I know what you mean MTvagabond, it's hard to not want to bring the message chair on trail. After a looooong day on trail, plug it in...ooops! Forgot the solar charger! Would be nice though.

From my experience, it boils down to the goals for the trip. Is it just to have fun and go fishing, or is it to get from point A to point B. How much time do you have? What kind of terrain are you going over? What kind of potential problems do you expect? Have you been there before, or are you using a guidebook or some other source of information? How much experience do you have? These are the kind of questions I ask myself and sometimes it does not lead to the lightest pack in the world. But in my mind I feel comfortable and ready to do what I want to do.

When my son was in boy scouts, their first troupe backpack was an overnite peak bagging trip to Whaley Peak East of San Diego. This was a November desert trip and even though the peak is covered in pinions, water is pretty scarce up there. So my goals for the trip were very simple; to make sure the boys had fun (even though I wasn't the leader), and to make sure everyone stayed out of trouble. No rain forcasted so I used my poncho setup to sleep in a very comfortable sandy spot. Everything else was stripped bare so that I basically carried 3 gal extra water, extra snack food, and my desert first aid kit. I didn't tell them I was going to bring the extra water and snacks, but they were gone by the time we got back to the vehicles the next day.