#thank you so much @rainhat

[hunting-songs]

[ RELAX ]: After a particularly stressful day, the sender prepares some tea so that they can finally begin to relax and unwind in the evening.

The noise of Kurapika opening his bag and pulling out a thermos-bottle to fill the cap formed like a cup with tea was so loud against the rain and the little wind playing with the highest tips of the forests tree, it almost sounded like a scream. It made Senritsu startled flinch. She turned to the other with big, surprised eyes looking up from beneath her rainhat and there was a second hasting by before the womans round face warmed up into a quiet, melodic laughter that danced along the in mist wrapped canyon to their feet sweet like a song:  "...Ah, you actually did brought tea along, oh goodness,-" The rain continued to fall- a soft, barley hearable song that lay like a veil over the canyon, the trees, the observation platform, their rainclothes. The slim wooden platform build safely along the wall of the canyon creaked quietly when Senritsu leaned to the side and took the cup from Kurapika- the tea was hot and burned in the cup against her stiff, cold fingers like a piece of cole but it was as much as a balm as a ache to her cold skin: "If I had not already said that I will marry you when you have not found someone else in fifteen years, I would say it now. No escape for you,make sure you find someone else as fast as you can or you will from now on never get rid of me." In the little light falling through the gray clouds hanging over their heads, wrapping around the highest tips of the trees like a heavy cloth, Senritsus eyes looked very dark when she gave Kurapika a amused little smile: "You better do not have sugar and milk on you, or I will marry you right on the spot the next second." Shaking her head, still smiling over her own terrible humor, the Musician turned back to the wooden railing and leaned her elbows on it so the cup held in her small hands was balancing in the empty air. The hot steam rising from the hot tea mixed into the grey, colourless air.

The rain continued to fall, soft and lightly and cold, so cold that the small drops felt almost sharp on the bare skin of Senritsus face and small hands. The canyon on which the observation-platform was build on was overgrown by a thin layer of moss and on the highest tip of the rocks thin, elegant trees were growing with pale bright green leafs that reached towards the clouded sky like thin fingers. The ravine opening beneath the canyon was after a few meters covered in grey mist which swallowed the soft rain eagerly and unmoved, as if this open mouth made of stone was also waiting for the observation -platform to give in and fall into it. Senritsu automatically held with one hand to the railing- she had a good control of her fear of heights and with the mist covering the fall beneath she almost felt save if it would not be for her actually hearing the rain fall further into the hidden depth and the rustling of the feathers of the birds nesting below hidden in the mist whichs echo dancing along the mossy canyon walls, painted a perfect picture of how deep and long a fall would be.  

The rain continued to fall and the canyon swallowed it, swallowed it hungry, swallowed it eagerly. "Jokes aside, thank you, Kurapika. You really are a lifesaver. Thank you very much.", Senritsu lowered her head in a thankful gesture towards the other, even if her small hand never stopped holding to the railing carefully. They had reached the platform so late in the afternoon that the other visitors had already left, yet not without leaving their garbage in form of cans, plasticbags, rests of meals and even ripped rainponchos on the platform where the soft wind rusting over this remnants made them rustle so loud in Senritsus ears that they overtuned the soft whisper of songs below the thick blanket of mist in the canyons depths. The soft whisper of a song for which Senritsu had lead Kurapika up the mountain in a hours long hike because she wanted him to hear it. The soft whisper of a song from the nesting birds below the layer of mist that Senritsu had herself discovered nesting at this place years ago. The soft whisper of a song drowned by the remnants of visitors that had been there before.

"..that tea is the only good thing about today, really." The musicians voice was quiet and gentle as if she was afraid to be herself too loud for this place, yet there was a certain tension to it that showed the womans frustration and her guilt. The guilt about having discovered the birds nesting place. The guilt about her discovering the place and not checking on it to stop what had been done to this place. The guilt about bringing Kurapika all the way to the top of the canyon only to be greeted not with the birds songs whichs echo was still sweet and beautiful in her memory, but with garbage. A frown drew a long line as deep as a scar between the musicians hairless eyebrows. Her finger started to tap a hectic, restless melody against the cup in her hand. The rain continued to fall, drenching the canyon in damp coldness that made every breath hurt as if one was breathing in a gulp of water.   "Its a joke- four years ago I was hired to proof a biologist theory that this area had a rainsingers colony-" The rain continued to fall, of course it did, the birds called rainsingers would only nest and live in areas where it would rain. Their songs would be carried by the damp air and mark their nesting areas and it had been those songs that Senritsu had been hired to document when she had been sent out to find this nesting-area well hidden from unwanted guests by the canyon and the slippery forestgrounds growing on the high rocks that were protecting the nesting-area like man-made traps keeping away intruders from a holy temple: "-and I spend three months laying in the mud,climbing rocks, falling down cöiffs until almost breaking my bones, beeing bitten by insects, hungry and thristy, never sleeping, searching for the birds. I found them, naturally I did, there is the signpost with my name on it,-” The woman looked to the metal plate nailed to the side of the observation-platform with a uncharacteristically sour expression twisting her kind face- the person she saw on the plate with informations about the Hunter who had found this place and the safe path or people to climb up without danger, was not herself. Not now. Not anymore. Never again. SSenritsu turned her face away from the plate like one would look away from a bad memory, even if the information plate just showed the face of a normal young woman smiling with crooked teeth, a pointy upturned nose, round cheeks and a head full of red hair into the camera:“- and I recorded their songs, documented their nesting place and drew a map for the researcher to come here themself safely without running into the danger of falling down the cliffs. I thought they wanted to continue their research on the rainsingers."

The researcher had not came to the place Senritsu had found to research, instead they had lead contrustction-workers over the save path Senritsu had found up the canyon and constructed the observation-platform for paying visitors to come by, watch the birds, leave their garbage here, bring their noises that would overtune the rainsingers songs,or even climb down to the nests below the mist to make photographs until the birds that had nested in the canyon had almost all left the area except a small flock whichs songs were now nothing but a meager echo compared to the beautiful orchestra Senritsu had discovered years ago when the whole canyon had been full of nests that were now dead and empty. The rain continued to fall; thin, icy drops running down her cold cheeks. "...Its a pity."

"I wanted to show you something I had worked on, since we were already in the area. And now-", she stopped, pushing out the rest of her frustration with a long breath that hurted in her nose sharply. Senritsu just massaged the side of her head with two fingers, her round face stern but controlled, her small shoulders tensed, yet her voice was soft and gentle and quiet as if she herself did not wanted to talk too loud to overtune the faint song of the birds: "-I am sorry." Her dark eyes- looking black, looking black in the little light, looking black in the little light like the deep beneath -wandered to the cup of tea in her hands and with a quiet sigh she held it to her chest to feel its warmth through her raincoat. The hot steam rising from the cup stroked along her face like a gentle caress. Her face turned red from the heat, a stark contrast against the greyness of the mist that seemed to have sucked the colour out of the bright green of the forest, the yellow of her raincoat, the dark brown of the wooden observation-platform shimmering like metal from the rainwater, and the emerald of the by moss covered canyons granite. "...I am not sorry for drinking tea with you, though.", Senritsu added eventually and looked up to the man with a small smile, rising her cup towards the other for a gentle cheer before she leaned to the side to rest her head against Kurapikas shoulder with the cold wetness of the rain collected on his raincoat pressing almost burning in her by the tea heated up cheek.

The rain continued to fall- a rhythmic, calm orchestra that drowned even the quiet songs of the few birds still nesting in the canyon beneath. The heavy mist covered the birds like a protective blanket, hiding the iridescent, like glass shimmering feathers with thick greyness. And the rain continued to fall. [ @skarletchains ]

[theaggresivepacifist]

Feel free to ignore me but I'm here to ask you about YOON SE-WON. You could tell me anything you were thinking about him tbh but okay: where do we go from here? When do you think he leaves prison? Can he forgive himself? Will he work again? Can Si-mok and he ever be a team again? (I feel like if Yeo-jin was even slightly less good at making good choices for herself and her life she would take him in. Or is that a good choice?) Idk I just love him and want to know if you have thoughts about any/all these things!

Hi friend! <3 And omg, thank you so much for the ask! I've only recently started thinking in depth about Yoon Se-won and just how tragic and interesting a character he is...and you can probably tell I love to ramble when I'm thinking :D To answer kind of out of order...

When do I think he leaves prison? That is a super interesting question and I don't know enough about sentencing laws in South Korea to answer, so all I have to compare it to is the fact that Kang Jin-seob got sentenced to 22 years for Park Moo-sung's supposed robbery-murder while (the judge thought) lying about it and unrepentant. On the one hand, what Mr. Yoon did was way more violent and calculated, plus he kind of hit several cops at the airport (though I could see Yeo-jin pressing for those charges to be dropped)...therefore I could see it being a much, much longer sentence. On the other hand, I could see him receiving a slightly lighter sentence because he admitted it openly and also clearly had a lot of regret already pre-trial (if him crying in front of Kyung-wan is any indication). Either way, I think he'll certainly be in prison for close to twenty years at minimum. (But if you're looking for fic in which he gets let out earlier, @ohyangchon aka leechangjoon on AO3 has great fic in which he's been released from prison on a special initiative!)

Will he work again? Well, definitely not as a prosecutor, but I could see Kim Jung-bon or another civil righter helping him find some sort of redeeming work after prison - much like Kim Su-hang working in the elderly care home in S2. I don't think Yeo-jin would get involved with that directly, but I see her checking in on him, making sure he's making enough money to pay his rent and keep food on the table, etc.

Can Si-mok and he ever be a team again? I don't think a team, but then again, even in the course of two short years post-meeting Yeo-jin Si-mok became so much more empathetic and genuinely concerned for others, as well as getting shaken up to the point that he realizes no one, not even he and Yeo-jin, are safe from committing corrupt actions under the "right" circumstances. And that dream at the end of S2, that he pictures Mr. Yoon as his colleague, happy and healthy and working as a prosecutor...I think when we last saw him Si-mok is dealing with what Yeo-jin was in S1E16, finally starting to process the hurt and lingering disbelief of Mr. Yoon's betrayal and bad choices. (I say *starting* because he's still detached enough to not think reallll deeply about the fairly obvious implications of Mr. Yoon going away with LCJ in the dream.) I somehow don't see him visiting Se-won in prison, but I picture them a few decades down the line, much older and softened somehow, taking a walk around a lake together and finally having a conversation about what happened, what LCJ meant to them, and putting old grievances to rest. (Ow, this hurts???)

Also, v. curious at what point exactly Si-mok found out that Mr. Yoon was at Anyang Prison and that Yeo-jin had gone to visit him. Did he know all along? What would be his reaction to finding out? I think they'll process all of this differently, and I think there'll always still be an element of distance between Yeo-jin/Si-mok and Se-won. Yeo-jin in particular, while she now knows what he did does not define him, is still able to hold in mind how horrific his crimes were, and maybe there'll never be enough trust to work with him. (I think Si-mok would think working with him is just straight out off the table.) But they *will* reach out often enough to show that they're there for him and they care.

Can he forgive himself? Oooooof that's a difficult one. I think he's going to carry it with him for the rest of his life, and I think it'll always be complicated and compounded by the loss of his son, which I hope he eventually finds peace about. If Park Kyung-wan does come visit him, I think that will help, even though that guilt will never fully be absolved by either of them. But I do think he will realize that he can have a purpose and a mission in the world beyond the short-term one LCJ saw in him, the one that he was willing to plan and accept out of pain and grief. Maybe he will always feel guilt over what he did, but he will also arrive at a place where it doesn't stop him from moving forward and doing his best to live an empathetic and generous life.

Where do we go from here? Season 3 when??? I think it would be a neat completion of the arc that developed through S2, with Yeo-jin and Si-mok and the world around them finally processing the events of S1 more fully, to have Si-mok reach some kind of peace with Se-won. I see Se-won suffering intensely for the next few years but hanging on, just barely, because of people like Yeo-jin and Kyung-wan (and all the people I'm imagining Yeo-jin is going to recruit to visit Se-won) and maybe Si-mok who still care for him and see something worthwhile in him. And when that passes...I hope happiness and peace.

Wow, that was SO MANY more thoughts than I even thought I had XD My apologies for the ramble and I am so grateful for the ask!!! I would love to know your thoughts on these questions too <3

[therukurals]

Tagged by Sara @baek1nho (thank you friend!!) to list 5 of my favourite creations

1. This Karnan x Meena Kandasamy set. Meena Kandasamy is one of my favorite poets/writers and I remember watching Karnan and remembered this poem. It’s short, but impactful and fit not only the themes of the film of resistance but also the subversion of the Mahabaratha.

2. Kingdom: Ashin of the North x Ada Limón Ada Limón captures rage so well, and I think rainhat talked about how Kingdom is such a visual show and making this set really reminded me of that.

3. POV: Kim Do-ki feeds you while Ari lennox plays in the background. Yes I played the entire shea butter baby album while making this set.

4. Much Ado About Nothing -Eat his heart in the marketplace  I love this play, my favorite Shakespeare play and I just vibe with women in rage? This is also my favorite production to, yes it edged out the Tennant/Tate version which was my top, because Danielle Brooks fucking killed it and it was really her performance in this part of the scene. Both grief and rage in the midst of a confession, oof.

5.  Lous and the Yakuza -  I love her music and also her music videos, and I wanted to make a more stylstic set and its very easy to do with her videos. I definitely made it in the middle of a staff meeting lmao. did dust off my rudimentary french skills for this

Tagging (no pressure though!)

@thalapathy @vennilave @forursmiles  @deokmis   @cuddlybitch @smudgedhenna @desicinema @petekaos @junghaesin @dingyuxi @motodaka @minhyowon @rain-hat @elderflowergin @why-this-kolaveri-machi @gimme-a-chocolate​ @melonatures​ @ahsung @awkwardqueenmel​ @rabonghee and anyone else who is interested and i forgot, feel free to tag me!

[avauntus]

2020 favs: (short) fic recs

I am stealing this idea from @macgyver-sheriff, who has no clue who I am, but whose post I saw go across my dash. Thank you! 👋

Would you like some recs for the holiday season? - I too would like to share love for my favorite things I read that were written this year! <3

I’m going to do this in two parts - the short fics (10k or less, generally one-shot), and another post for the long or series fics I loved this year (it’s 2020, I figure we can use too much of a good thing?)

( @staidwaters - I’m ‘disqualifying’ your works because I’m biased, sorry! Look away! Unless you want recs!) 

"Congratulations, Get Rich" (9,238 words) by Attila (The Untamed - modern AU)

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, which means Wei Wuxian has to get all of his bad decisions out of the way tonight.

Lan Wangji, Lan Xichen, Jiang Cheng, Mianmian are all so screamingly perfect as modern versions of themselves in this, and it is KNOCK DOWN HILLARIOUS. Wei Wuxian is just a screaming queer disaster (affectionate) - as he should be.

Excerpt:

After a long beat, Lan Xichen sinks gracelessly into the chair Lan Wangji had been sitting in earlier. “I just want to be absolutely clear,” he says delicately, “that you are currently under the impression that my brother has no romantic feelings for you. That is what you’re saying to me right now, yes?”

“Yes?” Wei Wuxian says, feeling desperately confused. “Obviously? Why?”

“Because at least one of you is very stupid, and I’m trying to figure out who,” Lan Xichen tells him, sounding distracted. It’s the rudest thing Wei Wuxian has ever heard him say, and his mouth drops open slightly.

“caved to the careless” (6,708 words) by ilgaksu (The Untamed/MDZS - Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen)

Love is a choice you make - like this, and this, and this.

Have you ever read a writer whose work is so distinctly itself that you can feel yourself slipping in time even as you keep going? That’s not very articulate, but it’s the best way I can describe everything of ilgaksu’s I’ve read. Their fics are the same emotional register as having the breath knocked out of you after a fall. This was the first one I read, and I think it ends well-- with what Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen find along the path-- but it’s still heavy. Discussions of canon-compliant character death and grief/mourning here.

Excerpt:

He pauses. Until this very moment, he was unsure who to ask for. He has heard the rumours of the Yiling Patriarch’s ongoing residence here, about Zewu-jun’s seclusion: he’s dead, but even the dead are not free from gossip. But he remembers a courtyard, nearly two decades ago, and the weight of eyes some might have called angry in their intensity. He remembers those same eyes, and how for the wear of the intervening years, they had kept the same essence: longing, yearning, a kind of small unspoken grief.

Song Lan had a dream once. A dream of a sect, bound not by blood, but by a shared belief in the right path. So many things are only an inheritance: shame is one of them.  

Love is a choice. Love is a choice, and you choose until you can’t.

“I am here,” he decides, carving the words into the dirt, every stroke of every character resolute, “To meet with Hanguang-jun. Please show this one the way to go.”  

“Green River Running” (8,169 words) by @rain-hat (Love in the Moonlight - post-canon AU)

5+1: Kim Byeong-yeon returns to the land of the living.

I skimmed through Love in the Moonlight during my quarantine summer (distinguishable from my “quarantine spring” or “quarantine fall” only by fireworks), and immediately upon finishing, thought: “Psht, they killed off their best character.” And then, something happened that never happens -- I went on ao3 and found the exact thing I was looking for, written far  better than I could have imagined. Kim Byeong-yeon is such a quiet yet powerfully subversive presence and the progression here is so masterfully done. This is true of all of rainhat’s work’s I’ve read, but this is a fine example-- I really treasure the warm humanism of them.

Excerpt:

People needed helping hands even more than they needed sympathetic ears, though. Over the last year, Hong Gyeong-rae and Byeong-yeon had built houses and planted crops side by side; negotiating with moneylenders here, helping small-folk secure their stores against bandits there. There was nothing courtly about Byeong-yeon’s capacity for labour, or his expectation of reward. Wherever he went, he worked from dawn to dusk, ate the food he was given, and slept under a roof if he was offered one.

It suited him, Hong Gyeong-rae thought, even though there was something outlandish about his gentle speech and palace manners in the midst of it all. But to behave in any other way would be untrue to his upbringing; nor was he the sort of man to whom it would occur to try. And after all, most people liked to be treated with courtesy; it did not come across as mockery from this solemn, severely dressed young man, who seemed to find no task too big or too small. Hong Gyeong-rae had seen him argue tax law with local councillors and stand up to highwaymen armed with nothing but a knife and staff. But he watched cooking pots for women who had to run to the fields to tide over the day’s labour, too; he wrote letters for them, and tolerated their fractious children and spoon-fed their bedridden elders, if that was what was called for.

“The Veritable Records of King Taejo: Year 2, Entry 208“ (9,857 words) by @sadviper (My Country: the New Age - Nam Seon-ho & Hwang Sung-rok slice-of-life)

Hwang Sung-rok eats his way to the bottom of a real estate scam, and Seon-ho and Yeon help (a little).

No one is out here doing it like SadViper. This is technically part of a series, but they can all be read separately. I did not realize I needed to see more of Nam Seon-ho in all his “type-A government official glory” until Viper started sketching him out for us, and as a bonus, we get to see Yeon, and Sung-rok as the world’s surliest caretaker (but don’t call him that). I have an authorial fallacy where I always think stories have to have some grand “plot” -- a “Maltese Falcon” to pull the reader along-- the genius of Viper’s work is she shows us exactly how interesting and important the day-by-day tiny choices and connections we make are, with an impeccable background of historical research to ground you in the setting.

Excerpt:

Nam Seon-ho was his master now. He was a strange one. He was a traitor, for helping the escaped Liaodong soldiers, but not, because he managed to wiggle his way back into Yi Seong-gye’s favor and was now a sixth-ranked inspector with the privilege of having personal audiences with the King. He was temperamental and belligerent from being the son of a slave mother and a lifetime subject of Lord Nam’s fantastic parenting philosophy. He was afflicted with perpetual guilt. And he was also one of the hardest working and most desperate people Sung-rok had ever known.

It was a terrible combination. He was not merely a disaster waiting to happen, but a disaster perambulating on two legs at the edge of a chasm. If Sung-rok intended to stay in service for long, he needed to find a way to cool down some of Seon-ho’s intensity, even though admittedly, it was what drew him to Seon-ho in the first place.

Thoughts like these plagued Sung-rok for a while. It was one thing to know a person; it was quite another thing to try to change them.

“Orison” (4,975 words) by @gravelghosts​ (aeli_kindara) (Supernatural 15x18 coda)

Cas says, I love you.

So! This rips my heart out, every time. All the times Dean imagines himself together with Cas...and then he imagines himself, if not happy, then thriving.

Jack: “What is the point...if everyone I care about is going to leave?”

Castiel: “The point is that they were here at all and you got to know them, you... When they're gone, it will hurt, but that hurt will remind you of how much you loved them.”

Excerpt:

The thing Dean tries to do is: listen.

Happiness isn’t in the having. It’s in just — being. It’s in just saying it, Cas tells him, and Dean’s whole heart is screaming, No, but he shuts his mouth. He listens. He listens like his life fucking depends on it, which it does, in more ways than one.

“Sky Full of Song” (6,632 words) by @drivingsideways (Supernatural, finale 15x20 fix-it, Dean/Cas)

Or: The One in which Cas ghosted Dean.

Look. Look. If Cas(tiel) can yank Dean Winchester out of Hell, celestial-scream at him not once but twice, burn out a woman’s eyes like an utter clown before thinking “Huh, an Earthly vessel, guess that’s not just bullshit, then,” and when they finally work it out, Dean greets them with a knife to the chest and THEN they’ll spend twelve years misunderstanding each other and bickering, you had better believe these two are going to be disasters even in Heaven. Drivingsideways gives us all of that dynamic, with the found family of Jack and Mary as facilitators, and the happy resolution, which of course includes a true form “roughly the size of your Chrysler Building.” <3

Excerpt:

The thing is, Castiel doesn’t want Dean to feel obligated.

Dean has a streak of self-sacrifice that's as wide as the Caspian Sea, and Castiel doesn't want to be any more of a chore or obligation than they have been to Dean for all the long years of their—brotherhood.

Castiel had shocked Dean, to the core of him, with their confession, and Castiel had seen the swirling confusion, the fear, the panic, the shit what do I say, what do I do—how do I stop him—

So, no, Castiel would not be paying a visit anytime soon.

Of course, if Dean evinced an interest in meeting them, then Castiel would not stay away.

Castiel isn't that cruel.

(They have, on occasion, been exactly that cruel, but they are trying to outgrow it.)

Dean is still their friend.

Dean knows how to reach them, if he wants to.

(see? disasters. haha)

“The Rough” (3,267 words) by anactoria (Supernatural, finale -15x20- ‘fix-it’)

 Heaven can absolutely fucking wait.

Rec’ed for the concept more than the style (this is dialogue-heavy, as a lot of 15x20 fix-its tend towards), but I *love* this course-correction: After kicking around Heaven, Dean and Cas return to Earth to take their place as urban legends among the hunter community. Just for a while.

Excerpt:

But it isn’t life. That’s the thing. It’s awesome, but it isn’t life; life’s a hard, painful, infuriating mess, and Dean only got halfway through his own, and he feels cheated. For all he held it together for Sammy at the end, for all he tried to take Cas’s big moment-of-happiness speech on board, he feels cheated.

There’s supposed to be peace at the end. When you’re done.

Dean wasn’t done.

[jenhikes]

The Evolution of Gear

I recently, as a member of the Green Mountain Club, read an article in their quarterly publication about a man who decided to thru hike the Long Trail using the gear early hikers would have used back in the 1910s (when the trail system was officially open for use). This interesting read got me thinking to how much gear has changed in the past 100 years.  I thought it would be fun to do a little research and share my findings with all of you guys.  I hope you find it as fun to read as I did writing it!  Since the article I read was replicating a thru hike of a trail in 1917, that's as far back as I decided to go.  Since the National Park System in the US was developed and created only a few years prior to this, I decided that many people were more than likely not camping recreationally before this period.  Granted, people were following their herds to the high country for the summer and camping out long before this, I find that those "headed to camp" accounts don't really make for good backpacking gear stories.    

The Early Years

One of the first things that stuck out to me in the article I read in Long Trail News about the gear was this paragraph: 

"For food, bread and bacon will keep you going with little weight." "No person should ever travel The Long Trail without axe, compass, and matches" "A tent is not necessary on most of the trail; it may be needed in the southerly part if the hiker desires to sleep out, in which case a very light, small tent of balloon silk is advised" 

Already the gear differences and advice are pretty fun to read about.  I also loved reading that Mike MADE HIS OWN PACK out of brown ash wood.  Yep, that's right.  A "pack basket" was all the rage back in those days.  For an example of gear you would have carried in those days in your pack basket see below (it's also worth noting that back in those days it wasn't uncommon for hikers to cut boughs off trees to make a bed for the night; since that is no longer done for obvious LNT ((Leave No Trace)) reasons, it's worth noting that the hiker here stuffed a pillowcase with leaves): -Wool blanket -Homemade waterproofed cotton tarp and cotton groundsheet -Camp knife (hand forged) in a leather belt sheath -2 Quart metal canteen -Bug Net -Alcohol stove with alcohol carried in a GLASS bottle -Tin cup -Matches -Waxed cotton food bag -Candle for nighttime -Wool knickers -Wool knee-length socks -Leather hat -Leather boots -Rubberized poncho FOOD:  -Hardboiled eggs, rice, cashews/almonds/raisins, bread, cheese, cured meat, canned fish, and hershey's chocolate

I also love that for this hike Mike used birch and beech twigs to brush his teeth!

1940's-1950's

I couldn't find much for the period in between our history hiker and the WW2 era, so I'm going to skip ahead to Earl Shaffer - the first ever thru hiker on the Appalachian Trail.  It can be said that Shaffer was the first ever Warrior Hiker - he took to the trail to "Walk off the War" in 1948.  Earning himself the name "The Crazy One", he was the first person to ever hike the trail all the way through in one year.  At first, even the Appalachian Trail Conference (later, Conservancy) didn't believe him!  He may also be considered the first minimalistic hiker, being that his tent failed in the first week on the trail and he got rid of it, saving himself an additional five pounds!  Back when Shaffer thru hiked in 1948, he was taken in by friendly fire tower wardens and fed meals; he even hiked hunting camp to hunting camp in Maine.  On his thru hike in 1998, Shaffer relayed via letter to Gene Espy (the second thru hiker of the AT) by letter that the trail had become much more difficult than when they hiked it decades before, the trail conservancy having routed the trail up to the higher and harder ridge lines instead of being down low near the hunting camps.  An example of his gear can be found below:  -Mountain Troop rucksack -Military issue poncho (which also served as his rain shelter at night!) -A Daisy Mae Rainhat -Match safe -Compass -Sheath knife and small handaxe -Sewing kit -Snakebite kit -Mountain Troop cook kit -Wool blanket -Wool pants -Russel Birdshooter Boots

Gene Espy, our second-known thru hiker went through northbound in 1951.  He had some great gear as well, including one of my favorite luxury items - an inflatable pillow! His gear weighed in at a whopping 50 lbs and included the following (from gearjunkie):  -Steel frame pack -Lamb’s wool used as comfort under the heavy pack straps -Tent (without a floor) and tent posts -Down sleeping bag -Watch; to know his time between shelters -Guide books -Hatchet and rope -Inflatable pillow -Camera -New Testament Bible -Diary and pencil -Collapsible cup -25 caliber pistol (which he claimed he used as protection from bears) -Carbide lamp (this is what miners used back then as a headlamp - it requires chemical reaction to make it work!) -Nylon poncho used for a rain jacket and as flooring in the tent -Pants from the Navy to protect his legs from thorns -Two long sleeve shirts -2 pairs of hiking socks -Hat -Tin water cup -Snakebite kit -Boots FOOD:�� Gene carried about a week of food at a time, and his favorite foods included chocolate pudding, loaves of bread, and Baby Ruth candy bars.  

1960's and 1970's

With the 1960s and 70s came the "heyday" of the American National Park System.  More and more folks were able to get out and enjoy not only the national parks of our country, but also the backcountry and hiking trails provided by our parks!  Check out some of these vintage ads I found while scouring the internet.  Heck, I know some sleeping bags that weigh more than 3.5 lb have even tried to make their way out onto a backpacking trip I was leading!

During the late 1950s the AT saw it's first female thruhiker, Grandma Gatewood.  She would go on to hike the trail two more times during her life, making her the first multi completer of the trail.  While I couldn't find a comprehensive gear list, I did find a photo of her gear (circa 1960) (thanks, Reddit!) at the Appalachian Trail Museum.  It's safe to say she was the first ever "dirtbag hiker", hiking with a homemade denim sack, a rain cape made from a shower curtain, and was the first hiker to ditch the heavy boots for lightweight shoes, recommending Keds to all hikers she met! She was also the first thru hiker to "slackpack" her way along the AT.  She often wandered off the main trail to knock on doors to ask for a place to stay or to get a hot meal.  

The 1970s is when backpacking really started changing.  Jansport and Kelty led the way in creating lightweight external frame packs with specially designed pockets for hauling gear ergonomically.  Also during this era we see the very first Therma-A-Rest mattress hit the market.  Now, instead of cutting live tree boughs, hikers can sleep on an ACTUAL mattress in the woods! Check out the weight of those "lightweight boots" by the way - only THREE POUNDS!

You also start seeing the commercial freeze dried and dehydrated food industry taking off.  Yes, America - you too can eat like our astronauts!

(Photos here are sourced from google images)

1980's and 1990's

Lightweight was the name of the game!  Ultralight was truly being developed during this time period, despite how many of us would think it was something more recent.  In fact, 2-lb packs were being developed during the late 1970s and early 1980s!  Nike was even on the forefront of developing a lightweight hiking shoe/boot hybrid - the Lava Dome! While many folks were still carrying external frame packs during this period, the frame during this time started moving to the INSIDE of a pack - something unheard of before now!  During this time period we also meet some of THE names in backpacking that many hikers still know today, the most famous of whom is Ray Jardine.  Ray and his wife, Jenny, began thru hiking in the late 1980s and can still be found out on the trail today.  In 1991, Ray wrote a book about his PCT thru hike, talking about how it was possible to hike much faster and lighter by making homemade gear.  In fact, he still regularly publishes and hikes today.  

During the 1990s we see many what we would call "Cottage Industry" companies starting to pop up as well.  Dana Designs and Gossamer Gear both got their start in the 1990s when regular hikers started getting fed up with not being able to find what they wanted in gear that was commercially available.  

During this time we also see people hiking in light athletic shoes versus heavy boots.  Laurie "Mountain Laurel" Pottieger (of ATC fame) switched to running shoes during her 1987 thru hike of the AT.  While she switched back to boots for rockier sections of the trail, at the time it was practically unheard of (and was done by the Jardines as well!)

(photo of the boots from google images and Jenny and Ray from RayJardine.com)

The 2000's and 2010's

These days, fast and light is the name of the game.  With more and more FKT (fastest known time) attempts on the trail and more hikers getting savvy to the "less is more" way of backpacking, it's possible to hike more than 2000 miles carrying little more than a daypack.  Some of the more famous names in the game right now include Anish, String Bean, and Lint.  For an example of what these ultralighters are carrying, check out Lint's thru hiking gear list.  

While not everyone is going ultralight, it's pretty unusual to see anyone out on the trail these days carrying more than 35 lb.  We know now that the average pack should be 25% or less of your total body weight.  With lighter packs comes the ability to wear lighter shoes as well. In fact, reading surveys of commonly used gear online you'll see that less than 20% of hikers are now wearing boots on trail, opting for lightweight trail running shoes instead.    

And there you have it - a pretty comprehensive history of how gear has changed since the early days!  Gone are the days when heavy boots and 50-lb packs are the norm.  Here to stay are the lighter, easier to carry packs with quick drying shoes and gear to get you from point A to point B in relative comfort!

Would you have been able to thru hike Grandma Gatewood style?  When did you first start collecting your backpacking gear?  What piece of gear do you remember and miss the most?