Re: Minimalist or Everything but the kitchen sink?

Tending towards minimalist but with reservations. I car camped Friday night and found that my Vargo alcohol stove needs a much better wind screen than what I currently own. My Mont Bell bag was also a little cool so I probably will buy a set of down booties and maybe a silk liner for the bag. In all fairness it did go down to 34 and the bag is only rated to 30, and I was never actually cold, just cool.

The up side to down sizing is that I was able to put my gear for a 3 day trip into a smaller Kelty Redwing and it felt nice and light on my back! I don't know what the actual bag weight was but it was a lot more manageable than the 50 pound loads I was carrying last year and I still had a good tent, bag, and clothing.

The Redwing is 3000 ci. I would estimate the weight at about 20 lbs for a two night trip. I don't have a formula for pack weight to body weight except that I am very tired of lugging heavy loads around. With the Redwing the tent and bag went into the bottom of the pack, extra clothes on top of that, then my cooking gear, then my outer layer. The pack isn't a top loader, you can unzip the whole thing and access gear that is on the bottom without having to empty the whole thing. My first aid kit, bug spray, lighters and headlamps went into the pockets on the back, toiletries and water into the two side pockets. The sleeping pad is then strapped to the outside of the pack.