New Hiker - How low can you go?

[daveait]

Ok - I do not have any gear (I know...I know). What is the lowest I can go weight-wise for a 10-day no resupply outing in the NorthEast in the summer? Does anybody have a generic gear list?

[Turtle Feet]

You could consider your food weight/day to be on average 2-2.5lbs, so you're talking 20-25lbs of food alone. For a 30yo guy, probably closer to 2.5lbs/day

Since you don't have any gear - and if money is no object - you could get your base weight quite low if you are willing to sacrifice creator comforts (like clean underwear). One thing you can pretty much count on; the lighter the gear, the higher the price.

My pack, shelter and clothing come to 9lbs 7oz

My best guess would be not less than 40lbs. Anyone else have a thought???

TF

[Mags]

Ok - I do not have any gear (I know...I know). What is the lowest I can go weight-wise for a 10-day no resupply outing in the NorthEast in the summer? Does anybody have a generic gear list?

Where the in Northeast are you going that you are need a ten day food carry?

Even in Maine's 'wilderness', that's pushing it.

(Unless you are doing the backpacking mixed in with basecamping or off-trail bushwhacking).

Just curious...

[couscous]

"What is the lowest I can go weight-wise for a 10-day no resupply outing in the NorthEast in the summer?" - You should get 27,747 different answers to that question.. with 27,747 members on WB.

Defining NorthEast would be useful - Since you're from Florida, does that mean New York-Connecticut or New Hampshire-Maine?

You "could" take a couple Walmart bags, put in a roll of Leukotape, some Vitamin I, a 32oz Gatorade bottle, some chemical water treatment, 20 Clif Bars, a whistle, a Maid of the Mist poncho and a 4oz silk liner for a total of 6 lbs... but you probably wouldn't enjoy the trip.

[sbhikes]

One thing you can pretty much count on; the lighter the gear, the higher the price.

This is a huge myth constantly repeated on whiteblaze. It simply is not true.

My stove weighs maybe a quarter of an ounce and was made from a recycled aluminum can. It cost only the price of the drink.

My Platypus containers are much lighter than nalgenes and cost about the same. Even cheaper are my smart water and nake juice bottles which were headed for the trash.

My Gossamer Gear tent was about the same as other high quality tents that weigh a lot more.

My blue foam pad was $6.

My Equinox tarp was only about $80.

My Gossamer Gear backpack was on sale for $80. My ULA pack was on sale for $40.

A huge amount of weight is saved by simply leaving excess things home. This costs nothing.

I would say that if you have no gear at all, purchase an expensive ultralight sleeping bag and then hunt and hunt for the other gear on sale. Make your own stove. Use gatorade bottles. Prowl backpackinglight.com gear list section to see what people recommend. Read the article here on whiteblaze on dirtbagging like a professional. It's the biggest eye-opener and many of the ideas in that article will lead you in an ultralight direction.

You can probably get your pack under 15lbs spending far less than some poor sap who heads out to REI and comes away with a 40lb pack and an empty bank account.

[couscous]

Lots of gear examples on the $300 Challenge thread started by Sgt Rock six years ago.

[bigcranky]

You can probably get your pack under 15lbs spending far less than some poor sap who heads out to REI and comes away with a 40lb pack and an empty bank account.

This is one of the best things I've read on WB in a while. Very true.

[Lyle]

I will not offer any specific recommendations, only this general caution:

Ultralight equipment is not foolproof, and often takes some accumulated skill to function properly and efficiently. I would caution new hikers against attempting to go ultralight. Plenty of more conventional, tougher, more forgiving equipment that is relatively lightweight to start with. Experience does count.

[hikerboy57]

loincloth, hunting knife, and a good knowledge of edible beries and plants should do it.

[Luddite]

My ULA pack was on sale for $40.

Where did you get a ULA pack on sale? And which one did you get.

I'm thinking about buying an OHM for my thru-hike as soon as I sell my Vapor Trail.

[BigHodag]

For my recent 10-day section, my pack weighed 36# at Harpers Ferry and 23# at Boiling Springs. I carried "5-days" food which lasted 7, but could have gone 8-9. No one mentioned in planning that you have no appetite the first 2-3 days out and your body has plenty of energy stores to cover dropped meals for 1-2 days. I agree with the question above: Why 10-days food?

My gear was a 2# 3100 cu Walmart pack for $30. I slept in a $17 Grand Trunk hammock with a 1.5# poncho liner I got for $30 at a surplus store. I probably could have saved $25 on the poncho liner by cruising thrift stores a year earlier and paying $5.

I plan to be below 20# next section hike with food and Propel (another thing I didn't learn until on the trail. Never needed it until I walked the AT.)

[tammons]

Plan on 1.5# per day. 1# if you don't mind going hungry or 2# if you want to be well fed. Normal weight though. Heavy weight you might want more food.

Realistically super load up the day before and 1.5# per day would probably be enough.

or..

Go modern/caveman style, tarp, bivy, quilt, daypack, metal canteen, flint and steel and forage along the way. Might take you 20 instead of 10.

[leaftye]

You could consider your food weight/day to be on average 2-2.5lbs, so you're talking 20-25lbs of food alone. For a 30yo guy, probably closer to 2.5lbs/day

My custom powdered blend of drinks cuts that weight down to nearly 1 pound per day at 3000 calories.

As for other stuff, if I knew the weather was good, I'd get Tim Marshall to build a cuben fiber quilt. I'd also ask him if he could make a bivy, assuming breathable cuben fiber could be acquired. Zpacks cuben fiber pack. Whatever pad you get will strongly influenced by the weather you can expect....unfortunately there's no cuben fiber pad yet.

So, with good powdered food and lots of cuben fiber, I think you should be able to get under 20 pounds with water and 10 days of food. Under 15 pounds might be possible...

[Kerosene]

I've definitely found that my appetite is suppressed the first week out. It actually doesn't start to kick in until somewhere between 10 and 14 days out. Up until that time I am comfortable carrying less than 2 pounds of food, including freeze-dried dinners. I'm 5' 9", 180 pounds.

[Danielsen]

Even if your appetite remains strong, you can save a bit of food-weight by making it as energy-dense as possible. A pound of fat-based food can be as high as 4000 calories. Try some recipes with ghee (clarified butter), which will keep pretty well for 10 days without refrigeration and is very, very calorie-dense.

[Mr. Right]

Everyone has noted how much weight will be food, and that is undoubtedly true. However, if your hiking the Northeast at this time of year, making provisions for carrying extra water might not be a bad idea. I did a section in New York last weekend and there was literally zero water in the springs and creeks. The only sources were man-made locations (the visitor center on Palisades Parkway; Bear Mountain Zoo) and the lakes. Depending on what the plan is and how often you wanted to go off-trail for water, planning on having some extra weight for water is a necessity, specifically in that NJ, NY, CT corridor.

[peakbagger]

Youe definitely need to define Northeast, In most of New England you are always within 4 to 6 hours of civilization or a well trafficked road, once you head west of Gorham, this is not neccessarilly the case some days and as you leave the Stratton area, its even less so. If you are less than a half day from a road and use common sense, you can get away with a lot less gear, but once you get to where you may take a day or two to get out to civilization, you really need to carry more gear to handle unusual event, (like a big shift in weather). Alternatively you can hole up somewhere, but it sure is nice to put on the extra pair of gloves and a hat when the weather gets cold in the morning and just start hiking.

[Country Roads]

I expect you could probably do okay on about 1.5 pounds of food per day. Take as calorie dense food as possible. I rarely eat much the first 2 or 3 days, the raging appetite takes about 10 days to 2 weeks to kick in for me, then LOOK OUT.

Leave "stuff" that serves very little purpose at home. Make every piece of gear count. If it does not earn its keep, ditch it.

You can outfit your kitchen pretty much at walmart and the beer store (Heineken cans) and have the weight around 6 or so ounces for a cook pot, bowl, cup (coke one 7.5 oz can), spoon, lighter windscreen and stove.
The most expensive thing will the the Heinie can.

Clothes from Walmart can be had pretty cheap and just about as light as stuff costing 10 times more.

Spend the money on a good sleeping bag - lighter, more compressible, warmer and will last much longer.

I expect you could probably get your total pack weight around 30 pounds or maybe less including your food and fuel. Be ruthless but maintain a safety margin. Plastic bags rock!

[verber]

There are people who have been doing extreme/super-ultralight trips in the summer carrying less than 4lbs of gear. I would not recommend going so extreme for a beginner since making this work requires a fair bit of experience... but getting down to 10lbs is not unreasonable. Depending on the person food would be between 10-25lbs depending on a variety of things + water weight depending on how much you want to carry. So a "reasonable" range is somewhere between 15lbs-40lbs. My 3 season gear would be 9lbs... with water and food I would likely be carrying I would have a 24lb pack.

As others have pointed out, I am not sure there is any place in the NE USA where I would go more than 5 days without a natural resupply. Of course, if I was going a lot slower than my typical 20 miles / days the time between natural resupplies could stretch out.

--mark

[burntoutphilosopher]

daveait,

i think it totally depends on your pace. is this just to hike inand spend some time in the woods? if so you can get away with a LOT less than 3K calories.

if this is to section hike, yeah you need a lot of food.