I took my first backpacking trip right after I graduated from college. I was living in a student co-op in Berkeley, and a bunch of us decided to celebrate the end of the year by going up to Half Dome in Yosemite. Having never backpacked before, I borrowed whatever gear I could from friends and scrounged an assortment of food from the co-op.
At the trailhead to Vernal Falls, I carried a Coleman external frame pack, a white gas two-burner car camping stove, a gallon of fuel, a four-person tent, a gallon jug of water, some extra clothing, and a five-pound jar of peanut butter.
I was twenty-three years old, young, fit, and I was in pain.
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Originally, when I wrote this article, I had intended to include a link within it that lead to the website where I found the excellent gear calculator that I used to list all of my gear and to see what impact changes in my gear made to my overall pack weight.
The link never made it into the posted essay that you see here, but I wanted to list it here, in case anyone wanted to have one to use for themselves.
Here it is and good luck on your own light weight journey:
http://www.backpacking.net/featured3.html
God, I got Old….Older.
Will be 50 next year….interesting to see the changes over time.
You still got it Tony.
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