i’ve slowly lightened my gear. a much lighter trekking pole and a smaller/lighter stove are “permanent” changes. for this hike, i don’t anticipate a lot of really cold weather, so the tights and gloves stay home.
trying the xero shoes mesa trail ii. kinda iffy on these. the original insoles slide up my heel and out of the shoe while walking. replaced them with the insoles from my old altra lone peak 5 and those work perfectly. they are exactly the same size. looks like they come from the same mold funnily enough.
i think a different sleeping bag is next on the list to upgrade. i love the mummy style, but i sweat so much while sleeping that the head cover gets really soaked with salt and oil from the sweat. renders it kind of useless on long hikes.
i thought about cold soaking my dinners again. last time i tried this, i was also cold soaking oatmeal for breakfast. i’ve since switched to just eating a complete cookie for breakfast, so maybe cold soaking dinner only i could do. that would allow me at ditch all the cook stuff. i’ll have to try it on some of my overnight hikes.
not much else to dial in. my backpack is already one of the lightest and i’ve no intention of going to a lighter sleeping pad which would mean carrying the 1/8″ foam again.
base weight: 5561 g / 12.261 lbs (includes 1018 g / 2.244 lbs of camera gear)
full pack weight: 12492 g / 27.540 (2 liters water and 5.5 days of food)
skin out weight: 13512 g / 29.789 lbs (everything loaded onto my body)
spreadsheet form for those that prefer it: 2023 tahoe rim trail gear list
pack
- backpack | mountain laurel designs dcf burn 38L medium (ultraweave has replaced dyneema)
- pack liner | nylofume pack liner
- shoulder strap pouch | mld water bottle pouch
shelter
- tent | tarptent protrail li
- tent stuff sack | dcf sack included with tent
- stakes | 4 – easton nano 6″ (came with protrail) and 1 aluminum v-stake 6″ (carried as spare. found while hiking appalachian trail)
- stake stuff sack | dcf sack included with tent
- rear tent pole | tarptent 24″ protrail rear pole (i accidentally ordered the motrail 28″, but cut it down to 24″.)
- groundsheet | tyvek sheet cut to fit floor of protrail
- trekking pole | zpacks minimalist trekking pole (new item in 2023. i only take one 1 for front of the protrail)
sleep system
- sleeping bag | big agnes flume ul 30 (No longer sold)
- sleeping bag dry sack | zpacks medium plus dry bag
- sleeping pad | therma-rest neoair xlite
clothing worn
- shirt | outdoor research echo hoodie
- cap | kühl renegade ball cap
- shorts | patagonia m’s nine trail short (liner removed)
- underwear | hanes breathable boxer brief
- socks | injinji run lightweight no-show toe socks
- shoes |xero shoes mesa trail ii
- gaiters | dirty girl gaiters
clothing packed
- puffy jacket | enlightened equipment torrid 10d (small)
- rain jacket | enlightened equipment visp (small)
- rain-wind pants | myog the green pepper pants pattern from xenon sil-poly 0.9 (i left off the zippers and pockets to simplify.)
- beanie | appalachian gear co all-paca fleece beanie
- spare socks | injinji run lightweight no-show toe socks
- sleep socks | a random pair of socks (just something to keep my feet from sticking to sleeping bag.)
- mosquito gear | ben’s invisinet head net
cook kit
- cook pot | toaks light titanium 650 ml pot
- utensil | toaks long handle polished bowl titanium spoon
- stove | fire maple fms-300t (this is new for me in 2023.)
- bic lighter | regular size
- food bag | zpacks large dcf food bag
- fuel | 110 g stove fuel
hydration
- filter | sawyer squeeze
- dirty bag | sawyer squeeze bag 1 liter (this bag is included with the filter)
- bottles | 2 smart/lifewtr 1 liter bottles
electronics
- battery bank | ravpower pd pioneer 20000 rp-pb201
- phone | iphone 13 mini with spigen slim fit case
- usb wall charger | ravpower pd pioneer 65w rp-pc133 (got this one as it was the one i could find that has the power to output required power from both ports simultaneously to charge powerbank and camera batteries from zero to full in 2.5 hours.)
- cords/cables | 2 usb cables and 1 micro-usb to usb-c adapter
- zipper bag | freezer – quart
toiletries
- soap/toothpaste | 2 oz travel bottle of dr bronner’s peppermint
- toothbrush | bamboo toothbrush
- flossers
- toilet paper | who gives a crap (yes, we actually buy this.)
- zipper bag | freezer – quart
- hanitizer | homemade in a dr bronner’s sanitizer bottle (grandkids call it “hanitizer”. 91% rubbing alcohol, some vitamin e oil, some essential oil.)
other gear
- light | nitecore nu-25 with myog shock cord headband
- cat hole shovel | the prairie dog (a lot of folks use the deuce of spades.)
- scissors | westcott 3″ titanium bonded fine cut (note: 3″ and 2.5″ are the same physical size as far as I can tell.)
- towel/rag | packtowl nano
- first aid/gear aid kit | ibuprofen, leukotape-p, alcohol pads, bandages, salt, dcf tape, small sewing kit, tenacious tape, sleep pad repair kit all in myog dcf velcro bag
- mosquito repellent | repel deet-free re-packaged in a smaller pump spray bottle
- camera | fujifilm x-t3 with xf23mmf2 r wr lens
- camera clip | peak design capture clip 3
- sd cards | qty 4 – 512 gigabytes of total storage
- camera batteries | two fuji npw-126s
- mic | rode videomicro
- camera battery charger | nitecore fx1
- trash bag | gallon zipper bag