Thanks for the help everyone!

Originally Posted By oldranger
If you are doing this as a training exercise,and you are in reasonably good shape, I would pack a bit heavier - forty to forty-five pounds.


That sounds like a good idea, kind of like the runners who train with the little parachute tied around their waist. My only real adventure in backpacking to date was a year or so ago, I loaded up the alice pack for an overnight trip, and altogether it weighed about 60lbs. A good portion of the weight was the 12" cast iron skillet w/ lid and a bag of charcoal I used as a dutch oven. Luckily my site was a little under a mile away.
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