Favorite Hiking Gear

I've been hiking a lot in the last couple of months, and with that, a lot of changes to the gear that I use to hike. It's always going to be changing, but I'd love to share my current kit right now. I've been using a Hyperlite 2400 Southwest. It's about 40 liters. It's made by a company in Maine. Lots of little pouches, and my Peak Design clip can hold my camera right on the strap. The base weight is about 2 pounds, which is crazy light, but I can put everything I need in there, and then the roll top allows me to smush it down in case I don't have a full pack. Ever since my Peru hike, I've been using the REI Passage 1 tent. It fits into the bottom of my pack once it's smushed down a bit, uses tent poles, and has a rain cover, so it keeps me protected and dry at night, but it's not the lightest or the smallest, so we'll see if I use something else in the future. My sleeping bag is a Nemo Siren, which is a three-sided ultralight down sleeping bag that compresses very tightly, is very lightweight, but keeps me warm, and of course when I'm not hiking and just storing it in my apartment, I keep it large and fluffy to protect the down. I use a blow-up pillow and a blow-up mat for underneath my sleeping bag, and for inside, I try to keep things clean by using a washable liner. I really love this ultralight white reflective hat. I'm a fan of these tall, quick-drying hiking socks, and I usually pack two pairs so that I can wear one while the other is drying. I usually wear these REI hiking pants that can be zipped off and turned into shorts. They're very lightweight material, so they can dry quickly. I hated using sunscreen, so I got this sun hoodie. It's very lightweight and breathable, so even though I have a hoodie on at noon, I don't sweat too much and get too hot, but it protects my skin from the sun. The sun hoodie is usually my everyday base layer. If I need a little bit of warmth, I'll wear this long-sleeved sweater. And if I need a little bit more warmth or shelter from the rain, I have a Uniqlo waterproof raincoat, which is very lightweight, but does the job with a hood. And during my Peru hike, I got my laundry done, and someone put this colorful piece of wool on my jacket, and I've kind of kept it on there for good luck. For colder hikes, I have a hat, scarf, and gloves. Sometimes I'll sleep in this if it's too cold. I've been wearing these Columbia shoes to protect my feet from the water and add a little bit more comfort and protection, but I think boots slow me down too much, so I like the shoes. And whenever I get hiking shoes, I replace the insoles with extra comfort gels and replace them whenever I need to. I keep an accessory pack that I keep with any documents or cash that I need, an ATM card, TP that I'll refill at any place that has TP, medicine in case I get a headache, sunglasses and bright sunlight, long spoon, a USB rechargeable flashlight, headlamp, a lighter in case I need fire, a Muji travel toothbrush, AirPods for listening to music and podcasts, and 100% DEET to keep the bugs away. I haven't used these trekking poles on a hike yet, but I am pumped to do so to save my knees going up and down inclines and to help myself across any mud or water crossings. I think they'll be great. I have these two extra large heavy duty plastic bags, one for fresh food and the other one for garbage. They break down very light and small, so I'm going to try to have both on every hike. For water, I like a smart bottle because it's pretty durable and it screws right onto my Sawyer filter. For water, I can put any water in any stream into the bottle and then safely drink right out the nozzle. I also have a two liter platypus in case I'm hitting a stretch where I know there's no water. I don't always bring a cooking stove when I go hiking, but when I do want some extra comfort and hot food, I will bring this fat short jet boil. It's definitely extra and not always necessary, but super nice to have hot water and hot food. Coffee is the best. Everywhere I travel, I'm searching out interesting coffee, but to be honest, some of the best cups I've made for myself at home. It's the most important routine I have in the morning and quite frequently right around 2pm. It's as fun to make as it is to drink and I like testing the differences in brewing styles and coffee quality. I usually go through a few bags of whole bean coffee every month and I use Trade Coffee to get freshly roasted premium coffee delivered right to my apartment. Super easy. Trade Coffee is giving the first 100 people who click the link in the description below 30% off their first coffee. Just use code CRAIGADAMS at checkout. So take their coffee quiz and when you get your first bag, make sure to share and tag me on Instagram story because I would love to see how everyone is drinking their coffee. Thanks Trade. In icy and snowy conditions, I have these micro spikes that attach right to my hiking shoes. I'll usually bring my DJI Mavic 2 Pro with Hasselblad lens and two extra batteries on the hike. I'll bring my iPhone for maps and communication of course. I have a charging cable for everything which attaches to this external battery pack which will charge my camera overnight and I also bring two extra A7 Mark III batteries. About one battery lasts each day. The camera that I've been shooting on for a while now has been the Sony A7 III. I like it because it's the smallest full frame camera that gives me the image quality in 4K that I'm looking for. I pair it with a Sony 16-35mm f2.8 G Master lens. For audio, I've been recording with the Rode VideoMic Pro+. It's a shotgun microphone that has a black windscreen that usually handles the amount of wind that I face but to be honest, there's a lot of moments in the mountains that are just absolutely silent and no wind helps me record great sound and pick up those footstep sounds from far away. I've been using the Peak Design Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod, gives me the height I want at the lightest and smallest footprint possible and I sling it right over the strap next to my hip. I try to bring enough batteries for the trip and charge overnight with an external battery pack. I just plug my camera right into the pack and it charges. I'm not able to charge my drone batteries so I just have to bring enough which is usually three batteries and make every shot count. I like to prove that you don't need to fuss about picture profiles to record great footage. I always shoot factory default standard picture profile with my Sony cameras. I don't use LUTs or grade my films in any special way. I really like simplicity and want my footage to match real life as much as possible. I actually do have this lens thanks to B&H Photo and I'm thinking about trying it out sometime soon. It would be nice to have some extra telephoto in these films. And yes, I've teased it but I'm also thinking about shooting an entire hiking film with just the iPhone 11 Pro. Now that it has a wide angle lens, it might be cool. We'll see.