Hello Nexus. I need your help in planning a trip (not that kind of trip--a hiking trip.)

In the next couple months my little brother and I will be hiking the Appellation Trail from Georgia to Maine. We will be bringing a supply of spice with us, but have yet to decide on a method of vaporization.

Our experience so far is through three ROAs: (1) Glass bulb method, (2) E-cig method, and (3) the GVG. The GVG is obviously the best of the three, and that's what we use almost exclusively these days. The problem is that the GVG is too big, too heavy, and too irreplaceable (expensive) for us to bring.

So the plan has been to have glass bulb pipes shipped to us every few hundred miles--they're cheap, and that way if/when they break, we'll always have another one a week or so up the trail. I'm wondering however if there's a better way to go about it so that I don't have to carry such a questionable tool as a glass bulb in my gear.

Anyone have a suggestion of an what to use? These are all needed: Extremely light, durable, small, preferably inexpensive.

Your advice is ever appreciated!

I would advise making some changa or enhanced leaf and just carrying a small regular old cannabis style pipe to smoke it out of. You could even forgo that and use the old improvised apple pipe method or something similar. A bag of random herbs is much less suspicious than a bag of crystals/powder, dosing and working with the material is much less difficult - no need to bother with the hassles of scales, powders, and lighting bulbs, and its much more versatile - you can light up a joint and puff on it as you walk along the trail or use the sun with a magnifying to glass to light your bowl when it's too windy to use a lighter. To me personally it makes way more sense to go the changa/eleaf route than to deal with the hassles of trying to work with crystal on the trail.

I really appreciate this feedback. I'll be honest that my first reaction was to scoff and think it wouldn't work, but as you discussed more, it made me somewhat curious to try this out.

Here's my initial aversion:
Both little bro and I both smoke a lot and plan to use a lot over this 5-month hike, so it will be easier to keep crystal in pre-measured foil wrappings. That's what we normally do, measure the dose at home and then wrap them up and keep all our doses in a little bag. A little dime bag sized baggy can hold well above a hundred doses this way. I'm worried that Changa will take up too much space (remember, we're talking a 5-month supply for two very heavy users). We will also be carrying a lot of other *things* such as a very large quantity of bud already and some other goodies, so i'm worried that the Changa would take up too much room in our bags and be more difficult to conceal than the little pre-measured powder doses.

Also, I've never worked with Changa; it always just seemed like an extra step in the process when I've never had a problem with crystal (until now, apparently). Would it be much of a learning curve? Maybe I need to just make a batch and try one of these joints--I've heard that the come on is a bit softer? The journey a bit more manageable?

Again, I really appreciate your feedback. It's extremely useful to get some new perspective on this problem I've been trying to solve.

wooden gvg works great ime for outdoor use, with a torch lighter. Only downside you cant see the size of the hit. You can go with glass gvg or the green buddha but risk breaking them easily.

Will absolutely look into the wooden VG.

Does anyone have experience with it in regards to keeping it clean? I won't have cleaning solution (although can probably get alcohol at a trail town) and wonder how hard it will be to keep clean.

Also, I know that this question is elsewhere, but since we're on the topic, does anyone have direct experience with the GVG and wooden VG who can compare the points? Obviously visibility, but otherwise the same?

I've read that the smaller overall air chamber in the vg doesnt allow as big of doses as easy compared to the gvg.

How much dmt do you go through in a month? Even if you went through an entire gram in a month, with changa you would only have 5 grams of leaf for a 5 month hike. That wouldnt take up much space in your pack and be real close to the weight of bringing 5 grams of dmt wrapped individually in foil. If you go through more than that i personally (none of my business really) would ask myself, do i really NEED that much.

LOL. I completely know where you're coming from with the NEEDING that much. Because the answer is No. I don't need any at all. Nor do I need all the pot I'm bringing. My thinking is however that this is something that's extremely important to me and so I don't want to be without it. Also, one of the main reasons for doing this hike is to be influenced by nature and to let the obligations of society kind of fall to the back burner while I figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life--I've been working in a very solid position at an institution of higher education here in the United States, and I've decided to quit, but I don't know what happens next--I spent 10 years pursuing this career, so I don't know what to go to now that I want out. So I want to have nature be my influence, and I've learned that nature, in combination with some nature medicines can really turn up the impact. So that's why I want to bring it.

As for how much... I hadn't actually thought about an actual figure, but you've made me do so. I expect that our maximum use would be six grams between the both of us (brother and I). My understanding that Changa was about 1/1 by weight, so that would put me at about 12 grams of Changa, right? I'm honestly not sure, as I was thinking that we would need more. I guess I really need to try Changa and give it some time before the trip.

And thank you for you wood VG advice. I do usually do larger doses (high tolerance, I think) at 50mg on average. That's no problem with the GVG, but I wonder if the slower pull on the wooden one would cause me problem. I'll buy and test.

Again, thank all of you who have given advice. I wish I could give each of you a giant hug!

I'm definitely not questioning your bringing psychedelics into nature, that is the best setting imo as long as its safe. I think its a good idea to bring some with you i was just making that statement as far as frequency goes.

If you were to go the changa route, you would measure out your 3 grams of dmt and infuse 3g of your preferred herbs. I like a caapi and blue lotus mix. So say 2g caapi, 1g Lotus, 3g dmt. One batch for you and one for your brother. You would each be carrying approx 6 grams of material in your pack and a smoking utensil. That wont take up that much room as the herbs will take up 3g of space. It would be like carrying an eighth of weed on you.

You, ANRCHY, are my favorite person in the world! You were one of the first people who I engaged with on the forums when I joined for the e-cig discussion. Seriously man, you've been really cool to me on here. I appreciate you and wish to give you a digital spliff... I only wish I could give you a real one instead.

But seriously, I'll be ordering the leaves of your recommendation tonight and making a batch soon! Thank you so much for your direct input!!!

And I completely agree that daily spice probably isn't necessary, but I have these dreams about being on trail and thinking, "If only I'd brought enough Spice! How could I have ever thought I'd only use [insert quantity here]?!?!" Then I'm outta luck. It being so light, I'd rather carry 10x more than I need than 1/2 as much as I'd like. Know what I mean?

Haha right on brotha. Dont give me all the credit, dreamer was on point with his post.

Being no stranger to the trail i def understand bringing more than you need. Although that has gotten me into trouble when it comes to the heavier stuff. My last backpack trip i wanted to bring my dslr and a couple of extra things that i dont usually bring. The trail became a difficult hike as i was carrying 15lbs more than i would have liked.

I brought the gvg once. With its case i wasnt worried about it breaking but it took up the space of two meals so i rationed and brought a few more hemp force bars.

Good luck on your trip, that sounds like a lot of fun. Ive yet to do a long one like that, the job isnt that flexible and i need it at the moment. I think my longest backpack trip is 6 days so far.

Rock on! I didn't know you were on the trail! Garsh*** I like ya' all th' more

I brought the GVG and its case once on a 3 day trip, but never used it, and like you said, it took up WAY too much space in my bag.

I've done one longer trip before, and it was 800 miles, 54 days. That's actually where I learned to smoke weed. Before that trip I'd been pretty into "spice" (synthetic canabis), which I knew then, and I know even more now was TERRIBLE, but I didn't know how else to get a high--I didn't know where to get weed (such is the product of our current laws: people smoke something like "K-2" that's way worse for them when they could just smoke a plant from the earth if it weren't for law). But then when I went on this hike, I connected with this hippy from an online trail forum. He was a deadhead about twice my age and he smoked pretty much every day. So when we got to the trail, we obviously started smoking together, and that was actually my first bowl. I was a "good boy" my whole life and never drank until I was 21, but the trail is where I learned to smoke. Then I got a med card and started growing (legally) and that introduced me to people who gave me my first mushrooms, then the story goes from there.

... I believe I've digressed.

But yeah. I've decided that this teaching gig is no longer for me, so I want to spend a bunch of time in nature, eat a f*k-ton of psychadelics as a means by which to reset the imprint that society and culture have had on me, and hopefully emerge a new person. After, I'm hoping to move to Colorado or Oregon and become a professional grower with little brother. But only time shall tell.

Back to the point, thanks for your feedback. Brother and I have talked, and I'm going to order plant leaves to make Chinga here shortly. I'll of course report back.

Love, love, love to you, anrchy, and to all above. Y'all are my family.

GVG is best, but the wooden VG does fine. The cool thing about bringing it on the trail is you don't need a case for it. I just rubber band my stash to it along with a lighter. No case, minimal space used this way.

If you are on a super tight budget get a Meerschaum corn cob pipe from most drugstores and some screen and some tasty changa. They actually smoke pretty smooth and it is pretty incognito. Be careful on the trail if it's dry! Schmoalky Bear.

Cost isn't too much an issue; I've been saving for this trip for 12 months and still have a few to go. I just can't justify breaking 3-4 gvgs along the way. And for fire, trust you me, I'm safe about that business! I have had countless nightmares of starting forest fires by taping out a wine hitter, so people are usually annoyed with how obsessive I am about putting out hits. I appreciate that others have such a consideration when it comes to nature.