Gear I LOVED on the AT 2025

This time last year, I was planning for my 2025 Appalachian Trail thru hike. After completing a thru hike of the Colorado Trail in 2023 with some thrifted random gear, I was obsessed with picking my gear for the AT. Overall, I was pretty happy with all of the gear I brought along. I made a gear list of everything I was bringing back in March, and in this article, I reflect on everything I brought as candidly as possible for next year’s perspective hikers. Please note that no one can publish a perfect gear list because everyone is so different. Some essentials to one person are irrelevant to someone else. And something I noticed is that pretty much everyone on the AT had a completely different setup. There is no right answer! You just have to make some decisions, don’t get married to them, and then get out there and tweak it!

From a weight standpoint – I dialed my gear from an 18-pound base weight to right around 10-12 pounds. I’m not UL af, but weight does matter to me. I’ve learned a lot from my time in the woods, but so much I’ve learned from triple crowners and thru hikers who have been doing this for years. There are so many great articles on the Trek so my advice is, read a couple. Take what resonates with you. And here you go, a brutally honest, probably way too specific recap on everything I brought, everything I sent home, and everything I added on my NOBO AT hike this year.

Continue reading to learn about gear for the Appalacian Trail, written by Lauren “Mothra” Mullen.