Top Stoves, Filters, Rain Gear, and More on the Appalachian Trail: 2024 Thru-Hiker Survey
The 2024 AT survey is coming to a close. We’ll be covering the water filters, stoves, rain gear, and so much more in this final post. This post is all about the smorgasbord of smaller gear choices hikers make — including power banks, trekking poles, GPS devices, and more! Keep reading for all the insights and make sure to stick around to the end to find out about a new popular luxury item that made our list for the first time.
This year we collected 389 responses — a huge thanks to everyone who filled out the survey! The data was collected from October through November of 2024 through our survey, which was marketed using our social media platforms, Backpacker Radio, and TheTrek.co. Some responses from previous years were removed, and obvious mistakes in start and end dates were adjusted. No obvious duplicates were found.
March 11, 2025
Kate Richard
I'm Kate, aka Stickers on the trail. After growing up in New England, the Appalachian Trail was on my bucket list and I completed my thru hike of the AT in 2017. That got me hooked on the hiking lifestyle and I thru hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2019. Nowadays, I'm a weekend warrior living in Portland, OR getting outside and traveling all over the West as much as possible.
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Media Mentions
A favorite of ultralight hikers, backpackers, bikers, and travelers, the Sawyer Squeeze filter is the gold standard in water filters for anyone concerned about weight and universal compatibility.
Media Mentions
In the morning before getting to the park, I applied insect repellent (Picaridin lotion by Sawyer).
Media Mentions
A Sawyer Squeeze water filtration system that blows any other system out of the — say it with me — water.
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