I'll be heading to an Idaho wilderness area on a drop camp rifle elk/mule deer/bear hunt in about five weeks (Sept. 15-21). I loaded my pack and it feels heavy. I've never been to Idaho, but I've heard the mountains are steep and since it's September, I'm expecting some fairly warm weather. Here's a list of what I plan on taking. Pack -- Slumberjack Bounty 4500 -- It weighs about five pounds empty. Trekking poles. A first aid/emergency kit that fits in a quart plastic bag. A kill kit with game bags, a couple of trash bags, one folding knife and sharpener, a Gerber Vital and spare blades, and a roll of electric tape. A hard shell rain coat that weighs one pound. A puffy coat. A fleece pullover. Spare socks. Aqua-Mira water purification drops. Two headlamps. Map and compass. Three liters of water (one in a bottle on my hip belt, two in another bottle stored in the hydration sleeve of my pack.) About 1.5 pounds of food per day. Altogether, this stuff weighs in around 25 pounds. This does not include my bino/rangefinder harness where I store my windchecker and GPS or my rifle and spare ammunition. Any ideas on what I should leave behind/add or how I could lighten my load? P.S. I've been hiking hills with a pack loaded with 40-50 pounds, but still like a lighter pack better.
I've been trying to work out my gear list for October in the Jarbidge area and am around 50 lbs with 3qts of water, 5 days of food (1.8 lbs/day). This includes rifle (7.7 lbs), optics (6.27 lbs, spotter, tripod, binos, rangefinder)...basically everything but the clothes I'll be wearing continuously. I'm planning to carry my 5 degree Western Mountaineering bag that is right at 3 lbs, but I'll bring a couple lighter bags with me and switch them when I leave my truck if the weather outlook is warm.
I don't see need for a fleece insulation layer and a puffy. The fleece shirt I used predator hunting when I lived in Alaska is 8 ounces. I wore that with a base layer under a refrigiwear jacket. I only switched to a down jacket if it were colder than -10F, and even then I got too hot. My North Face down vest and jacket are 19 and 31 ounces, respectively. I've always felt fleece is pretty hard to beat for versatility. It's still warm when compressed (your back when sleeping, under your backpack straps, etc), it's dirt cheap, it warms to your skin temperature quickly, and it's more durable than most comparable insulative materials. In all the time I spent in pouring rain in Alaska, I never found anything that dried as fast either.
I noticed my Hydrapak bladder and hose/bite valve assembly is around 16 ounces for 3L of storage. The SmartWater bottles I carry to supplement that and use with my Sawyer (desert climate
) are 1.5 oz/ea. That's 11.5 ounces I can save at $0, and increase redundancy in my equipment.
How much do your headlamps weigh? There's a lot of good headlamps that will run on fewer batteries and come in around an ounce. I usually carry two, but I only ever use my main one. A keychain light or single diode headlamp with the strap removed would be a decent backup and not weigh much.
What's your cooking/stove setup? I'm probably going to carry my Trangia set that comes in at 12 ounces without fuel. I know I could save some weight there.