On Thursday, I set up camp and walked away for a few minutes. The wind was not blowing very hard. I came back to camp, and two of the three pieces of sleeping pad were gone (blown one way), the ground sheet was almost ready to go, my down beanie was blown another direction, and my plastic bowl was off in another direction. It took a while to find everything. I guess that is a good sign, but I don't want to have to carry tie-down straps for everything.

--B.G.--

........ When your pack is so light you carry a can of ravioli for the first nights dinner........ And don't care about the weight.

Edited by gg-man on 07/08/2012 19:02:35 MDT.

you can't get back into the car because you forgot to take your pack off.

Your checks to pay for gear purchases start bouncing.

you don't bother to take it off when you stop for a potty break.

your gear list costs $100 per oz... and you spent $500/oz to get the gear list to that point.

Edited by nzbazza on 07/09/2012 15:23:40 MDT.

Sometimes if there's a downhill section I want to get over with, or a flat section I want to speed through, I'll jog a little just because I have it in me and it helps me cover distance in the long-term. Well, the other weekend a trail-runner came downhill next to me doing this and made pace with me and we were chatting a little bit. I realized I was fully-loaded and he was wearing a 12 oz water bottle only.

...a hiking buddy pulls your pack up to the tailgate and says "Dude, is your food and water still up in the cab of the truck?"

. . . the airline pays YOU to check your bags.

When you meet up with your hiking partners at the trailhead and one says, with concern in his voice, "You know this is an overnight trip don't you?"

When you keep thinking do I have enough food ;-)

...you stop weighing it.

...when you carry as much water as you want without needing to worry how much weight it is adding and you stop without feeling the need to take the pack off straight away.

When you have to look in the mirror to see if you are wearing a pack.

. . . when you want to defect from America to Cube.

your pack is smaller than your belly.

"your pack is smaller than your belly."

unpossible!

When water is best split in two parts on each side of your pack, so you are not lopsided.