What changes for "X" number of days of gear for you?

[colonel00]

I just thought this might be an interesting discussion. I see threads or comments where people talk about "X" number of days of gear. For instance "This pack will easily hold 12 days worth of gear" or "I need 7000ci to hold 10 days of gear". I am just curious as to what all changes for people when a trip changes from 3 to 5 to 10 to 12 days. Obviously the amount of food you take will change but what else?

 

[Travis1984]

For me I just adjust the food amount. But things could change if...say...you needed to pack a raft.

 

[BroodBuster]

Food, spare fuel canister and more water tabs. More about bulk than weight.

 

[Slim Jim]

Food and fuel, that's it for me.

 

[SHTF]

Food and fuel, that's it for me.

∆∆∆

 

[tipsntails7]

Food and fuel, that's it for me.

this and an extra pair of socks and underwear depending on the length.

 

[hammer0419]

Food, one pair of socks and underwear.

 

[Hunt'nFish]

For me the diff between 5 day and 10days is an extra pair of underwear, food, fuel and scent soap for the clothes & me. I'm sorry I just can't go w/o washing up gear & myself for 10days. Well I can, but I don't like to. The cooler, the more likely. The hotter, the less likely.

On the food, I don't pack a full 10days worth of food for 10days. I tend to over pack food, so I short myself 1 day or two's worth and always leave a couple MtH meals until the end. And sometimes I don't even pack that much, depending on what we've already cached up the tree on previous scouting trips. I'm getting better at meal planning, so maybe I'll get it dialed right in one day and stop over packing food.
Hunt'nFish

 

[Rizzy]

For me the only difference between 2 and 20 days would be food. I've never done 20 days, usually by day 4 I've either harvested or it's time to move on to another spot

 

[larryschwartz]

Like everyone else has said, just the amount of food, fuel if not a full cannister, and water purification. Everything else should be the same if you have already paired down your clothing to base layers, mid layers, and outer layers plus a puffy if you need it.

One thing I don't like about the threads you mentioned (How much pack do I need for five days in the backcountry...) is that there is a big variable that is normally ignored, at least in the discussion, and that is how much volume YOUR stuff takes up compared to someone elses stuff. My tent if bigger/smaller than Arons or SHTFCOs. So are my clothes, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad. The exact same products, but in sizes ranging from M to L to XL could vary in volume by a few hundred cubic inches if not more.

My suggestion when the pack size question comes up is to lay out all of your gear as you would pack it in your backpack and then measure it L x W x H to get your cubic inches. Then do the same for how many meals you plan to take. With those two numbers you should be able to figure out a good estimate of how many CIs you need for any trip.

Larry

 

[Yellowknife]

Food, fuel, maybe another set of socks... Actually I'm more likely to carry "extras" on a short trip because I'm not weighted down with food or covering that much ground.

The FAR bigger variable for me is location and time of year. Even though the general packing list stays pretty similar, I'll pull some pretty different stuff out of the closet for different trips. Late season or winter is significantly more bulk.

Yk

 

[boom]

Food and fuel. I don't mind camp sud-sing my stank ass undergarments.

 

[rodney482]

Food
fuel
clothes

comfort items are packec on long trips 6+
I leave comfort items on short trips

 

[charvey9]

Just the food for me. Depending on which sleep system I take, I'm at roughly 29-31lbs with all my essentials, and figure on about 1lb of food per day.

 

[mattstanton]

Food, fuel, socks, undies and wipes.

 

[MTbowhunter36]

Same as above regarding fuel, food and extra socks. However, one thing that I'll bring on longer trips is rain gear. I'll typically just roll without it on shorter MT hunting trips - weather depending of course.

 

[Beastmode]

Pretty much everything everyone else is saying except I bring more AA batteries.

 

[colonel00]

Just bringing this thread back around as this is the time of year when everyone is getting their gear laid out and starting to organize. I still notice quite often that I see statements like "Here is X days of gear (listed/pictured) not including food or water". So again, I thought it would be interesting to continue the discussion to see what makes it X days worth of gear if you aren't including food or water.

Some great answers from last year. Food and fuel are obvious answers. I find it interesting how some will bring an extra pair of socks or underwear while others won't. I guess it's a preference thing and also depends on the conditions. For me, if I have a source of water, I can usually just wash and air dry a pair of Exoficio briefs and socks in most situations but for those in colder or more arid situations it may not be an easy solution.

The last comment by Beastmode was a good point that I don't think anyone else mentioned in batteries. Perhaps it's more about breaking gear down into categories.

You have your unlimited gear that can be used regardless of length of time. - Clothes, boots, shelter, sleep stuff, etc.

You have limited gear that depletes in stock relative to time. - Food, fuel, batteries, wipes, water tablets, etc.

And you have extended comfort gear that may fall into either of the two categories above that may not be absolute "necessities" but improve the overall experience of an extended trip for a person. - Extra socks or underwear, more comfortable pad, a pillow, etc.

Thoughts?

Also, for those doing camp laundry, are you using any sort of soap or detergent?

 

[Becca]

I would say what changes for us has a lot more to do with the type of trip ( do I have to carry it all or are we using boat or ATV ? Is it a fly out with weight constraints? Is it early season or later fall? Ocean based or interior?) than the actual length of the trip.

For an apples to apples comparison, for a backpack based hunt of 3 days, vs a backpack based hunt of 12 days, the only thing that changes for us is really the amount of food, fuel and batteries (or solar charger to recharge devices). Otherwise, the clothing, shelter and sleep system and stove etc will be about the same regardless of the length of the trip.

for summer and early fall backpack based trips, I carry layers but the only actual duplicate items are one pair of extra sleep socks (just wear the same other socks everyday, if they get wet or not....always have a dry pair to sleep in) and one spare pair of underwear. On shorter trips I sometimes don't need the extra underwear, but I always bring it along to swap into if the first pair gets wet or grungy.

I carry Coleman soap sheets in our possibles kit regardless of trip duration, and use these for hand, body or laundry soap in the event I want to wash something or myself in the creek. Low weight penalty, so they are always in our gear...





There will always be exceptions based on the logistics involved. For fly out trips where we might get stranded for bad weather, especially in the later season we tend to bring more duplicates. We usually have at least one extra shelter along for Oct goat or deer hunts in Kodiak for example, which allows us to spike out from a base camp but can also serve as an emergency shelter in the event of a storm or catastrophic tent failure. I might also bring along another pair of extra socks for a trip like that, as well as maybe a pair of fleece pants or change of base layers...they can stay at base camp but offer added insurance if the weather is bad and we get stranded or I fall in the creek (I need spare clothes if I get wet more likely in October than in July, odds are...)

 

[dotman]

Food
Fuel
Chew
Whisky
Socks
Undies
Fire Starter
Wipes

Pretty much more of every thing that gets consumed or has a one time use. I'll use more wet wipes on a 10 day trip then I would a 5 day etc.