Sixty miles by bike, thirty on foot, three nights near freezing.

Gear

Confirmed owned: Therm-a-Rest Saros 20 (real comfort rating about 32°F) and Nemo Astro Insulated. Everything else is a box until you say otherwise.

Sleep

• Saros 20 bag
• Astro Insulated pad
• Foam pad under it
• Tent, with every stake and the flyPitch it once before packing. Or use Quinn's and split the weight.
• Sleep clothes that never get worn hikingBase layer top and bottom, the wool socks, beanie.
• PillowA stuff sack of clothes works.

Clothes

• Hiking shirt and shorts or pantsSynthetic or wool. Ride kit and hike kit should overlap as much as possible.
• Puffy with a hoodDown is fine if it stays in a dry bag. Synthetic if you expect wet.
• Rain shell, hoodedAlso your wind layer on the ridge.
• Rain pants or wind pantsCheap, light, and worth it at 6,000 feet in September.
• Fleece or grid mid-layer
• Gloves, beanie, buff
• Sun hat and sunglassesThe ridge walk is exposed.
• Two pairs of hiking socks, plus the sleep pair
• Chamois and bike gloves for the ride days
• One pair of shoes for bothTrail runners that pedal fine beat carrying boots and bike shoes. Unless you're on flats and want the boots.

Kitchen

• Canister stove, fuel, lighter, backup matches
• Pot big enough for two boils, or one pot each
• Spoon and mug
• Water filter plus backup tabletsSawyer Squeeze or similar. The Forest Service says the Sauk ford is the last year-round water until Blue Lake, and a Sept 19 report confirms it: about 7 dry miles over Pilot Ridge. Carry 3 L capacity and fill at every chance. The river is at a record low for the date.
• Bottles: the Nalgene plus a 1 L Smartwater or a 2 L bladder
• Food bag and 50 feet of cord, or an UrsackNo canister required, but a forest-wide bear-resistant storage order is in effect and a Sept 7 party saw eight bears between White Pass and Dishpan Gap, one in camp. Hang it properly every night.
• Trash bag

Navigation and safety

• Phone with the GPX loaded and the map downloaded offlineGaia, CalTopo, whichever you use. No signal past Darrington.
• Battery bank, 10,000 mAh minimumCold kills phones. Sleep with it in the bag.
• Headlamp and a spare batterySunset is about 7 pm, dark by 7:45.
• Paper mapGreen Trails 111 Sloan Peak and 112 Glacier Peak, or a printout of the route page.
• First aidLeukotape, ibuprofen, antihistamine, a few bandages, blister kit.
• Knife, whistle, small repair kitTenacious tape, needle, zip ties.
• Sunscreen, lip balm, toothbrush, TP and trowel, hand sanitizer
• Trekking polesThe Pilot Ridge descent is steep and long. Bring them.
• Satellite messenger if either of you owns oneTwo people, remote, September. Worth borrowing an inReach.
• Northwest Forest Pass or America the BeautifulFor the trailhead. Leave it on the bike or in the register. Details in the conditions file.
• Wilderness permitFree, self-issued at the trailhead kiosk.

Bike

The bike stays at the trailhead from Friday night to Monday afternoon.

• Lock
• Two spare tubes, patch kit, pump, tire levers, multitool
• 10-speed quick linkKMC CL559 for the Super Dame. Easy to grab the wrong one.
• Lights, bothPDW Pathfinder and Io. You'll be on the Mountain Loop late Friday.
• Helmet
• Charge the derailleur, pack spare CR2032s for the shifters
• Ride SR 530, not the Whitehorse TrailFour closures on the trail this year and the French Creek bridge is closed with no detour. Shoulder riding from Arlington to Darrington.
• Decide how the pack ridesHiking pack strapped flat on the rack top. Dense stuff (food, stove, tent) in panniers or cargo cages so the weight sits low. Load the pack at the trailhead. If that covers it, skip the seatpack and frame bag for this trip.

Food

For one person. Quinn packs his own unless you decide to share dinners, in which case double the dinner rows and carry one stove between you.

Day by day

Day	From the pack	Town food
Fri 25	Dinner 1	Big breakfast in Bellingham. Real lunch in Arlington. Darrington IGA is the last store: a sandwich for the trailhead, chips, a beer if you want one.
Sat 26	B1, L1, D2	Trailhead to White Pass. 9 miles, 3,000 feet up. Nothing in town. Recent report: White Pass camp is crowded; the tarns past Reflection Pond are quieter.
Sun 27	B2, L2, D3	Kodak Peak, Dishpan Gap, Blue Lake. 10 to 12 miles. Blue Lake is the only camp with water before the descent, so it's Sunday night by default.
Mon 28	B3, L3	Johnson Mountain, Pilot Ridge, out. Eat L3 at the trailhead, then a real dinner in Darrington.
Tue 29	Spare bars	Breakfast in Darrington, lunch on the road to Mount Vernon. Bus home is the Skagit 80X ($2, bike racks hold 2 or 3).
Spare	D4, B4	The side-quest night Quinn floated. Cheap insurance.

Pack 4 dinners4 breakfasts3 lunchessnacks for 3½ days

About 4 pounds of food, 2,800 to 3,200 calories a day. You'll run a deficit on the big days regardless. That's fine for three days.

Breakfasts, four

• Instant oats, 4 packets, plus dried fruit and walnuts to stir in
• Protein powder, 4 scoops in a ziplockYour palm-of-protein rule, in oat form.
• Instant coffee, 8 packetsTwo mornings you'll want two.
• Or skip the stove: 4 Clif Builder bars and coffee onlyFaster on a cold morning.

Lunches, three

Each one is really two stops. Eat the first at the top of the morning climb.

• Flour tortillas, 6
• Hard cheese, 8 ozCheddar or gouda. Four days without a fridge is fine in September.
• Salami or summer sausage, 8 oz
• Peanut butter, small jar or squeeze packets
• Tuna packets, 2Hummus is out; it won't keep.

Dinners, four

Any mix. Everything here is just-add-boiling-water, which keeps the fuel math small.

• Freeze-dried meals, 2Peak Refuel or Mountain House. The two-serving pouch is one hungry person's dinner.
• Ramen, 2, plus a foil chicken packet for eachA spoon of the peanut butter and a hot sauce packet make it a real dinner.
• Instant mashed potatoes, 1 pouchWith chunks of the summer sausage. The backup dinner.
• Olive oil, 2 to 3 oz in a small bottleInto every dinner. Fat before bed is the warmth trick.
• Bone broth or miso packets, 4Drink one while dinner rehydrates. Salt and warmth.

Snacks, about 800 calories a day

• Salted nuts, 1 lbPistachios or cashews. The salt matters more than you'd think.
• Jerky, 6 oz
• Bars, 8Whatever you'll actually eat. Half a bar every hour on the climb.
• Gummies or Skittles, 1 bagThe Kodak scramble and the Pilot Ridge descent want fast sugar.
• Dark chocolate, 1 bar
• Electrolyte tabs, 6Bike-day sweat plus a dry ridge day.
• Tea bags or cocoa, 4Hot drinks count as warmth, not luxury.

Fuel

Four dinners, four breakfasts, four bedtime Nalgenes and a few coffees is about 14 boils of half a liter to a liter. One 110 g canister covers that with margin on a Pocket Rocket class stove. Bring a 230 g if you share a stove with Quinn or the stove is an old one.

Leave at home

Anything that needs simmering. Fresh fruit past Friday. Hummus, soft cheese, yogurt. More than two freeze-dried pouches; they cost three times the ramen dinner and aren't much better.