Trek Dirty to Me: 63 days until we hiking bro! And I've spent all day obsessing over my weight. BASE WEIGHT!!!

If you make it to the end, you will get a first peak at my gear list and a pic of my least ultralight day ever. :)

I have spent years of my life living out of a backpack. My Arc’Teryx Naos 55 circumnavigated the globe with me a half dozen times with me over our fourteen years together. It touched 5 continents and swam in three oceans and many more rivers, lakes and seas. It also historically weighed a shit ton. A ‘shit ton’ is somewhere between ‘a hell of a lot’ and ‘a fuck load.’

Here we are in better days before it finally went to that great big gear ranch in the sky this past autumn.

We were close.

Miss you buddy!

The pack for those long trips typically weighed out around 40-50lbs (18-23kgs). Mercifully, I never really had to walk more than a mile or two with it strapped to my body. I recall large and heavy packs from a very early age. My very first backpack around the age of eight or nine years old was an old leather rucksack on an equally old frame, stuffed with god knows what. But I could handle it.

I’ve always been able to endure the weight, but my knees are older, and technology is super rad these days. So for my six months hiking the Appalachian Trail, my current base weight (without food or water) hovers around 17lbs (less than 8kgs)!

I say ‘around,’ because that weight includes some cold winter clothing that will get sent up the coast to New Hampshire once I clear the Smoky Mountains. Some other clothes (My Voormi River Run hoodie) and items (my trekking poles) will likely spend little time in my pack as well. Shuffle in a few ounces for first aid, repair and hygiene, and I could realistically be flirting with the “Ultralight” holy grail of a 15lbs (7kg) base weight.

Now this becomes even more fun when one considers that my 3,500kc/day Huel diet on the trail will only weigh about one pound per day, and I’m looking at about 25lbs (11.3kg) on my back heading into a 6-day stretch until the next resupply, and enough food and my first two liters of water to get me there. I’m pleased.

If you are curious to keep tabs on the evolution of the weight of my pack (and get a first look at my gear), you can check out my load out on my LighterPack page by clicking RIGHT HERE! CLICK HERE!

-AJ

Base weight 140lbs. For real. That was a nightmare day. Elle (the cat) was amused by my struggle.

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