I've been sorting out my gear for the past couple weeks to get ready for this hiking season (starts here right about now) and last night I got most everything I'll need for a four night trip with lows in the 30ºs and I'm weighing in at about 32lbs, probably add another 3lbs before I actually make it out the door.

Your pack will be weighing 45lbs. That's a lot for 3 nights. There is a big difference between carrying 45lbs and 35lbs and it gets bigger the longer you carry it. Ironically, that's how much I was carrying for three nights when I first arrived here.

This year I've taken a slightly different approach to lightening my load. It's weird, but while going through my gear and reworking my pack I've found that for me 25lbs "Feels" light when I pick it up and comfortable when pack it around. 32lbs "Feels" heavy.

So I'm working on getting a two night trip down to 25-27 lbs. I think that might be the "Sweet Spot" for me right now with the gear I have. So my first few trips out will be two nighters. After that, I'll work on extending that same load to get another night out of it.

Just for grins, check out this Rapala 4 inch fillet knife. It's fairly light (32 grams), very sharp, inexpensive, and durable. I don't think it'd be good for digging holes, but it's what I'll be carrying this year: