Okay, I've been giving that some thought...

I agree that we shouldn't strive to label ourselves as a certain class of backpacker, but I think it's worthwhile to discuss different styles and approaches to backpacking, and to try and provide a descriptive definition of them. It serves a purpose because these different approaches are appropriate for either specific conditions or learning different techniques.

I can go "Primitive" as Jim suggested, just for the fun and experience of trying it, but even if I do that occasionally it serves no good purpose to label me as a "Primitive" backpacker, nor any good purpose to limit the definition to just the one Jim has described. There can be many different approaches to the style, and we can all practice it.

I can also go "Ultralight" to see what I can learn from the experience, as I tried to point out. But as I've defined it, it has more to do with limiting what I choose to take from the gear I have on hand, and little or nothing to do with what it weighs or costs. Using plastic utensils would be just as legitimate as titanium, for example, as Jason Klass has pointed out in some of his comments. Bringing three knives, one for eating, one for defense, and one for cleaning my fingernails, would not be true to the definition however, just as bringing a GPS would not be true to the definition of "Primitive".

Now, if I found a particular style suited me best, I might, for example, call myself a "Primitive" backpacker when someone ask me about the subject, but what airs could I put on because of that? It's just a personal preference.

If I were backpacking "Very Light", bringing only the lightest gear available, and all the latest gadgets, and I ran across Jim out in the wilderness, would he feel inferior? I doubt it. Should I? I see no reason to. If I put on airs Jim would simply dismiss me as a jerk, but if we sat down together and compared styles and experiences, we might both learn something of value.

So, as a backpacker, it would behoove me to learn as much as I can from all these styles of backpacking and be open enough to try them in their purest form, whatever that may be, and to be flexible enough to blend them as appropriate for whatever trip I might take.

As a backpacking community, it behooves us to learn and share what we can from all these different styles. In fact, this is what brought me here in the first place.

It has been my intention to apply what I learn here about lightweight backpacking and ultralight gear to hiking with a pack animal, and to share that experience with others here.

In my opinion, hiking with a pack animal is also a style of backpacking. In fact, this is one of the oldest styles of backpacking when considered in this light. So old it has been considered obsolete, as far as backpacker's are concerned, for so now long it's not even defined as such by the sport anymore. But, in my opinion, it's been their loss (or gain if you consider that we actually took the pack off the animals back and strapped it to our own .

We've ignored it for so long now that if you apply all the innovation to backpacking gear since then, and the latest innovations in equine tack, to an "Ultralight" pack animal, you find a vast array of new opportunities for the sport.

Consider, for example, the potential for the innovation we've seen in the past decade on human kinetic energy devices to charge batteries. Now, put one of those on a pack animal. While we're at it, make one that purifies water as well.

If the community could learn to accept it as a definition for a style of backpacking, suddenly "Backpackers" everywhere can take advantage of these opportunities. If that happened innovation would explode. I'd like to see that happen.

If I could rent a burro to carry my gear, filter my water, and charge my batteries, on a 40 mile long trail in a NF, I'd do it. I'd do it right now and I would love it