The Mental Side to Going Ultralight

Good stuff.

Thanks for sharing.

“One’s camp experience is simpler and less cluttered”.

Good article. That quote right there is one of the main reasons why I go lightweight. Yes I can carry a heavy pack if needed.. I just hate having too many things to pack/unpack and keep track of. I like to keep it simple and use what I bring with me and not have a bunch of stuff all over the place.. Where should I put this and where is that.. No thanks. it drives me crazy when I see someone with so much gear and things layed out all over the place..

it drives me crazy when I see someone with so much gear and things layed out all over the place.

Then it snows.
We have seen that in the spring, when gear began to pop up through the snow. :)

Cheers

Trail confidence, compromise, and motivation… rings true.

I think at the junction of compromise and confidence is flexibility. A lot of excess gear is “what if” gear. Once you’ve done enough hikes where you’ve forgotten enough things, you realize that “what if” can be solved with a bit of creativity or a bit of acceptance of your temporary discomfort. To be able to recognize the difference between discomfort and danger is key. I lost my gloves so I guess I’ll wear my spare socks on my hands… I’m short a full day of food, I guess I’ll take a little bit out of each day’s meals and make another day… I’m sick of being cold all the time, maybe the next town up the trail has a thrift shop or the resort up the trail sells t-shirts.

There’s also another aspect of trail confidence that I’ve given some thought about recently because of a question someone asked me about solo hiking as a woman. We women sometimes don’t feel very confident. We sometimes feel scared. We sometimes cry.

I’ve known women who seemed like they couldn’t do it, but they did. They would admit defeat, they would cry, they would admit to being scared, they might otherwise just look like there’s no way this person can do this thing. But despite all of this, they would succeed anyway. This doesn’t look like confidence. It’s not stoic. It’s not masculine. There’s no certitude. What is this thing?

Last spring while hiking SOBO for a couple days on the PCT I bumped into a young woman sitting in the trail crying her eyes out. I asked if she was okay, and she said yeah, she just needed to process some stuff and I told her, I understand, and left her alone. I’ve been watching a vlog of a young woman who hiked the PCT and she admitted many times she was scared. It looked like she might not finish the trail but she did. My boyfriend and I helped another young woman hike a local trail who was actually plucked off the trail against her will at some point because a few people became convinced she was too flighty and unserious to complete such an adventure. She cried in a drunken stupor for 2 nights on our couch, but we dropped her back onto the trail and she ended up being the first person to thru-hike that particular trail. I remember my own first solo night sleeping out in the wilderness. I woke up twice with that sleep paralysis night terror thing of thinking there is something awful happening but because I’m paralyzed by sleep I cannot yell out “who’s there”, I cannot reach the gas valve that is leaking, the bear is going to eat me because I cannot move. People rarely talk about the fears they have to walk through to get to the other side to have that confidence, and even if you walk through it, you think well, because I was scared and crying maybe I don’t have confidence. And you’re robbed when you think that way.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that trail confidence needs to be expanded to include persistence. You can do this even if you aren’t confident. Even if you are scared to the point of crying. Even if you quit in your head multiple times. A lot of times, women especially, achieve not because of confidence but because or persistence. We just keep going anyway. Be stubborn. Don’t let anyone “mansplain” you out of your adventure, even that mansplainer that lives in your head. Don’t second-guess yourself out of your adventure. You can do this. Like anything else, you need flexibility, creativity and persistence. So add that to the mix.

A big +1 to Diane.

I enjoy the “challenge” of being completely comfortable (and therefore confident) in the field with an absolute minimum amount of “stuff”.  That joy is amplified in direct proportion to my distance from the car.  This is a good time to acknowledge that discomfort can be comfortable when you know it has a purpose and you have the situation under control. IMO, one of the keys to hiking into your 60s, 70s and 80s is coming to grips with the fact that parts of your body start to hurt.  The older you get, the more parts hurt.  And that’s okay, provided you’ve checked with your doctor and you’re not doing damage by continuing to hike.  Take your NSAID of choice and press on.

Right on Diana! just keep going anyway

young woman hike a local trail who was actually plucked off the trail against her will at some point because a few people became convinced she was too flighty and unserious to complete such an adventure.
To my mind, that qualifies as assault or kidnapping. Actionable.

The older you get, the more parts hurt.
Oh shut up.
:) :) :)

Cheers

My own “compromise” gear is comfort gear.

1.REI FLASH  full length air mattress

2. Osprey EXOS 58 pack

These two comforts are mandatory for me.  Comfort on the trail and comfort in bed. (Which also means a WM Megalite mummy.)

I’ve happily used my Trail Designs ti Sidewinder cone stove with ESBIT for many trips. It just works. Yes, my solo TT Moment DW tent is a bit “heavy” at 2 pounds but I’m looking at the TT Notch Li to change that at a bit over 1 lb.

Diane’s simple but sometimes hard recipe

Thanks for the reminder Diane.    :)