Gear: You Are Almost Always Bringing Too Much

It seems that every hiker has almost the same story of their first trip. Load a pack up with everything you think you could possibly need, and hit the trail. Might get bored? Bring a few books! Need more stuff than you can fit IN your pack? Strap it to the outside! Food? An early trip in my career was primarily fueled by canned ravioli and Vienna sausages. HEAVY shit for sure!

My buddy had a full size bed pillow strapped to his pack, which another hiker we saw on the trail exclaimed obscenities about. Good thing he didn't bring the air mattress along after all!

So this first foray into hiking usually involves a 40+ pound pack, insanely sore legs, and a lasting memory of pain you would like to avoid ever repeating.

From there it's a process of cutting items down every trip, and finding lighter alternatives. Also, it's a process of gradually learning what comforts you can really live without, and adjusting yourself accordingly.

Note the size of the cook pot hanging out on the back of my pack - classic!

There's a beauty in the simplicity of it really. It's carried over into other parts of my life as well. I traveled to Taiwan for two weeks this year with a single carry-on bag and 3 changes of clothes. Every time I move, I look at all the crap I've accumulated. Stuff that I've hauled around to three different homes and never really even use. I've begun to look at that with the same mentality of eliminating needless possessions, or convincing myself not to buy them in the first place.

Moving all my crap.. once again

 I've put together an overview of the gear I'll be bringing. The hiker method of comparing pack weight involves the concept of 'base weight'. This is the weight of everything (excluding food and water, which vary in weight due to consumability) that will pretty much reside in your pack. Tent, sleeping bag, and the backpack itself are 'the big three' collectively, as they are typically the heaviest contributors to overall pack weight.

My base weight is currently coming in around 16.6 lbs. With water and a weeks worth of food loaded up, I estimate about 20 to 25 lbs on top of that. I will be carrying this over literal mountains - so I need to be mindful about eliminating the excess!

Wearing     Packed        Total 2.64 lbs 16.62 lbs 19.26 lbs           oz           lbs Gossamer gear Mariposa (BackPack) 31.5 1.97        Big 3    Clothes         misc Marmot Plasma 15 degree + stuff sac 36.4 2.28 6.13 lbs 6.84 lbs 6.29 lbs Contrail Tarp tent + steaks 30.2 1.89 UrSack (food bag) 5 0.31 trekking poles (total for both) 18.8 1.18 ground sheet (tub) 3.4 0.21 pack towel 2.1 0.13 hankerchief 1.2 0.08 DEET 0.9 0.06 Sunscreen 1.1 0.07 compass 1 0.06 bits of rope 1.7 0.11 stick pic (for taking video) 1 0.06 Thermarest pad (14 segments) 13.4 0.84 wet wipes  1.5 0.09 Headlamp 3 0.19 S4 phone (w/ otter box) 7.1 0.44 Cables 1 0.06 Battery pack 4.7 0.29 Knife 0.7 0.04 Journal/Pen 2 0.13 Stove 3 0.19 Fuel 5.9 0.37 Cook pot 4 0.25 Spoon 0.7 0.04 Sawyer mini + filter bag 2.6 0.16 Clothing! Darn toughs socks 2.5 0.16 Darn toughs socks 2.5 0.16 Injini socks (x1) 1.5 0.09 Marmot Precip 11.5 0.72 Marmot driclimb 8.4 0.53 Mountain hardwear Puffy 13.3 0.83 Sleep shirt 8.7 0.54 Capilene pants 4.9 0.31 Patagonia shirt 3.7 0.23 Prana shorts 6 0.38 Prana Pants 13.7 0.86 Ex Officio boxers (x2) 2.7 0.17 Sun Glasses and stow sack 1.5 0.09 OR sun hat 3.1 0.19 Rain Kilt 2.8 0.18 Bug Net (.8 without bag) 0.8 0.05 Howler bros shirt 7.1 0.44 beanie (Arcteryx) 2.2 0.14 sun gloves 0.6 0.04 umbrella 12 0.75 First aid/toiletries 14.8 0.93