AboutTom Newman Expertise Scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop 43 in Fort Wayne, IN. We have an outing every month. Most months involve tent camping, usually in State Parks. We have made 4 trips where we have hiked 50+ miles on the Appalachian Trail. We expect to continue this until we have hiked the whole trail... (40+ years).
I am looking for a dual advise.
1)my current backpack weighs around 2/3 kg hence I need to know of a good brand/model of backpack which is both economical / effective/ light weight
2) offlate my backpack tend to weight around 13-15 without sleepingbag, hence I need advise on what should be carried in a backpack and what should be avoided.
Thanks
Dimitrz
Answer If your current backpack is 2/3 kg that is only about 1.5 pounds. That is a really light backpack and sounds really small without either an internal or external frame. Picking a backpack is a lot like picking a car. Make and model are very personal and usually based on non-logical reasons. Here is a link to good article on how to choose a backpack...
this should answer your question about what you should carry.
A couple of personal observations...
The most important thing is to make sure that you have a hip strap on your backpack. This will put the weight of the pack on your hips and not on your shoulders.
Second, people seem to want to fill up their pack, so the larger the pack, the more you will tend to carry. Remember that an ounce in the morning feels like a pound at night.
Third, if you are going to be carrying extra clean clothes, put one days worth of clothes in a 3 gallon ziplock freezer bag. Zip the bag about 2/3 of the way and then sit on the bag forcing the air out. Then finish closing the bag, you will then have a very compact bag of clothes which will remain dry regardless of how wet the inside or outside your pack gets. When you wear the clean clothes....
if you are going to wear your first set of clothes again, hang the dirty clothes on the outside of your pack so they air dry (unless it is raining).
if you are not going to wear the first set of clothes again, seal them in the bag the same way as before and you will keep the dampness and smell out of your backpack.
Finally, one of the best ways to decide what to carry is to put everything that you think that you will need in the pack and then go on a 5 mile hike. Make a note of everything that you use, and next time only pack those items. Re-evaluate the items that you didn't use. There will some items that you carry that hopefully you will never use. An example might be a first aid kit. The question here is to look at the packaging. Do you really need the plastic box and all of the items in it? Perhaps you can just put some Band-Aid and other necessary items in a film canister. Do you really need a towel? A backpacking towel or a shammy (Chamois) is less bulky, more absorbent and dries quicker.
I hope that this answers your question. If you have a more specific question, please contact me here or directly at scout043@aol.com.
