Making Sacrifices to Lose Weight

Preparation and planning for a long hike is focused on weight. So everything besides weight is sacrificed to a certain degree: comfort, security, food, and pleasure. I’d love to have a couple books along. It would be nice to have a full length inflatable sleeping pad. A shotgun with rubber bullets could help keep a curious bear far away. A spacious tent would be appreciated during the storm days. A generous food ration would keep my pants from falling down. But in the effort to reduce weight, all these are sacrificed. I choose a larger journal instead of books, a half-length folding sleeping pad, two cans of bear spray, and a tiny ultra-light solo tent that erects using my hiking poles. Food is reduced to 500 grams/day and the fishing kit is well-planned with extra line and lures in my food drops. But my body will overall be much happier with these decisions.

Though weight trumps everything, durability and redundancy must also factor into the equation. I will hike solo for a planned 50 days without the option of replacing broken, lost, or malfunctioning gear. Everything must work and continue to work. Critical items that I truly rely on must not fail. For cooking, I will rely on a tin can twig stove which has nothing to fail unless I drop it in a deep lake. For fire lighting I will carry a ferrocerium rod and striker which could last a few summers of trips, but I also have 1 box of waterproof matches and another box in each food drop. I absolutely want to record the journey through photos and waypoints of interesting features, so I am taking my phone along as a backup camera and a backup GPS device. The phone also provides the benefit of more easily sending messages via InReach. I don’t want people to worry about me or send out an unnecessary search mission for me. So in addition to the InReach I will carry my Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) so that my family knows even if my InReach fails I still have a way out in case of a life-threatening situation.

The result of meticulous gear planning and weighing is a pack that will weigh 35 lbs before food is added. After my heaviest food drop with 20 days of food, it will weigh about 57 lbs. At the start of the first multi-week hike I ever did, completed with my spouse back in 2013, my pack weighed 80 lbs. We were much younger then, less experienced, and less willing to spend money on gear. Now, with the wisdom and ability to reduce weight, my body will have less aches and pains and the trip will be more relaxing. Perhaps that's the only option as the body ages.