What’s in my pack?
Where it started
I hiked the Sheltowee Trace in sections, and my kit changed between them. This is what I laid out in February 2023, the night before the second section.
By then I had already replaced my pack, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, and cook kit, and dropped about six pounds of base weight. The new pack was the Granite Gear Crown2 60: half the weight of the pack I took to Iceland, 15 liters bigger, and a better fit.
Here it is that August, packed for a 36-mile section from Thunderstruck to Blue Heron. I was down to 21 pounds of total pack weight. I had also lost 15 pounds that month, so maybe that made it technically 6.
The food photo is from a month later, the night before the third section:
- Ramen bomb: instant mashed potatoes, ramen, and powdered gravy. A thru-hiker classic.
- Thai coconut curry: my dad’s homemade backcountry recipe, version two. I was the guinea pig.
- Cook kit: a TOAKS 750 ml titanium pot, an MSR PocketRocket 2 stove, and a small fuel canister. I only boiled water, and mixed the food in a freezer bag inside a thermal pouch.
- Oatmeal with walnuts and raisins: cold soaked overnight in an old peanut butter jar, so I could eat on the move after breaking camp.
- Snacks: an energy gel, a meal bar, cashews, and fruit leather, kept in the hip belt pockets.
- Cheese and sardines in mustard: not ultralight, but if you can’t have a little fun at camp, what’s the point?
That peanut butter jar was my first try at cold soaking. These days the stove stays home.
What I carry now
This is my 2025 setup, built around a Gossamer Gear Kumo pack and a Lanshan 1 tent. The full list, with every weight, is on Lighterpack.
To write: one or two sentences on how you approach packing.
The numbers
- Base weight: 10.38 lb
- Worn: 1.31 lb
- Food and water: 7.53 lb, for one day of food and 2.5 liters of water
- Total: 19.22 lb
The big items
- Pack: Gossamer Gear Kumo, 20.5 oz, with a Granite Gear frame, 3.5 oz, and a Nylofume liner
- Shelter: Lanshan 1 tent, 26.9 oz, on a polycro footprint, 1.3 oz
- Trekking pole: Cascade Mountain carbon fiber, 5.6 oz
- Sleeping pad: REI Co-op Helix, 21 oz
- Quilt: ALPS Mountaineering Infinity down quilt, 24 oz
- Pillow: Trekology, 3.9 oz
- Rain jacket: REI hooded rain jacket, 9.9 oz
- Insulation: REI hooded down puffer, 11 oz
To write: a line on why for each.
The small things
- Water: a Sawyer Mini filter, two 1-liter bottles, and a half-liter bottle
- Food: no stove. A 3 oz cold soak jar and a TOAKS titanium long-handle spoon
- Light and power: a Nitecore NU25 headlamp, 3 oz, and an Anker 10K power bank, 7.5 oz
- Weather: a 4 oz carbon fiber umbrella
- Repairs and first aid: Leukotape and duct tape wrapped around a pen, super glue, a spare lighter, bandages, ibuprofen, and melatonin. All of it weighs 2.7 oz
- Bugs: picaridin
What changed since the Sheltowee Trace
I finished the Trace in 2023 with a 12.78 lb base weight. This setup is 2.4 lb lighter.
- Pack: the Granite Gear Crown2 60, 39.4 oz, became the Kumo and a frame, 24 oz together
- Shelter: the tarp, net tent, and footprint, about 41 oz, became the Lanshan 1 and a polycro sheet, about 28 oz
- Pillow: the Sea to Summit Aeros Down, 2.5 oz, became the Trekology, 3.9 oz
To write: why you switched from a tarp to a tent, and why the heavier pillow.
What I’d change
A lighter quilt is already on the list as the next upgrade.
To write: what else you’d swap, and what you wish you had.