10 pound goal - Arizona Trail

imported
#1

Hi All,
Just back from the rendezvous at M Lake.
Was that 10 pound goal to try to get sleeping bag, pad, tent under 10 lbs?
Or did that 10 lbs include backpack, also?

Let me know

tucson1955

#2

Usually out West when hikers refer to pack weight, it’s “base weight”, which is everything in the pack including the pack, except food and water, and including the water and food containers. It does not include minimal clothing always worn (underwear, socks, hiking pants and shirt), and no fair wearing all your rain gear and loading up your pockets with knife, camera, first aid kit, etc. A few will refer to “from skin out” (FSO) weight to avoid that issue. Most Western long distance hikers are in the 12 to 15 pound range for base weight.

Ten pounds is pretty light. Personally, it took me about three active seasons of long hikes to reach that goal (I’m now at eight pounds and change). There are a few that get near five pounds–very few.

Some use the “Big Three” (tent, bag, and pack), and “Big Four” (add the sleeping pad) weights. These are often in the five to seven pound range for light hikers.

Back East, hikers usually refer to pack weight with “a full load of food and water”, whatever that means. As best I can tell, that means three liters of water and as much food as you can cram into the space left in your pack. That’s usually in the 30 to 50 pound range.

Great time at the Rendezvous! See you in Tucson later this year.

Garlic

#3

My personal goal is no more than twenty pounds total on my back. Obviously, that’s hard to do on the dryer stretches of the AZT when you have to carry a few extra liters of water. My Big 4 weigh about 10 pounds.

bowlegs

#4

A dude few extra liters? Seriously you might need more. I left snowbowl with four gallons, and besides two nasty stock tanks with a ton of cows standing in them, I didnt see any water till a trough 2 or 3 miles before Russel Tank that had nice water in it, and I drank a gallon and a half there in an hour and a half! I went two days 60 miles with only taking one ultra dark 3 second piss. Thats drinking 4 gallons of water in two days! So my water alone weighed 32 pounds. Granted it was August and 95 degrees under my shade umbrella, but still…

Guino

#5

I hiked in the spring, never carried more than four liters. The only cache I used was Freeman Rd. Of course it also snowed two days near Pine and one night at the South Rim. Water wasn’t any more an issue at that time of year than the PCT in SoCal. Yes I did have to use several stock tanks (nasty stuff) that left a nice “cow” flavor in my water filter.

bowlegs

#6

On the dry stretches, get up early (maybe even in the dark)
or hike late, hike fast, & maybe set a personal record if it’s relatively flat; so if at all possible, you can camp with water. I never made the desert umbrella work, but it would be nice to be in the shade under the insane Mojave sun &

gingerbreadman