes as they pop up with Shoe Goo,” Roo said. “Then they don’t spread. My last pair of shoes, I was a little late on the Shoe Goo-train, and still got a thousand miles. I have a feeling that I could potentially ride these [Roo’s second, and current, pair] out to the end and get 1,600 miles out of them.”
Trail Name: WALL-E
Name Etymology: “It is like the little robot. I pack my trash into really tiny Ziploc bags—the snack size. I can fit three full days of trash into one of those. I squeeze it all super tight and like to pack it nice and clean like that robot does.”
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Favorite Item: Toaks Titanium 750ml Pot
“Food is so important to me. Every evening for dinner or for breakfast in the morning, I like having the freedom to make whatever I want,” WALL-E said. “I like having a pot that is big enough to fit ramen, mashed potatoes, tuna, bouillon cube, Knorrs, beef bone broth, or mixing things together. You also need a good lid to boil it. It is super light and it makes me very happy on trail. My experience would be super different without it.”
