Went backpacking with Nicholas and his Boy Scout troop. A few miles into CA, south of Searchlight NV, we turned onto an old singletrack and went 7 miles into the desert. Set up camp that night (it was dark when we arrived) and took off hiking the next morning.
The hike was under 2 miles and pretty pleasant. I like to think of it as a “shake-down” hike. We all got to see how our back packs felt and after 2 days we got to see if we were carrying the right things. Me? 54 pounds and I think I can trim 10 or 15 pounds w/out trying. Nicholas? 35 lbs, and not too much trimming. He’s a real trooper so he didn’t bring a change of clothes, clean underwear, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, salt or pepper. I don’t think he had too much to trim.
The extra weight comes from water. Even in the fall where the weather is cooler it is still dry, and it is still important to carry water. I had over 10 lbs of just water, Nicholas carried about 8. And we used all of it!
A few pictures. duh! 🙂
uh oh…. can’t find the pics…. well, just do a mental pic of us camping out near the foundation of an old fort, located in the Mohave desert area.
If I find them I’ll post ’em later?