[pct-l] Moving toward Net Zero

[abiegen at cox.net]

When I did my first backpack trip many years (decades?) ago my pack was over 50 pounds easily. I would visualize helium balloons attached to it, pulling me upward. That would help me deal with the pain. the pain wasn't coming from gravity dragging me down but from the helium pulling me up. For some brief moments, I would actually believe it. Then I would imagine making gear out of helium.  Wouldn't that be great?! Well there are product out there that call themselves Helium or Hydrogen but it really hasn't happened.

So last year I cut my pack weight from 40 lbs to 20 lbs with considerable investment with my "thru-wallet" friends. That felt much better. This year I'll start out with a pack weight of 14 lbs (sans water but with two days of food) with more investment with my friends. The old goal of zero is never going to work so it had to be dropped. The new goal is Net Zero Pack weight. Net Zero means that as far as my feet, legs, and hips are concerned they are carrying no more weight than they would be if I was just doing a day hike.

So my PCT body weight plus the weight of my pack should weigh no more than my old body weight plus the weight of my daypack. So I have been losing weight - about 5 lbs. my daypack weights about 2 pounds. My new pack weight is 14 lbs.

Old weight  = 164
daypack      =      2
total             =  166

New Weight = 159
backpack      =   14
total               = 173

Net weight   =      7lbs.

So my current Net Weight is seven pounds. My legs are only carrying an additional 7 pounds than when I was day hiking. So if I lose 7 more pounds before the PCT, I will achieve my goal of Net Zero.

Piper tells me that I'm going to loose the weight anyway in the first couple of weeks so I'm pretty optimistic I'll eventually get there.

Comments, corrections, criticism welcome. No corncobs or cache cracks please.

TrailHacker