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Posted by Fred on February 26, 2008 at 3:27:45 pm EST
In reply to Minimalist or Everything but the kitchen sink? posted by Bryan L on February 22, 2008 at 12:56:24 am EST

I'll typically not weigh my pack, but I know for a fact that I bring more than I "need" (I must, because I'm informed of that fact on a regular basis by people who read backpacker magazine and seem to have an obsession with buying the lightest and most expensive of everything and explaining how their reading a magazine for six months while in the gym has prepared them better than the 38+ years I've been backpacking).

By contrast, I've noticed that I don't need to beg, borrow or scrounge "stuff" (like a spotting scope for bird watching or toilet paper), getting one set of clothes soaked doesn't bother me (as I have another), if someone else has run out of white gas, chances are I've got extra and I don't, as a rule, go hungry.

My day-pack (an 30+ year old North Face internal) is larger (and likely weighs more) than a lot what the ultra-light folks carry for the whole AT, and my "3 night or longer" pack is an almost equally ancient external frame pack with the biggest bag I could find at the time attached to it - but when I backpack with my long suffering better half I tend to take the lions share of the 'stuff' and, again, I like to be comfortable. Luxury items to some (like a back pack hammock) are essentials for me.

I'm out there to enjoy myself, and at 49 years old that doesn't always mean covering mega-miles on a daily basis, that means really enjoying the time I spend out on (or off of) the trail, getting a good, warm nights sleep and feeling like I'm on vacation rather than like I'm on some high-tech forced march ....

To each their own.

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