Measurements are In!
After gathering all my stuff together, packing, getting rid of long johns, repacking again, trying to get sleeping bag smaller than a basketball, packing again, leaving clothes out of stuff sacks, and finally sitting on my pack in an attempt to use my body weight as a compactor, I’ve been able to stuff everything into my pack and still have room for water and food. As it stands now, without water and food, my pack weighs about 25 lbs. Figure an extra 7 lbs for water, and 8 lbs for food and I’ll be packing roughly 35 lbs.
Thats not bad for a 6 night outing. I took almost that much for a 3 nighter last year. I’ll be doing better when I can get rid of this sleeping bag! It isn’t all that heavy, but takes up twice as much room in my pack as a down one of the same temperature rating.
I’m also debating on whether or not to take my tent. I’ll definitely need it the first 2 nights as I will be nowhere near shelters, but if all goes as planned, I won’t need it the rest of the time on trail. I’m thinking about trying to use my tarp and rain fly to create a tarp style tent tonight to see how that works. It would eliminate about 3 lbs and shrink the space needed to pack by about 3/4.
