So after hanging out on this site for the last few days, I'm feeling like I've recently made some purchasing mistakes. I'm 40 years old, and just now planning on getting into doing some 1-3 day trips, possibly longer eventually. However, I know that the majority of the time, I'll most likely end up driving out to the AT(I'm in the DC area), hiking during the day, setting up camp for the night, and then returning back to the car the following day at some point. I'll probably do the overnighters, and 2 nighters mainly. I do a lot of other things outdoors, but have never really been introduced to backpacking until just recently.

I just recently purchased the following gear:

-Gregory Baltoro 65 pack-really liked the adjustability of the bag, and the way it sat on my back with weight in it. I'm only about 140lbs, and the way it allowed the weight to kind of sit more on my hips felt more comfortable, at least to me. The bag just felt good, but what do I know!

-Golite Eden 2 tent-really wanted a 2 person tent, and something rather roomy as I definitely plan on having a friend generally join me. It sets up rather quickly as well, and the quality seems very impressive.

-Big Agnes Grouse Mountain 15deg down bag-wanted something that would allow me to do hikes/trip as far into the fall/beginning of winter as possible. I don't have any plans on doing overnighters in the dead of winter, at least not yet.

So, those are my Big 3 purchases. One very good reason the above items were purchased is because I can purchase anything from those brands, as well as Marmot, Wenger and Mountainsmith, through work at a substantial discount off of retail. So when shopping, I limited my research to those companies. I usually wouldn't do that with gear, but because this was new for me I figured why not and save some money while I was at it.

I now feel that the above items are probably "more" than what I really need. I'm now realistically trying to figure out everything I would potentially need for what I want to do and feel that the Baltoro is too much pack, in both size and weight. I bought the Baltoro because I figured it would be better to have too much room, versus too little.....probably not the best philosophy. The Marmot bag was a great value, but seems like it may be a bit heavy at 3lbs. And the Eden tent at 5lbs is definitely not the lightest of 2p tents.

Total weight for the above three items is about 13.5lbs. I just ordered a Crux lite stove kit, which seems rather nice, and have a Big Agnes insulated pad as well(16oz version). I'm working on putting together the rest of my essentials at this time, which this site has provided tons of help with, so thank you:)

My pack, bag, and tent, are all brand new, still with tags on them. I could actually return/exchange the pack and bag as it was just purchased, and the tent I could probably sell on CL and get back what I paid for it(around $250/retails for $425 I believe). I guess I'm just looking to see what some of you folks may think. Does what I have seem totally overkill for what I plan on doing? I'm not opposed to returning what I have and exchanging it for something that would seem more appropriate, but I guess I really don't know what would be appropriate at this point:/ I'm thinking the Baltoro bag is probably the item that I could go smaller and lighter with, especially considering what I'm mainly going to be doing.

I'm just feeling a bit uneasy now with my purchases, thanks to you weight weenies:) It's just making me think that my set up is going to be way too heavy for what I plan on doing. Based on the above brands I mentioned, would you recommend a different pack/bag/tent? Any thoughts? And I apologize for sounding so confused, concerned, etc! Maybe I should just stop being concerned and get out and use the stuff I already have!