Cutting Weight

Black_Fly · Jan 22, 2025

I’m cutting my gear down…still…again. Food is my target now. I’ve decided to go mostly freeze dried, but snacks and lunches are problematic. Any ideas? Bogan may be staying home for the next trip. His food is too heavy. If I leave him home, I’m considering taking the Swift P14 instead of the Magic. Still undecided. Have to decide on a route first. Thoughts on that also appreciated.

ppine · Jan 22, 2025

Black Fly,
I take less equipment now. It keeps getting simpler. I wear the same clothes a lot. But I hate pouch food. Good for emergencies and long trips with no refrigeration. Real food only weighs a little more. Modern grocery stores have lots of food in pouches like salmon, tuna and chicken. Plenty of things are dehydrated. I like soup, mashed potatoes and rice. I tend to bring fresh fruits and vegetables for at least the first 5 days. A fishing rod can help a lot after a week or so.

Cruiser · Jan 22, 2025

On one trip with a particularly long portage, I decide I needed to really take a good look at what I was taking and what it cost me in weight.

My wife helped me, I took out every piece of routine gear, weighed it and she recorded all of the data.

Put that into a spreadsheet and took a good long look at what stuff weighed and why I carried various items .... I lost 12 pounds of crap I never used or didn't really need ... and I missed none of it.

First step IMO is to understand what you are taking in the first place.

ppine · Jan 23, 2025

When I was 10 or 11 I laid my outfit for backpacking on the floor of the living room. My Dad was a serious backpacker starting in the 1930s before any one called it that. So was my grandfather. Dad would ask questions about what I could leave out. He would say things like, "can you start a fire, will you be warm enough, okay then you have what you need."

lowangle al · Jan 23, 2025

Ironically packing heavy taught me to pack light. When you carry a 25 lb. tent you cut back on non essentials. My weight savings came from minimizing photography and fishing gear followed by clothes and food.

recped · Jan 23, 2025

I dislike portaging! I try to pick routes that are light on portages but most of them tend to include at least one long or shorter but very rough ports. If I'm looking at routes with these long ports I might pick one or another based on where the portage is (day 2 or day 30).

That said I will take excess of heavy food and not be bothered if it means an extra trip on the portage trail.

I have cut back on lunch/snack items, I have been able to cut the weight substantially over the past 10 years simply by being more realistic about the amount I actually consume, the days of coming home with two weeks of "snacks" are slowly coming to an end.

Seeker · Feb 7, 2025

How I eat:
Dinners, as you mentioned, are dehydrated. Olive oil adds needed calories/fat, and is one of the more effective means of doing that, per ounce, over other foods.

Breakfast is oatmeal w/raisins, tea, and bacon.
Lunches are bagels, landjaeger or jerky, cheese, dried fruit, tea.

Snacks are Almond or Peanut M&Ms... I made GORP for years, but the best parts were the nuts and chocolate chips. I also like Gummi Bears and sometimes bring extra raisins with lunch.

If you can get down to 2lbs per day per person for food, that's low enough in my book.

stripperguy · Feb 7, 2025

I dehydrate all my food at home as well as my snacks. Snacks consist of dried bananas (bananas, not plantains, huge difference from commercial stuff), dried mango, dried apple, dried any fruit. Other snacks some home made trail mix. Lunches? I don't do lunch...

Caledonia · Feb 8, 2025

We’re taking a group of scouts backpacking in New Mexico this summer. The camp had a Zoom discussion of food and cooking this past week. The food they provide aims for 3,000 calories per day. That works out to 1 1/2 to 2 lbs of food per person per day. Of course that’s as light as they can reasonably make it with reliance on dehydrated dinners. Breakfasts and lunches are cold and dinners are a single large 8 quart pot to feed a group of between 8 to 12.

ppine · Feb 8, 2025

3,000 calories a day might be too light. How long are you going for? Add some extra food for kids.

Caledonia · Feb 8, 2025

10 days on the trail. This is the Philmont high adventure base. They pack a jaw dropping 200,000 meal packs for all the crews that circulate through the base during the course of the summer. I trust they have portions pretty well figured out but your point is well taken. Bringing along some additional trail magic would be a useful mood booster. Boy Scouts of America officially became Scouting America today by the way…

ppine · Feb 8, 2025

thanks for the update. Philmont is a great adventure for many kids growing up. My next door neighbor went back in the early 60s. He talked about it all the time, but never did much backpacking or canoeing as an adult.

Gamma1214 · Feb 8, 2025

...Boy Scouts of America officially became Scouting America today by the way…

What did the Girl Scouts become?

Cutting Weight

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