Cutting Weight

[Black_Fly]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.