After doing a weekend trip where I left the bear canister home, packed very little food, left the 2 pints of liquor at home, and only brought a few clothes, I could tell a big difference just getting my pack down into the 25 lb range, from 30 I usually carry.

I don't have any desire to become an ULer from a personality disorder standpoint, but damn, it sure is nice to carry less weight around. Gives me more weight with which to bring liquor, etc! lol

So, here is what I currently carry most trips that can be changed out:

Osprey Volt 60: 3lbs 13 oz
Big Agnes Deer Park 30: 3lbs 1 oz
Thermarest Trail Scout: 1lb 8oz
Big Agnes Jack Rabbit 2 without poles (wife carries the poles): guessing 3 lbs
Big Agnes Helinox Chair:: 2lbs
Bear Vault 450: 2lbs 1 oz

Roughly 15 1/2 lbs

So far, have decided to ditch the Bear Vault and hang or keep food in tent; am swapping out the Osprey Volt for a large REI Flash 45 (actually turns into a 50L in the large size), switch out the BA sleeping bag for an EE 20 degree Revelation x, and switch out the Helinox Chair for an Alite Monarch.

I calculate an approximate reduction in weight of about 5lbs from these few switches.

Anyway, I am probably the typical noob who sunk $1000+ into gear and then decided to replace a lot of it.

Future replacements are possible on the tent, such as switching to a TT Stratosphire 2 with liner, but that would be about it. The only way I would switch my pad is to get one that rolls up smaller, as I don't think you save a lot of weight on pads, and wouldn't want too light of one since I am going over to a quilt now.

Just thought I'd post to get a little discussion going on lightening up the load here and there, and what other people have done.

HB and Storm, that's one place my wife and I don't carry too much...in fact, when we go on our 2 1/2 day trips (basically Friday evening to Sunday), I am always starving on the Sunday midday hike back to the car. We typically carry two "meals" for each day, and a morning and afternoon snack. Never enough for me lol

I do think we are making strides in lightening the weight of our food though. We used to carry cheese and sausage, for example.

Now we have begun dehydrating our own meals (we have chili and spaghetti as two of our faves), and are carrying tortillas and peanut butter for lunches instead of cheese and sausage...things like that. Definitely am carrying less water too...we used to carry 2 liters at a time, but now just 1 at a time.

I am also realizing that you are going to stink no matter what, so I am bringing fewer clothes, and I just wear the same pants and shirt the whole weekend, just bringing an extra pair of underwear, socks, and another shirt just in case...vs bringing two extras of each.

FC, yes, we aren't doing it to be ULers, we just want to be more comfortable, and be afforded some flexibility in what we can carry. I love bringing a flask or two of my favorite beverage, a chair, and other things, so I want to get my overall weight down so it won't kill me to carry the luxuries!

Trillium, yes it can't hurt to hike with a lighter load,..Next on my agenda is getting my fat body a little leaner. It's hard for me as a guy who used to lift weights a lot to think about shedding weight, but at 5'8" and 210lbs, it's just not a good weight for backpacking. Even getting under 200 would probably make a noticeable difference in my ability to hike without dying. lol

Speaking of going lighter...has anyone noticed that nothing on GoLite.com is ever in stock? I am beginning to wonder how anyone with golite gear actually purchased it/

Well, I ended up making a mistake in my first step, but luckily, it was REI, so I can return it.

I couldn't pass up the deal of getting an REI Flash 45 for $63 last week. I bought the large torso model, so it was actually a 50L bag. It came on the UPS truck to my office, and I excitedly took it home that night to check it out.

LOL, it looks ridiculous on me for starters, as I am 5'8" and 210 lbs of barrel-chested manhood.

Second, my shit won't go in it. My Big Agnes Deer Park 30, long model, even in a compression sack, took up about 40% of the inside. I added in my Helinox Chair, Therm-a-rest Scout self inflating pad, my stove, and a couple of bags to simulate food and clothes, and the bag was about to burst (it was made of inflexible material, quite unlike my Osprey Volt 60). Even without the chair, it was extremely tight. Then I tried to figure out how to strap our BA Jack Rabbit 2 tent to the outside, and could not find anywhere to do it.

Lesson learned: down size all other gear first, then pack afterwards.

As I save money, I will be doing the following, and it is in a logical pattern (at least to me) .

New sleeping bag/quilt: toss up between an EE 20 degree quilt, a Montbell UL Spiral 30. (Montbell leads the way in confusing names for their sleeping bags, as they all sound the same, but this is the really light bag that costs about $259)

New pad: Klymit X frame torso pad if I get the Montbell (and will try to put it inside the bag), or if I get the quilt, a Nemo Zor or Therm A Rest ProLite pad.

New Chair: Alite Monarch (can't give up my camp chair, and this packs down way smaller than my Helinox).

New Tent (optional): Tarp Tent Cloud Burst 3, or Stratospire 2

Then after all this, I will get a pack that it fits in. It's too bad that most of the UL packs aren't sold in stores where you can take your gear and pack it up and try it on.

Yeah, I probably will do something similar on longer hikes, which I have not done yet. But for our 15 mile weekend trips, I love me some real chairs! Along with a cigar and a flask! lol

Probably next spring, I will be section hiking a little on the MST for 5-6 days and may just bring a pad to save a little space and weight. But I am a clueless weekender, and love my creature comforts!

Well, after looking at packs online for hours and hours, I finally got to go to REI in Richmond and take a look at a few. They actually had a Granite Gear Crown VC 60, and Osprey Exos 46, and an Osprey Talon 44 in stock. That's the first time I've seen all three in that store at the same time

I loaded all of them up and tried them on, and the Talon fit great! The other two, not so much. I have thick shoulders from front to back, and the shoulder straps on many packs just won't sit right, no matter what I do.

I am an 18.5" torso, so I got the M/L Talon, and it fit right off the shelf with the torso at its lowest setting. Best part of all is it was on clearance, and I snagged it for $99.83

So, just cut my weight by 1 lb, 6 oz over my Volt 60 pack. Can't wait to try it out after my tax season is over.

Yeah, the GG one was pretty sweet, and very light, but unfortunately, it did not fit me.