Late fall in Missouri promises nothing but uncertainty in the weather. Sometimes the days are sunny, clear, and very nearly warm. These days are beautiful in a standard sort of way, and offer a breaking-the-rules experience. Shorts in December? Yes! Sometimes.

The challenge for any lightweight backpacker is to carry only what is necessary for survival and sufficient for comfort. Without the necessary equipment, the backpacker will not survive to make the next trip. Without the sufficient equipment, the backpacker will not want to make the next trip.

Sometimes the sun shines so brightly that things seem overexposed in person, too.

I am personally committed to enjoying backpacking as long as possible. So to me, that means I need to practice an evolutionary mindset regarding what equipment is necessary to survive and sufficient for comfort. In my opinion, there is no such thing as finally having it all–only having it all for now. As a result, I have gotten comfortable buying what is right, and selling what is not. I don’t want to hang on to a massive gear closet, acting as a record of every gear purchase I ever made. So how to know what to bring, when to buy or sell?

Well, part of knowing comes from common sense–no parkas needed in the summer. Another part comes from experience, being attuned to the way my body handles a situation. For example, I am aware that no matter how easy the trail, I will almost always need to eat 3,500 to 4,000 calories minimum per day. More if there is high output. Any fewer and I become acutely aware of my hunger and depleted energy. If I don’t carry what is needed to resolve that issue, I will not be sufficiently comfortable. Over the course of a longer trip, this information becomes much more about what is necessary to survive. Being well fed promotes clear thinking and fuels the body’s output during the day and repair during sleep.

For a recent trip to Goggins Mountain in Missouri, I mainly considered the following details:

  • I felt healthy
  • It was a single overnighter, Saturday into Sunday
  • The mileage was very low, 6 to 7 miles Saturday and 2 to 3 on Sunday
  • The weather would be sunny and with temperatures into the 50s on Saturday
  • The weather would change overnight bringing wind and mid-30s temperatures

As a result, I packed and carried the following equipment. Special thanks to LighterPack for providing a free and extremely useful tool for organizing this information. The user interface is particularly clean and simple.

 

This equipment selection is generally comfortable down to freezing temperatures. However, an extremely humid cold front swept in overnight. As a result, I began to feel chilly in the early morning hours. Myself and my friends were in fact sleeping inside of a cloud.

On the left, Saturday night. On the right, Sunday morning.

This outcome was a possibility that I had considered, though I had made a calculated gamble not to carry things like my down parka and zero degree sleeping bag. I found that my knowledge and experience certainly kept me safe, and generally kept me comfortable. Had this been a multi-day trip, I would have at least gone with the warmer sleeping bag.

In the bigger picture, weighing every item with a scale helps to scrutinize the item’s purpose and relative cost to carry. For example, I knew that a hard shell rain jacket I previously carried was not particularly efficient. It offered great weather protection but at a cost of over 500 grams! Seeing that specific datum allowed me to research alternatives. I have now found an alternative that saved me over 300 grams. Not only that, but using this basic information helped me to compare the monetary cost of the alternatives–something along the lines of “dollars spent in exchange for grams saved”.

Some of my favorite pieces of equipment shown here: Tarptent Stratospire Li, ULA Circuit, and homemade down quilt.

Taking this critical approach to each piece of equipment allows for an incremental evolution to the backpacking experience. As I gain knowledge and experience, I can tailor what I carry to whatever the specific requirements are for my trips. As a side note, LighterPack allows users to easily duplicate equipment lists. Each item the user has added to their account is kept to the side in a little database type list. It’s very easy to then add or subtract items.

I know that over time, material and manufacturing technologies improve, budgets change, physical capabilities fluctuate, and trips themselves offer their own sets of unique requirements. Personally, I plan to avoid unnecessary wear and tear on my body by being as efficient as possible. At the same time, I value things like good hygiene, a full stomach, and enough whisky when sitting around the fire. These things together keep me coming back.