Lightweight Backpacking

[BrokenHorn]

I thought I would throw in this link that has a ton of tips and how to's on lessening the load. There are quite a few out there I just can't remember them. If I come across them I will post the links here.

http://www.backpacking.net/index.html

[accadacca]

Yeah, I have seen this site. Nice resource. :five:

[mroy]

I used that site when I was planning my grand canyon trip that I went on last month. Somehow my pack still ended up a little heavy. The pack that I was going to take, which weighed only a couple pounds didn't work out, so I had to go with my larger pack which weighs about 6 pounds. My tent, the bag, the pad, all of that worked out to about 8 lbs, food came in at 5 lbs, and I thought I was set for a light pack. Then adding just the bare minimum of everything else I needed ballooned that weight considerably. With everything pre-weighed and added together my pack should've been 37 pounds fully loaded, including water, and ended up being 45 (for a 5 day trip). I took everything out of the pack and weighed each ditty bag individually and the numbers added up to 37 lbs, but putting everything back in the pack and weighing it came out to 45. It was quite the mystery, still unsolved. I saved 10-15 pounds though by replacing heavier gear with lighter stuff and leaving behind all but the bare minimum, so it was worth it. The sleeping pad I used was a 3" inflatable Big Agnes, and at 1.5 lbs it was worth it -- best sleep I've had in the backcountry. For the next backcountry trip I want to see if I can get another 5-10 pounds off. Once you start going lighter, you just want to keep getting lighter since you feel better the whole trip and you can do more. If you've never done the big GC, I have to say it's a must.