On this Memorial Day I ask the world to tell me the heaviest pack they ever saw or heard about for a normal hiker.
Personally, I saw a man with a 75 pound pack. I was told it was filled primarily with bibles and other religious reading material.
I was told of a man from England hiking the AT who carried a 132 pound pack. I’ve no idea how far he made it or what happened to him.
Conan
Conan
Last year while shooting my PCT documentary “Still Walking”, I hiked a day and a half with a guy named Dale whose pack was a shade over 70 lbs. He had attached two of those
hand strenthening grip thingies onto his shoulder straps in order to position the pack comfortably. To celebrate his first day accomplishment of going 7.5 miles southbound on the Eagle Creek Trail, he yanked two ginormous 24 oz. bottles of malt liquor out of his pack, probably bringing its weight down to around 65 lbs. He also had three cantalopes jammed in there as well.
Squatch
www.walkpct.com
Squatch
This was always a good topic. I started the AT with 65lbs (no H2O) and ended with 46lbs. One guy in Front Royal said that is the heaviest he saw up to that point. But I know there was one heavier. There was a really tall 6’6 guy with his little 5’ wife and he carried 70lbs on an external frame. He had all of his wife’s heaviest stuff because she started to get tendinitis. For me I just didn’t want to buy new gear just because it was lighter. As a matter of fact I have and still use every piece of gear I had.
Good Indian
On April 6th 2005 I met a SOBO hiker named Greenhorn who was carrying a 75 pound pack. In fact it was a backback strapped onto a backpack! I met him just south of Quarry Gap Shelter and he told me that he had lost his job and was now homeless. He had started the trail in Vermont heading south and was carrying all that he owned in the world on his back. As I wrote in my journal at the time "He had been given the name “Greenhorn” because other hikers considered him a clueless neophyte, but in my book anyone who can hike half of the trail southbound in the depths of winter, carrying a 75 pound pack, would be better called “Determined” I still wonder whatever became of him?
Slow Walker
In GA in '02 when we started our thru hike we met a fellow with a pack that weighed 108 lbs at the check-in at the falls. It took him two days to do the approach trail. He was pumping water with a filter, inline filter, pre-filter then added chemicals. He had casting material if he broke his leg. He had two sleeping bags, one for summer, one for winter. A large tent (12 lbs). He had a glass corningware cook pot (he said it transfered heat better then the metal pots). He had a folding chair with arm rest. He said it hurt his back to sit on the ground at camp! He wore goggles over his glasses to keep water off of them. We met him again at Neels Gap. He had hitched there from the forest service road at Springer. He left Neels Gap to camp at the campsite above Neels Gap. We saw him there the next day (we took the evening off at the hostel). He still had the heavy pack. We talked to him for sometime. He weighed about 300 lbs and said he learned in scouts that he could carry 1/3 of his body weight. We saw him again in VA he said he had hitched most of the trail and it biggest day was 5 miles. He was still carring his winter things including two sleeping bags. Some of the hikers called him Dead Meat. I can’t remember what his trail name was.
Papa Smurf
On my very first hike in CT. I followed all the advice and check lists that I read in books. I had all the do-dads; large coffee press, large fitst aid kit, one of those things to turn your mattress into a camp chair, camp shoes, and so on. My pack weighed 78lbs. It took me 9 hours to get from Salsbury to Sages Revine. That was a very eye opening experence. The next hike my pack weighed 55lbs. I’m am now down to 32 with out food and water. Live and learn.
Captain K-man
On my very first hike in CT. I followed all the advice and check lists that I read in books. I had all the do-dads; large coffee press, large fitst aid kit, one of those things to turn your mattress into a camp chair, camp shoes, and so on. My pack weighed 78lbs. It took me 9 hours to get from Salsbury to Sages Revine. That was a very eye opening experence. The next hike my pack weighed 55lbs. I’m am now down to 32 with out food and water. Live and learn.
Captain K-man
Let us not forget 'ole Badger who started out with a 7,000 cubic inch pack carrying around 70 or more pounds and continued all the way to Katahdin with more or less the same load (except when he bounced his tent ahead, then forgot which PO he had sent it to).
He may have been set in his ways, but he would do anything for ya. Anybody kept up with him from '02?
Cap’n
Cap’n I talked to him in '04. He married his long time sweetheart. He lives near Cleveland I believe. He talked alot about fishing in Lake Erie. They were at Trail Days a couple of years ago. In CT he pulled out of that pack a large blue 10 by 10 tarp. He carried a large rope with him. He thought he would have to do some “mountain” climbing. In Vermont he said the rope was to pull his pack up Big K. He had carried that heavy pack all the way and wanted to carry it to the top of the mountain if he had to drag it.
Badger was a great guy. I really enjoyed hiking with him.
Papa Smurf
Met a nobo named Heavy a few years back. The baggage guy at the bus staion had tagged his backpack with a HEAVY sticker. Last year at Katahdin Stream a southbounder’s backpack tore the bolt holding the scale right out of the roofbeam. Dunno exactly how much those packs weighed, but they came with good stories.
TJ aka Teej
I started the south shore of Lake Superior with a 78 pound pack, including food/water/fuel…an Alice II military pack, Army Jungle Boots, 5oz BDU pants, etc… 15 years later, there is no way in all hell I could or would even begin to think of carrying that weight, on that long of a hike…
-xtn :boy
airferret
Check out “Wyoming Skateboarder’s” trail journal from a few years back. Thru-hiked with about 80 lbs and a canoe paddle.
Crusader
This may not be the heavist pack, but it is up there with the heavist item carried. A 20 pound bag of white rice. I met the hiker in the Smokies, he had 10 pounds left. He told me he was tired of eating rice. :lol
Bilko
Although I grew up hiking the AT around home and knew better, I took a pack to Israel with two climbing ropes, many pounds of carabiners and other climbing junk, heavy camping gear, and probably a bagel maker. The airport weighed the pack at 90 pounds and charged me extra. After hauling it for a few days my climbing partners changed their minds and we ended up hiking in the desert, daypack, lots of water, bag of figs, and a sheet for sleeping on the sand. About 15 pounds, mostly water. My last trip to that area, Egypt, I again used a daypack, sheet, bag of figs, and water to cross part of the Sinai. Lighter is definitely better.
local
At Neels Gap in '02 Winton said someone left a 20 lb propane tank. He had it rigged to fit his coleman small one burner stove. He didn’t want to buy fuel along the trail!
Papa Smurf
while on the AT this weekend I heard stories of a guy currently hiking with a 65-70 lb pack. carries upwards of 9 liters of water at a time. he started feb. 15th and most of the march starters have well past him.
kristen