@George: Nice
@C40: this link after substitutions looks to be the closest thing I found with a quick google search:
http://backwoods.blog.com/gear-reviews/ ... repellent/
@jacob: Cool word: ergodicity. Your race example is spot on.
To answer your question: roughly the same. I quickly cut the stove, fuel, pot, camp shoes, bottom of convertible pants, gloves and injini toe socks but added an mp3 player, kindle case, watch, gaiters, extra darn tough socks and heavier sleeping bag. Soon I'll cut a bunch of cold weather stuff such as thermal underwear and long sleeve hoodie.
@ffj: haven't seen that guy, but I did hear about it on the trail.
@theanimal:
- tent: Tarptent Notch: 7/10. Great tent all around, but if I did it over again I'd probably 1) trade away some vestibule space for more room immediately above my head and 2) pay up for a zpacks tent or possibly a hammock.
- backpack: Zpacks Arc Blast 52L (Orange): 10/10. This is the best backpack. It gets uncomfortable above 25 lbs though.
- quilt: MLD Spirit 28: 2/10. This is the only major gear I hated so much that I swapped out on the trail. As a restless and picky sleeper, I found the quilt to be super annoying. It's so much nicer to simply zip or unzip a sleeping bag to adjust temperature rather than to fiddle with clasps and buckles or sticking body parts out. I would have liked the EE Quilt that you recommended slightly more (everyone on the trail with a quilt has EE).
- sleeping bag: Brooks Range Drift 15: 5/10. This bag is perfect size/shape for me and is so much more comfortable than the quilt. The main thing I don't like about it is the hydrophobic down, which I believe to be causing the down to clump and lose loft much faster than normal. Basically I paid a price premium for a feature -- hydrophobic down -- the hurts more than it helps. If I could do it over again I'd probably get the Zpacks 20 degree bag or the Brooks Range Alpini 15.
- sleeping pad: NeoAir XLite: 9/10. This is hands down the best option in a tent. In a shelter it's too noisy. I sleep 90% tent and 10% shelter, so I'd pick this again.
- water treatment: Sawyer Mini: 9/10. This thing rocks. Arguably the full size one is better because the faster flow rate matters more than the extra 1oz. However, I'm engineering a gravity system for my mini (using just stuff I already have in my pack) that will make it superior once I work out the rest of the kinks.
- trekking poles: Black Diamond Trail Ergo Cork: 8/10. These are solid and I'd choose them again. However, I thought cork was supposed to mold to my hands and it isn't. Also Black Diamond tells thru-hikers with gear problems to go fuck themselves, whereas Leki fixes gear for free, so I wish Leki made this product.
- flip phone on Verizon: 9/10. I get way better service than other people with this combo. I'm just missing weather on the phone. Also other thru-hikers transform into cell phone zombies as soon as they get wifi, whereas I do not.
- Kindle Paperwhite: 10/10. The perfect luxury for the trail. Lighter than a single guide book and the battery lasts effectively forever. The Kindle Voyage is too brittle and the cheaper Kindle lacks the backlight. I've read 11 books so far.