Admit it. You’ve got these pictures too.

I talked to this guy on Mount Hood. He complained that he forgot his trekking pole:

the worst part of this guy's aresenal.. it was ME who carried it! circa '99

nm

Coming back from Rae Lakes, these guy's were in front of us, but not for long.

I was on an overnight trip with a group last weekend. I've been trying to get my brother (on the left) to get a GG Gorilla, but he just got a "70-10" liter pack, it has a 70 liter main pack AND a 10 liter day pack straped on the back. I just brought a Zpacks Zero. Thanx BPL.

Nature abhors a vacuum…

…and gear loves a spacious pack. The more space you have, the more gear you will take.

Wow.
Now I know who the creepy guys hiding in the bushes with tiny packs and cameras are.

And here is mine……. I actually had to place it on a picknick bench in front of the ranger station to get the pack on…………….wow

Nice Ken, that just made my day, I needed that.

Jack, I am glad that my pain and suffering on that trip made your day. I chuckle everytime I see that pic

At least your bandana matches your pack.

Some poor guy trudging on the Colorado Trail, as we passed him.

My goodness, what in the heck are they carrying in these things?

Just curious…what percentage of the people you see on the trail are like this? We rarely see others so I have no idea what they do. Sadly, the few we've seen have been like this (worse, actually) but then we're in the Ozarks so all bets are off.

"My goodness, what in the heck are they carrying in these things"?

FWIW my original pack weighed 4 pounds 13 ounces empty. My seeping bag at that time weighed 3 pounds 4 ounces. My tent weighed between 3.5 and 4 pounds.

Added together I was very near 12 pounds just for the big three! I was prepared for anything. I had two changes of clothes in addition to the clothes worn. My FAK would have kept an EMT supplied. I was so organized too. Everything was in 2 gallon or smaller ziploc bags. I honestly think I was carrying a pound of ziplocs.

My fully loaded pack weight with consumables at that time was almost 34 pounds. It wasn't a 60+ pounder but it was still a load. ;-)

I'll post some pictures later.

Party On,

Newton

I did an overnight at lena lake (olympic peninsula) last friday night and was so ashamed of my packweight (granted i did have a packraft and some hard cider packed)

Then on my way out I saw about 50 people (lots of boyscout troops and others) hiking up with GINORMOUS packs. easily 50 pounders with garbage bags hanging off and carrying stuff by hand.

Then i didn't feel so bad.

Great thread!

Here are the pictures to go with my post from above.

In the picture below is my traditional panel loading external frame pack. That is my 3+ lbs sleeping bag inside of its compression style nylon stuff sack in the next chair.

The next picture shows my old blue A frame style "pup" tent.

These days I use a MYOG 1 pound pack, a 14 ounce tarp, an 8.5 ounce bivy and a MYOG 14 ounce top quilt. My total for all of these items is now 3.3 pounds or the weight of my old sleeping bag alone. ;-)

Party On,

Newton

Newton, Yeah I had one of those tents. I also had a UL version (all nylon) that did well for hiking. Back in the latter 60's I would often head out with 50lb+ and think nothing of it. I had it down to about 35lb including food and water by the 80s. After joining yahoo's list I got even lighter and it is rare that I carry more than 20lb, including food and water. For a while I went super light with my base pack at about 4#10. Then I added stuff back. SUL was nice but a lot of hastle setting up the gear, replacing damaged items, etc. I added stuff back and typically carry between 9 and 11# of base pack. I still look for the old yellow pup tent. I had that for 11 years…

James,

"I also had a UL version (all nylon) that did well for hiking".

There was an ultralight version of that tent!?!? ;-)

I still have that old blue tent. It is over 20 years old by now. I can't part with it because my youngest son and I camped out in it in the back yard when he was very young. Memories like that are good things.

To my credit, I was on my way to ultralight even back then. Notice in the picture that my tent is set up between and tied off to a pair of small trees. I also left the aluminum tent poles at home in favor of using my trekking poles when there were no trees available. In that particular picture I was using the trees and the trekking poles. I was such a newbie back then.;-)

Party On,

Newton

Yupper. It was only available for one or two years I think. It weighed in at 2#14 with poles. Nice tent, but it was badly stretched after the first 7-8 years. I had to make a small tarp for it wich boosted the weight. Long time ago, I think close to 25 years, now. I have to laugh at most so called UL tents nowdays. They all weigh more, 'cept the tarp tents. Anything less than 4lb is UL according to manufacturors.

Ahh well… Yeah, it seems like it was a long journey. Then, back to again to conveniences…

my ULA Conduit on the right, the guy wearing the monster had no idea what it weighed and didn't want to know

Guilty as charged. 1998 Yolla Bolly Nor cal