The Shakedown

I only had ancient and heavy backpacking and camping gear available, so I went on a shopping spree using recommendations from friends and YouTube videos. I ended up with a set of gear that gives me the things I care most about: sleep comfort and warmth. In the past week I've been endlessly tweaking the loadout to meet a sub 20lb base weight.

Here's a mostly complete inventory, except the shoes, trekking poles and full wardrobe. I'll be starting the trip with a pair of Salomon Thundercross on my feet, and we'll see how useful the water resistance is.

I found the pack at the local outfitter. It was the lightest 60L pack on the wall and I felt like I could make it work. I started wearing it during my training hikes, loaded with about 7L of water and as much gear as I had on hand to put in it. Later on I modified it slightly, removing the brain and its straps, and shortening other straps which were getting in the way. Between the volume of all the sleeping gear and the bear canister, I'm using every bit of that 60L.

There are a few areas where I most expect to discard or send things home as I go:

• Winter clothes. Needed most in the mountains of the southeast in March and April. The puffy jacket adds considerable weight, and I'll still have a flannel outer layer for cold summer nights.
• Downsizing the sleeping bag to a smaller and lighter quilt.
• The bear canister. Seems like a nice convenience, but I may swap it out for a hanging bear bag kit down the trail, especially for longer stretches as the BV475 makes it a tight squeeze.
• Maybe I can pick up lighter nail clippers, but I'm not going anywhere without something for this. I've already had to deal with some terrible broken fingernails this year. They're pretty brittle.
• Maybe I can figure out how to use a few less bags without dealing with loading in and out an epic mess of gear every day.

The extra pair of camp/water shoes were a last minute addition after making significant cuts in other areas, mostly the pharmaceutical department (why would I need the whole box of Imodium and four rehydration salts? At that point I'm either dead or going for a helicopter ride).

I wasn't going to pack the powdered soap, but news of stomach bug outbreak changed my mind. The norovirus doesn't care much about hand sanitizer or wet wipes.

Overall, I went out of my way to avoid needing to tie knots every day. I added a system for fastening the sleeping pad to the bottom with a single carabiner. I added small carabiners and loops to all of the tent stakes and set up the tent such that I can clip everything together. I still took the time to practice my running bowline and fisherman's bend, mostly to re-tie anything that comes loose or come up with creative ways to use my extra cord.

Hopefully the 10Ah power bank is enough to continue updating this blog daily, on top of navigation, logistics and photography duties. I've scheduled some posts in advance, just in case.