[pct-l] Experience vs. Pack Weight

[jim at mccrain.net (Jim McCrain)]

Howdy Steel-Eye!

You made a couple of good points in your post.  I, too, love the music that Weathercarrot chose for his DVD, and have allready started learning to play "Two Little Feet" on my guitar.  And I also agree that as experience grows, pack weight generally comes down.  However, I cannot agree with the statement about more experience equals less gear being packed.

First, let me say that I am not a "thru-hiker" by the definitions given on this forum.  I have never hiked the entire PCT, AT, or CDT.  I HAVE hiked the John Muir Trail five times, spent three weeks in Greenland exploring a portion of the world no other humans had ever visited, climbed Denali three times, spent 6 months in New Zealand, and a host of many other trips and expeditions.  I have probably logued just as many miles as your "average" thru-hiker, just in shorter segments.

What I have found, is that I now carry MORE gear than I did to begin with.  Sure, it is LIGHTER gear, but there is definately more of it.  I KNOW what I need to carry, but I then add on the things that I WANT to carry.  I am over 40 years old, and I want a certain level of comfort.  So, I pack a few "extras."  I also want to remember my trip in the smallest of details.  So, I carry a big, heavy still camera and a big, heavy video camera.  (And there is a tripod that goes with them!)  I carry a GPS unit on some of my trips.  (When National Geographic wants to know the location of the Northern-Most mountain on the planet,you can't just say "somewhere around this point.")  Since so many of my trips are VERY isolated, I also carry a pretty darn-big medical kit, along with the knowledge of how to use it.

My point being, through all of this, is that experience lets you decide what gear and "extras" that you WANT to carry, after you learn what you NEED to carry.  My pack looks big because it is full of stuff.  And compared to a lot of YOUR packs, it IS big and HEAVY.  But that 40-45 pounds that I carry gives me an extra margin of comfort, both now and for the future.

So, if we ever meet up on the trail, I'll take your picture, help out with your blisters, remove your spleen, make a nice hot cup of coffee (really quick), filter a lot of water for you, let you use my chair, give you a GPS coordinate, or whatever it takes to make you comfortable.  I'll be glad to carry that little bit of extra weight, even though I KNOW that I don't have too.

Jim "Dallas" McCrain

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

>From: "Sharon & Chuck Chelin" <chelin@teleport.com>
>
>... Conversely, I do not
>know of a single instance where gains in knowledge and experience resulted
>in more gear being packed.  

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