What's In Your Backpack? 27Jul20

Given our recent trip I wanted to review contents of my 45# (yea - too much, but it was only a ~2 mile climb) backpack. I made a spreadsheet to do the in/out tradeoffs among items to carry and for this trip we were largely "solo" and didn't share tents or gear so I was on the heavy side of normal. First is my food with cook kit & extra gas and the bear canister (a freaking 2# adder!)...

Next up are my clothes (including a poly puff, raincoat & rainpants) and most vital fishing gear. I actually took two setups into RMNP, a full 5 wt rod & reel and a tenkara kit, and a butt pack filled with fishing stuff (ultimately I left the net behind, but could've used it at Thunder Lk)...

Here's the 2# Nemo tent, loved it, mattress pad, pillow, and my luxury 13oz Helinox chair, loved it too. I used a 1# Enlightened Equipment sleeping blanket rather than a full sleeping bag - the weather allowed it and it packs down to about the size a a pint of beer...

I used 2.2# hikers on the trails and crocs @ camp and always had toiletries, TP and trowel handy...

Some heavier stuff included my 1# pack-in-a-pack (actually my winter ski mountaineering one) for roaming from camp with hydration and extra clothes, a largish medical kit (Kala & I are now trained wilderness 1st responders), a knee brace, an emergency blanket/shelter, and an extensive repair kit including headlamp, camera and swiss army knife.

Finally I carried a 3 day USB charger battery for my phone (leaving the solar system at home) as I had all the maps and navigation stuff loaded on it,  a satellite communicator, a water filtering pump and transport bladder, and, of course the backpack itself which had bear bell, compass/thermometer & whistle attached and 3L water in hydration bladder...

For our next outing I'll cut fishing stuff to just Tenkara-based; I will trim out some of the repair items and drop the camera; I may switch to gravity fed water filtration; I may leave out rain pants and the bear canister; I will cut back on food but I will add a pan to cook fish (otherwise it is hard to so do without a fire).