WHATS IN YOUR PACK?-Your complete load out.

[TFC Rick]

This may be silly, but as a super noob could you explain how you load your pack?

What I mean is what order do you put what? Iam having a hard time prioritizing things and compartmentalizing things. I would love some tips from the more seasoned folks.

Rick

[timdogg]

This may be silly, but as a super noob could you explain how you load your pack?

What I mean is what order do you put what? Iam having a hard time prioritizing things and compartmentalizing things. I would love some tips from the more seasoned folks.

Rick

I don't know if its the right way but I follow two rules don't put my sleeping bag on the very bottom because it might get wet. and heaviest items in first to keep a lower center of gravity.

[Just Jeff]

Re: the JetBoil, it's not a luxury I'm willing to give up either, except when I carry the BushBuddy. I tried alcohol for a while but it just wasn't worth the trade-off for me. Honestly, I think I'd still carry the JB if I were thru-hiking.

I love the BB, though...been carrying it on all my recent trips...great balance between weight and convenience since I can have a campfire anywhere, watch it burn while I eat, smoke keeps the bugs away, etc. Plus it makes me smell like a campfire instead of pits and butt, which is a nice change every now and then.

Here are a couple versions of my gear list. It changes every so often but always includes a hammock!
http://www.tothewoods.net/GearList.html

[timdogg]

Re: the JetBoil, it's not a luxury I'm willing to give up either, except when I carry the BushBuddy. I tried alcohol for a while but it just wasn't worth the trade-off for me. Honestly, I think I'd still carry the JB if I were thru-hiking.

I love the BB, though...been carrying it on all my recent trips...great balance between weight and convenience since I can have a campfire anywhere, watch it burn while I eat, smoke keeps the bugs away, etc. Plus it makes me smell like a campfire instead of pits and butt, which is a nice change every now and then.

Here are a couple versions of my gear list. It changes every so often but always includes a hammock!
http://www.tothewoods.net/GearList.html

the bushbuddy is cool but not cool enough to spend $120 why so much it looks like just a couple of paint cans?

[Widerstand]

This may be silly, but as a super noob could you explain how you load your pack?

What I mean is what order do you put what? Iam having a hard time prioritizing things and compartmentalizing things. I would love some tips from the more seasoned folks.

Rick

I put my sleep system stuff at the bottom since im not likely to be needing it all day and then the rest on top of it, and then my food and water at the very top since I be wanting to access that many times a day.

[Just Jeff]

It's a little more than some paint cans ...but we shouldn't hijack the original topic. There's plenty of info in our off-topic section and on many other sites about the BB.

[lori]

Well... I don't have one pack. I have two. I have different ways of packing depending on where and why I am going.

Pack: Gregory Jade 40 OR Granite Gear Nimbus Ozone. Each weighs about 3 lbs. The Gregory is about 41 liters and the Ozone can take up to 62 liters. The Gregory has been going out most of the time and the GG goes when I need a larger bear canister for food storage for an extended trip up to a week, or when I am taking extra insulation for cold weather. Either can carry 40 lbs.

Shelter: Blackbird 1.1 double layer w/ whoopie slings, 26 oz, plus either
MacCat Deluxe (16 oz with tie outs and ridgeline) OR the larger 10x13 cat tarp with four tie outs each side (24 oz with tie outs)

OR, just the MacCat Deluxe (16 oz)

OR, a Tarptent Sublite in Tyvek (22 oz, or 28.5 oz with Easton tent poles and extra stakes)

Stakes: MSR Groundhogs and MSR needle stakes, in various combos; pitching a tarp on the ground with trekking poles requires more stakes, as does the tarp with eight tie outs. Usually 4-6 oz.

Ground sheet: usually a contractor bag, a huge heavy duty trash bag sliced open if I am using just the tarp. This gets folded to a size smaller than the footprint of the tarptent if necessary. Weighs less than 6 oz. Not taken if I do not need to sleep on the ground, OR, if I am volunteering for search and rescue, I take two besides shelter.

Sleeping system:

1 JRB Hudson River top quilt, 20 oz, plus:

Neoair medium and thin torso length blue foam pad (13 + 6 oz) - OR
1 JRB Hudson River for underquilt (20 oz) - OR
1 Warbonnet Winter Yeti (about 18 oz without mylar liner)

Kitchen:

This varies a LOT. I have a lot of stoves. All of them have different purposes. I mostly cook over alcohol stoves as they are light and cheap and replaceable, and work reliably in colder temps. One or two stoves and a pot of whatever dimensions appropriate to the task(s) I need accomplished (boiling water, steam baking, fish poaching, simmering) will typically weigh less than 10 oz. I take anywhere from 4-10 oz of denatured alcohol or HEET.

I also have a basic Snow Peak Giga plus windscreen - weighs about 8 oz for both - that works with any iso-pro canister. This has its uses and goes about 1/4 of the time.

Front pack:

I have been taking a radio and GPS on outings within my county as I volunteer for SAR and need to have these in case I am in the area when a search callout is issued. The chest pack carries my compass, pencil, lip balm, notepad, radio, and GPS unit and weighs a total of 38 oz. with two spare sets of batteries for the GPS (which is a battery hog in the extreme).

Clothes:

I go high elevation often, and sleep below freezing a lot of the time year round, essentially need 20F gear in the middle of summer. Midweight or expedition weight base layer (or both if late fall), extra pair of socks, glove liner plus either fleece gloves or leather work gloves (search and rescue requires work gloves), warm hat or balaclava (have different weights of each), and sometimes Integral Designs Hot Socks (primaloft booties) to sleep in. A down jacket (Marmot, sewn through, good to about freezing when combined with base layer) or Thermawrap (Montbell, same temp range as the down jacket) for midlayer insulation. A rain shell (Outdoor Research right now, will change soon). Rain pants for extended trips or for cold weather. Lowe Alpine bibs for snow. Weight for clothes generally around 2-3 lbs, more if winter.

Boots: Trail runners if leisure backpacking. Asolo boots if search and rescue. Columbia waterproof Primaloft lined for snow/snowshoeing.

Trekking poles: single cheap metal pole for search and rescue - must have a tracking stick. Gossamer Gear Lightrek 4 poles for trekking, shelter supports, etc. everywhere else (3.5 oz apiece)

Water: Platypus, several sizes and kinds. Generally a Big Zip 2.0 for hydration and a 1 or 2 liter for backup and water storage around camp. A few ounces apiece.

Filter: Amigo Pro retrofitted with a Platypus Cleanstream filter, which is backflushable and faster than the Hiker Pro cartridge it came with. 9.8 oz with shower head included. Micropur tablets in the emergency kit.

First aid kit: 6 oz. Includes nonlatex gloves, extra stuff for SAR, and some specific pills to tackle ongoing allergies.

Bear Can: for 2-3 days, Bare Boxer Contender (25 oz); for 4-6 days, Bear Vault Solo (33 oz); for longer, I rent a Bearikade Weekender or Expedition (31 or 37 oz).

Fishing gear: 5 piece rod (4.2 in homemade case) and reel/tackle (17 oz)

Headlamp: Petzl Tikka w/ spare batteries @ 5 oz

Camp/water shoes: Sometimes none. Sometimes (in early spring, when creeks/rivers are high, fast and dangerous, and footing uncertain) old tennis shoes. Sometimes Tevas. Sometimes Croc knockoffs.

On me: a biner with Leatherman Micra, stickpic, thermometer, Photon LED light, Fox 40 whistle, small fisherman's measure tape (used for SAR as well as showing off the size of fish). Nylon zipoff pants w/ wallet and camera in pockets. Synthetic T shirt or long sleeve. Wide brimmed hat. Sunglasses.

All insulating items (clothes, quilts) go in a seam sealed stuff sack and are compressed into the bottom of the main pack bag. Bear can goes on top of them, with the pot containing stove/windscreen/lighter alongside, and rain clothing stuff around bear can. Stuff sack with hygiene items (about a pound, also contains repair gear like zip ties, duct tape, floss/needle, tiny tube silicon) also goes in alongside canister, as does sack with Amigo Pro (all these soft items prevent hard edges of the canister from wearing pack fabric). Ziploc containing lunch and map and TP, shelter (tarp/hammock, tent, whatever) and fishing tackle in mesh bag go in top of pack for immediate access. (In the Gregory I have a pack lid, in which the fishing tackle, map, headlamp, and trowel/TP supply reside.) Pole in its case either goes inside pack tucked in a corner against the frame (which is slightly curved) or outside under compression straps with the end seated in an outer pack pocket. Hydration bladder rides on top or in the pocket designed for it down the back of the frame inside the pack.

Never gotten my insulation wet, despite hiking all day in rain. Never gotten anything but the outside of the pack wet crossing streams. The Gregory is my search and rescue pack, as its narrow profile allows me free range of motion with both arms. Yet it carries the higher weights sometimes necessary and my gear fits in it, even when I add the couple of pounds of rope, sharpie markers, evidence bags, flagging tape, safety glasses, tubular webbing and a sportsman's blanket for SAR. The Ozone is too wide and the pack bag too deep to be convenient for bushwhacking (by which I mean forcing through brush and branches, ducking under things, etc) so it has been shelved until the opportunity for long trips comes around.

My pack weight is generally 25 lbs regardless of what shelter I take. On SAR I do not bother with a bear canister (we are never sitting still long enough to need one and usually power nap during the day) but that weight evens out since I then take a couple pounds of stuff I don't take backpacking. Unless I am going out for longer and add more bear canister volume and food weight, or for some reason need to carry more water, this has been my consistent 3 season load for the past six months (I weigh with a digital scale before I go out). Sometimes I do take a bottle of wine, a potato to roast in a campfire, a flask of rum, or other comfort/luxury item. Sometimes I take a third pair of socks. Just depends who I am going with, and where.

[Raul Perez]

I made a vid on what I carried on my June 2010 hike.

There are 6 parts here is the first part you can follow the links to the other parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfFSV-qRn7Q

TFC Rick - Check out part 5 & 6 and you can see how I pack my gear.

Also noted I made significant gear changes after this video based on my experiences that week.

[AndyB]

Here's my list of stuff from a recent Shenandoah Hike in the Spring . Typical total weight ~20 lbs:

HH Hammock
Modified thermarest pad
Kelty Sleeping Bag, 25 degree
Webbing straps 12'
Camera
Cell phone (nite light)
tent stakes, 4
Wool hat
Nylon hiking pants
Patagonia Capilene (Bottom + top)
Leko socks and white cotton pair for night time
long sleeve synth shirt
shoes, vasque
MacCat tarp and snakeskins
leki poles
water bottle, small recycled
sunscreen
compass with sight mirror
GoLite Jam2 pack
Osprey pack cover
Petzl Tikka headlamp
25' rope
spare batteries (AAA)
bandana
short synth shirt
toothpaste
half toothbrush
heavy duty hand lotion
washrag
baseball cap
Sunglass covers for eyeglasses
elastic eyeglass supports
Titanium spork
Misc. kit:
Snow Peak Titanium stove + iso-but fuel
cotton balls, vaseline coated
Wax-coated matches
paper maps + wilderness medicine forms
band-aids
elastic bandage
neosporin
Leatherman tool
GPS unit
duct tape

2 inch knife (full tang blade)
pencil
Tylenol
Advil
gauze
travel size alcohol pads
Blue silnylon raincoat
1/4 sheets of paper
red whistle
iodine
Latex gloves
Lint from dryer (firestarter)

[TheWild]

Cool thread!
I'll add my list too, at a later point!