absurd things to lighten pack

[ZeroC]

to keep budget low i bought a ten dollar wind breaker and wind pants and cut out all the lining material and cut out the pockets and sewed the openings shut. Trimmed about 10 oz total off of them.

[Wise Old Owl]

Removed the straps from the Leki poles, replaced them with plastic wire ties. Left the one man tent deliberately in favor of a tarp. Wear waterproof clothing instead of taking a heavy rain jacket. Dumped the First Aid kit - replaced it with a small pharmacy. Dumped the lexan water bottles in favor of a Katadyn filter bottle.

[beakerman]

If you consume the heavy food that's in your pack, are you still carrying the weight?

only if you pack out your "waste" as per some prior discussions on this site.

If you are "regular" you deposit a little each and every day along the way.

[jeepcachr]

I brought my 8 yr old this weekend on her first over night hike. 6.5 miles round trip. I was surprised how light my pack was when I put a bunch of my stuff into her pack. I'm thinking of putting a pack on my dog next time and between the dog and my daughter I probably won't have to carry a pack.

[theThriftstoreMtneer]

I'm not sayin' to do it My Way, but, I do many 7 to 10 day stretches and my pack weighs 25 lbs MAX. Please do some research, take good advice, and take action. You will find that some things do improve with time and effort.

[chris948]

The craziest thing to me was the idea to use extra socks as gloves. Kind of works, but I'll go ahead and bring gloves when it's cold.

[Egads]

I left the firewood at home

[Doctari]

We aren't the only ones trying to lighten the load, back in my bicycling days (near weekly 100+ mile trips) I saw an ad, mostly tongue in cheek, for a "Drilled out water bottle, it will save you nearly 5 grams" I think it cost about $2.00 more than a regular biker's water bottle. Naturally, it would not hold water.

[MedicineMan]

used to carry a Katadyn filter bottle or one of the variants for expedient cameling....subbed that out with a 1 ounze filter straw and a baggie (thanks MillerGear)...scoop with the baggie and suck it down

[Franco]

After having spent a considerable amount of time drilling extra holes in a pot lifter and filing the sides I finally saved 5 g (0.18oz)
The absurd part is that I don't use a pot lifter.. (my pot/mug has handles)
Franco

[Sarcasm the elf]

been there; done that. You'll figure it out.

Yes Sir, you are correct. We only ate about half the food despite carrying the amount that I saw commonly recommended for a trip of this length. I unloaded two pounds of it to a thru hiker at Upper Goose Pond Cabin who replied "Your mistake is greatly appreciated." I'm still not sure what else made my pack weigh so much, but after hiking with it on 90 - 100 degree days I plan to see what else I was carrying that I can do without.

[allwen]

Whilst I am aware of every gram I put into my pack, there are some things I refuse to compromise on, my Exped Downmat 7 that is definitely a helluva lot heavier than the miserable blue foam mats. Lets face it, people hiked the AT long before UL became the in thing!!!

[Tin Man]

Yes Sir, you are correct. We only ate about half the food despite carrying the amount that I saw commonly recommended for a trip of this length. I unloaded two pounds of it to a thru hiker at Upper Goose Pond Cabin who replied "Your mistake is greatly appreciated." I'm still not sure what else made my pack weigh so much, but after hiking with it on 90 - 100 degree days I plan to see what else I was carrying that I can do without.

on a week-long hike, get a seal-able bucket, put half your food, change of clothes, extra fuel, change of scotch (or whatever) in it and stash it at the half-way point. dump your trash, soiled clothes and anything you don't use/need when you hike to it. works for me.

[johnnybgood]

on a week-long hike, get a seal-able bucket, put half your food, change of clothes, extra fuel, change of scotch (or whatever) in it and stash it at the half-way point. dump your trash, soiled clothes and anything you don't use/need when you hike to it. works for me.

That works great but you must not forget where you cache it.
Write a detailed account of where you stashed it , unless of course you're smarter than a 5th grader.

[Panzer1]

I used to hike with a pencil that had no paint on it. Just bare wood.

Panzer

[Siestita]

When I started fishing on backpacking trips the weight that I carried went up considerably. So, I brilliantly decided to leave my little plastic cutting board at home and use the bottom of a Sigg aluminum pot as a fish cleaning surface instead. Starting out I was very proud of of the weight saving achieved by this multi-use trick. My pride diminished the first evening when the pot, which had previously served me well for many years, sprung multiple leaks.

[RayBan]

I've found that leaving my problems behind when I hike has done more to lighten my load than almost anything else.

[scooterdogma]

i've found that leaving my problems behind when i hike has done more to lighten my load than almost anything else.

touche!!!

[Gipsy]

I don't bother carrying a crack pipe anymore. That's not so absurd, I always found it hard to find crack on the trail anyway:-)

All UL crackheads know that you can make a UL crackpipeby rolling a single walled tube of foil.

Any lighter than that and you will just have to hold the rock between your teeth and light it. Hope you have dentures!

On that note, if you DO have dentures pull all but one tooth out to go UL.

[sixguns01]

So far I do nothing to lighten my pack.

I just finished loading my pack for my first ever 8 day, 7 night trip with no resupply besides a lunch at a deli (for which I have to get up in 5 hours to drive to Massachusetts for, yay!). This is the first time that my pack has exceeded the 50lb threshold and it looks like a giant bag of food with some camping gear shoved in around it.

Hopefully I'll learn my lesson in the next week and see what I can do without. I'm convinced that I can shave at least 5 pounds off of this pack without causing any issue, possibly more, but I just don't know what to ditch yet.

With time, experience, and some Advil, you'll learn what to ditch. Do some research and shop around on eBay and some forum gear swap sites and you can usually replace what you have with some much lighter gear without sacrificing comfort or safety. The amount of food to bring is something you'll learn from experience.

My old pack was 50lbs. My bad knees and smoker lungs did not like that. So searched and did some research and found deals cut my load down to 20-30lbs on a week long trip (depending on weather and geo location).

Have fun