Gear List for Overland Track Nov 2020

[Mordecai]

Hey guys! I'm getting closer and closer to November which means embarking on the Overland track. After being stuck in Tassie for the year I'm itching to get out and about. Will be hiking the track with my partner and he'll thankfully be carrying the tent and a few other bits and bobs.

I'd like a bit of advice on my gear list to see if anyone has any suggestions on my clothing choices (mostly do I need another jacket) and also for any general tips on leaving anything behind that I won't need. Although I haven't done enough research on it yet, I'm interested to hear your recommendations for how much fuel to take? I was hoping that sharing one 230g canister would do for both of us for the week but would hate to run out especially if it's snowy.

Also keen to hear what everyone uses as a pack liner. I'd rather not buy a bunch of dry bags, and instead use as the Americans call it - a "trash compactor" bag. But I'm not sure if we have them in Aus.

I feel like I've got a reasonable amount of food, water and first aid. Pretty happy with our cooking gear, toiletries and repair kit too. Very excited to receive my new Tier Gear quilt. Had considered ordering an UnderclingMike quilt, but took the chance to support a local Tassie business.

Anything in the list marked with a yellow star hasn't been purchased yet. Thanks for any tips or pointers guys!

https://lighterpack.com/r/0bvkx2

[ChrisJHC]

Looks pretty good.

Perhaps add a little variety into your breakfasts - 7 days straight of the same thing and you’ll be desperate for a change!

It’s not clear how much water you’ll be carrying - make sure you’ve got enough without carrying too much excess weight.

I would reconsider taking the Kindle. If you end up having extra time sitting around it can be very useful.

Recommend you don’t let your boyfriend see that you value him at $0!

[Moondog55]

Don't leave yourself short of fuel to save 300grams

[Mark F]

One 230g canister is cutting it a bit fine for 2 if you do not have your cooking/hot drinks usage well dialed in and know your stove well. It is most probably adequate for 1 person but I would add in another canister (100g or 230g) or move up to a single 450g canister.

Water wise you normally wouldn't carry more than 1 litre but it is useful to have an extra 1 or 2 litre collapsible container so you don't have to keep going to get water. I find 3 litres of capacity for 1 or 4 litres for 2 seems adequate for camp.

I would have a look at these items that you haven't yet purchased:
- Teva sandals - consider thongs cheaper and lighter.
- Cook set could possibly be lighter but that depends on what you cook.

[Al M]

Looks generally good. If you have already bought them dont worry but could save 1kg weight each on the tent at 2.3kg by other 1.2-1.5kg tents like Big Agnes Copper Spur 2 and your 2kg backpack substituting with 1-1.2kg packs like Osprey Exos 58L etc.

For bag liners either simple large but thicker garbage bags or personally I prefer 2-3 separate smaller thicker plastic bags, say one for sleep system, another for clothes and other for electronics in another part of bag. Myer and similar clothes shop bags are quite good.

Would also take the sleeping bag liner like a lightweight silk 100g to keep the quilt down clean from body oils and added warmth.

Would leave out the olive oil. Angle hair pasta cooks quickly and throw in sauce and dry ingredients at the end to conserve fuel let sit.

Also, add to first aid kit some more serious diarrhoea medicine like for Giardia and others (tindazole based ingredient and others) as broad spectrum treatment, although five days hiking won’t have to hold on for long unless getting hit with a bug on day 1. Otherwise could rely on charity of other hikers if desperate.

[Mordecai]

Thanks for all the replies guys! My boyfriend had a good laugh when he saw the section labelled "Boyfriend Carrying". He was happy to see I'd allocated him all the heavy things.

With the breakfast thing - I've actually got a little menu plan going and have picked out one or two days where the walking is easy so we're going to try a cooked breakfast with dehydrated eggs, tomato, garlic powder fried in olive oil and put into wraps. We can also have cooked lunches those days if the weather permits. I've been dehydrating a whole bunch of different things and trying them out so definitely no worries on getting bored with the food I'm going to make! All the dehydrated meals i'm making don't have any fat/oil in them, so that why i'm taking the olive oil for added calories and flavour. I've been looking at buying a 1.2L titanium pot and using my cold soak jar as a cup/bowl.

I'll be carrying around 1.5L of water with capacity for 3L. I'll gauge how dry the environment looks at the time and carry 2L if I don't think there will be any streams or if it's a hard day.

In terms of fuel - I definitely think you guys are right. Our cookset's can fit a 230g canister inside each of them (for packability) so I reckon we'll just take one each to be sure.

I guess its hard to balance comfort, safety and weight but as I upgrade gear over time and learn things I don't need my pack will get lighter. I've spent quite a bit of dosh on gear since moving down to Tassie and need to cool it a bit But I'm keen to buy a lighter pack and maybe a summer sleeping pad once my budget permits.

Al M - good call on the bag liner and the antibiotics. I wouldn't want my brand new Tier Gier quilt to get all nasty and I hadn't even thought about antibiotics. Could even pack some probiotics for less serious stomach upsets.

I saw some 'garden bag' plastic garbage bags at Woolies the other day. I might buy a pack today and take it out on my weekend trip and see how it holds up. I like the idea of having separate bags for sleep system etc. though. How do you tie up a plastic woolies/coles bag though? Do you just twist it at the top and chuck a rubber band on it?

[Moondog55]

Big hair ties double or tripled used to work for me. I now have some proper pack liners tho, heavy and bomproof [ but unfortunately not rodent proof] and in Silnylon at a third the mass. Sleeping bag gets its own dry bag as do my down clothing. Tent and raincoat go in the bag but outside the dry bags

[headwerkn]

Looks like a sound, safe list.

I've always preferred a few decent dry bags to help protect and organise my gear versus one great big pack liner - just seems a little more efficient both in terms of space use and organisation.

For November on the OLT you're unlikely to need carry more than 750mL-1L on you at a time, but as others have said, it's definitely worth having another big bottle or bladder etc to save making lots of trips to taps etc. at the end of the day for cooking.

You'll definitely want more fuel - take one canister each. Ideally each person should have their own cook system just in case you get separated/lost, though that's probably less of an issue on the OLT. Still good to have a back up in case of equipment failure though. A BRS3000T-type burner and 500mL pot can be had off eBay for not much, a smaller JetBoil canister fits inside perfectly so the whole kit is nicely contained and doesn't take up much space.

Don't skimp on variety when it comes to museli bars etc. After 4-5 days you'll definitely be sick of eating the same sort of bars and be merrily swapping with others at Bert Nichols hut Talking from experience here.

In a similar vein, don't skip on toilet paper. The excess will give you more bargaining power on the last couple of nights with those people who didn't take enough. Again, talking from experience.

It's worth having something a bit more secure/animal resistant to keep rubbish in. They're a little pricey but the Sea to Summit rubbish dry bags are great on longer trips where you tend to generate more waste. Easy to clip them on the outside of your pack during the day and keep them inside the huts at night with your main food bag so critters aren't tempted to chew through your tent.

I'd definitely take more than one pair of gloves. Wet gloves aren't fun, and if it's properly cold/snowing, they're dangerous. Ninja Ice Fleeces etc. are good cheap backups. A light pair of Ninja gloves are great for rock scrambling or protection through scrub if you do some of the side trips, save tearing up your good, expensive gloves.

Would also suggest - if some of this gear is new or untried - is to do a short overnight 'shakedown' trip to make sure everything works as expected. Far better to figure out you need something else then than on night 2 of a 5-night trip

Cheers, Ben.

[Mordecai]

Hahah I never thought about bringing a few lil extra snacks to bargain with people on the last few days! What a brilliant idea haha. We're going to take a fresh role of who gives a crap TP which I reckon will be heaps for us and maybe some golden tickets for a few other people

I reckon I'll just get three dry bags and use one for putting my food and rubbish (in ziplocks) in at night, and to put my quilt in by day. Two more for clothes and the rest of my gear can stay in zip locks or coles bags with hair ties. I usually hang my food and rubbish up on the rafters in the huts because animals snuffling around at night always keeps me awake.

Good call on the gloves - was looking at some fleece liners at Paddy Pallin yesterday and reckon I'll get another lightweight pair. They'll be nice for sleeping in too as they won't be as bulky as my big Macpac Piste's

Heading out on an overnighter tomorrow night to test out some of my gear. Going to head into town and buy a Goondie 2 this afternoon so I'll be itching to get out there!

[Son of a Beach]

If you see a group on the track with six kids, stop us and say hi.

[headwerkn]

Hahah I never thought about bringing a few lil extra snacks to bargain with people on the last few days! What a brilliant idea haha. We're going to take a fresh role of who gives a crap TP which I reckon will be heaps for us and maybe some golden tickets for a few other people

I always remember the high-level wheeling and dealing that was going on in our last night when we did the full OLT last time. We were good for TP and spare food, but so over the same Carmen's bars and had underestimated just how much coffee/powdered milk we'd go through. Assuming you do the OLT at the 'usual' 5-6 day pace there's a lot of time spent mulling around camp drinking coffee, so were rationing it heavily to make it last.

A group of younger hikers came in who'd badly underestimated food and TP, but had plenty of coffee. We became fast friends

[Lamont]

G'day just wondering are you preparing for the mean minimum temp or further? Just asking as you mention snowy weather and it seems you have only the (100wt) fleece and maybe the Patagonia Nano Air (which is an active warmth piece isn't it?) top and your rain jacket for warmth at the end of the day? But of course if this combo works for you why not?
I'm seeing 'mean min temp' of about three degrees from a quick search-but that's not including windchill and not mentioning the apparent temp. I would have thought the weather at that time of the year was a bit tempestuous as it is in Southern Victoria and variable with temps downwards especially when exposed to the wind?
Cheers

Last edited by Lamont on Sat 12 Sep, 2020 6:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Al M]

Many things don’t need to be in dry bags so can keep it simple. Any thickish plastic reused bag is fine and either use twist ties, don’t bother just fold it over with next item on top or tie a knot as there’s no torrent of water inside the pack when raining, mostly just gets damp on the inside fabric or not at all if using a pack cover, though it can run down your back sometimes where the cover isn’t.

Everyone’s different with food tastes, but things can get really boring unless one mixes it up so some simple cheap product made stew or Indian curry and lentil packs from Coles/Woolies or Asian shops that can be boiled within packs to heat and the hot water is then good for soups and tea/coffee conserving gas, noodle packs are good instant meals that are not too heavy in the stomach for hiking with body salt replacement, small can of Pringle’s or crisps etc. Also, breakfast/lunch the first 1-2 days can be pre made wrap or sandwich with fillings that don’t go off too much initially so you can hit the ground running on day one and two without any prep. Also throw in some apples or dried fruit etc to add fibre to keep things going down there.

With the olive oil cooking it could potentially mess things up and soil the inside of the pack and gear so at least take some tiny amount of enviro safe detergent or dual use product to wash up. All this starts to complicate, add weight and needs consideration as it’s rare for hikers to take such things.

[Ms_Mudd]

For pack liners, I had been using yellow ' contaminated waste' bags, very robust and were a bit lighter than the dead dog bags I had been using for a few years that I got from the vets. I recently bought a silnylon roll top pack liner and even in the large size, it is actually lighter than the diy bags I had been using.

I also have a dry bag inside that which my sleeping bag and sleeping clothes go into- extra insurance and that dry bag inflates my sleeping mat too

[Moondog55]

Never having walked the OLT I can't add much, but I do suggest trying all of the clothing on together; just to make sure everything layers together without binding.
If it gets really cold you will need to wear all of your layers and the raincoat will need to be large enough to fit over the top to keep the wind off.
Of course you can simply retreat to bed but not everybody wants to do that.

[Lamont]

Never having walked the OLT I can't add much, but I do suggest trying all of the clothing on together; just to make sure everything layers together without binding.
If it gets really cold you will need to wear all of your layers and the raincoat will need to be large enough to fit over the top to keep the wind off.
Of course you can simply retreat to bed but not everybody wants to do that.

In concurrence especially due to the last bit.

[stry]

Looks like I am the lone supporter of olive oil

As a solo walker, I take the lazy way with evening meals and use commercial freeze dried. I find that 15/20mils of olive oil plus a good pinch of good salt and ground pepper improves the flavour of these.

Also as you point out, olive oil has a very high calorific value.

Unfortunately, as stated, the downside is potential leakage. I use a Nalgene, double bag that, and usually pack it in my pot. So far so good, but if the stuff found it's way into other pack contents, a very small amount would make a hell of a mess, and would be extremely difficult (impossible?) to significantly clean off in the bush.

Your meal variety looks very tasty BTW.

[Moondog55]

I carry lots of olive oil. I simply wrap it in a couple of paper towels inside a plastic bag, just in case I get a small leak.
Because I use a lot of vanilla essence I always have suitable small bottles, 50 or 100ml, I use the clear ones for metho and the brown ones for oil. I also carry butter and treat that the same way.