Camping And Hiking Gear

Sonny answers:

I already answered this question with my recommendation to check out Ryan Jordan's 1000 mile unsupported Arctic hike journal from last year. And I also suggested that Army gear has no place in the wilderness since, like the person above me here says, there is so much better and lighter gear today.

Now that you've presented your actual plan, going 250 miles cross country, and explained that you do have some backpacking experience, I'd say it's do-able, but your repeated questions about the Vietnam gear just seems so disturbingly close-minded to me, because many people have told you to drop the whole idea, buy new gear, and yet you bring it up again and again. The most important thing in wilderness exploration is to know when to turn around and call the whole thing off. I'm afraid if you go out there with this "do or die" "my way" attitude, you're going to endanger yourselves, completely unnecessarily.

Personal hygiene in the field comes from Ray Jardine, the inventor of ultralight backpacking: You get a water bottle or two, some biodegradable soap of some sort, wander off into the woods far away from any water source, use as little soap as necessary, scrub, rinse, and dry off with a small cotton hand towel. Alternatively, if it's too cold, you could give yourself a sponge bath inside your tent or sleeping bag with the very same small cotton hand towel, just use even less soap and a little water so you don't soak your bed. You could swim in a lake or stream, but you can't use soap in there.