A guy on the PCT told me my pack was too heavy and I finally listened

I was doing a section near Crater Lake two years ago and this older hiker passed me on a climb. He looked at my pack and just said 'you're carrying a chair up there?' I laughed it off but then I actually weighed it when I got home. 47 pounds for a 5 day trip. That's insane. I cut out the camp chair, the extra cook pot, and swapped my tent for a tarp. Dropped to 32 pounds. Next trip I felt like I was flying. Still not ultralight by any means but that one comment saved my knees. Anyone else have a random stranger's advice that actually stuck with you?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_ellis26d ago

and it's wild how that one comment just flipped a switch in your head. i think part of it is we get so used to our own routines we stop questioning them. like at home i used to take three different bags of trash out to the curb every week until a neighbor casually said "just put it all in one can, they sort it anyway." saved me like ten minutes of fiddling with ties every tuesday. it's that same thing with the pack gear - you buy stuff thinking you need it but you're really just carrying around decisions someone else made for you in a store. once you start questioning one thing it all kinda dominoes.

nancys9026d ago

My friend Sarah had this exact thing happen to her but with a canoe of all things. She was portaging in the Boundary Waters and this old guide just looked at her and said 'you know you can tie that foam pad to the outside, right?' She had been stuffing it inside her pack for years and it was taking up half the space. She got home and realized she was carrying a full cast iron skillet for no reason, she never even used it. She swapped it for this little titanium cup that weighs nothing. It's funny how you just keep doing what you learned the first time until someone points out how silly it is. Now she's down to a 25 pound base weight and she laughs about how she used to carry a heavy rain jacket with a hood and then a separate umbrella on top of that. One comment can really just crack open your whole system.