Go Light Works Except......

“I tried going light on my 8 Day hike last summer only problem was I couldn't pass the paradigm onto my Hiking partners. My Weight before food was 20 lbs and could have been less if I had forgone the Fishing gear, camera, and Extra Shoes.

My partners were over weighted with heaver packs of about 30 lbs before the food. One of them wanted to bring a folding chair and a pillow. Luckly I persuaded her to leave that at the trailhead.

The trip from Tolumne Meadows to Clarks Fork took 8 days and was great except for the complaints and fatigue of my hiking partners. For the first 4 days my pack weight stayed the same, as the food weight droped I seemed to gain anouther item of "unnecessary" gear from my partners heavy loads, eventually evening us out.

I must testify that a lighter load equals a more pleasant walk. If only I could have convinced my friends before the hike. I wont forget how the last day went by. A deathmarch for them, one focused on what they would do once home. For me I was discussing what sections of the PCT I would do next. They just looked at me like I was some sort of slave driver for just bringing up the subject.

GOin LIght WORKS!”

“Awesome thinair!”

“I find when I hike with others I'm more apt to bring more stuff. When I'm by myself I like to hike and live like a total animal and carry very little.

Sounds like your friends would have been asking how they could drop the weight too after seeing how much better off you were.”

“problem with going light weight is that you have to have a light pack to plesent stay ration, if your pack gets to light you will hike faster and maximize time in camp and because you packed less and left out the things that make a stay in camp more pleanet your trip won't be happy. I like a 13lb load before food at water, and thats with luxuries”

“Golite-gust is the pack I carry now days. I am impressed, 5400ci @ 19oz!”

“I got the daypack. Excellent weekender. 10.5 oz / 2200 (?) cu. in.”

“8 days and 20lbs! I'm impressed, thinair. Did your total pack weight come out to be around 36lbs? What do you take for first aid? Do you use purification tablets? Polar Pure? What was the weather like and what kind of weather gear (warmth, rain...) did you carry?”

“I set 35# as the max load and pack what I think I will need. The hard decisions come into play when total weight exceeds 35#. If I pack it in, I will pack it out (God willing and the creek don't rise). And I make it a point not to complain about the weight of the gear I choose to pack.”

“We had the usual firstaid, mostly pills and blister fixers.

My total weight with food & water was about 40-42 lbs. The water weight fluctuated a lot.

I have a story about our water situation. On our 3rd day the filter started squeeling loudly and took a lot of labor to pump. I had it down alright it just needed some TLC. One of my partners however got impatient and pumped to fast and the damb thing broke rendering it compleatly useless.
Fortunately we brought some purification tablets. Unfortunately we only had a 2 day supply of tablets and 5 days of hiking ahead of us.
We got resourceful and drank out of springs and used half the recomended dosage of purifying tablets and 4 times the recomended time. The system worked wonderfully and eliminated the laboring at mosquito infested streams. I'm seriously rethinking the whole water purification system. Our desprate measures ended up working out just fine and made for a pleasant trip. Cold spring water sure was nice to drink! I did however secreatly pray over the water.

To save weight on shelter I made a 2 man tarp from the Ray Jardine idea, and for raingear I only brought an emergency poncho, all of which we never had any need to use. The Sierras are pretty calm compaired to other mountain ranges.”

“Of course at the end of our trip I was down to the 20lbs plus about 5 lbs of my partners' gear.”

“I'm always looking for a good, safe way to reduce pack weight. Iodine has worked for years, I only ever tried filtering a couple of times and really didn't care for it. Polar Pure works great, but is a heavy/bulky iodine system but with less iodine flavor in the water and cheaper over the long run than the tablets. I've been thinking about trying the Aquamira stuff.

BTW, base pack weight now down to 12 pounds.”

“I got a-hold of a Tyvek, O.R. "bunny suit" here at the hospital. It zippers to the crotch. I'm thinking about using that for my raingear. I'll run some tests and see how it works.”

“Oh yeah! Show up at the shealter with that thing on and ask, "Who was it that reported the anthrax?"

You'll have that baby all to yer self!”