View Full Version : Heaviest thing you've ever hiked with...
What's the heaviest item you have ever hiked with (besides trail maintenence), knowingly or unknowingly in/on your pack?
a friend of mine hiked 4 miles with a 30 pack of beer straped to his pack. i was so impressed i voulnteered to carry the empties 2 miles to the next trash can. :)
i remember one hiker who's pack who totaled 83 pounds at neel's gap. i can't remember which were the heaviest items, the gallons of water he was carrying or the cast iron skillets!:D
Footslogger
02-08-2006, 13:00
A couple miles with a 4 Liter Platypus full of water.
'Slogger
A loaded M-60 machinegun.:o
TN_Hiker
02-08-2006, 13:05
Approx. 3 miles w/ 600 ft. of rappelling rope plus rappelling gear. Weighed my pack upon return (w/o food) and hit 146 lbs. on the scales -- never again.
gargamel
02-08-2006, 13:10
Don't know if this counts but the heaviest item I had to carry was one of these nasty little machine guns (23 lbs) every time while on field training with the army. As I was the best-feeded-looking guy (should read "fat") in the platoon my sergeant thought it would be a good exercise. :D
TJ aka Teej
02-08-2006, 13:26
When I first started backpacking as a teen in the 70s I'd happily carry canned food. (Cans to keep the critters out.) Beans, deviled ham, nuts, tuna, spam, beef stew, chicken, vienna sausages, sardines, corn, even soups and chowder. Add to that the crackers, peanut butter, and cookies that also came in tins. My back was lots younger then!
5 liters of wine...but every body had a good time that night.:clap
MileMonster
02-08-2006, 13:52
About 10L of water in Grand Canyon NP.
hummm - _except_ for trail maintenance huh too bad cause I have packed some seriously heavy iron for doing blowdown work in wilderness areas
oh well - how about 6.5 liters of water packed up the hard way (from the north end) on the North Fork Mtn. Tr. - I was meeting some folks that were coming from the south end and I thought they could use some resupply (its a dry ridge walk all the way) - I still have great memories of that backpacking trip - absolutely the best meteor display I have ever seen - hundreds of them.
Lone Wolf
02-08-2006, 14:12
A 12 pack of brew up to Cheoah Bald from the NOC.
MisterSweetie
02-08-2006, 14:19
This is slightly different, since it's technically a grouping of items taken as a whole to be one item, but when I was hiking out of the Grand Canyon, my trip leader hiked with two fully loaded packs. Large packs. Packs with a weeks worth of gear, and his had full first aid kit (trip leader requirement). So he had his pack on his back, and her pack on his front. It was just amazing to watch... Probably hiked a mile or so with it. I'd have to guess total he was wearing well over 100lbs. I wish I had a picture of it.
the goat
02-08-2006, 14:24
it either got to be:
1.) 6 miles to rausch gap carrying the better part of a case of beer (14-16 of 'em) after turining a roadside into a watering hole. pa rocks seem a lot worse while carrying a beer payload, so i drank a few along the way (good thing rausch gap shelter has a built-in cooler.:D
2.) leaving gorham with 12 lbs of dog food on my back. (let's not turn this into a "hiking w/ dogs thread, please.):)
Old Hillwalker
02-08-2006, 14:45
My stupidist load was two wet cargo nets and cable chokers on an AMC packboard following the summer heli-airlift. From Mizpah Hut to Crawfords in 1986. Scaled the pack at 160 pounds in the cellar of the hut. I weighed 230 @ 74". I could feel my spinal disk cookies compressing as I lurched down the trail. It was all downhill or I never would have made it. When I got to the old hostel in Crawfords, there was nobody there to help me out of the pack board consequently I lost my balance, fell over and was trapped under the load for several minutes while I wriggled around trying to get rolled over. I was 45 years old...... The AMC banned such loads years before that, but since I was an unpaid summer CC volunteer I just did it :/ Back in the early days, the croo used to back the empty 100 pound gas bottles out on pack boards. Now they are airlifted in and out.
Kerosene
02-08-2006, 15:02
A 4L watersack plus another 2.5L in bottles to a dry campsite at the top of a mountain. It was only about 5 miles but I really felt the difference going uphill.
Pennsylvania Rose
02-08-2006, 15:12
When my oldest were toddlers (only 18 months apart), my husband and I carried them child carriers that were also stuffed with all of our gear. Go Tough Traveller!!! I also have pictures of me with a baby in a Snugli on front and a full pack on back. When my knees are destroyed from carrying them for so many years, I'll make THEM carry ME up Katahdin.
Alligator
02-08-2006, 15:37
I'll carry six liters of water in two Platypuses to a dry site. Last summer I ended up walking 3 miles because I was unable to find a decent site in the dark. My first trip backpacking I carried a gallon of Coleman fuel as I had no idea how much fuel I would need.
Skidsteer
02-08-2006, 16:09
8 liters of water to the top of Coosa Bald. That wasn't so bad( it's only about a mile ), but I also toted 2 1/2 gallons in a collapsible bucket so my sweetie could have a good wash that night. I think my right arm is still a bit longer than the other.:)
vipahman
02-08-2006, 16:17
Approx. 3 miles w/ 600 ft. of rappelling rope plus rappelling gear. Weighed my pack upon return (w/o food) and hit 146 lbs. on the scales -- never again.
*** dude? That has to take top honors.
vipahman
02-08-2006, 16:20
My heaviest load was my 11 lbs expedition tent which I used everywhere but on expeditions. Stupid me!
SouthMark
02-08-2006, 16:26
A little over twenty years ago (when I was younger and dumber) I carried my 28 lb pack and a sick teenagers overloaded 65 lb pack for about two miles of a hike up a 12,000 ft peak in New Mexico. If only I were than young and stong agian.
This may not count as a single item, but I also carried two packs once. In the Arizona desert a packing buddy of mine broke his ankle and I carried his pack minus his sleeping bag because we had to use it to make a travois for him. Two guys took turns pulling the travois while I hiked with his 35 lb pack on my front and my 40 lb pack on my back. Never again, I will leave either his pack or him out there next time.
gdwelker
02-08-2006, 18:43
To the top of Old Rag with a full pack and a case of beer. Backpacking beer was routine before I turned 21 - it was a big move to ultralight when I was able to purchase hard liquor!
gsingjane
02-08-2006, 18:49
On a Boy Scout backpacking trip on the AT that required a fitness test beforehand and didn't have one (or at least should have entailed a break-in hike)... the guys were going SOBO in CT from Kent and when it was time to go up and over St. John's Ledges, one of the younger guys sat down crying and refused to go any further. His dad wound up carrying his kid's way-overstuffed pack, and his own pack, and pulled the kid up the mountain on top of it. In November. On the ice.
Go BSA!!!
Jane in CT
Would a 16 pound bowling ball count if I didn't know a so-called "buddy" snuck in in when I wasn't looking?
Would a 16 pound bowling ball count if I didn't know a so-called "buddy" snuck in in when I wasn't looking?
WOW!!! How far did you carry it? I think that "buddy" was asking for a butt whhhooooopppin'. :jump
Would a 16 pound bowling ball count if I didn't know a so-called "buddy" snuck in in when I wasn't looking?
absolutely!!!:D
TwoForty
02-08-2006, 19:13
I've had to be my Calculus I-III book with me a few times. It's heavy and hard to pack. I didn't even read it.
freefall
02-08-2006, 20:01
1/2 gallon vodka, 1/2 gallon grapefruit juice, 3 lbs steak, 5 lbs potatos plus my regular gear.
mweinstone
02-08-2006, 21:17
we yogied all the leftovers from a picinic on july fourth witch was a sunday. near eckvill pa. my exact yogi was"excuse me,do you know how far a store is?"and the repli,"oh dear its sunday the sores closed and miles away."then,"harold?,...harold are we finished eating?"then she packed up so much food,me and my friend ate for 3 days and 3 nites.includedin the 50 lbs of food were: a gallon ziplock 1/2 full of dangerously pickled eggs.one and you were drunk.twenty lbs of mystery bird we called chicken hawk.5 lbs of potatoe salad with vi***** and ham.and stuff we didnt know what it was but we munched all the way to water gap.we walked with supper market bags full of food for a day untill it was small enough to pack.they cleared the tables and gave us the ketchup and salt and pepper shakers. they were drunk.
MSR Whisperlight with the BIG container full of fuel, BIG heavy metal
drinking cup, etc, etc, etc, Total pack weight was over 60 lbs.
Believe me it got lightened at Suches, Neals Gap, & Dicks Creek !!
lol
:sun
I was reading a journal in which one guy carried a 5 lb bust of Miles Standish. I don't know how long that lasted.
I carried a sibling named Dave for a couple of miles in Georgia. He weighs about 200 pounds. But "he ain't heavy, he's my brother." ;)
Wolf - 23000
02-08-2006, 22:34
Does a second full size backpack count. When I first starting backpacking, in case it rain, I carried a full size all rubber backpack to keep thing "dry". As I started adding more and more things, I end up fill up both backpacks.
Wolf
The Desperado
02-08-2006, 23:24
A 200 lb man about a quater mile that had fallen and had a severe injury by the brink Rd. shelter in NJ a few years back............aargh! Couldnt do that any more!
tarbender
02-08-2006, 23:41
Two gallons of beer weighing approx. sixteen pounds with full gear as well.
A thirty pack of beer and two glass 1/2 gallon growlers of north woodstock's finest microbrew topping out at 35 pounds or so in a pack sans gear as I had wisely ditched it at lonesome lake hut.:cool:
A spring-wound 16mm movie camera (Bolex), carried from GA to ME.
Big Dawg
02-09-2006, 07:45
Eureka K2 XT tent,, 12lbs. I though I was so cool heading out on that 1st AT section hike back in 2000. What was I thinking? :datz
upon further consideration the heaviest thing I have ever hiked with is my gut
A little over twenty years ago (when I was younger and dumber) I carried my 28 lb pack and a sick teenagers overloaded 65 lb pack for about two miles of a hike up a 12,000 ft peak in New Mexico. If only I were than young and stong agian.
Sounds like Mt. Phillips at Philmont
SouthMark
02-09-2006, 09:59
Sounds like Mt. Phillips at Philmont
You got it.
AbeHikes
02-09-2006, 10:46
USMC: an ALICE pack full of batteries for our receivers (brick-sized) and assorted individual gear. Don't know the weight, but it was up there.
Blissful
02-09-2006, 10:55
When my oldest were toddlers (only 18 months apart), my husband and I carried them child carriers that were also stuffed with all of our gear. Go Tough Traveller!!! I also have pictures of me with a baby in a Snugli on front and a full pack on back. When my knees are destroyed from carrying them for so many years, I'll make THEM carry ME up Katahdin.
We did that too - back in the early 90's with our green Tough Traveler baby carrier. On one backpacking trip, I carried the baby ( six months old)and his stuff, and my dh had everything else stuffed to the gills in his Lowes pack. Including a stuffed animal on top.
Now my son is 15 and we will be thru hiking in 2007!:clap
Pennsylvania Rose
02-09-2006, 11:06
Now my son is 15 and we will be thru hiking in 2007!:clap
LUCKY YOU!!! The two babies I was talking about are now 14 1/2 and 13. They both want to thru with me. Can't wait for the 3 year old to get big enough!
I suppose the heaviest / dumbest thing I have taken hiking is, , , , ME.:p
But stuff in the pack: Mil surplus (heavy) wool pants & jacket, AND another jacket, AND a heavy long sleeve shirt. Yep, multiple items, but understand that I hike comfortably in 30 degree weather in shorts & tee so the above would be in one stuff sac. Never wore the extra jacket. Wore the wool once. Don't remember wearing the shirt, maybe one time.
I also carried 8 days of fuel, distance between resupply, 4 days max. AND, (at times) a gallon of water EXTRA, in GA, in the spring.
Probable pack weight was near or over 60 Lbs, plus clothes worn.
Doctari.
carolinahiker
02-09-2006, 11:34
i huge chunk of parking curb on a road march in hawaii in the 5/14 inf the guys in my rifle squad did it as a joke the rats i found it at lunch at the 12 mile mark its proably still on the side of the road lol must of weight 40 pounds plus ruck and lbe etc i was over 100 i tohught damn im gettin old lol
A PRC-104 radio as a naval gunfire spotter with batteries for 4 days. About 16 lbs for the radio and another 16 for the batteries.
On the civilian side, a case of beer from the little bar a mile from Apple House shelter north of Roan Highlands.
We did that too - back in the early 90's with our green Tough Traveler baby carrier. On one backpacking trip, I carried the baby ( six months old)and his stuff, and my dh had everything else stuffed to the gills in his Lowes pack. Including a stuffed animal on top.
Now my son is 15 and we will be thru hiking in 2007!:clap
I never carried my kids, not even the youngest who made it to Chimney Pond, half way to the summit of Katahdin at age three years, three months.
But that was still the heaviest trip I ever did. IN addition to the three year old, my other two kids came along -- the oldest was six-- and my wife who was pretty heavy also.
All carried their own packs. But I was the primary Sherpa. I never weighed my pack, but when I arrived back at my station wagon after three nights on the mountain, I leaned my knee against the tail gate only to hear a squirting sound. My knee swelled to twice it's size. We did that trip annually for several years, and many more through the early teen age years of the kids.
But the first was by far the heaviest.
Weary
RockyTrail
02-11-2006, 23:23
Sounds like Mt. Phillips at Philmont
HA! Peaks you beat me to it, I was going to say the same thing!
Been there, done that, and Lord willing, planning to do it again next year:)
clip... But I was the primary Sherpa. ...clip.... Weary
Great story, Weary. Reminds me of the only trip where I persuaded my wife to go - 5 yrs ago, I guess. We hiked about 6 miles in on the Chattooga River Trail. I had just started backpacking with the older two, who had just joined boy scouts. Had mostly heavy 'car camping' stuff for me. Had begun to buy the younger 2 lighter stuff. As I recall, my pack weighed 65 lbs, my wife's about 30, the older 2 somewhere around 15, and the younger had a sleeping bag.
Posted a pic:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=9984&c=663
I thought I'd have a heart attack hiking up the 800 ft elevation change back to where the truck was!
good memories! the oldest is now a senior in high school. I'm working with the middle on his Eagle Project tomorrow - he had his 16th bday a few weeks ago and we got him his first car. I'm taking the youngest - now 10 - to Shining Rock with the troop next weekend!
gollwoods
02-12-2006, 15:58
I saw a bowling ball in the hogback ridge shelter near devil fork gap N c it didn't fly up there.
saimyoji
02-12-2006, 16:13
The other day I found a hibachi grill on the trail, with assorted grocery.beer trash. I hiked it out downhill, but it must have been tough hikin it uphill for about 1.5mi. It was probably only 5-10 lbs. but don't forget the charcoal they needed to use....and the beer. Must have been a good time.
I saw a bowling ball in the hogback ridge shelter near devil fork gap N c it didn't fly up there.
Great joke! I can just hear the shelter maintainer laughing all the way to the trailhead while carrying out a 16 pound ball.
SouthMark,
At least it wasnt Baldy...lol
On our shake downs, trip through the Whites and trip out to Philmont, we started the tradition of the rock of shame. It starts with me carrying it until someone does or says something silly and it gets passed on. We have been using the same rock for 4 years and no one has ever said no to it, in fact, usually now, they ( and that includes me) just ask for it without anyont saying anything after doing something.
HA! Peaks you beat me to it, I was going to say the same thing!
Been there, done that, and Lord willing, planning to do it again next year:)
I'm looking forward to being there again this summer. :)
Tipi Walter
02-15-2006, 11:40
Well, I have too much knowledge of this subject but of course looking back on it brings glee.
1. I was backpacking in the Pisgah NF along the Upper Creek trail to a favorite campsite on the Burnthouse Branch and it was our annual June cluster with many fellow hikers in tow and I was the official watermelon humper. It sat high on my external frame pack sort of balanced like and at a blowdown in the gorge on the trail I tilted too far left and the melon slid off the pack and off the high steep mountainside down to the creek where it exploded in red flesh. I immediately depacked and ran down the hillside to eat what was left. When I walked into camp an hour later and they asked me about the cool refreshing watermelon I showed them a small piece in my cupped hands and told them that's it, it is all that's left.
2. The worse loads I humped was at the tipi ridge going up the mile trail to the top. I cut a switchbacked trail and the elevation gain was around 800 to 1000 feet, not much really but when I was carrying a cast iron woodstove or 100 pounds of canvas it kicked my butt.
3. And finally, my most recent winter backpacking trips have been too heavy, around 80 pounds, due mainly to the four season gear I was carrying and the 10 to 12 day's worth of food in my pack(and of course the books!)
Anumber1
02-15-2006, 12:20
Back in highschool a friend of mine was doing some spring training on the trails around his house with a bunch of clothes and some weights in his pack.
A couple weeks later we did a dayhike up Mount Washington and little did he know, he left a 10 pound weight sitting in the bottom of his pack. Hiked the whole day without even knowing it was in there. :D
icemanat95
02-15-2006, 12:42
I carried over 100 pounds up blood mountain including my gear, about half of someone else's gear and about 13 liters of water for myself and a few other people.
That's probably not the heaviest load I've ever carried. I had some military packs that felt a hell of a lot heavier, loaded with ammunition, food, water, and other team gear.
Two cases of beer a fifth of George, 11lb 3man tent a 5 lb coleman sleeping bag, 5 lbs of hardware for each hand, two t bones and 5lbs of tators plus all my regular gear started at the Blue Ridge Parkway and hiked to Yellow Gap SR about 14 miles while wearing 5lb Colorado klabbester boots.Then the very next day my brother and I lock horns and I had to carry his pack on a 18 mile hitch.
longshank
02-15-2006, 13:41
frozen full dinner and breakfast for two.
My son and I met Joe a couple of miles into his section hike on the Vermont AT to Long Trail. We heard him coming up the trail from pretty far away, clinking and clanking and making very heavy footsteps.
He was wearing a brand new pair of heavy hiking boots (not even scuffed), along with an identical brand new pair swinging from back of his pack. Joe had just been dropped off by his girlfriend at the trailhead and was already hurting from the weight of his tremendous pack. We ended up at the same shelters over the next few nights. It was hilarious to see what he would pull out of his pack. Invariably the hiker box held multiple new hiker gear the next morning as he desperately tried to bring his weight down to a bearable level. His pack had to go over 100 pounds. When he was hiking ahead of us, you could see his boot impressions were much deeper than anyone else's.
Some of the gear I remember:
brand new right-out-of-box tent with all accessories
folding saw with two spare blades and sheath
two sheath knives, including a K-Bar
two big folding knives
huge multi-tool
regular size hatchet (not backpacker) and leather sheath
can of white gas for a never used stove
full mess kit and utensils
canned food, lots of hard salami, and enough food and candy to feed an army
5 liters water in Lexan containers
GPS
Maglite "D" cell model
full roll of duct tape
The best was the three battery operated "closet lights", the kind you push on to turn on, along with a pack of 16 spare batteries for them. He said he thought it would be nice for the shelters.
He got off a few days later - we saw him in town and he showed us his feet which were a mess. It didn't sound like he was ever getting back on.
Two weeks in southwest Virginia with and old style canvas 10 person tent with steel pools. I don't know how much it weight I was carrying, but it was way to much.
Kerosene
06-04-2006, 07:36
I ran across a young woman in New York State who was carrying one of those huge Tonka toy dump trucks in her hand. She had found it at a flea market back in New Jersey and wanted to give it to her kid cousin, so she ended up lugging it 80 miles or so just to save a few bucks.
Cookerhiker
06-04-2006, 16:57
Back in the 70s, I carried a 2-person tent which probably weighed 8 pounds. Yeah, that's nothing compared to some of the above stories.
This past winter, I carried a frying pan, pancake ingredients, spatula, real maple syrup for a luxurious breakfast. It was worth it.
I think she weighed about 240 pounds -- oh, you mean in the pack.
I carry an occasional can of tuna fish. I once met a southbounder carrying five pounds of sugar and a 12 pound sleeping bag in August. He explained he could buy five pounds of sugar "for the same price as two pounds," and he worried about being cold in Maine.
If I remember rightly he was from the Province of Alberta in Canada, which is at least 50 percent colder than Maine, but he had apparently heard all the jokes we tell tourists about how cold Maine gets.
Weary
Heaviest thing... my guilt, or the weight of the world... depends on what day you ask me. :p
seriously though, that would have to be the first day out on the AT I hiked up Springer with a huge can of steak and potato stew. Darn thing must have weighed 3 pounds. Just for one meal. Sure did taste good though.
OK, really seriously, in the Mojave on the PCT I had to carry something like 3.5 gallong of water one day. My pack pretty much doubled in weight. Ugh.
my eight pound dana design longbed back pack
wilderness bob
06-07-2006, 10:14
Northern Iraq, Desert Storm, 125 pounds of light weight Army gear.
Mother's Finest
06-07-2006, 14:12
adirondack mountains. Pharaoh lake region. Hiked in with a four man inflatable raft strapped to my pack. It had not been inflated, so at least was not too bulky (mayb a bit bigger than a case of beer) but it weighed a ton. I know my pack weight was at least 80-90 lbs with that boat added to it. We were going out for a week, and wanted to be able to fish the lake. the year before, we had seen some cat portageing a canoe with a full pack.
at the end of the week, I had to cut the boat apart to get it down to a reasonable size to pack out.
never again
peace
mf
fredmugs
06-07-2006, 14:43
Two years ago I carried a case of beer into the backcountry in Yellowstone. What started out as a 4 mile hike turned into 8 because the hellroaring creek was a little too hell roaring to cross. Those last two miles were tough but having a case of beer chilling in the Yellowstone river made it all worth while after each days hike!
I'd blissfully forgotten about this until wilderness bob posted...
Yep, on a recovery mission, packed most of my tool box in with some essential gear (protective mask, MREs, sleeping bag, water) to see if we could fix the truck where it died in the sand. Talk about fun. Not.
No wonder I agonize over every ounce that's going in the pack for next year's thru!
:( the weight of the world, the woulda-coulda-shoulda's, the what-if's, the why-nots, the why's, the will-I-ever's, the divorce, the re-marriage, the guilt over the kids not being with me all the time, the boring job just to have a paycheck to support the family, the pain-in-the-a** mother-in-law, the crazy mother, the idiot (15 years my junior) that I have to work for and listen to, and myself at almost 300 lbs. I'm sure there are more, but it's late and i cannot think of them right now.
But no regrets for serving my country for 20 years. God, Corps, Country!
Lcastellow
06-12-2006, 10:49
Two one gallon cans of Coleman fuel. Went on a two week hike in the Olympic Penninsula in '77. Two folks got hurt and another two left the trail due to incessant rain. Those of us who stayed on the trail shared responsibility for carrying the community items they had been carrying. I ended up with the Coleman fuel the last two or three days. In my youth, it was not nearly as noticeable as it would be now.
greentick
06-12-2006, 11:11
Northern Iraq, Desert Storm, 125 pounds of light weight Army gear.
Yeah Bob, here's your new bigger ruck so you can carry more highspeed, lightweight gear....