Wonderland Trail Pack List
I’m looking forward to testing some brand new gear on this trip, and continuing to use some newer gear as well. There’s no better place to try out new gear than actually on trail! For a late July Wonderland hike, I have hopes of good weather, but Mt. Rainier is notorious for being moody, so we’ll see how it goes. I won’t mind if it rains a little - that just means I’ll get to test my new rain wrap! So here’s a more detailed list of gear I’m bringing and my thoughts behind it. If you just want the quick and dirty, click on the LighterPack link below.
LighterPack link to gear list.
Note: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase with this link, I will earn a small commission, so thank you! I stand behind all of the gear I use, and don’t give gear recommendations lightly.
Pack
With hip belt, Airflow Sit Light Pad, lined w/ nylofume
I’m excited to try this out! Gossamer Gear provided me the pack and sit pad for this journey, and since I’m trying to go pretty light on this hike, I thought the Kumo would be great! It’ll be my first longer hike with a frameless pack, and I’ll be starting off with ~15 lbs after food and water. It will be a good experiment!
Sleep System
Sea to Summit Aeros UL regular pillow
Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Uberlite
This is the item I’m most anxious about testing. I’ve heard of many failures of this new, incredibly light pad, but I have ~5 nights on it so far with no issues. We’ll see how it does on this hike!
Tent
Big Agnes Tiger Wall 3 Platinum
This is a new addition to my kit, bought specifically for when I’ll be sharing a tent with another person, which I will be doing on this hike. I have a few car camping nights in it so far, but not backpacking. It’s so light for a three person tent, and I think it will do great on the trail.
Cook Set
Talenti Jar
GSI plastic spoon
Zpacks Food Bag
Mt. Rainier has bear poles at every campsite, so no need to carry a bear canister or a hanging kit on this hike!
Water
Sawyer Micro Squeeze
I’m trying out Sawyer’s newest filter for this hike instead of the classic Squeeze. I’m interested in the flow rate specifically. I think this could be a great filter for hikes in places where I know the water quality is clear and not murky.
Sawyer 32 oz filter bag
The newer, lighter version. We’ll see how durable it is!
Smartwater 1 L bottle w/ sport cap
Clothing Worn
Top: Mountain Hardware Crater Lake Hoody
This is the piece of clothing I’m probably the most excited about. I’ve been searching for a while to find a good, breathable hiking top with a hood. The Patagonia ones just either haven’t fit right or are too muggy. This one has been great on day hikes so far!
Bottoms: Patagonia Strider Shorts
Bra: Patagonia Active Mesh (old version)
Underwear: Icebreaker Siren Bikini (merino wool)
Socks: Injinji Trail
Shoes: Altra Lone Peak 4.0
Sunglasses: Ray Ban, non-polarized
Hat: Kavu Strapcap
Clothing Packed
Insulating Layer: Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer Hoody
Rain Shell: Outdoor Research Helium II
Wind Pants: Enlightened Equipment Copperfield
Excited for these. I wore them on my Yosemite trip and they were great. Definitely want to put some more miles on them though to see if they’re more or less durable than the Montbell ones I shredded on the PCT.
Rain Shell Bottoms: Enlightened Equipment Rain Wrap
Looking forward to trying a kilt out if it rains! Its great because I can either wear it just over my shorts for ventilation, or if it is a little chilly, over the wind pants!
Baselayers: Patagonia Lightweight Capilene Long Sleeve Top & Bottoms
Extra Socks: Injinji Trail
“Extras”: Montbell UL Rain Mitts, Montbell Zeo-Line LW Balaclava
Bathroom/ Hygiene
Deuce of Spades Trowel & TP
I’ve heard that I won’t need the trowel since there are pit toilets at all of the campsites, but I don’t like to risk the emergency situation.
A beautiful, UL pee cloth! Highly recommend for all of my fellow backpacking ladies. Excited to use it on an extended trip.
Hand Sanitizer
Sun Bum Lip balm SPF 30
Sun Bum small stick sunscreen SPF 30
Body Glide pink, small
Toothbrush + travel toothpaste
Eyedrops
Vagisil for chafe healing
Body Wipes (dried)
Safety/ Repair
Garmin inReach Mini
New toy. Will be interesting to see how battery life compares to the full sized inReach.
Knife: smallest Swiss Army
First Aid Kit:
Leukotape (on poles), ibuprofen, benadryl, immodium, alcohol swab, square of gauze, 1 band aid, neosporin, personal rx meds, lighter, needle, safety pin
Repair Kit:
Therm-a-rest patch, gear tape, duct tape (on poles)
Maps: Digital, Guthooks on phone
Trail is well-marked
Electronics
Power Bank: Anker 10000 PD
My first time using this small of a battery pack! I’m hoping I’ll be less reliant on my phone for entertainment and navigation, so using less battery! I also never ran out of charge on the 20,000 version on the PCT, so wanted something lighter and smaller.
Headlamp: Nitecore NU25
Been so impressed with this headlamp so far.
Phone: iPhone XS
Cords: micro USB, iPhone cable
Zpacks small dry bag
Camera: Sony a6000 w/ 24-105 f/4 lens
So excited to take high quality photos on this trip. This new lens was an investment and I can’t wait to see the crisp pics!
Peak Design v3 Capture Clip
Smaller profile than the v2. So far it has been a vast improvement.
Other:
Wallet
Bug net for face
Trekking Poles: Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork
All of this puts my base weight right around 9 lbs (sharing the tent and not including camera gear). My camera gear adds about 2.5 more lbs! One of the reasons that I have ultralight gear though is so I can bring a big camera and take beautiful pictures to look back on. So I say it’s worth it!
post-hike Commentary:
What worked well, and what didn’t?
Gossamer Gear Camo Kumo 36: I plan on doing a more in-depth review, but this packed worked well for me on this hike! I had some struggles at the beginning reaching my water bottles in the side pockets, but I think I was just less flexible than usual. My neck/ shoulders were sore the first 3ish days, but I think that kind of goes with the territory of trying a new pack! My back sweat was present, even with the Airflow SitLight pad, but not as bad as with the pad it comes with.
Therm-a-rest Uberlite: worked very well! Is more slippery than the Xlite, and super loud on silnylon (but not DCF) while rolling around. Kept me warm every night, and the lows probably dipped to low 40s overnight. No failures of leaking or holes.
Sawyer Micro Squeeze: worked well, but used clear, flowing water sources only. Gasket fell off after only a couple of days. Filter ended up clogging on a short trip after this one where I used lake water as a source.
NEW Sawyer filtering bags: FAILED. a tear in the bag formed, even though I treated gently. Besides this failure, I was content with my 1 L smart water capacity. I ended up just keeping my bottle dirty and threading the filter onto my bottle, since the duct tape was not holding the tear well.
Rain Kilt: Did not use, did not rain hard enough
Rain mitts: Did not use, did not rain hard enough - AND I’m glad I didn’t bring fleece gloves
Balaclava: Did not use, was not cold enough
I forgot my second pair of hiking socks! This ended up being ok, even though my socks were nasty. They held up, my feet never got soaked because water crossings weren’t a thing (all bridged or rock-hoppable).
Trowel: did not use, was able to use pit toilet for all of my poop needs. Only had 1 close call.
Anker 10,000: not enough power for 7 days of hiking for me. I was able to charge my sony a6000 by 10% once, and my iPhone XS ~40-50% 5 times.
Garmin inReach mini: worse battery life than the inReach Explorer+. I ended up keeping it off all day, and only turned it on to send my nightly “OK” messages (6 nights). The battery was depleted by 20% with this type of activity. My mom told me later that none of my messages sent with GPS coordinates, even though I’ve set it up to do so. Not sure why. ***UPDATE*** Found out why GPS coordinates were not being included in my messages. When the GPS signal was poor (which was every night), I selected to “Send [the message] Anyway”, instead of “Wait for GPS signal”. This pushed my message through, but did not include my coordinates to my message recipients.
Bug net: Did not use, as bugs were never swarming. Wish I brought bug spray for my legs, though.