My wife and I did a trip here in the Cascades. We ended taking off mid day because of some of our schedules. To make a long story short. It was 90 degrees and the trail was STEEP, CRAGGED and narrow, Very narrow with drop offs of 100's of feet most of the trail has cable to clip into.. So you have the picture painted. My wife decided we needed the kitchen sink because of the group that was going with us.. To the point... I bought a nice Osprey backpack and loaded it up it ended up weighing 62 LBS!!!!! It was the most misserable day I can remember :) As soon as I got back from the trip I sold everything that was over 2 pounds and not DOWN and Titanium!!! I love this site to say the least... MY Motto is PACK LESS BE MORE!!!!! I thank my God for this site :) Oh and my wife... PACKLIGHT Scott

Scott,

Welcome to the BPL site and family of gear/weight obsessive fools that we are!

Tons to learn here and lots of people happy to answer questions for you.

Lord knows, people were great about answering all of my questions.

I feel your pain, I have carried as much as 90 lbs before....rediculous!

Just wish I had found this site before blowing tons of money at REI on traditional gear.

Good luck and enjoy your Lightweight Backpacking education here.

-Tony