I use a Steripen in the Sierra's and like it, but in the UP where river water tends to be a bit brown from the cedar, I think a filter would be a good idea. People around here really seem to like the Sawyer gravity feed filters. My buddies use an MSR... quite a bit heavier but very nice.


You can pick them up at most any outdoor shop. There are some cottage manufacturers making them out of sil-nylon of cuban. But it doesn't sound like that is what you are looking for (exotic and expensive).


If you are bringing rope to hang your bear bag, I doubt you need "general rope" in your other list.

http://store.usgs.gov

Many people report having luck finding these at goodwill type stores. Your looking for lightweight synthetic shirts.


http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/...thread_id=47684


How big are your feet? You have to fit all of your food and anything that has a smell to it (sunscreen, lipbalm...)


I don't use them. Driducks are supposed to be decent quality, cheap and lightweight.

Use your wool hat mentioned above.

Bring a lighter. You can dip matches in wax as a back-up (or bring 2 lighters)

Leave the long underwear at home. In those temperatures, you will not need them. Same for gloves...

And your folded fleece is your pillow. Add a towel for more thickness.

A 65l pack? We use a 50l pack for eight days. Why so big? Smaller is lighter, and lighter is better!

I assume you mean "cord" for hanging food, not rope. I use 3mm nylon cord - you can get it by the foot at REI or Sport Chalet. You want the cord to be thin enough that a bear cannot actually grab it, but strong enough that your food does not fall down. Learn to "counter-balance" hang the food, far above the bear's reach and out from the trunk of the tree enough that a bear cannot climb the tree and reach the food. I think properly hanging food is a real PAIN. I use bear-proof food containers - Bearikade and Ursack (where it is legal).

I take two cotton handkercheifs - no towel. The handkerchiefs also double for first aid duty.

Not knowing the actual brand of some of your gear, it is hard to say. Sandels- I use $10 "crock" knockoffs that weigh 8 oz total. Not sure of your local ethics - but if I want to dip into the water I just go naked. No extra underware needed - just go without when you are washing it. Lands End stuff is a bit heavy. For the high Sierra where it freezes every night, I only take: Marmot Precip jacket (12 oz), Montbell down sweater (4 oz), medium weight Isis wool undershirt (8 oz), one zip 100-wt fleece top (6 oz), long sleeve hiking shirt (7 oz) and if mosquito season I add a 3-oz undershirt for more mosquito protection. If I had a "buz-off" hiking shirt I would not do this. Bottoms- nylon hiking pants (12 oz), microfleece Arcterex Rho long johns (5 oz) (taken more so I can sleep in something clean so my sleeping bag does not get dirty). Three pair wool socks, only 2 if a short trip. 2-oz fleece stocking hat - add a 2-oz balaclava if I expect really cold. I have some cheap Walmart fleece gloves that I cut out the finger tips to make fingerless gloves - 2 oz. Baseball cap for hiking. Mosquito head net. Underpants that I wear, no extras. Oh, be sure to get underpants that have NO side seams. The more expensive ones that are smooth-no seam are much better. It amazes me what little seam it takes to hurt once you get your backpack waist belt tightened. And get high quality underware - nothing worse than dealing with "wedgies" while hiking. You could probably get by with one less insulating layer than I take, since it is warmer where you hike.

I would modify thus:

a trash compactor bag (unscented) to line the pack with
A second trash bag to make a rain skirt - when the forecast is favorable and the trip isn't excessively long, I don't bother with rain pants. The trash bag is a multi use item. If the pant legs of zipoff pants get wet and don't dry before bed, you can zip them off.

blow up the spare platypus or fill with water, it's a pillow. Wrap it in a spare clothing item.

If you are not going where the ground is very hard, the trowel can be left behind - use a stick, rock or tent stake. I favor granite flakes for digging where there are lots of roots.

I found synthetic bikini panties at Costco. ex officio synthetics have cotton crotch panels and are a good hybrid of the two. Have yet to try wool but have heard they are comfy.

Not sure why you need a cutting board. It is lighter and simpler to adopt a boil water / dehydrated meal method of food prep. Use a spoon to dish stuff out before you start eating, no need for serving utensils.

A couple of those Ziploc plastic containers will be lighter than the GSI stuff. If it's not going to get below freezing while you're cooking, insulation isn't really needed for the drinking/eating vessels. A pot cozy will help if you are rehydrating in the pot, otherwise a ziploc cozy is nice to have - rehydrating in the bag is less mess to clean up.

Lighting fires is an important skill, but firesteels take practice. A few bic lighters and some matches in a waterproof container will work. Firestarting material can be as simple as cotton balls dipped in petroleum jelly, stuffed in a small cylinder. I like lichen off cedar trees if I can find it - that stuff burns better than dryer lint.

Gloves are needed, even if only glove liners for warmth - for longer trips some weatherproof gloves are important.

If you are sensitive to sun, a big dorky hat will help. I don't do baseball caps for that reason. I have a Sunday Afternoon hat that provides good coverage, and always wear sunglasses especially above treeline.

One bandanna.

A gravity filter works great when you have lots of deeper water sources. In areas where I am forced to choose between shallow and scummy, and trickling and scummy, a pump filter with a good prefilter wrapped in a coffee filter is the ticket. I like a gravity filter because you can get the filter bag to act like a backcountry shower, with a little extra cord to hang it higher in a tree.

As for cooking gear/arrangements, I agree with Lori, freezer bag cooking is a great time and space/weight saver. Even if you decide to still do some more in depth cooking I would reccomend trying some FBC meals. It's quicker, lighter and no cleanup!

Cutting board? We use one of those thin plastic sheets, cut down to size. And it's for the salami and cheese we eat for lunch!

plastic sheet? Carry something to cut on? bah.. the bottom of my pot if I must, more usually a log, rock, anything else.

Pristine two bottle drops. Chlorine dioxide- light, fast, effective - this is what I use.



cheap 10 dollar long sleeve synthetic running shirt from old navy.



Dig a hole with a stick you pick up, or your trekking pole. the ancient art of hole digging was practiced by man long before the advent of "potty trowels" and is easily re-aquired



That *really* depends on you. Personally, outside of winter, I never take them, even in rainy weather, as I find them uncomfortable and "sweating in a bag". I hike in quick drying synthetic pants, and while hiking, I do not have a problem. Stopping in camp, I normally can hide and warm up in long undies and my bag in my shelter, and if the weather is really lousy and I must be sitting outside, I have a very lightweight silnylon poncho (an integral dynamics silponcho) that I will either rig as a tarp and sit under, or wear as a poncho which then protects my legs enough.

Now having said that, I arrived at that conclusion after a number of trips taking them and not using them. So ymmv. You can often find cheap pairs at a thrift store, or, if you don't care that they get wrecked easy and it's for sitting around camp, the really cheap "temporary rainsuit" ones that are little more than a garbage bag (or a garbage bag rainskirt) can also work.



Yes - I take ragg wool gloves, and save the weight of the pot lifter - I pick up my hot pot with wool gloves.



I take this - I make this out of reflectix or blue foam, sized to my pot and held togehter with duct tape.



I take a tea light (or two). also useful as a light source and emergency backup heat source.



I don't take this.




Large ziploc with extra clothing around it, filled up with air and sealed, or extra platypus, filled with air and a shirt around it, or your backpack... etc. etc.. I most commonly use a platypus - I normally take two, only use one while walking (and only with about a litre in it at a time, but my spare then gets filled with "camp water" in the evening for cooking and tea, then dumped out and inflated at night for my pillow.

If I for whatever reason want to keep water in it at night, I use a ziploc.




Empty your regular pack, and carry it with very little in it, instead of carrying *another* pack.

For water treatment, maybe you two could split a Sawyers Squeeze system? It about 49.99 and weights 3oz and comes with three pouches. (if you do get this, I'd just take one pouch with me.)

As other said with a pillow, I put my spare clothes in a stuff sack. A lot of times I change clothes to sleep or wear nothing at all. (Love my Mountain Hardwear bag! lol) So, what I do is, take my rain gears, extra clothes or my Marmot jacket and put them in my stuff sack and sleep on it as a pillow. If it too hard, I let some air out of stuff sack and that would soften it. I've never had neck pain or anything doing this. It can take a few adjustments with stuff sack and clothes placement to get it to feel just right.

Do you really need a mirror?!?

For fire starter, you could take a bunch of cotton balls and coat them in Vaseline then stuff them in a pill bottle. Once you light it start putting dry kindles on it, then slowly build it up!

Columbia usually sell UV protection long sleeves for about 20-30 bucks on sale somewhere on the internet.

Oh yeah, I bought my rain pants to match my jacket at Bass Pro Shop, the pants cost $20 and it a BPS brand. It works.

I think the rain pants are a personal decision. I know personally I'm saving up for or will make a rain skirt. I made one out of poncho earlier this year but the material was too light and every wind gust I was Marilyn Monroe. I got very wet and much colder than I thought - and I was wearing wool and fast drying synthetics! So my vote is for a properly made rain skirt and gaiters.

I take a signal mirror. If you understand what it's for, you know why it's important. Lost people who see the chopper and can't get them to notice them, or can't get their voice to carry to the hiker they see across the canyon, would have benefitted from having one.

A contractor bag and duct tape works great, unless it is extremely windy.

Marmot precip pants are a good compromise - light but waterproof. Driducks are lighter, but flimsy.

I, too, am a signal mirror fan. The weight of the smaller ones is miniscule, or I can use the mirror on my compass....

which is why I don't take a dedicated one, I have any number of shiny mirror like surfaces that will flash, everything from the space blanket liner under my hammock, to my compass mirror, to the glass on my phone (which is my ereader, which I take to read books on at night).

WE take only one knife. And it doesn't stay sharp enough to clean fish if we use a rock as a cutting board. And I've learned that using your thigh as a cutting board has certain limitations...

The sheet we use is about 1/32 of an inch thick...very flexible...and snugs up against the curved wall of the bear canister. I can't get a weight for it on our scale...under one ounce.

I catch and clean trout a lot - never thought about a cutting board.

Maybe if I also filleted them? Don't need to do that tho. Wrapping them in foil and laying them on the coals after cleaning is about the extent of it.

A few more random comments from the peanut gallery..



there's yer pillow!


On the rare occasions my pot is dirty enough to warrant it because it has done more than boil water - I scrub it out with sand/rocks. I don't care about it getting scratched - this is why I don't like "non-stick" coatings - and my pots
don't have them


Take 'em back and buy two of the disposable ziploc "bowls" at your local grocery store - lighter and have a lid - work great for this.



A stick.. your spoons? I certainly don't take anything other than a spoon and small pocket knife


No - take an extra lighter..


Leave at home unless you're planning on cooking something crazy.. if just fbc and quick cook stuff you won't need it
I never take such a thing, but see above comment about rocks and sand





I actually carry a 2 and 3l - I hardly ever (unless I know I'm going to be a long time from water) ever put more than a litre and a half in one of them that I am carrying during the day.. I fill them up (and may use as a pillow) in camp when cooking tho.




consider some iodine/betadine, and some 4x4 gauze pads, with some good tape. (I carry those, even in a very small kit. They get used) skip the gauze roll - if you need a bandage take a knife to a shirt. I don't take the ace bandage, but I know some people swear by it. An (unscented un-perfumed, etc.) plain old maxi-pad is a fantastic nasty wound dressing, and may be worth having in there.


So is mine. and has been for many years




I would ask why on earth you would ever need two, but a very creative use of two was recently posted by a long time forum member... do you need these when also carrying a buff?



I don't take extra batteries - I have a very small coin cell LED backup light. lighter than extra batteries.


mine is wrapped around my trekking pole.



I don't take this - what for? - I do take some small bits of utility cord. (the kind that can make a tarp tie-out)



If you're already bringing a keyboard for an e-reader/phone - can this be used in place of the deck of cards? I stopped carrying these when I carried the e-reader. I also don't spend a lot of time "in camp sitting around" - so depends on your trip.



I take two a day, to clean my bum, and my hands, after number 2

If I take wet ones, I don't take this - I use a bit of extra stove alcohol for this purpose.



and since you're new, I'll give you a reminder about the above - treat it all (new and used) like *FOOD* with respect to animal avoidance - bears, raccons, critters all love to get into this stuff. you won't want to clean up the mess they'll make in your tent over it.