Gear weight - in general

[Cuffs]

Without listing all my gear (Im very happy with what I have - for now!) AALLLLL of my stuff weighs in right at 16#. Thats every item except for the clothes/boots Im wearing, food and water.

Considering that I'll be doing a hike of 6 full days with a 1/2 day on either end totalling 7 full days of food @ 1.5# per day... thats 10.5# of food. I'll be looking at 26# +, since I havent added in water yet. (and I usually overpack on food, so add a couple # for good measure!)

Where do I fit in? Is that good? Bad? Average?

[Chache]

Without listing all my gear (Im very happy with what I have - for now!) AALLLLL of my stuff weighs in right at 16#. Thats every item except for the clothes/boots Im wearing, food and water.

Considering that I'll be doing a hike of 6 full days with a 1/2 day on either end totalling 7 full days of food @ 1.5# per day... thats 10.5# of food. I'll be looking at 26# +, since I havent added in water yet. (and I usually overpack on food, so add a couple # for good measure!)

Where do I fit in? Is that good? Bad? Average?

You get 3 adda boys and a gold star. Thats about what I get for my 7 day trip to Escalante,ut coming on Oct 2

[warraghiyagey]

. . . Where do I fit in? Is that good? Bad? Average?

Nice work. Very managable.

[Kerosene]

It doesn't look like you factored in the weight of your water. I tend to carry a few liters most of the time, which might not in line given how dry it's been this year (plus I ran out of water once and would rather not repeat that situation). A liter of water weighs about 35 ounces, so carrying 2 liters would bring your pack up above 28 pounds. That's quite good if you're packing for Autumn and can expect temps below 40F. It's not ultralight, but I think you'll find that it carries well, assuming you're in reasonably good shape and your pack can comfortably carry 30-pound loads.

Now, wouldn't it be nice if you can figure out how to re-supply halfway through and cut your max weight down to 24 pounds?

[Cuffs]

Are you kidding? For some reason, I am feeling like its way too much! Im trying to squeeze out the ounces, but I like everything I have... Am I just being too overly concerned with it and have a good weight?

[Nightwalker]

Are you kidding? For some reason, I am feeling like its way too much! Im trying to squeeze out the ounces, but I like everything I have... Am I just being too overly concerned with it and have a good weight?

On a trip like that, leave off one day of food. The first and last day end up being like half days when it comes to eating, so why not lose the 1.5#?

[Cuffs]

On a trip like that, leave off one day of food. The first and last day end up being like half days when it comes to eating, so why not lose the 1.5#?

Ive already figured in the 1/2 day on either end. 6 full days on trail, dinner on the trail the first night and breakfast and lunch on the last day... to me thats another day of meals...

Im not worried about the amount of food Im carrying. Its all the other gear.

[Tipi Walter]

Carry what you want, load up your pack with anything that'll make you feel good for 7 days out. If it includes a book, canned sodas, a 1.75X25 inch Thermarest, a head of cabbage, well, so be it. What's wrong with a 50 pound pack? On my last 15 day winter backpack I had nearly 80 pounds with 2 huge food bags including carrots and apples, rice cakes, Tasty Bites pouch meals, the works including water, but I loved carrying it cuz I knew each step was one step further from Syphilization and I had everything needed to spend 2 weeks out alone in the high snow country.

[Chache]

What type of pack, sleeping bag, ground cloth, stove and tent do you have?

[SGT Rock]

Carry more food.

[Kerosene]

Carry more food.

This depends on the person, especially for a newly starting section hiker. I actually find that I pack too much food for my 5'9", 175-pound frame, as my appetite consistently declines the first week I'm on the trail. Even so, I average 1.5 pounds per day of food, inclusive of freeze-dried stuffs and snacks, so I'd peg that as the bare minimum. Of course, if there are thru-hikers around you'll be able to get rid of any extra food if you find you're carrying too much!

[Nightwalker]

Carry more food.

Per day. 1.5# is not enough, unless it's peanut-butter heavy and includes a few ounces of olive oil!

My daily food is around 2# even, and comes out to a really good 3500 calories. Hungry starts to suck.

But still, consider one less day of food. That idea isn't mine originally. I got it from Winton at Mountain Crossings, and it's worked well for me since.

[bigcranky]

What Rock said. 10.5 pounds of food is the bare, bare minimum for 6+ days of hiking. I'd be starving. The good news is that your food weight drops every day.

16 pounds of gear is terrific. That's way below average. While it's useful to look at the fringe extreme ultralighters, with their sub-5-pound base loads, there's a reason it's the fringe. You can learn a lot, but most hikers are very lucky to get their gear and clothing weight below 25 or 30 pounds.

Have fun and happy trails.

[JAK]

For preparation, I go by total weight skin out, and try to keep it mostly food and insulation. For comfort, I go by total weight on feet. I think you sound sufficiently prepared and comfortable, as long as you are not as overweight as I am at the moment. I think a total weight on feet of up to 175% of your lean body mass is comfortable for long hikes, and below 150% you don't need to be so much a gram weenie, unless its fun, or you plan on some running.

[JAK]

I think the food depends on how much you are actually capable of burning, and whether or not you have some fat to burn, and plan on doing so. If you are superfit and plan on rather high mileage 1.5 pounds is way not enough. Currently 1.5 pounds would be enough for me, as I would travel long days, but rather slowly. I would up that to 2 pounds if cold weather was possible, and up that to 3 pounds if snow was possible making time less predictable. Alternatively you could have multiple exit points to keep the time more or less fixed at 7 days, then go with 2 pounds.

[JAK]

p.s. I mean 'pounds per day' of course.

[SGT Rock]

I have found that at the start I can normally get by with planning less (about 1.5 to 1.75) but the longer I am out the more I want to eat - and the more "real" food I am willing to tote. For the amount of food I ended up consuming at the period of my last large hiker hunger (the point I am using for my planning of meals) I was consuming about 2.1 pounds of food a day - and that was sticking to the lighter types of higher calorie:weight food hikers like.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Going off memory, back when the dino was slimmer and younger, I start out eating about 1.5 lbs and was eating closer to 2 lbs a day by the end of the first week.

[taildragger]

If you're able to get around the 5K cals per day, I think that you should be fine, then again your gone only a week, so whats the biggie about a little fast and hike?

[Quoddy]

I allotted around 1.5# of freeze dried food per day for breakfast and dinner alone. I found that other than the first few days that was just barely enough. Those meals equated to a 25oz breakfast and a 28oz dinner when re-hydrated. During the day I find it difficult to eat much on the trail, but usually ate several oz. of dried fruit, an energy bar, and a one or two Snickers (8oz total). I can easily get by for a week or so on this, but any longer and my body weight begins to drop dramatically as the calories need to come from somewhere.