*ULTRALIGHTWEIGHT BACKPACKING*
By:Hikeon

In the course of survivalism we all try to make ourselves more adaptable mentally and physically. A few years back I started backpacking to get into shape physically. Little did I know that the biggest thing I would gain from backpacking was learning to think outside the box. I began my odyssey at the local Popular outdoor store. I bought about 40 pounds of stuff and went out for a weekend of backpacking. After one weekend and 14 miles of hiking I was plum tuckered out! There had to be a better way. I found it. I now hike an average of 24 miles a day for days on end. I enjoy it more than when I just hiked 7 miles a day.

An online search landed me at : http://www.backpacking.net This started a journey that is still evolving. My next weekend hike I carried 24 pounds of gear and had a great time, got up that Monday and felt good. As I have backpacked the last few years I tried to increase my distance without wearing myself out at the end of the hike. This is where the fun begins! To get your gear weight for backpacking lower than 20 pounds total you need to get out of the popular outdoor stores and into the specialty stores. I was warned that ultralightweight gear would shred while on the trail in a matter of days. I found that after spending two years and hundreds of miles hiking with this gear that it will hold up for years on the trail, bushwacking when the trail disappears and I believe will survive the harsh realities of Bug out gear.

From the backpacking light gear page I moved to a book called, "Beyond Backpacking" by Ray Jardine. He has a website but I don't have the address, see below. Now Jardine is a little strange when you talk to him and certainly a lot arrogant but many of his ideas work great. I even recommend him after he threw me off his website for telling him he was sounding like a cult and not a backpacking site. The book was well worth the money. Jardine's idea is to make your gear a system that compliments each other and not stand alone as individual pieces. Streamlining everything from gear, food, hike style and so on is how he does it. He even has ideas on how to drink your water!

After reading Jardine's book I joined the backpacking light email list that one can sign up for on the website above. This email group helped me with ideas and fine tuned my own gear down to a small 7.4 pounds( Some on this list are the Rubies of lightweight packing. They have thru-hiked trails of 2,500 miles at one time). This weight is all my gear from backpack down to my spare socks. I take the same gear you would take only I use a system and insanely light items.

All the basic ideas for my system came from the above website,email group and book. The only original ideas I have is how I tailored the gear for my personal use with an idea to make it into Bugout gear. I can give you my gear list but that is almost useless. You can't go out and buy this stuff and then hit the forest thinking it will work for you. It is a system that you grow into and make your own. So now you are asking, "If I can't go buy it and use it why are you telling me this?" A few years ago I would have told you that you are nuts if you think I will comfortably and willingly go into the mountains with only 7.4 pounds of gear. Now I do it on all my 3 season hiking with it(gotta add about a pound or two if it snows or goes below 30 degrees). Next years challenge will be to expand it to winter snow hiking and to fine tune my Bugout gear but those will be separate articles. I will practice before I preach to you.

I will be glad to give you a few big examples of how I cut all that weight from my gear but you will have to take a few hours to explore the above website and its related links(look for ultralight article on the website) to get it all. I have no connection to this site or any other company other than enjoying there products over hundreds of miles. Suffice to say that at the very least you will learn to think differently about backpacking gear and how the companies that make it lie to you. All the gadgets and whistles on this gear is usually useless but weighs a great deal.

How does this relate to survival? Being able to hike 24 miles a day for days on end without being sore is the obvious answer but, I believe we all think on a narrow track. Military people tend to use military ideas and gear because they know it works, plain and simple. Scientists think that everything can be solved by brilliant deduction when sometimes brut force is needed, plain and simple. All of us can gain a new understanding of our thought process and how our minds glide along the same tracks to solve all our problems. Learning to try new things can keep us alive far more than the gadgets we own. Plus, did I mention that I go 24 miles a day without being sore! Folks I am not a marathoner here. I am in average shape. I will make you cover the same ground you do now and you will have more energy to fight when you get there or I will refund your $29.95. Minus postage and handling of course... :-) If you have a set distance, say to a retreat then this system will still work for you. What happens if you had to hike the 100 miles to your retreat and not drive. You get there in a week and are sore, tired angry and you have blisters on your feet. The way I do it I could stroll there in 4 days and be able to fight when I got there with the same energy as when I started the hike. I no longer get blisters on my feet. Solved that problem first.

Examples of how I did it:
I got rid of my 2.5 pound tent and bought an 8 x10, 1.3 oz silnylon tarp that weighs 13 oz. I cut the tarp down to 8x8 and saved 1.8 pounds or so over my tent. Caution! Pitching a tarp takes practice in the wind and rain. Carry your tent and tarp until you get the pitching just right for yourself. Sleeping bags go around us 360 degrees. The insulation under us gets flattened and is almost useless. Why not get rid of it and just use a quilt that attaches to the bottom of our sleeping pad with Velcro to keep drafts out? Will it work? Yes, you do it every night when you go to sleep on a bed using covers or a quilt. Why not in the forest? I went from a 36 oz Northface bag to a 25 oz Primaloft and 1.1 oz nylon quilt(warm to 35 deg naked and 29 with my silk clothes on. I will soon go to a 17 oz down quilt called a Rab Top bag(I know, down when wet kills like cotton. I have slept in wet Primaloft and it doesn't keep you warm when wet either. don't let them lie to you. Just don't let them get wet or you will have to do something else to stay warm.). That will save me 19 oz.

Speaking of sleeping pads, if it is a pad then why not use it to pad the inside of your backpack and lose all the padding your backpack has. I cut my pad down to 36 inches so that my torso is protected from the cold ground(Foot pocket in the quilt protects legs good enough except in winter then I add ultralightweight booties). I fold it up in threes and use it to pad between the gear and my back. Now I use an unpadded 13 oz rucksack from www.golite.com instead of a 5 pound Gregory Reality, I just saved 4 pounds and 3 oz.

I could go on for pages about how I did it but that would be reinventing the wheel and I won't bore you too much. I would suggest that you search the web for research and then try out these ideas one at a time while you hike or in your backyard. That way if they don't work for you then you have your original equipment right on hand to make you happy. I think you will find many items to make your backpacking more enjoyable. I have replaced most of my Bugout gear and plan on replacing all of it with ultralightweight items. I need to tailor the clothes and other items for this however due to the differences between recreational camping and bugging out. I will not have to add too much weight to my gear but I will have to change some fabrics from nylon which will melt and change the packaging to quiet down my gear when I run. I have actually done this but it needs field testing this fall. I also must tailor my weapons load into the gear so that they don't restrict each other. That will have to be another article later in the year. This topic has many books written about it. Trying to cover it in an article is difficult. If you have any questions give me a yell and I will try to answer them.
Hikeon


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