Originally Posted by
bristolview
I went ultralight solo hiking back in college and on the 2nd night in (of 5 or 6), my backpack was stolen. Actually, to be fair... it was traded. I took a very small bivy style tent and left my pack outside next to it. In the night, someone took it and most of my gear. In it's place, was a broken external frame Kelty with only one shoulder strap and no belt. Nice. Cooking gear, gone. Pack gone, knife attached to the shoulder straps gone, food that was inside, gone. My 'New' Kelty (one of my favorite brands BTW) was mostly empty. It had an empty can of Dinty Moore beef stew in it, which became my new cookpot. It also had a decent light weight poncho (not as good as the one in my pack, but it was servicable). This 'trade' gave me an excellent opportunity to hone my survival skills over the next few days (aka scavenging). It did make my hike much lighter, as I ditched the frame of the Kelty and modified it into an ergonomically poor slingbag. No gear, no stove, no cookware, makes for light hiking. I kept going as I was pretty far in already. BUT... I'd rather not do that again, and the experience has left me with an uncanny dislike of having my gear not with me, or at least attached to something to make it at least a little difficult to take.
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