Wow, thanks for all the responses in such a short amount of time.
"he bailed" -- lol I barely posted this 12 hours ago.
All right, lots of things to respond to, let me see here.
As for Bic vs. refillable butane...
I assume butane is roughly the same density as water. So 200ml of butane is nearly half a pound! It might sound silly but that's too much weight. Every ounce in your pack counts when you are hiking 20-30 miles per day. We are the kind of people who cut the handles off our toothbrushes in order to save weight -- I'm not carrying a waterbottle sized can of butane
What's less important is being able to carry 5 months worth of lighters/fuel at one time. What's more important is having a light pack weight at all times. I will be resupplying in towns at least once per week on average, so to me it makes much more sense to use 1 Bic lighter and carry another one as backup, and simply replace them as they run out.
I am not such a heavy MJ user that I will go through a ton of lighters. I'm more like 1-2 medium-small bowls per day. 1 Bic lighter can last me months. They are cheap and easy to replace and much less hassle than worrying about how I'm going to refill my torch lighter. I do recognize that I'll use more fuel per session when vaporizing vs. combusting, but I still can't imagine buying more than 2-3 lighters per month.
Yes, it is wasteful to buy and throw away plastic lighters. But I think I am offsetting it pretty well by not driving or participating in a consumerist lifestyle for 5 months.
Weed is a big part of thru-hiker culture on the West Coast and I shouldn't have any trouble restocking on that. So I won't need to carry 5 months worth of bud from the beginning.
So as background info, I currently don't use a vaporizer very often in my normal life. I use a bong or a pipe. I am not opposed to using a pipe on the trail, as I have done this many times backpacking and it works out great. For me, switching to using a vape is a health decision (and I like the flavor too). Since this is my motivation, I would prefer to use a vape where the butane exhaust will not be inhaled. I like the Lotus for this reason (but it seems to require the torch lighter...)
Vapor Genie -- wow, I am overwhelmed with their selection. It looks to me like all of their vapes will lead to inhalation of butane fumes... is that true? I think it would be cool if there was a vape where you just heat up the bottom/outside of the bowl, the heat gets conducted inside, and the inhalation path doesn't mix with the butane fumes.
Same thing with the Vapman, butane fumes...
Hammer -- refillable built-in lighter not my ideal solution as it would be hard to fix or replace if it broke.
Vaponic -- looks pretty cool, thanks! With the protective case it would probably be durable enough, would just have to be careful not to drop it and stuff.
Yes it is possible to carry a solar charger and use battery-powered vapes that way. The problem is that I don't want to carry a solar charger.
Hiking the PCT actually, not the AT. It is going to be a fucking rad adventure.
As a side note, I noticed most of you assumed I am a male. I'm curious why? 1/3 of through hikers are women and actually the fastest unsupported thru-hike of the 2660-mile PCT was done by a woman last year, in 60 days. These days if you want to be a badass hiker you have to grow a pair... of breasts!
I am in fact a dude but I thought this assumption was interesting.
Thanks for all the replies!
Good luck
Hiker
