Excellent information and thank you for your input! I thought my other stuff was fairly light with the exception of my backpack, guess I have some work to do! I'm not looking to make any mods to the backpack I currently have, it was designed that way for a purpose, and I'll definitely use it for that same purpose again... That's the approach I'll take, focus on reducing items, item weight, and then assess at a later date. Again, thank you so much for the info, enjoy the outdoors!!