Registered: 02/23/03
Posts: 2124
Loc: Meadow Valley, CA
Tyson, I can't recall the full description as they went when I had just been there recently (Kennedy Meadows/Sonora Pass), so I passed on that trip. I'll have to look back at that and ask the organizer. Duane
Registered: 08/16/10
Posts: 1590
Loc: San Diego CA
Sorry HIKEtube, but this list is kinda funny. Waaaaaaay too generic a list and very hard to take it serious. For instance, although the bear spray may be an important item to bring in certain areas, Hawaii is not one of them. Leave the bear spray at home and instead bring mask, fins, and snorkel maybe. Or replace it with money for shave ice . So one suggestion is to be more area or region specific. Bungee cordes? I suppose......but a camping essential? I suppose you could use it to strap your boom box to the backpack. As previously mentioned, it sounds like you carrying a lot of unnecessary weight but you are not bringing a camera to record the adventure?
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6800
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
I looked through your list. I'm sorry, but I don't find it a good one. I did not find one single item that I would ever take on a backpacking trip here in the Pacific Northwest, home of the extra-tropical rain forest, where in the shoulder seasons it can be just as wet as the tropics, although far colder.
I did find a lot of very heavy gear choices where a lighter (and no more expensive) choice would function as well. There are also a lot of unnecessary duplications. (Example: full tent plus hammock plus tarp plus ground-sleeping bug net--why three different shelters?) The total gear on your list would add up to an extremely heavy pack that I, for one, couldn't manage to drag, much less carry, across the parking lot from my vehicle to the start of the trail!
Take a look at the 27 lb, 7-day gear list on the home page of this site, left-hand column. It was designed for the northern Cascades in 3 seasons. I used this list as the model for my own and my gear has been in use for a number of years, including in several days of continuous heavy rain and in temps down to 15*F. A number of my brand/model choices for individual items are not the same (some are lighter and some are heavier), but generically the individual items are the same and my total pack weight is a couple of pounds less. This gear has kept me warm and dry and comfortable for a number of years now through everything the PNW climate can throw at me.
You really need to weigh the individual items in your list and add up the total. You may find it an eye-opener! While weight certainly isn't everything, a lighter pack is far more comfortable and far more fun!
Now that I look at your post again, especially since you made it in the "Off Topic" section, was it perhaps intended as a joke?
Edited by OregonMouse (01/13/1403:33 PM)
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