Maggie's Farm

Bring everything? No, bring everything you need, and that is probably way less than you think.

Then go through your pack when you get back, and if you didn’t use it, take it out. My three-season backpacking rig is 12 lbs without food and water, and I can trim it to 10 lbs if I plan dump the tent or hammock and use a tarp. Every ounce, no, every gram counts. The only thing you need extra of is food (not paper towels—a bandana will do what a whole roll of paper towels will do, and lots more, at a fraction of the weight, bulk, and garbage to pack out).

This is true even camping out of the trunk of the car, hunting, or taking a day hike. If you don’t use it, dump it. A backpack full of gadgets is sort of cool, I guess, but leads to a fifty-pound sixty-liter pack.

I’ve seen guys go elk hunting with one tag and three boxes of ammo in their pack. Sixty rounds? Four fit in the rifle, and that's plenty—keep the action closed, and your ammo is magically keep clean and dry. More importantly, don’t bang the scope on anything—because you only need to shoot once. It’s easier to protect the sights if you aren’t lugging 20 lbs of unnecessary stuff.

I’ve seen anxious moms load down their 11 year old Boy Scouts with four changes of clothes for a weekend, when all they need is a couple changes of underwear and socks, and one extra tee shirt.

You can’t have fun if you’re exhausted from carrying stuff you don’t need, so dump it.