You are doing exactly what I did seven years ago, when I was getting back into the game after many years of not backpacking. "I don't see what's so heavy in my pack." Like me, you will see after the first trip.

You've got articles and other advice, so I will offer bits and pieces that others haven't.

Go try out the gear in the backyard or car camping first. Don't make your first use of things a multi-night trip. You'll wish you hadn't. Trust me on that.

Don't go solo until you figure out your tolerances and get some skills (first aid, awareness of the Big Three - dehydration, hypothermia, high altitude sickness - and navigation), and get the gear figured out. Find hiking buddies or groups.

The Nemo Meta 2P is one of the handful of tents I've slept in. The walls are too sloped - sitting up means banging your head. We slept with the doors wide open and the bugnets shut, so no experience with condensation - but had we been out in the rain, I've no doubt that like any other PU coated nylon in the world, once zipped up the moisture would start to gather. That isn't why the tent is a bad idea... The vents we propped open by guying them out with found sticks propping up the line to get more ventilation. A 3 lb tent for just you is heavy. There are many non-freestanding models that are much lighter than that.

That sleeping bag is probably not accurately rated - some of my SAR teammates got variously-rated Lamina bags on a prodeal and report that they are not true to spec. I always take my 20 oz, 20F down quilt and never regret it.

When I went on my first overnight trip seven years ago, I carried an overloaded Osprey Aura 50 (in the wrong size, for starters) for 10 miles out, 10 miles back. Pretty much figured out that I had the wrong shoes, the wrong pack, and the wrong ideas about what I needed. I managed to get so dehydrated that I crossed three creeks - after running out of water - without stopping for a drink. I cried all the way back out. (This is why I suggest not hiking solo for a while - when you are so dehydrated you can't think, you don't even understand that! Someone else can recognize the change in you where you won't. Saying you just won't get dehydrated is like saying you won't get lost... you can't really guarantee this, no matter who you are or how much you know.) I had blisters from toe to heel due to letting some shoe guy who hadn't a clue sell me hiking shoes that didn't fit right. To add insult to injury, I didn't realize I'd picked up a tick, and ended up on two courses of antibiotics to treat a massive rash.

I have attached a picture of my pack for tomorrow's overnight trip. Again, I am going 10 miles out, 10 miles back. Unlike the first trip, I do not have an overpacked 50 liter pack that weighs 35 lbs and doesn't fit right. I am using my 40 liter Gregory Jade, which is also the pack I use for SAR. My tent weighs 22 oz, and my quilt about the same. My NeoAir weighs 13 oz. Total weight WITH 2 liters of water, two pounds of food, a small bear canister, and the GPS that I really don't need to take is 23 lbs - and the pack by itself weighs 3 lbs.

The green stuff sack is my quilt, not stuffed as small as it will go - I don't like to completely compress things if I don't have to, it has the potential of damaging the insulation. The gray sack next to it is the tent, a Tarptent Sublite. The smaller gray sack next to that is the NeoAir, not even stuffed as compact as it can be. Orange sack is clothing including a down jacket. Stove kit (blue rimmed round object next to the Natrapel) is a bowl, cup, stove, windscreen, lighter, sport, pot lifter, fuel bottle and pot with lid - weighs 10.5 oz for the entire kit. Black case is my glacier glasses. Black canister with red striping on the left is my bear canister. Green stuff sack is my gravity filter (10 oz, a ULA Amigo Pro with a Platypus clean stream filter unit) and a 2 liter platypus bladder. Oh, and the head net - bugs are going nuts out there. On the right, fishing gear, and in the middle GPS, represent an additional 2.5 - 3 lbs of weight I could leave out but am taking anyway. Blue sack in the middle is my hygiene bag, emergency stuff (repair kit, spare cord, firestarter, extra bic lighter, first aid kit, batteries for headlamp) and six water purification tablets to back up the filter.

The shoes I am wearing fit me like gloves and have more than 100 miles of dayhiking on them to make sure that I won't blister. The layered clothing (including gloves and a hat) I am taking will take me below the anticipated temps (about freezing, at night). I won't have blisters, won't be dehydrated, and won't cry my way back to the car because I have learned - when something hurts, stop and fix it. When you are planning the trip research water sources and don't neglect filling up at regular intervals. Eat often, drink in sips and frequently, wear good wool/wool blend socks (cotton socks chop up my feet and hold moisture which promotes blisters), always always always hold judgment on whether a pack fits until you have worn it for some miles while full - my first pack was wonderful in the store, but by the end of my first trip I felt like I'd packed a truck in it! Oh, my hips hurt....

Lastly, don't get attached to using gear that doesn't really work. The only thing I still have from my first trip was the stove I took. The rest has been sold to fund gear that really works for me.

My next pack will probably be a ULA pack - I've tried one on, and because they will comfortably carry a bear canister (required most of the time for me) and have different sizes of belt (I sometimes require a small pack with a medium hip belt, depending on the pack), and they are domestically made and lighter than the "ultralight" 3 lb mainstream packs (3 lbs is not a light pack!!!), it'll be the next major gear purchase for me. I have the Gregory because it is the sort of pack that survives being thrown out of a helicopter - something I've done three times so far this year.

As for the cooking gear you list... it's too heavy. You're getting a set to cook with and a stove with a narrow flame best suited to boiling water. A wide flame pattern suited to frying and cooking is usually going to mean a heavier stove. And your food weight will increase with the intent to cook on the trail - the lightest food you'll be able to manage is the kind you don't have to cook - just-add-water meals. I dehydrate meals and use recipes from trailcooking.com quite happily. Friends don't let friends buy Mountain House.

Speaking of food... get to know the regulations for food storage and plan for bear canisters *from a list of approved models* depending on your destination. In California I get to haul a canister into the mountains a good deal of the time - fortunately the smallest and lightest, the Bare Boxer, is also the cheapest model on the approved list for the national parks.

Look at Six Moon Designs, Gossamer Gear, ULA and Zpacks before you decide your gear isn't heavy! You'll only find them online. I have Gossamer Gear trekking poles and have had one of their packs - good stuff, excellent customer support.