most of the gear for the test hike

Pro backpackers speak of a "base weight" that includes everything being loaded onto your back except for food and water, the weight of which can vary daily, even hourly. The following pic of my gear is a bit misleading because some of it (shoes, shirt, pants, etc.) will be worn on my person and thus won't be part of the base weight. I also didn't include in the pic such crucial equipment as my Baen Sendi (yerp, that's the brand name) hydration bladder, which served me mostly faithfully last time around, my hat, my toshi (UV-protection sleevelets or manchettes vélo), and my trusty trekking pole—the second pole of a pair of fairly sturdy Costco poles I had bought back in 2017. Last time around, I took both poles with me, but I only ever used one pole the entire time. This time, I know better than to take a second pole.

I watched Darwin's video about the equipment he had taken for his through-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2018; he's obviously a pro, and his pack apparently weighed in under 12 pounds, base weight. (This doesn't include five-plus liters of water, daily, to get him through the first 700 miles of the PCT, which is mostly desert because the trail starts at the Mexican border.) That's pretty daunting, and when I finish this big walk, I plan to see how much I can pare down should I try this walk again later. (I think I can pare things down to almost nothing, truth be told, because I'm never far from civilization here in tiny Korea.)

You are, of course, curious as to how much my pack weighs. Did I make my goal of getting things under 12 kilos? Well, here's the pack itself:

And the weight? 11.5 kg. Yeah, baby! So I got under 12 kg, but keep in mind that that's not including three liters of water, which will bring me up to 14.5 kg, but only temporarily because I'll be sucking down the fluids all day as I walk.

So this pack is a few kg lighter than last time. I'm wondering what I can ditch to make the pack even lighter, and switching from the admittedly heavy, 600-something-gram Grayl water filter to, say, my LifeStraw might be the ticket, although the LifeStraw is a pain in the ass to suck water with.

Keep in mind that this is a numbers game. If I manage to lose a few kilos off my body over the next few weeks, that's more weight off my feet, and potentially more weight that I can put into my pack should I realize I've forgotten something. I don't think I've forgotten anything, though, so a few kilos off will simply mean a few kilos off. My feet, which tend to scream like drama-queen soccer players, will be thankful for whatever reprieve they get.

Hitting the hay now. Up at 5, out by 5:30 or so. The weather forecast for Chuseok Friday is supposed to be awesome. I'm looking forward to a good hike to Bundang and back. Saturday, the weather won't be quite as nice, but I'll be doing the same hike again. Sunday, I'll assess pack ride quality and pain levels, and we'll see where we go from there. Happy Chuseok!