First Time Visit: 8/24/10 - 9/1/10

[Midwest Ed]

The adage of watching the ounces to control the pounds really is accurate. Trimming an ounce or two from several items will begin to save you 2 or 3 pounds.

Your camp shoes (as you’ve already noted) are obvious targets. I use moccasins without hard soles. After a break-in period, the leather soles harden to a more protective (but not perfect) layer. There are several choices of very lightweight foot protection starting at simple “flip-flops”. You are correct that two flashlights is a luxury, but remember to add a spare bulb or two. I am assuming you repackaged all your food, changing out the card board for lighter plastics bags? For all other things, do anything you can to carve an ounce or even less from everything. Trim the margins from the maps, LOL. Buy a cheap pair of sunglasses that you’d consider disposable and leave the hard case at home. Unless you are boiling a lot of water, a smaller pot will be adequate. The small bottles of various liquids (soap, bug dope, etc) might contain a lot more than is needed for a week. Get smaller containers and take only what is needed.

It’s easy to vary the menu. Replace the repetitive mashed potatoes with any number of choices from the grocery store. There are lots of instant/just add hot water items in the lunch sections. Many are packaged in little Styrofoam cups ranging from Mac & Cheese to Ramen noodles to different tasty soups. I take two servings (two Styrofoam cups and repackage them to single serving zip-lock bags.

Short of spending a lot more money on ultra light weight replacement gear, I think you are doing very well.

[Pioneer Spirit]

Trade the Maglite and head lamp for something lighter. I use a tiny lED lamp that hangs in the tent that is about the size of a quarter. My headlamp needs replaced with one that used hearing aid batteries.

I usually have two BIC lighters, one is a spare and both are the half sized ones. Buy some military surplus parachute cord and remove the inner strings. I use a small ultra light multi-tool that is about half-size.

A cook pot should only be equal to or less than a quart. Most foods require 2 cups of water only. Use the extra if you want hot tea or coffee. You could switch to alcohol stoves but a store bought version failed to heat my titanium pot to boiling. I suspect the stove was too small and the titanium acted as a heat sink.

Switch to ultra-lite trail shoes that eliminate the need for extra shoes. Wrap a few inches of duct tape around a hiking stick to use for repairs or as blister covers. Leave the binoculars and GPS at home. Use a camelback instead of a Nalgene bottle or use a collapsible Nalgene bladder as needed.
The main weight hogs are Tents, Sleeping bags, water, cooking system and the pack. You can trade a tent for a tarp or hammock although I have an aversion to bugs so I need a net and end up with the same weight minus the extra time needed to tie ropes and rig the system.