Welcome to the forum!

You say you already do long hikes without a pack (although I presume you must take some kind of pack to carry your ten essentials). That is a good start, because when you get down to it, backpacking is just a combination of walking and camping.

Since you seem not ever to have backpacked, and it is somewhat unclear what you mean by your plans to expand, I intend to move this topic from the Long Distance Hiking section into the Backpacking Beginners section of the forum.

Just fyi: around here a "long distance hike" would probably begin at around 100 trail miles and could cover up to 2650 miles (or more!). But even if you intended a hike this long in the near future, I think your status as a beginner would still make that section the best place to continue this discussion.