JEFF OLIVER aka IB TAT ~ THRU HIKING GEAR & TRAIL WISDOMS
“The hiker trash thing… it’s very satisfying getting to
a town and just sitting outside a gas station
eating a tub of ice cream and not think twice about it.”
GEAR
PACK
• Hyperlite Windrider 3400
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FOOD
• Nutella
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• Starbucks Medium Roast Instant Coffee
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SLEEP
• Therm-A-Rest NeoAir
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• Enlightened Equipment Revalation 20 degree
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MISC
• Spot
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• LumaFusion Editing App
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• “Jeremiah Johnson”
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• “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson
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WISDOMS
THRU HIKING
• It’s the experience. Getting in the woods is the main thing!
• A lot of people get wrapped up mileage and “Oh, I’m a thru hiker now so I need to do 30 miles a day or I’m not a thru hiker.” My shortest mile day on the PCT was 4 miles this year and I didn’t have a single amount of guilt. I found a killer camp spot and said “I’m done walking.”
• I remember hitting that 2000 mile mark this year. Yeah, 2000 is a hell of a milestone,
but the big picture I just spent that last 4 or 5 months living in my tent to reach this 2000 miles
and that’s the most important thing.
• The hiker trash thing… it’s very satisfying getting to a town and just sitting outside a gas station eating a tub of ice cream and not think twice about it.
• You just gotta listen to your body. You know what you’re capable of. You know what your bodies capable of and you do low mileage days if you have to. And take days off if you have to.
• You spend enough time out there on the trail, you’ll learn little tricks and stuff. Everybody’s got their own little tricks they use to get by and little cheats here and there.
• I always had the energy to hike, so that was how I gauged my food intake. As long as I have the energy to hike, then I’m good.
• There’s just something that I love about being in a tent. I feel like it’s my home. I feel comfortable in there. I like having all my stuff right next to me.
• To think of how many people have touched that sign (Kathdin) and felt the same exact emotion that I felt when I was up there. It’s just so powerful! Until you actually do it and experience that for yourself, you’ll never be able to explain to somebody what that feeling is like.
• All I think about is what the next trail will be now.
• Freedom! It’s being able to do what you want, when you want, how you want.
• You just work through the process. You’ll do that a million times on the trail with everything.
With water crossings, with hiking through heat, extreme weather conditions.
• Every obstacle you overcome is just making you a stronger individual, a stronger hiker and
a stronger person in general.
• I just wanted to carry my gear from the southern terminus to the northern terminus. There’s just something romantic and special about that whole heading North thing that I absolutely love.
• There are places in the United States right now that people have not seen. You need to go see these places! They’re beautiful! They’re unbelievable and they will change you!
• Mother Nature healed me in more ways than one.
• I know how powerful that moment was when I first went into Glacier National Park with a
backpack and I felt whole again. I felt like a human being again. Like I could live and I was
on Earth for a purpose again.
• Where I get my jollies is from climbing mountain peaks these days and being in Mother Nature and taking walks in the woods. That’s what keeps my sober and that’s my drug.
• I always say that the woods are my church now.