Hey everyone! Stumbled upon this community, and i thought id take the opportunity to get some ideas from some people that are more experienced than me on my backpacking aspirations.
Heres my background:
24 years old, guy, 5'11 210lbs.
Go car camping about once a year but never owned my own gear until a few weeks ago.
Im very into the idea of backpacking, but I don't want to rush into it.
I live in Los Angeles, and I am planning on doing 3-4 one night trips into the angeles national forest to get used to my gear, work out the kinks between car camping and backpacking.

This is the gear i've acquired so far in the last month or so:

REI Passage 2 tent
Oboz yellowstone 2 hiking boots
deuter ACT Lite 65 + 10 backpack.
Marmot cloudbreak +30 sleeping bag
3 liter camelback water bottle.
Smartwool medium thickness hiking socks
REI trekker 1.75 self inflating sleeping pad
REI Nevis synthetic jacket (i know this is a womans coat, but i got it for like 40 bucks and it fit well)
Northface rain shell

Heres the gear I want to get soon:

A water filter (is this really necessary or can i just use tablets?) and what kind of water filter should i get? (i dont want to spend more than 80)

Leatherman wave multitool (ive wanted this for years now)

some sort of good hiking pants

a good wicking undershirt/longjohns

a stove (was thinking of making a soda can alcohol stove)





I was hoping at the end of the summer or the beginning of the fall to be comfortable enough to do a 3-4 day hike somewhere in sequoia national forest but i will mostly be trekking around angeles this summer.
Any advice? Recommendations on gear? something im forgetting?
Any input would be great.
Thanks!
-Nikki