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Everything Weighs Something

I am, finally, an ultra-light backpacker. On my next warm weather hike my base weight, that’s everything but food and water, will be less than 10 pounds.

Total weight is base weight plus food and water. How much your food and water weighs depends, of course, on how long you going to be out, figure 1.5 pounds of food per day on a section hike,  and the availability of water.  I generally start the day with one to two liters, 2.2 to 4.4 pounds.

When Ms. Viking found this bag of pennies at a shelter, she didn't take them with her. Why? Pack weight.
When Ms. Viking found this bag of pennies at a shelter, she didn’t take them with her. Why? Pack weight.

As any seasoned backpacker can tell you, the three most important things about backpacking are pack weight, pack weight, and pack weight.  I used to not know that.

On my first hike, on the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota ten years ago, I carried 43 pounds, total, equipment plus water for the day and food for a six-day hike.  I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s a lot of weight, about double what I should have been carrying.

When I first started backpacking I took things I might need.  That’s a mistake.  You only take stuff you have to have. And if you get out there and discover you packed too light, you’ve left something important at home, just remember: If you need it and don’t have it you don’t need it.

I’ve heard plenty of people say about something they’re carrying, like a paperback book: It’s real light, it doesn’t weigh anything.  They’re wrong about that.  Everything weighs.

The stove I carry weighs less than an ounce.
The stove I carry weighs less than an ounce.

I’ve backpacked a good bit, over 3,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail and 300 miles or so on  trails out West, and I’ve finally learned — I weigh all of my equipment on a postal scale and I  trim every ounce I can. Three ounces here, an ounce there, it adds up.

The reasons for going light are obvious: the lighter your pack the more miles you can hike and the more comfortable you are no matter how far you want to hike each day.

Here’s my warm weather pack list:

NOTE: If I’m so concerned about pack weight why don’t I lose some belly weight?  That’s a very good question, mean, but good.

Summer Pack List

Base Weight: 9 lb, 14.8 oz

SLEEPING – 2 lb, 4 oz

  • GoLite down quilt and bag, comfortable to about 40 degrees. 1 lb, 6 oz
  • Pad, Therm-A-Rest Neoair Xlite, and bag – 12.2 oz.
  • Pee bottle, with duck tape — 1.8 oz.

BACKPACK – 1 lb., 10 oz

  • Zpack Arc Haul, 62L, with accessory, 1 lb, 10 oz

CLOTHES – 1 lb., 9.6 oz

.…Carried in the compression sack, 4.8 oz, with my down quilt.

  • One long sleeve shirt – 9.9 oz
  • One pair of medium wool socks 3.2 oz
  • One pair of underwear, 3.3 oz
  • Black bag wind, rain deflector, 3.9 oz
  • Head bug net 0.5 oz

TENT – 1 lb, 4 oz

  • Zpacks Solplex Tent, 15.5 oz
  • 8 stakes, 4.5 oz

KITCHEN – 1 lb, 3.9 oz

  • Pack bag with cooking pot, lid, cup; stove in its bag; trash bag; cigarette lighter and matches stored in a water-tight medicine bottle – 8.2 oz
  • Fuel – 7.5oz
  • Bear rope, 46 feet, with reflectors weaved into the rope, and carabineer – 4.2 oz

WATER – 9.4 oz

  • Sawyer Squeeze [includes two squeeze bags, backflow filter, hang bag for gravity filtering] — 5.9 oz
  • One peanut jar size water bottle – 1.5 oz
  • One Smart Water water bottle – 1.3 oz
  • One Coke bottle – 0.7 oz

TOOLS – 9.0 oz

Zip lock bag for tools containing…

  • Cap light
  • Needle, thread, tie-ties
  • Pad repair tape
  • Tweezers [for ticks, or ear plugs stuck in my ear.]
  • Fingernail clips
  • Ear plugs
  • Razor
  • Extra spoon [I’ve been without a spoon. Bummer. Now I carry two.]
  • Three rubber bands
  • Exterior phone battery, and one wire, gives me 2 phone recharges

HYGIENE – 7.6 oz

Stored in yellow bag

  • Large zip lock for toilet and tooth items
  • Small zip lock bag for:
  • Toilet paper stored in its own alone in a small bag
  • Purel or equivalent
  • Vaseline
  • Small zip lock bag for:
  • Toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss
  • Soap, bagged separately
  • Pills
  • MEDICAL KIT – 5.3 oz

Medical kit and Tools stored in blue bag

  • Zip lock bag for medical kit containing:
  • Band-Aid Friction Block –this is really good stuff. It stops blisters before they get going.
  • Band-aids
  • Triple antibiotic ointment. Don’t leave home without it – I have used it many, many times and have never had an infection.
  • Moleskin, 2 sheets
  • Medical tape
  • Stretch-tape to keep moleskin in place; sprained ankle
  • Ibuprofen; insect bite treatment; Diphen for runny nose; antiseptic for cuts; and Pennsaid, to reduce pain from knee injuries
  • Bug spray

SLEEPING –2 lb 4.0 oz

BACKPACK –1 lb 10.0 oz

CLOTHES –1 lb 9.6 oz

TENT –1 lb 4.0 oz

KITCHEN –1 lb. 3.9 oz

WATER –0 lb. 9.4 oz

TOOLS –0 lb 9.0 oz

HYGIENE –0 lb. 7.6 oz

MEDICAL KIT –0 lb. 5.3 oz

TOTAL 9 lb. 14.8 oz

Coming Monday: My Favorite Newspaper Story

The Source Of The Problem

It was the Fourth of July, we were at North Topsail Beach, and it was hot.

My wife, Donna, took Jack, our mentally handicapped son, to the pier at nearby Surf City so they could sit in the shade. 

Jack doesn’t know very many words but he knows some sign language and he signed to his mother that he needed to go to the bathroom. Sometimes when he asks to go to the bathroom he really does need to go. Sometimes he doesn’t, he just wants to walk around. Or, maybe, he wants candy. He knows we’ll take him to the bathroom –don’t want to take a chance, do we – and on the way he might snag some candy.

Jack and Donna
Jack and Donna

He kept asking and she finally took him to the bathroom on the pier, too late. By then Jack, who was an adult in years, had what my wife called an “upset stomach” and on the way to the bathroom he left a trail.

“The bathroom was very small,” Donna told me. “I took off his bathing suit and washed it out but Jack wouldn’t put it back on – it was wet and cold. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have a towel with me, and I couldn’t march him to the car naked.”

That’s when the man who worked there knocked on the bathroom door.

Donna said she asked him what he wanted and he said he was “looking for the source of the problem.”

“I told him the source was in here with me, and I asked him if he would do me a favor. I said, ‘I’m coming out and I want you to hold this door closed while I run to my car and get a towel.'”

So that’s what happened. He held the bathroom door shut and kept Jack from coming out wearing – nothing. Donna got a towel from her car, wrapped it around Jack, and off they went.

Jack was not embarrassed, he never is. Donna was pretty laid back too, all things considered. This was not her first rodeo.

Coming Friday: Everything Weighs Something