I didn’t make UL weight, but I’m still excited

Great TR Stephen

You mentioned the lack of compression on the Gorilla. Check out Will Rietveldts' blog he changed the shock cords to non-stretchy cords with line locks so they are more like compression straps, looks like a better system to me.

I don't have a tent (tarp) so my pack is always in my "vesibule" no problems yet but I try to keep food odor off my pack. Not just for bears but I don't want a marmot to chew into it either.

I don't know if I'd go with less then 1.4 pounds of food just yet. I've had some similar experiences where I ate minimal food but I always noticed myself eating a lot more when I got home. On longer trips 1.4 pounds a day is very minimal. If you're planning a strenuous trip I'd keep the 1.4 pounds, or at least pack a bit more for towards the end.

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Excellent trip report, thank you!

My vote for best line, "I weighed Dave’s empty MountainSmith backpack – it was nearly 8 lbs.! I can see why their logo includes an anvil."

Sounds like it was a good time and a productive gear shakedown.

nice. u can do better than 100 oz without sacrificing comfort. i have a zpacks arc blast, zpacks hexamid solo, zpacks 20 degree sleeping bag, and exped synmat ul7. With stuff sacks and stakes, its only about 75 oz for all 4. just a suggestion if u feel like spending more. haha.

I recently tried the Exped pillow, and was disappointed. If it were flat it would have been ok, but with one baffle being higher than the others I couldn't get comfortable on it. Too bad, it was light and small.

Steven, I have no desire to spend more money at this point. My gear for this trip added up to around $1600. Spending from this point on will just be to fill in gaps, like if I need a puffy or some condition/trip-specific gear.

On food, I also find that I'm hungrier than usual after a trip, so if I were going out for more than 5 days or so I'd plan for more, or maybe if all of my days were 15 miles or more I'd want more food sooner. It seems like a short backpacking trip would be a terrible way to lose weight – appetite doesn't get ramped up until you've stopped doing extra work, and then you want to eat everything in sight.