I hope I can post all of this. I will give it a try.

These are pictures of me unpacking my pack so you can see what I carry on a trip. I don't know what my gear weighed, but I think you can see that it is quite light.

I hiked in the backcountry behind Santa Barbara. The forecast called for highs in the mid-70s and the lows in the low to mid-40s. No chance of rain. The trail itself was poorly marked with about 200 creek crossings on a 45 mile trip. I took 3.5 days to hike this, but could have done it in 2.5. In other words, I was prepared for quite a bit of lolling around in camp.

Here is my pack. It is a ULA Relay. It's leaning on my Leki Ultralight poles. Not the lightest poles but I have had them for years.



Here is my down jacket. A Patagonia down sweater.



Two bags of food. One with breakfasts and one with lunches and dinners.



My personal/hygiene/first-aid items.

Woops. Sorry.
My personal/hygiene/first-aid items.



My Gossamer Gear tent with ground sheet and stakes all inside the stuff sack.



My cook kit.



My Golite Ultra 20 quilt.

Thanks for sharing! It's cool to see how others do it.

Edited by kthompson on 05/09/2010 17:46:27 MDT.

Trash compactor bag with my spare "clothing". I also kept my quilt in there in case I fell in the stream. Fortunately I never fell in the stream.



My Z-rest. It's a little less than half a Z-rest. Also 2 inches were shaved off length-wise to make it narrower. Duct tape patches a hole.



I've laid out all my spare "clothes" on top of my quilt. Clockwise from left: olive green rain chaps, black Patagonia Houdini wind jacket, homemade fleece fingerless gloves, black capilene tights, homemade Ray Jardine bomber hat, homemade fleece balaclava, fleece sleeves I use for arm or leg warmers or pillow. As you can see, I tend to insulate my extremities more than the rest of me.

My super deluxe head net. Has a wire to hold it away from your face.



My water purification system. Kept in a paint strainer which I use to filter out larger stuff.



Here's my cook kit. Clockwise from left: 1-liter platypus, homemade wind screen, yogurt container bowl, Naked juice bottle for mixing lemonade and quick drinking on the trail, Titanium pot and homemade lightweight lid, cup (a luxury item because I could drink from pot or bowl), spoon, bottle of alcohol fuel, V-8 stove, matches (hate lighters), rubber bands.



My homemade Lady-J device and backcountry bidet.



My hygiene and personal items. Left-to-right: black mesh bag I kept it all in, bandaids/tape/gauze in a ziploc, knife, sticky velcro patches (oops, didn't think I'd need those), small ziploc of ibuprofen and clariton, blue foam piece with a needle inside (oops, forgot the dental floss "thread"), brush, toothpaste/brush, stick pic, waterproof matches and trick birthday candles in a plastic container, cylindrical container of baking soda (oops, forgot to take that out before trip), small bottle of liquid soap, purell, 2 tubes of chapstic (oops, accidentally brought 1 too many), reading glasses. Turned out I used the velcro after all but really wanted the dental floss and needle. I'll explain later.

Here's my Gossamer Gear One set up. I never get it set up perfect. All my calculations make this the best choice for me. Ample room safe from bugs (in this case, biting flies that ate me alive before I noticed), light, spacious.



My ensemble.
Patagonia capilene baselayer shirt (I have a lot of patagonia stuff, but this came from a thrift store).



Patagonia skirt (also from thrift store.) I modified it by splitting it up the back seam and adding an extra panel of fabric so I could actually move in the thing. Very comfortable to hike in a skirt, but not on this trip. Skirt was a mistake. Trail too overgrown. Kevlar pants would have been better.



Keen sandals and liner socks. Also a big mistake. These shoes are the worst of all possible worlds. Lousy for hiking on trails and in creeks. There's no traction. I fell twice, once landing on a yucca bush. They suck for creek crossings because they let in all the pebbles, sand and gravel and refuse to let it out again and then they grind away at your feet mercilessly. They are truly horrible for walking in foxtails. Foxtails go right through and collect above your toes and under your feet and are almost impossible to pull out of the fabric. They dry slowly, too.



Here's my attempt to protect myself from foxtails. I found a stuff sack on the trail and attempted to velcro and safety pin pieces to my shoes, covering the tops and creating gaitors for my ankles. When the velcro fell off, I found a piece of lacing and tied the covers to the top. I was able to manage okay with this set-up. Probably the best shoes for this trip would have been full leather boots to keep the foxtails out and knee-length heavy gaiters. You're never dry anyway.



So other than the error in hiking without long pants and the crummy sandals, I was warm and comfortable the entire trip. My stuff was so light I hardly noticed it was there. I could negotiate all the creek crossings without any difficulty. I was comfortable in camp. A little bored, though. I should have brought a book.

What a cool, fun way to display a gear list, thanks.

I may have to try it out....

Will you post where you were, the trails, etc?

I hiked a 45 mile loop in the San Rafael Wilderness in Santa Barbara County. I started at Nira campground and hiked the Manazana trail to the Sisquoc trail to the Manzana Schoolhouse and then along the Manzana trail back to Nira.

Thanks for the show-and-tell! It's really fun getting to see what other people carry for gear....

Coming out of Grand Gulch this morning we ran into a younger couple going in for several days. The poor woman had a huge towering pack and a VERY unhappy expression on her face. I felt sorry for her. I wonder what her show-and-tell would have looked like?

Kimberly, Where did you go in Grand Gulch? I'm heading there next week for the first time.

We hiked down Bullet Canyon and up to Kane Gulch, 2 nights out (but it would have been nice to have had an extra day to take more time for exploring). I had done Fish and Owl a month ago, and enjoyed this trip to GG quite a bit more. Perfect weather, almost no bugs, and still pretty good availability of water. By showing up at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station a little before 8 am Friday morning we had no problem getting a permit. We left our car at the R.S. and hitched down to Bullet Canyon to start the hike.

Have a great time--we loved it!

That is really good stuff. I always like to see what kind of new and creative ideas people come up with. I especially like the wire mesh head net.


JC

http://www.bwire.com/index.htm

I did Nira-Manzana Schoolhouse and back a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful country. I just had to be careful with the poison oak.

Piper..
"I never get it set up perfect"
Spinnaker , like Cuben, is a lot harder to set up picture perfect because there is no give in the fabric.
In fact I can think of a particular popular high end tent that would look absolutely terrible if done with that material..
In your shot the only minor problem is that folded line from the rear apex to the front right corner.
You can see that there are a few smaller wrinkles towards the rear corner. So that is the corner that is out of alignment.
Fiddling a bit with the tension and positioning of that rear tie out point will taker care of that.
Franco
I just resurrected a pair of Keen very similar to yours. Had the same sort of experience a couple of years ago
to yours on a river walk , never used them again. Yet I love the fit.
Yesterday I was thinking of adding some mesh to the slits but most likely I would destroy that the first time out.

I love that you backpack in a skirt. As a guy, tho, I really want to try the Mountain Hardwear Elkommando Kilt. According to my female coworkers skirts are extremely comfortable, so I almost feel like I NEED to try the kilt, haha. I just might have to try it out this summer...

I want one of those kilts, too. They look really good on men, by the way.

About that crease in the tent: It seems nothing can be done. Even Glenn at Gossamer Gear couldn't help. The other problem is the front vestibule is not tight. Sometimes I will prop a stick under the line as that is the only way to tighten it. Unless I get lucky and there's a hill in front of the tent.

Love the paint strainer idea. I'm headed to Lowes right now to pick one up. Great presentation!!

I hike in shorts. My undies are SW boxer/ briefs. but the boxers are old and the the entire crotchal region is worn out. (with velcro tabs so I can rip em off- JK) anyway... I have found that the missing material on the boxers is AWESOME for ventilation. Especially with my zipper down (ahem) The walking motion gets air flow to work like a chimney up the shorts, and out the zipper. Direct breeze access

lol Jeff

>the boxers are old and the the entire crotchal region is worn out. (with velcro tabs so I can rip em off- JK) anyway... I have found that the missing material on the boxers is AWESOME for ventilation. Especially with my zipper down (ahem) The walking motion gets air flow to work like a chimney up the shorts, and out the zipper.

I think the kilt is way sexier.