One week out, and the planning is nearly done. There will be six of us on our fastpacking trip down the John Muir Trail. The permit was secured about 4 months ago. The food storage requirements have been thoroughly investigated, the gear list fine tuned multiple times, and last week we mailed our food resupply.
A little unbelievable that two of us were able to entirely fill a 5 gallon bucket for 4 days of food, and a little scared that it still won't be enough calories. We are planning on a little over 4,000 calories per person per day, and struck a pretty good mix of calorically dense food and lighter foods that always sound appealing.
Last on our list is dealing with the shuttling and vehicles. We have six of us from 3 different geographic regions coming together for this trip, and ideally will end up with at least one car on either end of the trail.
If you are not familiar with “fastpacking”, a quick Google search will provide a little history. Essentially, taking less and moving faster on the trail. My pack without food and water will be just under 15 lbs, and just after the food resupply it will hit its maximum weight of around 28 lbs.
So what gear made the list? I will have several other pieces with me pending the final weather forecast, but this is what I am planning on taking at this point:
Uppers - Rain Shell, light down jacket, long sleeve top, short sleeve top
Bottoms - Rain Pants, long underwear, running shorts
Other - Shoes, 2 pair socks, wool hat, Sun Hat, sunglasses, regular glasses, midweight gloves, backpack, hiking poles, 30 degree down bag, air mattress, headlamp, camelback, glasses case, cellphone, tp, trowel & hand sani, camera with extra battery, watch, sunscreen, bear canister, map set, and personal kit (first aid, knife, tape, lighter, earplugs etc.)
Group gear – several tarps & groundcloths, 2 stoves and fuel, 2 water filters
Here is the gear laid out:
And ready to pack:
And Packed:
I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes....
(Edit -
Click here for the first of 4 trip reports)
Lately, we at the Center have been vicariously living the adventures of Leave No Trace employee, Kurt, by reading trip reports of his recent fastpack of the John Muir Trail. Kurt has written a detailed trip report of his adventure – including a pre-trip packing list of all his lightweight backpacking gear.
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