Here’s my gear list of the camping and camera gear I bring when I’m backpacking the Ice Age Trail. I’ve been more of a canoe and kayak paddler most of my life, but after completing the entire Ice Age Trail I have learned a few things I can share.
YouTube
First, I’ll give credit to the experts that I learned a lot from on YouTube. You will as well. There are a billion backpacking channels and most of them are pretty painful to watch. I’ll save you the trouble of sorting them out. These three I felt are the most useful I’ve come across.
“Dixie” is my favorite. She’s informative and to the point and not a huge ego like you normally get with the typical thru-hiker macho types.
Darwin on the Trail is very experienced, informative, and to the point too.
Dan Becker is a fellow Wisconsinite. He’s more into the weekend-type trips and gives more practical advice for regular people doing section hiking and not spending big money on gear to do ultralight epic thru-hikes.
Backpacking Gear
I use a lot of ultralight gear, but I’m not as light as a lot of thru-hikers. My base weight is 17 pounds on a good day. Then add three pounds of camera gear and it gets me up around 20 pounds.
I try and resupply as often as I can to keep down the food weight. On most of the trail, it’s easy to resupply every few days.
Another common mistake I made starting out was carrying too much water. On most of the Ice Age Trail, there are frequent places to filter water.
Here is a list of the camping items I bring. I’ll only link to the more specialized things.
- Trail running shoes: (I use Hokas) The biggest misconception everyone has at first, including me, was you need hiking BOOTS to hike long distances. Boots will kill your feet over long distances and you totally don’t need them. The Ice Age Trail is a well-maintained trail with a lot of road segments. Maybe 1% of the trail boots might be nice, but it’s not worth the beating your feet will take in boots on the other 99% of the trail.
- Tent: Tarptent Notch: While I’m not in love with this tent because it’s a bit claustrophobic. It did a great job of keeping the rain off me and is lightweight. (1 pound 10oz) I don’t choose this tent when I’m not long-distance backpacking. If I did another long-distance hike I’d consider splurging and going with the even lighter Dyneema version.
- Zpacks Arc Haul backpack: Can’t say enough good things about this pack. One of the few pieces of ultralight equipment that there are no trade-offs at all. It’s a great pack and every bit as comfortable as a much heavier Osprey pack. If you invest in one piece of ultralight gear, get a good Dyneema fabric pack. You can reduce 3-4 pounds right away from your current pack weight. An expensive Dyneema tent is only going to save you a pound or so and cost you $600 for that one pound in savings. A Dyneema pack costs half that and is a much bigger weight reduction.
- Sleeping pad: Thermarest Z Lite. Closed-cell foam mats are not the most comfortable mats out there, but dependability is more important in my book. It will NOT go flat on you! When an air mattress goes flat it’s not just a comfort issue, It’s an insulation issue on the cold ground. A foam pad is also useful for just tossing it on the ground for a lunch break with no worries of poking a hole in it.
- Sleeping bags and Quilts: I have three different sleeping bags depending on the weather, but my favorite is the Enlightened Equipment Quilt when it’s warm enough out.
- Rain jacket
- Rain Kilt instead of rain pants: This looks ridiculous, but works great. It weighs only a few ounces and is so easy to take on and off. You don’t have to take off your shoes to put it on as you do with rain pants. If it is raining all day, even with rain pants, your feet and legs will get soaked anyway.
- A Seat Pad: At first glance, this also looks ridiculous, but It is super nice when sitting on wet ground. I use it any time I sit down. It has many other uses including a shower mat for when you are in nasty state park showers. It will also prevent the seat of your pants from getting filthy!
- Hammock: I know ultralight die-hards would scoff at this because it’s 10 oz you certainly don’t need. But sitting on the ground is a great way to get covered in ticks. So I consider the hammock to be tick prevention. I’m also 54 and I’m all about taking long enough breaks to refresh yourself during the day. I leave the hammock at home in cold weather because when it’s too cold you can’t really rest for long periods of time anyway.
- Headlamp: This is one item I go with one of the most affordable options. the $30 Petzl headlamps are everything you need and nothing you don’t.
- Spot Messenger: A satellite emergency transmitter for when you don’t have a cell signal. I have this mostly for remote backcountry canoe trips in the Everglades and Canada when the nearest cell signal is 30 miles away. I did carry it when I’m in remote areas of the Ice Age Trail because I have had some heart issues. A younger healthier person probably doesn’t need something like this at all. I didn’t carry it on the eastern side of the trail where there is a good cell signal most of the time.
- Bug head net: Wearing a net sucks, but beats the heck out of keeping bug spray on your face for days at a time.
- Picaridin bug spray Trust me, I’m a bug expert. I worked in the Everglades for 6 years and grew up in Northern Minnesota. Picaridin works as well as deet and won’t ruin your gear. Don’t get deet anywhere near your $300 ultralight sleeping quilt or ultralight down jacket. It will completely destroy it! I’ve tried a lot of the other “non-deet” options out there and they are all pretty worthless against fierce Wisconsin mosquitoes.
- CNOC water bag for filtering water. It makes scooping up water so easy. You can squeeze it to filter or hang it up and use it as a gravity feed. I often filled it up and carried the dirty water to gravity-filter the water once I get to camp.
- Sawyer Squeeze water filter. Works great and lasts forever if you back-flush once in a while. I’ve even used a Sawyer Squeeze canoeing the Wisconsin River for 5 days. I was amazed the silty water of the river didn’t plug it up. I never even had to back-flush it.
- Backup water purification tabs if your filter fails. (which the Sawyer Squeeze never did)
- For water bottles, I used regular 1-liter bottles that bottled water comes in from the store. Nalgene bottles weigh almost 6 ounces, and a plastic water bottle is less than an ounce. It’s a cheap and easy way to shed 5 oz from your pack weight, or 10 oz if you carry two bottles. They can be re-used for many weeks, and once it gets ragged looking, just buy another bottle in a gas station to replace it.
- Trowel for digging cat holes
- Paper maps: Ice Age Trail Atlas works great. A loose-bound set of printed maps so you can only bring the pages you need. As an added bonus, a photograph I took is on the cover! The atlas is also available at REI in Madison.
- FarOut App for satellite navigation on your phone. It works on GPS, even when you don’t have a signal. (available for Android and iPhone)
- Download Google Maps on your phone for the area you are going to be in so you can use Google maps offline. This can be a backup system to the FarOut app. But I wouldn’t rely on it for all your navigating.
- Sunscreen
- Lip balm with sunblock. Your lips can get sunburned too.
- External battery for recharging phone plus a charging cable
- Bear Vault for prepositioning food ahead of you on the trail when you don’t have post offices. This is a bit risky, it might not be there when you arrive. I know this method is not recommended, but it worked fine for me. I tucked it away somewhere out of sight when I stashed it and it was always there when I arrived days later. A downside is you have to preposition them and then go back and pick them up once you are done with the hike adding more driving.
- Bear bag for hanging food to keep away from the critters. It’s not just for bears, raccoons and mice will eat your food too!
- Trekking poles: also double as my tent poles on the TarpTent Notch tent.
- Small first aid kit
- Earplugs for sleeping in loud State Park campgrounds.
- Titanium cook pot for boiling water
- Small cook stove: MSR PocketRocket is awesome
- Long handle spoon: very good to have a long spoon for eating out of baggies or for store-bought freeze-dried food. A long spoon keeps your hands clean. You also don’t need to bring a fork or knife if you are just cooking simple rehydrated meals.
- Down puffy coat: I have the Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer. LOVE it! Worth every penny.
- Long sleeve shirt and long pants: I don’t care how hot it is, I prefer to wear long sleeves and pants rather than slathering my limbs with multiple coats of bug spray and sunscreen day after day. It’s also much better for tick and poison ivy protection. Even in Florida heat, I wear long pants and sleeves when in the wilderness.
- A good sun hat: Tilley Hats might seem expensive, but after living in Florida and Louisiana for 12 years, I know my sun hats. Tilleys are the best and have a lifetime guarantee.
- Long johns for sleeping in (I bring them even in summer)
- Extra dry T-shirt for sleeping in
- Extra dry socks for sleeping in
- Dry bag to keep your sleeping clothes and quilt dry. As long as you have something dry to change into in the tent after a long day in the rain you will sleep warm. NEVER get your sleeping system wet!
- A stocking cap to sleep in. Even in summer, Wisconsin nights can get cool.
- Inflatable pillow: The Sea To Summit is the best out there.
- Extra socks to change out when your feet get wet
- Bandanas: There is no such thing as too many bandanas. They have a million uses, I have one hanging on my pack at all times and keep extras inside. I use them for my towel, potholder, dish towel, and sun protection, just to name just a few. And yes, you don’t have to bring a towel. A bandana gets the job done if you wring it out a few times.
- Don’t bring extra clothing. One shirt, one pair of pants, is enough. Maybe a pair of shorts to change into when you are in town? If you are out long enough to have to do laundry on a zero-day, wear your rain gear while doing laundry.
- I bring a small package of “wet ones” to at least freshen up once a day. It’s sort of like a mini sponge bath. It’s surprising how much that helps keep you from smelling like a thru-hiker. Being I was photographing people a lot on my hike I wanted to try not to smell too offensive.
- I always have a change of clothes waiting in my car to change into when you are done. At least you will be somewhat presentable if you stop to eat on the way home.
Camera Gear
I wanted to go as light as possible with camera gear. I carry one mirrorless body and two lenses, two batteries, a charger, and lots of cards. The lenses and body are weather sealed. A huge plus when backpacking. Not only for rain but dew and sweat as well. I have no way of downloading images on the trail so I just carry enough cards to keep all the images without deleting anything. A 64 gig card seems to be good for a whole week of RAW images.
I could even go lighter, they make lighter cameras, but this is a camera I had. I could also ditch the long lens. I use it for maybe 5% of the photos I take. Maybe a fuji 23mm f2 (35mm equivalent) would be all I need?
Of course, for most people, a cell phone is the best camera to bring. It’s light, you have it with it anyway, and for most things, it works just fine. I’m a professional photographer and I’m planning on publishing the photos I take on the trail.
- Fuji Xpro-2
- Fuji 16mm f2.8 WR (24mm equivalent)
- Fuji 50mm f2 WR (75mm equivalent)
- Two extra batteries
- Plenty of cards
- The above charger works great for backpacking. It’s super light and I can charge my camera batteries from an external battery I carry for charging my phone.
- Small USB 110 outlet charger
