My packing list & weights

[fonixmunkee]

Here's what my packing list looks like. I'm posting it as reference for anyone else who may want to use it. It also contains weights of everything, although not item-specific, as I pack very modular. This pack list is what I had for seven days. It does NOT include food. It also does not contain the tent (although I do have the poles and stakes), as these were carried by someone else this trip so I couldn't weigh it.

Hope it can help some others out!

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... y=CNDO4aoL

[tfoster]

Thanks for posting your list. It's very helpful to see, and I'm happy that it pretty closely matches mine. One thing I noticed is that you don't have shorts on it. We've packed shorts as well as long pants. Do you wear the kind of pants where the legs zip off or do not find much of a use for shorts on the island?

[fonixmunkee]

Do you wear the kind of pants where the legs zip off or do not find much of a use for shorts on the island?

That's exactly what I wear. I have a pair of REI ones I love. And I always hike in shorts. So much more comfortable.

[Rafiki]

Yikes. That's a heavy load, especially since you stated that your base weight did not include your tent :/ With the tent you probably have a 30 Lb pack. 30 pounds is more than I would want after food and water is added into the figures. Ever think about lightening up a little. Right now my base weight is about 13.5 Lbs and my goal is to get it down to 9-10 Lbs over the course of the next few years. If possible I would like to be able to carry a pack that is under 20 Lbs with food and water. At this current moment in time, with food and water, I'm at about 22.75 Lbs.

[Blackdog]

22.75 lbs? Nice! How do you do it? My weight is like fonixmunkee, around 30-35 lbs on a 5 day trip with food, water (2 liters) and tent. I use everything in my pack and have no extra fun things besides binoculars and a camera. I cut some weight last year by using a solo tent, but it was really uncomfortable so I carried the extra 2.5 lbs this year with my two man tent. I don’t bring a lot of food since I mostly just eat dinner (one Mountain House meal per day--use pocket rocket stove). I’ll bring 4 or 5 snickers, a few peanut butter sandwiches, 3 Gatorade packs, 4 breakfast bars and some jerky. I got some lighter weight clothes this year, but it didn’t seem to make a lot of difference.

[Rafiki]

Hey Blackdog,

I have a handful of questions for you...

1. What kind of sleeping system do you have with regards to mattress, pillow, sleeping bag?

2. What does your two person tent weight?

3. Do you use water bottles or bladders?

4. How do you treat your water?

5. What type of stove and cooking system do you have?

6. What does your rain apparel consist of and what does it weigh?

7. What kind of backpack do you use?

8. Do you use a lot of stuff sacks or cases to pack your gear?

[Blackdog]

Hey Rafiki,

1) I have a slumberjack 30 degree bag (probably 3 lbs and use the blue foam pad..practically weightless (I’ve gotten used to the ‘comfort‘). I do have a fleece bag good for 50 degrees, but didn’t take it this year.
2) Two person tent weighs about 5.5 lbs.
3) I use two Lifeline water bottles-1 liter each
4) Water filter is a Katadyn Hiker 11 oz
5) Pocket Rocket Stove..this year I brought 8oz of fuel. More then I needed.
6) I carry a Red Ledge rain jacket (no rain pants). Not sure of the weight..maybe 16 oz?
7) My backpack is a Teton 55- 5 lbs
I do use stuff sacks for everything. Separate ones for tent, bag, clothes and food

I hiked the Minong and felt pretty good with the weight. 3-5 pounds lighter would have been better though.

[Rafiki]

I gotta head to bed, but promise to leave some comments tomorrow night when I get home from work. Just wanted to let you know that I saw that you answered my questions and am eager to give a couple of suggestions

P.S. What else do you use in combination with your stove with regards to your cooking system?

[Rafiki]

With regards to the followings answers that were given...

1. The slumberjack it a decent sleeping bag that does that trick, but there are plenty of down options out there that could save you at least 1lb of weight if not more. If your willing to go the route of a quilt, you could even probably cut your weight down by almost 2lbs. Am I correct in assuming that you do not use a pillow?

2. If you were willing to with a 2 person tarp tent, you would be carrying about 3lbs less. If you were to go with a lighter 2 person free standing tend, you could still find ones that would help you lose an extra 1.5 Lbs of weight.

3. If you were willing to switch to a 72oz water bladder, you'd be able to save about 3oz.

4. If you were willing to skip out on using a water filter, and did not mind using water tablets instead, you could shave 10oz.

5. The stove is fine, even though I like Snow Peak Stove's more, there really is not any room for improvement with regards to weight here unless you use a coke can stove. However, I still want to know what pot you use.

6. 1 LB for a rain jacket is heavy. My jacket weighs 6.5 ounces. You have room to save 10oz here if you find a lighter weight jacket.

7. A 5lb backpack is a complete overkill. I use a Granite Gear and it only weighs 2lbs 10oz. However, there are other alternatives like Gossamear Gear's Gorilla Ultralight Backpack which only weighs 1.5 Lbs. That could be a savings of almost 3.5Lbs for you.

8. Stuff sacks add up believe it or not. Stuff sacks for tents, sleeping bags, pads, water filters, and other used just to segregate gear out. You could honestly probably shave off 4-6ozs just by eliminating stuff sacks.

So with all said, and without considering how much you could save on a pillow (if you use one), pot, and stuff sacks, here is what I have calculated...

1. You could save a 1lb on you sleeping bag (more if you'd switch to a quilt)
2. You could save 3lbs if you'd switch to a Tarp Tent.
3. You could save 3ozs if you'd switch to water bladders.
4. You could save 10ozs if you'd ditch the water filter (not something I would do.)
5. You could save 10ozs if you'd get a lighter rain jacket.
6. You could save 3.5lbs if you'd get a lighter backpack.

You could be carrying almost 9LBs less weight if you'd be willing to make some sacrifices and reductions.

[Blackdog]

Thanks Rafiki!

I use a StanSport cooking pot. It’s small (only holds .75 liters of water when full). I just use it to boil water for Mountain House meals.

You’re right, I don’t use a pillow. I just lay on my backpack or whatever extra clothes I have.

I used a quilt the first time I went to IR and it was ok. I slept better this year with the slumberjack. I make a decision on which one to bring a few days before.

I’ve already kicked around the idea of getting a new pack and using a water bladder. I’ll have to see what my REI dividend is next year and what kind of gift cards I get for Christmas.

I can definitely switch out tents to save weight. I’m getting old so the extra room was nice this year, but I can use either one.

Thanks for the tips. I may do a wire to wire IR hike next year from Rock Harbor to Windigo. I’ll definitely shave some weight for that!

[Midwest Ed]

If you were willing to skip out on using a water filter, and did not mind using water tablets instead, you could shave 10oz.

Chemical water treatment alone is not sufficient to protect against tapeworm eggs. Without a filter you should boil water (rolling boil) for at least one minute. But then there is the added fuel weight. It used to be that filtering alone was considered safe, but now they are recommending chemical treatment as well as filtering since 0.4 micron can still pass through viruses and very small bacertia.

The following is a quote from the 2011 park newsletter, "The Greenstone":

********

"Water collected in the park should be boiled for at least one minute or passed through a 0.4 micron filter. To be assured of no risk of contamination from small bacteria and viruses, all filtered water should be further treated with iodine or other approved chemical methods. By itself, chemical treatment is not an effective method of water purification. If you boil your water, bring plenty of stove fuel. If filtering, bring a replacement cartridge for filters that cannot be cleaned in the field. Please note: SteriPENs have not been manufacturertested for a common Isle Royale parasite and cannot be considered effective."

http://www.nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/u ... i-2011.pdf
see "Drinking Water" on page #5

[karebing]

Question for you all,

When you say you can use a quilt....instead of a sleeping bag, just what and where do you get those? Also, I have an older jansport pack and down sleeping bag. how do you weigh them accurately? With a bathroom scale? Just wondering.... Mine seems VERY heavy so I might look into a new one. Thanks, Karen

[karebing]

OK, I have NEVER bothered with my pack weights before but am rather anxious about them at this point as I am not in as good a shape for this up coming Isle Royale trip as I have been in the past. Plus, it has been at least 5 years since my last long trip. SO.......I am all of a sudden quite taken with this idea of lightening up!
OH NO!!!!

I found out my pack weighs 4 #'s, my 30 degree Sierra Design bag weighs, 3#'s and my thermarest weighs 3 #'s. YIKES....I am already at 10 pounds!!!!!! I only have to carry the tent fly, which is light, and a pan and one canister of fuel as my husband will carry the stove and tent and other pan. Then food, and water and clothing. My clothing is all VERY light and I don't bring anything other than one change of clothing, silk long undies, and rain gear, which is very light plus toiletries such as toothpaste, bug dope, asperin and tape..

At this point, I am thinking of going for the thermarest z-lite pad...it is only 14 oz. That would shave off 2.2 #'s and not a real expensive switch out at this point. (33.00). But is it comfortable at all and packable? I really want to keep my pack with food and water down to 30#'s. Would you switch out the pad? Would it be worth it? I have always used the blow up kinds, and rather like them as they are comfy but would be willing to go with the cell foam pad if others recommend them.

Well, let me know folks when you get a chance. We will be hiking for 8 days...I plan on eating my dinner and bfast at the lodge on the way out, and getting to camp easily the first evening and eating up that meal quickly so I will only have 6 dinners, 7 breakfasts, and 7 lunches to haul around. Only cooking for dinner and morning coffee.

Oh wise and lightened ones, give me advice please. Thanks, Karen

[fonixmunkee]

how do you weigh them accurately? With a bathroom scale?

Yes, I use a good bathroom scale. I step on it with just my clothes on, three different times, and take the average of those three times. That's my base weight. Then I step on it with each of my pieces of gear (or in my case, "compartments" or "groupings" of gear) and subtract my base weight from that. Viola!

Also, I wouldn't sweat your weight so far. Keep in mind, that's my base weight...that's not including food or water yet! You are already doing pretty good on your pack weight. Get some more of your gear in there, then start sweating!

[leeblue5]

I use quilts often. You can get some nice ones at hammockgear.com or nunatek. Or if your crafty you can make a nice down quilt for around $100-150 that weighs around a pound for 35 degrees. If you want to get down to the thirties in pack weight, a lighter bag, pad, and pack will help. If your staying in shelters and have a flat surface a z rest would work, but I like air mattresses more. Look into a thermarest neo air or a pad by kooka bay. As for weighing gear, I have a simple kitchen scale that goes up to four pounds that weighs in ounces or grams, very handy for gear, as anything really you take shouldn't weigh more than four pounds anyway.