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The most “non lightweight” thing you’ve seen on the trail
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Sep 12, 2013 at 1:33 pm #2024355
"A MSR-fired hot tub."
I have to get me one of those!
Sep 12, 2013 at 1:38 pm #2024356I've carried heavy fresh food and several bottle of champagne. The worst however was a full sized camping "bag" chair (the kind used by RVers) and 25 lbs of video camera equipment. All of this was for a hike of only a mile and a half, and it's downhill on the way in. The chair and camera equipment about killed me on the way up…
Hiking out of this same place I did carry an ice chest up the hill for some poor girl who's boyfriend left her on the trail by herself.
For longer hikes the worst I carried was two garcia bear cans in Yosemite.
Sep 12, 2013 at 1:55 pm #2024360…for relaxing after hauling all that "non lightweight" stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQc7t2BOx_Y
:)
Sep 12, 2013 at 3:12 pm #2024373This reminds me of a guy we met on Stewart Island and named the Axe Man. He said he was out for about three weeks and had an 80 L pack. However this was full and he was supplementing it with a canvas shopping bag in each hand. As far as I could see each bag was full of tins. He was also carrying a decent sized hatchet (unusual in NZ, as the huts often have their own axe). Just to keep things fresh he was wearing running shoes without much tread. Stewart Island is very, very muddy and when we saw him later he was making very slow and careful progress down hill.
Eric has been posting a lot lately. So just to save him the effort here I will say that he seemed very happy and he was going to be out there long after we had returned back home.
Sep 12, 2013 at 3:49 pm #2024384Granted, it was gutted. Then a paper scroll was inserted to teach a troop of scouts a "Leave No Trace" lesson. Hike in was only 2 miles.
Sep 12, 2013 at 4:12 pm #2024385http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/4553740/Climbing-companions-take-barbecuing-to-new-heights
Back in the early 90's I belonged to a university camping trip and the club was responsible for maintaining a couple of tramping huts in the Tararuas (New Zealand). Normally the supplies would be dropped off by helicopter but being students we didn't have the cash for that so we humped it in. A trip that normally was 3 hours took 6. I carried a 40kg bag of cement for mixing into concrete for the hut's foundations. At least my load was small in volume so it didn't get caught on the trees, my mate had to carry the buckets, shovels, and a couple of sheets of corrugated roofing iron.
Sep 12, 2013 at 4:29 pm #2024390LOL I love this thread!! Need more pics tho :)
How about an entire box of wine! What an idiot! Oh wait that was me……
Also in 2005 doing trail work in CO, we had a base camp about 3mi (and 1,500 ft up!!) from the parking lot, and 45 min drive from Leadville. Each 10 days we had to resupply with produce, eggs, etc. Oh dear lord, it was bad! Imagine a big backpack, plus a bag of oranges, plus a grocery bag in each hand with eggs. Oh how those fit UL Colorado trail runner folks must have laughed at us!! But the good news was, if you could carry it, you could have it!! So that included luxuries like Trivial Pursuit and, no kidding, a trombone!!
PS if you have hiked the Colorado Trail or summit trail on Mt Massive, I hope you liked it!! :)
Sep 12, 2013 at 4:42 pm #2024393The television shell is hilarious!
The heaviest-looking things I've seen are the cast-iron skillet a buddy used to carry on every trip (and he was fast) and a large dutch oven strapped to a big, blue Lowe pack. The actual heaviest item is probably the 5-man inflateable we saw guys hauling into Thousand Island Lake this summer.
I carried a Big Agnes Big House out to TI one year, because I didn't own anything that would hold 3 people and…because I could. Later, I reconsidered that position, but the tent was luxurious.
Sep 12, 2013 at 7:15 pm #2024428We saw a scout from another crew at a campsite in the backcountry at Philmont with 1) laptop computer 2) Sony playstation 3) Sony PSP
Okay, the PSP alone I might have understood.
Sep 12, 2013 at 7:35 pm #2024436Saw some fun things on the Long Trail last summer.
first was a family that had done 3 days to do what we did that day up to Killington. they had large frame packs with canned food, large bottles of alcohol and pretty non light camping gear. They were harmless and gave us candy and JELLO pudding cups (pudding makes great breakfast!)
2nd was a first aid kit that probably weighed 2-3lbs from a "NOLS" guy who seemed to think he was going to do surgery. He couldn't quite wrap his head around my 3oz ziplock bag of gauze, moleskin and bandaids. They also had their food packed in bulk for 3…except one had to get off the trail so they were stuck with extra. ever see a sandwich bag half full of table salt? or a gallon of oatmeal.
in Kings Canyon we saw a pair of pack Llamas but they carry themselves :)
Sep 12, 2013 at 7:51 pm #2024441I had a Spanish national scout leader once carry a 26" Paella pan 2.5 miles into our campsite. I think it weighed something like 12 pounds, but we harvested enough freshwater mussels and crayfish that afternoon to flavor and feed most of the troop out of that thing.
I was 12 at the time but still remember that meal, so I guess the impact was there. :D
Sep 12, 2013 at 8:16 pm #2024450On my first SUL style trip at Grayson Highlands we camped out at Thomas Knob shelter. The next morning we chatted with a couple adults from the scout troop camped next door.
One teenager camp out of his tent wearing, I kid you not, a steel army helmet from the World War II era. It was painted orange for some reason. I have no idea what the kid was thinking when he packed that.
Sep 12, 2013 at 9:18 pm #2024462I met a thru-hiker on the AT this summer from England he (Smiley? Smiles? Can't remember his trail name) who was packing a homemade… swing! He unraveled it, strung it from the rafters in the Graymoor Ballfield Shelter, and swung away. Apparently, there was a swing somewhere along the AT down south, and he enjoyed it so much he made his own from a scrap of wood and paracord. Looked a little flimsy for my bulk, but a few other hikers enjoyed it.
Sep 12, 2013 at 9:44 pm #2024465May have hallucinated this, or seen ghosts, but in early July 2005 was detouring around Never Summer Wilderness in Colorado by going through Rocky Mtn Nat Park. Was headed south from the Bowen/Baker trailhead to the Bowen Gulch trail, to get to Bowen Lake, a popular camping spot. Although adjacent to mountains, this section of trail was quite steamy with a lot of leafy brush, and felt more like hiking in the southlands than in northern Colorado.
A young man in a blue civil war union uniform and cap, but with no insignia, passed me coming the other way (north), and responded a little gruffly to my greeting. Behind him was a young woman in a long dress, looking pregnant, with a large trunk strapped to her front. It was heavy and large enough that she had to lean way backward to walk. She must have been incredibly strong.
After they passed by, I did a kind of doubletake, but just kept on going. After the trail turned westward and went up Bowen Gulch, it was a relief to run into a couple who I camped near overnight. They had some nice dogs and offered me fresh trout cooked in one of those big frying pans. Felt back in reality.
There is a book entitled "Lost Nation," written by a college professor in Vermont that graphically describes how women were treated in the wilderness of northern New Hampshire in the days of the Indian Stream Republic. It felt like I'd walked back in time.
Sep 12, 2013 at 10:11 pm #2024468Two small sacks of cement and a bundle of 8' rebar. Little Mexican dude must have been pouring a foundation for something in the Cuyamacas.
Sep 13, 2013 at 6:32 am #2024494A horse train
Sep 13, 2013 at 6:52 am #2024496"It felt like I'd walked back in time."
Maybe you did???
Sep 13, 2013 at 8:26 am #2024510
Heavy Pack– OMG!Sep 13, 2013 at 9:48 am #2024528On a backpack trip years ago, my father found an abandoned, hand-forged chain in the wilderness. He decided he had to have it. So he packed it out. Added about 40 lbs of iron in his pack on the way back. Dad's gone, but I still have that chain.
Sep 13, 2013 at 10:41 am #2024546Two quick stories.
Story #1:
Ages ago (mid '80s) about 12 miles south of Red's Meadow, we passed by a small, but fully equiped trail maintenance crew (including mattocks, pulaskis, macleods, grub-hoes, even a sledge & a wheel barrow!) … I naturally assumed they were supplied by horse packers, and thought nothing more of it.
We chatted briefly about the weather (it was raining), even briefer about their work and moved on.Three days later as we heading back into Red's Meadow, we passed the same crew, but this time they were on the move … they were backpacking everything … everything! UNBELIEVABLE. Our conversation this time centered their loads, which they jokingly guessimated "probably over a 100 lbs …" Wow, trail crew studs.
Story #2:
During a backpack loop in Devil's Canyon we were on our return leg, and we passed a camp (just before the long climb out of the canyon) in which 5 college age youth had set-up a full sized, back yard type BBQ (the ones with the 5 gallon propane tank) and had a full sized ice chest. In amazement, we asked them why would they haul that set-up down from Angeles Crest Highway, did they know about any lighter alternatives? They just laughed & their answer was "well, we like to eat REALLY good!" Getting to where they were was downhill, and when we asked about the uphill return, their grinning response was "we'll do it the same way we got here, only a little slower". I certainly hope they enjoyed their meals enough to made it worth it.Sep 13, 2013 at 11:20 am #2024553Granted, this was for a trail construction outing but its still the most non-lightweight thing I've carried. I was leading a backcountry trail building event, we were hiking in just two miles, camping, then hiking a little farther to the worksite. The other leader and I got there early and he carried in 5 gallons of water in a heavy duty bladder and I carried in a chainsaw and fuel on an old external pack frame. Then we hiked back out and carried our packs in with everyone else. After we were done with the chainsaw I hiked it back out to the vehicle then walked back to camp. On the way back out the next day I carried about 20 pounds of trash we'd cleaned up from the fire rings and campsite balanced precariously on top of my pack. I was really glad I packed light for that trip.
I've got lots of fun trail building/maintenance stories. I used a leaf blower on 9 miles of trail once too.Edit: This thread needs more photos!
Adam
Sep 13, 2013 at 5:35 pm #2024653Not really backpacking, but backpacking at the same time. I was on a whitewater kayaking trip with a friend when we saw a group of four guys all in small six foot whitewater playboats, wearing 80liter packs while they paddled. Never saw any of them flip in the short time that we saw them, but when they did I'm sure they went straight to the bottom. They obviously didn't think that one through, didn't have any spray skirts either…
Sep 13, 2013 at 6:50 pm #2024662Saw a guy carrying a quarter barrel keg with a nitrous-tank tap up to Conundrum Hot Springs a month ago.
9 miles up-hill one way and he got a standing ovation as he arrived at the hot springs.Sep 13, 2013 at 8:11 pm #2024677I read on another forum that some folks carried a canoe up to Lake of the Clouds in the Presidentials to float around haha seems like a lot of work for a very small pond
Sep 15, 2013 at 10:36 am #2024880I went on a canoe trip with a buddy a few years ago. I'd been lightweight backpacking exclusively for a few summers and was amazed by the huge load that the other guys brought. I complained about one guy's stuff a lot because I ended up carrying it a couple times over portages. When I finally asked what he had in there, his response was- rocks. He wanted to carve rocks and he brought a big bag worth and all the metal files to go with it.
Also, in the hundred mile wilderness i found the following pile of stuff. I thought someone else was camping at that site that night and had probably just gone to get water down the hill. When no one showed up for quite a while I took a closer look at all the stuff and realized it was all superfluous items. Someone had hauled it all in, decided it was too heavy and left it.
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