In the early 70's I was talking to my boss, a outdoor hunter/fisherman. We were discussing fishing at a lake I had heard about and I didn't have a pack. He loaned me his pack a couple times, then I bought it off of him for around $35 I believe, a Camp Trails external pack which I used for weekend and up to eight day trips until the nineties. What I want to say, is, a bp is all you really need to buy, if you had a sleeping bag from when you were a kid, you can take stuff from home to do at least an overnighter. A heavy, synthetic bag is cheap to at least get out of the house. Maybe a piece of plastic if it looks like rain, in the west, on alot of trips that would have been all that was needed. Of course back then, I cooked over a fire.