How do you carry it all?

[British Red]

Interesting - can you supply a breakdown of that 8Kg, and does it include the rucksak (it should - it goes on your back!)?

As I buy gear, I weigh it and enter it into a computer database. When I plan a trip I type out a list and process it with a perl script to extract the weights of the items and total it. I include pretty much everything I carry.

This summer I'll probably be carrying nearer 20Kg, but that will include a DSLR camera and lenses.

Jim

Sounds a lot like hard work to me - a simple jet database with a configurable check based query would return an answer without all that tedious scripting - hell a "sumif" in a spreadheet with a check column would be more efficient.Add a couple of additional additional logic steps (parameterised selections from categories such as "select one sleeping bag") and these could easily be semi automated based on secondary parameters (season, terrain etc.)

Perl scripts?

Red

 

[John Fenna]

What?
Me - I just go by experience...... "that bit worked and did not weigh too much therefor I will use it again...."
My computer skills are not up to much....

 

[Wayland]

I've never weighed any of my kit. I load it up, stick it on my back and walk with it.

If it's too heavy, I'll take less next time.

With the camera gear I carry, trimming grams off here and there makes no sense at all.

One of the lenses on it's own weighs in at well over a kilo.

 

[PJMCBear]

Interesting - can you supply a breakdown of that 8Kg, and does it include the rucksak (it should - it goes on your back!)?

As I buy gear, I weigh it and enter it into a computer database. When I plan a trip I type out a list and process it with a perl script to extract the weights of the items and total it. I include pretty much everything I carry.

This summer I'll probably be carrying nearer 20Kg, but that will include a DSLR camera and lenses.

Jim

Here you go mate.

Lightweight Gear list Weight (g)
Golite Jam 2 rucksack 600
Takonta Tarp 634
Cord bag 70
6 Pegs 142
Mozzie net 408
Sleeping bag liner 254
Snugpak Travel Paklite Sleeping bag 700
Bivi Bag 366
Marmot D-Lux Pump Sleeping mat 890
Beanie 40
Head Torch 76
Spork 18
MSR Kettle 118
Pocket Rocket stove 146
Gas Canister 210
Milk Flask 238
Water bottle 142
Water filter 70
Lighter 14
Matches 10
Brew Kit 108
FAK 48
Wet Wipes 52
Liquid Soap 66
Toothpaste 24
Toothbrush 16
Comb 10
.25 pan scrubber 4
Foot Powder 68
Waterproof Jkt 368
Tp Bag 16
Mozzie Repellent 48
Bandanna 40
Notebook & Pencil 58
Meds 10
Hipflask 210
Sp Socks 52
Fleece 380
Sp Bttys 18
Sp Specs 108
Gloves 40
Food Bag 1112

Total weight 8002

 

[drewdunnrespect]

kit is fun and well its great to be comfortable when out and about but i cloud go light wait if i needed but i dont really

 

[sandbender]

What?
Me - I just go by experience...... "that bit worked and did not weigh too much therefor I will use it again...."

Same here, a notebook lists everything that was missing on each journey and everything that was in my pack and wasn't used.

A fifty liter rucksack with a packed weight of 10 - 15 KG does me for most trips, however I do have a room full of gadgets and gear to choose my kitlists from

 

[firecrest]

NatG
NEVER tell a woman to chill !!! That's the best advice youll ever hear that!

 

[sapper1]

No Firecrest you're wrong,I tell my wife to chill all the time..........by telephone.LOL

 

[Barney]

My kit "would" weigh next to nothing if that's all I took.

Its the spare set of everything that adds a fair bit of the weight and the "emergency" set of everything that adds the rest, ends up with me being bow legged.

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

My kit ranges from a 25 lbs or less backpack with basic essentials the rest I need I make at location and all the way to a 27 foot trailer home on wheels is it still bushcraft hell ya.....

 

[jimford]

No Jims original post did not ask where we all store our kit but is passing a snide remark that if everybody HAS so much kit how do they carry it ? "or are you all backyard bushcrafters" This is a thread deliberately intended to start a flame war, not a nice discussion about carrying kit.

No. it's simply that I've attempted to pare down my kit to as light as possible - but not going to lengths like cutting handles off toothbrushes. I then I read about folk taking ovens, thermos flasks and lord knows what and simply wonder how they get it all into wild areas on their backs.

Jim what is wrong with "backyard bushcrafting?"

Nothing! I've tinkered around in the garden trying to light fires with flint and steel, knapping flints and making a hobo stove, but when in the hills will take a couple of disposable lighters and a lightweight gas stove.

Perhaps there are several recocognised 'levels' of bushcrafting:

Armchair bushcrafting
Backgarden bushcrafting
Winnebego bushcrafting
Landrover bushcrafting
Backpack bushcrafting
Extreme bushcrafting
;^)

Personaly, I see Ray Mears as a Winnebego bushcrafter. When he's shown carrying a pack it doesn't look like it's got more than bubblewrap in it, the way it carries!

Jim

 

[British Red]

Sounds like backpacking to me

Red

 

[Opal]

NatG
NEVER tell a woman to chill !!! That's the best advice youll ever hear that!

Think he meant "KILL"

 

[rg598]

While I don't care what a person does in the woods-to each his own, I think definitions are important. If we say that everyone from a person who is spending the week in the woods, using only his knowledge and a knife, is to be called a bushcrafter as much as another person who drives into the woods, pulls out the portable TV, and spends an hour doing bushcraft related tasks, then it creates problems communicating between ourselves and people new to the community. How can one answer a question like the one Jim had, when the term bushcrafter means any person who likes the outdoors in any way?

On a separate issue, I think there is a large difference between backyard bushcraft and being out in the woods. To me at least, the skills are placed in a very different light when you are two days walk into the woods, and you don't have a van to go back to if you fail to light your fire. There is nothing wrong with practicing at home, but it is not the same as doing it in the bush.

 

[firecrest]

No its not the same, but not everybody can get out into the woods, and its unfair to make them feel somehow inferior. The backyarder may be extremely proficient in bowdrilling and the guy who went out for a week with a knife could possibly just be a skilless hoth head who is about to get a harsh lesson!

 

[East Coaster]

While I don't care what a person does in the woods-to each his own, I think definitions are important. If we say that everyone from a person who is spending the week in the woods, using only his knowledge and a knife, is to be called a bushcrafter as much as another person who drives into the woods, pulls out the portable TV, and spends an hour doing bushcraft related tasks, then it creates problems communicating between ourselves and people new to the community. How can one answer a question like the one Jim had, when the term bushcrafter means any person who likes the outdoors in any way?

On a separate issue, I think there is a large difference between backyard bushcraft and being out in the woods. To me at least, the skills are placed in a very different light when you are two days walk into the woods, and you don't have a van to go back to if you fail to light your fire. There is nothing wrong with practicing at home, but it is not the same as doing it in the bush.

Yup, Agree with you here.

Bushcraft to me means out in the wild with nothing but a knife or axe and then utilising

all that mother nature has provided to make shelter/food/warmth and if you're really good, comfort.

Personally I've never tried this as I don't have the skills necessary, So by my own

definition I'm not a bushcrafter. I'm a camper/hiker/hill walker/mountaineer/

sea kayaker/backpacker/trail walker/photographer/wildlife admirer/outdoorsman or any combination of.


As many of the others have said the packing thing obviously depends on what

you're doing. I tend to find a mix of common sense and experience will tell you what to

take on whatever trip you are undertaking.

Only ever once weighed kit to take on a trip (not at my insistence!) Three of us were doing

a multi day trip. I opted to carry the food meaning my pack got lighter as the days went

on

 

[East Coaster]

No its not the same, but not everybody can get out into the woods, and its unfair to make them feel somehow inferior. The backyarder may be extremely proficient in bowdrilling and the guy who went out for a week with a knife could possibly just be a skilless hoth head who is about to get a harsh lesson!

I don't think rg598 was saying anything that could be construed as making you feel inferior.

The backyarder is practicing making fire ( a fundamentally important component

of bushcraft) nothing at all to feel inferior about there.

The chap in your example going out for a week with a knife is doing bushcraft (maybe just very badly:twak: )

 

[rik_uk3]

I don't see Jim's post as a flamer? And before any of you jump the gun, because he and I share an interest in stoves please don't presume I am his advocate or here to stir the pot.

He asked a valid question. Since I joined here, I've been on at least 25 trips which included one or more members, only once can I remember someone turning up with a small pack with all they needed for the four day trip and this was really down to the fact that I supplied all the food and water needed, all he or she carried was tarp, hammock, crusader mug and KFS, everything else came from the 'pool' of kit the rest took and nothing wrong in that at all.

Many times someone will turn up with their pack, set up their tarp and hammock (very often a tent instead) and all is hunky dory. A short while late after a walk back to the car they will drop bags of other gear down, and nothing wrong in that at all either.

Someone said "Sounds like backpacking", well it is the moment you put a pack on your back. The moment you leave home with the intention of spending a night in a temporary shelter, your are camping, that simple.

The kit snobbery evident here is leading to an elitist attitude amongst some (and to new members) and thats a shame.

Heads should be removed from dark places and lets just get on with our camping/bushcrafting/woodsman/camp craft etc whether it be in the back yard or indeed in the outdoors.

 

[andywinkk]

L200 pick up works for me, but getting a bit short on roon at the mo

 

[trail2]

I have just gone to a Light rum instead of the usual Lambs as I figure I can carry more
Jon R.