I saw your announcement video on Tara Treks. Then when I saw this video I had to subscribe. I hiked a section of the trail in a Packa. I have found that all rain gear has its pros and cons. Weight was a big factor for me. I ended up with Zpacks jacket, pants and my umbrella. I am doing a flip flop in 2024. I’m also a vegan on the trail. I hope to meet you and your daughter out there!
My gut feel was that I *think* I would rather use my Visp jacket and the umbrella (I also have a rain skirt) because they are so much smaller and lighter. I very much appreciate your take on this. We will have some support from a vegan driving the van (Vanna) and she wants to do trail magic...so if you are around! :)
My best memories are rainy windy days. When you are fully prepared and know how to access your gear when needed it gives you a feeling of victory for the day. It only sucks if you aren’t ready. Great shakedown and learning day.
I learned to love ponchos 60 years ago in Boy Scouts and 50+ years ago in the Army. Unfortunately, my old Army ponchos fell apart after only 40 years. I searched for a reasonable priced replacement. The River Country poncho for $10 is my choice. It works as a poncho and a tarp. It is the right size to tie my old woobie into it. In a wind I just ty a rope around my waist. Be careful of the ticks. There are 9 tick diseases on the AT now. My wife died from a tick bite 6 years ago. Use Permethrin on your outer clothing and gear every month. Ticks are on the mice in shelters year round. Good Luck, Rick
Chase, I just found out about you and your daughter on Tara Treks Class of 2024 AT hikers. What really caught my attention is that, like me, you have a cardiac history and that is why I am not hiking currently. I am faced within the next two weeks, a double by-pass and valve replacement. I was planning on a LASH, Long Assed Section Hike this year through the New York State section of the AT, but that looks like something for 2025 now. Ironically, I have been interested in the Packa myself and I like what you said about it. My best to you and your daughter and will be following you on the trail as part of your Virtual Tramily! Good Luck!
Thanks! I will do a video at some point going into more detail about my cardiovascular disease history. My best wishes on any upcoming surgeries. I hope you can get out there in 2025.
Interesting. I did the AT in 2023 and had a enlighten ultra light poncho and the standard rain jacket and pants. I wore the poncho only twice and preferred the rain jacket and when I got home, I sent the poncho to a dear friend who cut it down and resewed it into a rain jacket. I know these cover your packs but a good contractor trash bag inside will keep everything dry. Whatever you have on the outside is going to get wet, muddy, you name it. Outside I carried rain jacket and the poncho, water bottle/filter, toilet stuff and tent poles. Didn't care if any of it got wet. I chuckled at at your comment on the ride that it's raining and none of you want to hike.....there were days on the AT I felt the same way but as they say, never quit on a bad weather day. Best of luck to you guys.
Thanks! I do indeed have the inner pack liner. Ideally I would use this and think it is perfect or horrible...but I am not sure. Maybe more testing in the rain. Or just decide for, or against it. I might overthink this. :)
@@chase-life A young lady I hiked with badbathikes is her RUclips, just did a review of your poncho,. She really liked it and wore it frequently. Either way, you can take it and send it home if you don’t use it,. Best of luck
I am very much looking forward to following you and your daughter on your Appalachian Trail Thru Hike adventures. I went on a western mountain 6 state road trip back in September, and I want to walk the Appalachian Trail one day soon.
Thanks! My bucket list was originally the PCT as I am from San Diego and I camped along the PCT as a kid. And maybe I will still do that. But now I live closer to Springer Mountain and the more I have learned about the AT, the more I wanted to hike it.
I have used poncho’s and like them. This one is clearly quite different. The ones I used were not zippered. Putting them on when alone was very difficult. I also tried the Gatewood Cape by six Moon designs that serves as a tent and poncho.
I had purchased a Packa this past fall and finally had the opportunity to test it out in some good rain last week. I wanted one because I hated getting my butt all wet from rain that rolled down my jacket even with an umbrella! Overall, I liked it, but it does have some downsides to it for sure. Such as not being able to access anything inside your pack without taking the entire jacket off. I plan to take it on a short thru hike and see how I end up liking it on a real trip and not a day hike. Good luck to you on your thru hike!
Sounds like we both ended up with similar takes on it. Let us know what you think after your longer hike. I will also try to follow up when I get more experience.
I much prefer to hike in a poncho, and they are so much cheaper than a waterproof jacket and waterproof trousers. I'm from the UK, but I bought a full zip Altus Stratosphere poncho from Spain. Easy to put on a take-off. In my opinion, it's only small negative is a small zip, but I'm used to it now. Having the full zip means I can easily ventilate, or dry the inside if condensation builds up, by just opening up the zip for a while as I walk. When it arrived, the hem came to my knees, so my wife sewed a 6" hem extension to it for me. I used Tyvek, a great hiking material, light and strong and used in the building trade. My hem now is about 6" from the ground. I also wear waterproof gaiters, that means when it rains I'm dry from head to feet. It came with elasticated wrists, which I have now discarded in favour of normal loose sleeves. My wife has sewed extension Tyvek tubes to the end of the sleeves that cover the length of my hands so that I can use my hiking poles and keep my hands dry at the same time. When not in use, I just fold them back at my sleeves. My poncho doesn't leak at the zip as far as I know.
I am ordering this paka this week. If you’d watch the video by BadBatHikes it’s great. I was wondering about unzipping enough to use the waist pouch for quick things & also if I could put my trekking poles easily on my backpack. Will it hang as long as a kilt?
I agree with the difficulty of the tiny zippers. But I had more problems than that. The front zipper leaks like a sieve. This is very notable in windy conditions. I tested that on two windy rainy days. The first day I used the Packa for one hour fifteen minutes. And my cotton T-shirt collected one hundred milliliters of water. The next day I did the same route, having the same windy rainy conditions, wearing the same T-shirt but this time without any rain protection. This time my cotton T-shirt collected two hundred milliliters of water (double). Note: Cotton kills. But these tests were done close to home in urban conditions. Furthermore, I do not wear a hat or cap. The poncho head flap was constantly blocking my vision in windy conditions when not wearing a hat/cap. None of the string adjustments I tried could compensate for these conditions. Lastly, the backpack cover is shaped in such a way that it limits the type of backpacks you can use. It poorly handles backpacks with even modestly large "brains" on top. It also is cumbersome for packs being wide(r) having big large side pockets. Conclusion: The Packa works fine for people wearing baseball caps, having a narrow backpack without a brain, walking in moderate windy conditions. Which is okay for (ultra)light backpacking in (mostly) sheltered conditions. Like forests. The Packa is less suitable for wide or high backpacks in open windy conditions.
Atlas doesn't get a lot of bike traffic, good trail at enterprise with some clips and it 6.5 miles long. Any of the Cumberland trail segments would be a good training trail. But, honestly, nothing prepares you except to do it. Set very low mileage goals the first couple of weeks ( 5, 7, 7, 10, 11, 15, etc.) Dump some unneeded gear off at Neels Gap(23 miles in), and most of all, have fun.
Yep. In my planning, I am trying to limit distance and elevation fo first week or two. Unfortunately, from what I have seen, starting in Georgia does have some climbs!
I saw your announcement video on Tara Treks. Then when I saw this video I had to subscribe. I hiked a section of the trail in a Packa. I have found that all rain gear has its pros and cons. Weight was a big factor for me. I ended up with Zpacks jacket, pants and my umbrella. I am doing a flip flop in 2024. I’m also a vegan on the trail. I hope to meet you and your daughter out there!
My gut feel was that I *think* I would rather use my Visp jacket and the umbrella (I also have a rain skirt) because they are so much smaller and lighter. I very much appreciate your take on this. We will have some support from a vegan driving the van (Vanna) and she wants to do trail magic...so if you are around! :)
My best memories are rainy windy days. When you are fully prepared and know how to access your gear when needed it gives you a feeling of victory for the day. It only sucks if you aren’t ready. Great shakedown and learning day.
I learned to love ponchos 60 years ago in Boy Scouts and 50+ years ago in the Army. Unfortunately, my old Army ponchos fell apart after only 40 years. I searched for a reasonable priced replacement. The River Country poncho for $10 is my choice. It works as a poncho and a tarp. It is the right size to tie my old woobie into it. In a wind I just ty a rope around my waist.
Be careful of the ticks. There are 9 tick diseases on the AT now. My wife died from a tick bite 6 years ago. Use Permethrin on your outer clothing and gear every month. Ticks are on the mice in shelters year round. Good Luck, Rick
Chase, I just found out about you and your daughter on Tara Treks Class of 2024 AT hikers. What really caught my attention is that, like me, you have a cardiac history and that is why I am not hiking currently. I am faced within the next two weeks, a double by-pass and valve replacement. I was planning on a LASH, Long Assed Section Hike this year through the New York State section of the AT, but that looks like something for 2025 now. Ironically, I have been interested in the Packa myself and I like what you said about it. My best to you and your daughter and will be following you on the trail as part of your Virtual Tramily! Good Luck!
Thanks! I will do a video at some point going into more detail about my cardiovascular disease history. My best wishes on any upcoming surgeries. I hope you can get out there in 2025.
Interesting. I did the AT in 2023 and had a enlighten ultra light poncho and the standard rain jacket and pants. I wore the poncho only twice and preferred the rain jacket and when I got home, I sent the poncho to a dear friend who cut it down and resewed it into a rain jacket. I know these cover your packs but a good contractor trash bag inside will keep everything dry. Whatever you have on the outside is going to get wet, muddy, you name it. Outside I carried rain jacket and the poncho, water bottle/filter, toilet stuff and tent poles. Didn't care if any of it got wet. I chuckled at at your comment on the ride that it's raining and none of you want to hike.....there were days on the AT I felt the same way but as they say, never quit on a bad weather day. Best of luck to you guys.
Thanks! I do indeed have the inner pack liner. Ideally I would use this and think it is perfect or horrible...but I am not sure. Maybe more testing in the rain. Or just decide for, or against it. I might overthink this. :)
@@chase-life A young lady I hiked with badbathikes is her RUclips, just did a review of your poncho,. She really liked it and wore it frequently. Either way, you can take it and send it home if you don’t use it,. Best of luck
I am very much looking forward to following you and your daughter on your Appalachian Trail Thru Hike adventures. I went on a western mountain 6 state road trip back in September, and I want to walk the Appalachian Trail one day soon.
Thanks! My bucket list was originally the PCT as I am from San Diego and I camped along the PCT as a kid. And maybe I will still do that. But now I live closer to Springer Mountain and the more I have learned about the AT, the more I wanted to hike it.
I have used poncho’s and like them. This one is clearly quite different. The ones I used were not zippered. Putting them on when alone was very difficult. I also tried the Gatewood Cape by six Moon designs that serves as a tent and poncho.
I had purchased a Packa this past fall and finally had the opportunity to test it out in some good rain last week.
I wanted one because I hated getting my butt all wet from rain that rolled down my jacket even with an umbrella! Overall, I liked it, but it does have some downsides to it for sure. Such as not being able to access anything inside your pack without taking the entire jacket off. I plan to take it on a short thru hike and see how I end up liking it on a real trip and not a day hike.
Good luck to you on your thru hike!
Sounds like we both ended up with similar takes on it. Let us know what you think after your longer hike. I will also try to follow up when I get more experience.
I much prefer to hike in a poncho, and they are so much cheaper than a waterproof jacket and waterproof trousers. I'm from the UK, but I bought a full zip Altus Stratosphere poncho from Spain. Easy to put on a take-off. In my opinion, it's only small negative is a small zip, but I'm used to it now. Having the full zip means I can easily ventilate, or dry the inside if condensation builds up, by just opening up the zip for a while as I walk. When it arrived, the hem came to my knees, so my wife sewed a 6" hem extension to it for me. I used Tyvek, a great hiking material, light and strong and used in the building trade. My hem now is about 6" from the ground. I also wear waterproof gaiters, that means when it rains I'm dry from head to feet. It came with elasticated wrists, which I have now discarded in favour of normal loose sleeves. My wife has sewed extension Tyvek tubes to the end of the sleeves that cover the length of my hands so that I can use my hiking poles and keep my hands dry at the same time. When not in use, I just fold them back at my sleeves. My poncho doesn't leak at the zip as far as I know.
Soaked back with rain jacket under pack.
I am ordering this paka this week. If you’d watch the video by BadBatHikes it’s great. I was wondering about unzipping enough to use the waist pouch for quick things & also if I could put my trekking poles easily on my backpack. Will it hang as long as a kilt?
I have looked into the Packa for two years and Bad Bat was the final push to get it. It certainly seems as long as a kilt. I will try using the pouch.
I agree with the difficulty of the tiny zippers. But I had more problems than that.
The front zipper leaks like a sieve. This is very notable in windy conditions. I tested that on two windy rainy days.
The first day I used the Packa for one hour fifteen minutes. And my cotton T-shirt collected one hundred milliliters of water.
The next day I did the same route, having the same windy rainy conditions, wearing the same T-shirt but this time without any rain protection. This time my cotton T-shirt collected two hundred milliliters of water (double).
Note: Cotton kills. But these tests were done close to home in urban conditions.
Furthermore, I do not wear a hat or cap. The poncho head flap was constantly blocking my vision in windy conditions when not wearing a hat/cap. None of the string adjustments I tried could compensate for these conditions.
Lastly, the backpack cover is shaped in such a way that it limits the type of backpacks you can use. It poorly handles backpacks with even modestly large "brains" on top. It also is cumbersome for packs being wide(r) having big large side pockets.
Conclusion:
The Packa works fine for people wearing baseball caps, having a narrow backpack without a brain, walking in moderate windy conditions. Which is okay for (ultra)light backpacking in (mostly) sheltered conditions. Like forests.
The Packa is less suitable for wide or high backpacks in open windy conditions.
Good feedback! I unfortunately did not get to do a real long rain test. I will see how it does for me as far as the zippers.
I bought one this year! Hope you like it.
Atlas doesn't get a lot of bike traffic, good trail at enterprise with some clips and it 6.5 miles long. Any of the Cumberland trail segments would be a good training trail.
But, honestly, nothing prepares you except to do it. Set very low mileage goals the first couple of weeks ( 5, 7, 7, 10, 11, 15, etc.) Dump some unneeded gear off at Neels Gap(23 miles in), and most of all, have fun.
Yep. In my planning, I am trying to limit distance and elevation fo first week or two. Unfortunately, from what I have seen, starting in Georgia does have some climbs!
I think it would be hard _any_ jacket that does not pack into its own pocket.
Yep. I was just trying to list all the positives. :)