A Complete Appalachian Trail Gear List: Realistic Packing for an AT Thru-Hike in 2025

Last updated on March 4th, 2025 at 05:09 pm

This blog post is a nine-page comprehensive Appalachian Trail thru-hike gear guide.
If you have arrived in the middle of the guide but would like to start at the beginning, click here.

Other Gear

All of the gear items in this category are worth your consideration to improve your thru-hike’s quality and/or safety.

We chose to add everything in this category to our packs.

Trekking Poles

The function most appreciated of trekking poles is that they add stability to your hike. They are accommodating on the ups and downs while hiking with a heavy pack.

Bonuses provided: they also reduce hand swelling, provide great anchors for you during stream crossings, can be used to push overgrowth aside gently, and can scare away black bears by banging them together.

When looking into trekking poles, ensure they can adequately adjust to a usable length for your height.

Also, consider your size and the pressure you’ll place on your poles. If you are someone who puts a lot of weight and stress on their poles, stay away from the less strong composite and “lite” pole options. 

Aluminum is king and will have the best durability.

Cork handles are the most popular on the trail because they resist moisture, making them great for warm weather and sweaty-handed people.

You’ll see differently gendered poles out there; it’s silly. Just hold an assortment of them in your hands and see what feels best.

Lastly, remember if you are opting for a non-freestanding tent, your tent likely requires trekking poles. So make sure you buy poles that work for you and your tent.

My Pick

REI Co-op Trailbreak Trekking Poles
(Discontinued, the closest comparable pair is now the REI Co-op Trailmade Trekking Poles.)

I liked the soft, breathable foam handles of these cheaper REI poles. These poles held up great.

One random note: Some woodland creature also liked the foam handles and partially ate the top of one of my handles one night.

That’s pretty odd, though, and it shouldn’t steer you away from these poles. It’s more simply a weird thing that happened. They’re great poles!

I got a second pair near the end, merely because I had used them before this thru-hike. They had endured a couple of thousand miles and were done.

Husband’s Pick

Barrett started with this “lite” set of LEKI trekking poles.

LEKI Khumbu Like Hiking Poles: Amazon | REI

An REI employee later told us a “lite” pair should never have been recommended to a thru-hiker or a bigger guy; they can’t hold up in either scenario.

He finished the trail with these LEKI Khumbu FX TA Trekking Poles. They were way more robust and the best for him.

Knife / Multi-Tool

Consider a neck knife to level up your defensive protection options on the trail.

As for a multi-tool, a swiss army knife is a great way to pack multiple helpful tools such as a knife, tweezers, scissors, file, and more into a small, often less than 1 ounce package.

Victorinox Swiss Army Classic SD Pocket Knife: Amazon | REI

And this is funny but worth noting; we also picked up a strong plastic knife at a gear store somewhere along trail that was solely used for summer sausage cutting, so we didn’t gunk up our other tools.

Pepper Spray

(1-4 oz depending on the brand)

Pepper spray is another lightweight protection option that is legal as a personal defense weapon in all 50 states.

This is an easy way to protect yourself from animal and human concerns along the trail.

I never used it once, but I always knew where it was, just in case.

First Aid Kit

Building a simple ziplock first aid kit is a great way to be prepared when things go wrong.

Everything below was in ours, and every item was unexpectedly used at some point along the hike.

• Bandaids
• Eyebrow Scissors
• Tweezers
• Ibuprofen
• Emergency Water Tablets
• Anti-Acids
• Anti-Diahreal
• Luekotape
• Tiny Extra Lighter
• Burn Cream
• Anti-Itch Cream
• Neosporin
• Antiseptic Wipes
• A Sawyer Mini Water Filtration System (with a 16 oz pouch) as an “in case of emergency” water filtering system.

Sewing Kit: Needle & Thread

(.78 oz)

A mini sewing kit, such as the freebie ones often found in hotel rooms, would be great to have on trail so you can field repair any rips, holes, or zipper failures encountered with your gear. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, as long as you have a needle, some thread, and a safety pin.

I carried one from a hotel with us and used it multiple times on clothing, our tent’s vestibule zipper, and to lock the zipper on my fanny pack back into place.

Funny story about the tent’s vestibule zipper: It was summer when it broke. The weather was good and the vestibule didn’t need zipping, so we went a while, leaving it broken. Due to this, there was a gap where anyone could look into the tent for a few days.

One morning, we woke up to a turkey looking straight into the tent at Barrett, screaming his head off at him.

To this day, I have no idea how this didn’t wake Barrett up. He missed the entire ordeal. I found it hilarious.

Gear Tape

Gear tape is another item you can use for field repairs of tears or rips. It’s excellent for patching anything nylon or vinyl. We used this on our tent quite a few times and on our pack liners.

It comes in a small, lightweight roll, making it easy to carry. It’s one of those things that you’ll be happy to have when you need it.

Gear Aid Tenacious Tape Repair Tape: Amazon | REI

Side note: This tape comes in both patches and a roll.

While the patches come in fun little shapes and sizes, they do not retain their stickiness for very long. So, despite some of those shapes being super cute, the patches aren’t as good of an option to buy and hold onto for a bad tear. If you’re buying this item to be prepared, I’d recommend purchasing the roll.

Shoe Repair Glue

If you opt for thru-hiking in trail runners, it won’t take long to notice that many quickly fall apart in certain areas.

I could get well over 500 miles out of a pair of my beloved Topos. That said, the front rubber panel on my and many of my trail friends’ trail runners often started peeling off before the rest of the shoes expired. I reached a point where I was Aquasealing my shoes once or twice a week to keep water from entering the front of my shoe which kept my feet and socks dry.

Gear Aid Aquaseal vs Shoe Goo

Gear Aid Aquaseal: Amazon | REI

This is an item you can chance finding in a hiker box; tubes are often in them. But it got to a point where I never knew when my shoes would decide to peel apart again. The rain and when I would reach a hiker box never quite lined up right for me.

The tube is tiny, so I carried one with me and shared it with my hiker friends along the way.

Shoe Goo

As for the often favored Shoe Goo, I used it at first. However, I could only ever get one day of hiking out of a repair with that glue. After too many unnecessary wet sock days, I decided to look into other options, and that’s how I found the Aquaseal mentioned above. 

Duct Tape

A mini roll of duct tape comes in handy when you need to fix an item with a stronger bond than the Gear Aid tenacious tape can achieve. I found duct tape helpful when needing to repair shoes and pack liners.

You don’t need to carry a big roll around, either. They make very tiny ones such as these:

Mini Duct Tape

Many hikers carry their duct tape by wrapping it around their hiking poles, but I found that after it had been unwrapped and gone through the outdoor elements, it never worked as well when needed.

So, I recommend keeping a tiny roll in a Ziplock in your pack.

Download the Appalachian Trail Gear List for Thru-Hikers

Continue Reading:

PAGE ONE: Shelter
PAGE TWO: Sleep System
PAGE THREE: Backpack
PAGE FOUR: Clothing
PAGE FIVE: Footwear
PAGE SIX: Food & Cooking Gear, Water Treatment System
PAGE SEVEN: Other Gear
PAGE EIGHT: Electronics, Navigation & GPS, Essential Hygiene Items, Less Important Hygiene Items, Bug Management
PAGE NINE: Personal Luxury Items, FAQs