The long walk home

Thank you guys for the comments. I am now driving every few weeks back and forth to my parents' in Alabama, so it is relevant.

With your input, my bag has evolved:

Kelty Redwing 44 pack. Got it on sale. Heavy but good.

Shelter:
OPSEC poncho (stupid name, but it is adjustable to cover the pack, is multicam, and is almost as light as my Golite. But bigger.)
(once I can afford it) Zpacks splash bivy. 6.4 oz, and it has a bugnet. crazy. The MSS bivy will have to do for now.
My wonderfully warm down sleeping bag

Cold / rainy weather gear:
Goretex jacket and overpants
MH compressor jacket
Thermal base layer, light fleece top, extra pants, 2pr socks, 2pr sock liners,
1 spare pr undies, usgi watch cap, fleece gloves, work gloves

Water:
Sawyer squeeze filter with syringe, 2-1L bags
1L stainless bottle
1L Smartwater bottle (fits the Sawyer, just in case)
20pk Katadin micropur tabs (backup)

Food:
5# mixed nuts, approx 15000cal (approx 190 cal / oz)
3-3600 cal mainstay bars, 10800 cal (each pack is 1.5#, so 150 cal / oz)
That gives me 10 days at 2500 cal/day. Nowhere near enough to make the actual 360 mile estimated walk, but it is a very solid start, and just under 10# of food.)

Extras:

Eton AM/FM/WB crank/solar radio and batt charger kit. (It's heavy, but being able to recharge my batteries with the crank is worth it)
Bahco Laplander saw, Fallkniven F1 knife, small prybar/dirt tool. All I have ever really needed in the woods. Really. An axe is nice, but not needed.
Fenix single AA flashlight and single AA headlamp red filter available on both.
100' amsteel rope, 4 wiregate carabiners. Anything that would need rope that I could possibly need, this can do.
80' paracord, just because that's what my little bracelet thing has.
Folding maps of AL, TN, GA, and SC. My SC map has rail lines notated. Gonna have to work on the others.
3 packs of wet wipes. Because eventually all the mainstay bars will come home to roost.
Fairly extensive FAK, both GSW and boo-boo stuff. Lots of ibuprofen. Lots of ACE bandages for my ankles and knees.
2 bricks of spare ammo for my 9mm.
Fairly extensive firekit
Snow*Peak cookset, Ti of course. 2oz of olive oil, baggie of salt/pepper mix, several packs of texas pete.
Small trotline setup, 4 small snares (spare guitar strings ftw) just in case I have time.

Hoping to order the UL bivy soon, right now the whole shebang comes in at 37#. More than I'd like to carry, but it would drop fast... but a good start, I think.


In a few months, I will be able to drop close to 8# simply by not needing the cold weather gear. But right now, it stays.

Thanks, and I welcome any comments or suggestions!

Absolutely agree. I rarely go more than 6 months between change-outs of my kit. April - sept is warm season, oct-mar I carry the cold weather gear. So that is when I also rotate food, water, and batteries, check the maps to see if they are too outdated, make sure everything is still there, etc. And as far as food, I usually wind up raiding my stash for lunch / snacks long before that kind of time period elapses. But yes.

I have considered losing the bivy and bag, and just "hootching it", but (Especially for a loooong walk) getting rest is going to be critical. A bivy and a really good bag are around 2 1/2 pounds, totally worth it in my book. Sleeping 4 hours warm and dry beats 8 hours cold and wet.


Now that I have (kinda) sorted out the food issue, I'm working on paring down the rest of the gear. It's a lot like planning a hike on the AT - you have to go long distances every day, you can PROBABLY resupply along the way, and you can PROBABLY find shelter most nights. Its those other times when shelter and food are nowhere to be found, that makes this thought experiment interesting.

I like the rest of your kit. I am guessing the assault pack is mostly empty? Or are you carrying a LOT of Mountain House? What about a FAK?

Agreed. Wool is the bomb as far as warmth when wet. I have several milsurp wool blankets, and really like them. Maybe I need to try a full-on bushcraft style getaway, and give the wool another chance.

...but my Western Mountaineering down bag is soooo waaaarrrrmmm. ...til it gets wet, that is.


Tradeoffs. Always the tradeoffs.

Keep the bivvy. I've never tested the 'wool stays warm when wet' thing to any great extent, but 'wet' = uncomfortable, regardless of whether or not you're warm. A decent bivvy keeps you out of the wind and rain (and bugs...), and that's a positive no matter what climate you're resting in.

That said, you probably CAN ditch the sleeping bag if you've got the bivvy + good clothes. How cold does it get in your AO? Weather in my AO can get 0 degrees or below, but that's pretty damn rare and frigid around these parts. Winter temps are more typically in the 20's and 30's, in the teens when there is a real cold snap.

I think you've got a real nice kit set up, Misterdark. IMO you can probably lose some ammo, that might save you a pound or so (which adds up at the end of a long day hiking). In my GHB I carry my EDC G19 topped off + 2 extra loaded G17 mags. That should get me out of any scrapes, and I'm not planning on hunting. Then again, my routine travels usually only take me 100 or so miles away from home.

37# is very doable for extended distance hiking.

Bug spray or something like OFF wipes?

Toothbrush?

So, yea. This is becoming my gear thread. Enjoy.

I found a great deal on the REI minimalist bivy, I think it will have to be my go-bag sleep system of choice for a while. As much as I hate sleeping on the ground, 1# for a (mostly) waterproof, bug resistant shelter is really hard to beat. My lightest bugnet/cuben tarp setup is nearly 3#. This and a poncho as rain cover is right at 2#.  For a long distance bag, that pound is a LOT of savings.

Here's a pic of it next to the MSS bivy.  The MSS is wrapped as tight as I can make it, the REI is loosely rolled up in it's bag.



Weights





Just saved 18 oz.    Sometime this week I will spend a night out in it, to see if it was worth the $65.