Buy a backpack - Gregory Z65, and its matching rain cover, 4 lbs, 7 oz. Use my Sierra Designs Transition 10F, ~3 lbs. Down bag. Use my Golight 2 man tarp - don't have a digital scale, but I think it's between one and two pounds.

Good start! You can probably save a bit of weight with a lighter pack....but it's no big deal.


No lights. Use the stars, moon for light, and go to bed at dark.

We use little headlamps that weigh about 1.5 oz. Why not? And they are cheap.

Make a Heineken alcohol stove. I have an MSR Pocket Rocket, but had thought of making a 2-can wood gassifier stove and a pot windscreen, for main stove. About 6 ounces.

This is a lot more trouble than the pocket rocket--which is just about the perfect stove. Why change?

Buy a titanium pot w/lid (Snow Peak Trek 900), (we use an aluminum pot...much cheaper)

and a 2-wall plastic cup for my coffee, 6 oz.

Just take a tupperware style cup--lighter and works just as well, and doesn't break.

Buy a 2.5 gallon gravity water filter, the Katadyn Base Camp Filter, with a replacement filter, and carry both. ~1 lb, 9 oz.

We use the hiking pump--quicker, lighter, and faster. And the hydration bladder is overkill. Three liters weighs abaout six pounds. Take the filter, fill one bottle. drink. refill at the next creek. We use a second, plastic bottle, for extra water at camp, but we don't carry it on the trail full of water.

Buy and bring a wild foods book.

uhhh--too much Bear Grylls. Not enough food value in most of that stuff to make it worth the effort to collect.

Bring a sheet of plastic for ground cloth. Use local conditions and materials to make a soft litter for sleep. Use an extra piece of clothing, or a corner of the pack for pillow. (*

This is what your fleece is for at night! fold it up and saw logs.

Haven't made the list of other things yet: rope (Use lightweight cord, not heavy rope) and sack for PCT bear hang, tapes for repairs/wounds, stove fuel, food containers (ziplocks and hang sack).

I don't need to bring a chair, table, or radio.

No, you don't. And you don't need GPS either. But you should have a map and a compass.

I haven't worked out navigation yet.

Get to work on that...

Thought I'd bring a knots book, a flask of Bombay Sapphire, a lighter and matches in w/p cylinder.

If you are planning to spend some time on the trail, at altitude, the booze is a waste of weight...and do you really need a knots book? Just copy five pages of diagrams, if you are really fixed on learning some.

on my body, i'll wear clothes and my New Balance walking sneakers... An OR sunhat. I'll buy a really good pair of sunglasses, about $155. Oakley something. Bring an extra t-shirt and underpants, a 2nd pair of socks, No sticks. A heavy fleece shirt for night (3-season), and 2 long sleeve shirts for over the t-shirt.

Go with one shirt--you don't need two. I don't wear T-shirts. I have one bodyarmor shirt for sleeping in, a short sleeved hiking shirt, a long sleeve fleece, and a rain shell. Weighs a lot less than your outfit, and when I put it all on its plenty warm...

Swimsuit that can double as shorts. Light weight long pants. Haven't figured what kind of pants yet. I have jeans, and that won't work.

Get zip-off hiking pants that dry fast. They are also your shorts. And your swim trunks.

swimsuit has mesh liner that won't allow thermal pants. maybe i'll ditch the swimsuit for shorts so i can use thermal pants and look like a dork, or maybe just mental.

Parachute cord (3/16") for tarp ridgeline and hang sack. Real light cord for tarp stakes. Tarp stakes. Camp suds. I'll use my long sleeve shirt for towel.

Take a little towel--it doesn't weigh much, and your shirt is gonna get dirty.

And THAT is as far as I've gotten.
I would like to hear feedback on the list, and also on the kind of weight range you guys think I could aim for. Also, what have I missed that you would recommend?

I've saved you about ten pounds between the 3 liters of water, the Bombay Saffire, the books, and a few other things...

What else should be on the list? Some basic first aid stuff like band-aids and antiseptic cream, ibuprophen, bug juice, plastic trowel and TP, small fishing knife, space blanket, whistle,sewing kit to fix what breaks.

And with food, the two of us add up to about 55 pounds for a week on the trail--I carry 33, she carries 22.