14.3 lbs

Yesterday, I packed everything I will need to sustain my life (except for food) for the next 4 weeks into my backpack. It weighs 14.3 lbs. This is a source of pride because among those who are disciples of ultra lightweight backpacking, this enters the realm. Tent, sleeping bag, clothes, cooking gear…. everything totals 14.3 lbs.

To get to this point, very specific decisions about safety, cost, and comfort had to be made. It’s more an exercise about what not to take. Here are some specific examples…

My new tent weighs only 0.8 lbs and it uses my hiking poles rather than traditional tent poles. The tent I have been using weighs about 1.7 lbs. and has it’s own poles. Saving that pound costs about $300. I could have used a tarp instead, which weighs about 0.3 lbs and costs about $75, but the tradeoff is no mosquito netting and no tent floor, two things that are very convenient in the Pacific Northwest where there are clouds of mosquitoes and plenty of rain. More cost, less weight, but a compromise in favor of comfort (and sanity).

Another example is the choice to have hot food for evening meals. The cool kids do not carry stoves or fuel. They employ a technique called cold soaking where they mix water with their freeze dried meals in the morning and carry it with them throughout the day, eating it cold at dinnertime. For me this method would save 0.9 lbs., but then I would not have a cup of hot coffee in the morning.

In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away

Antoine de Saint Exuprey

Saint Exupery once said, “In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away…” This image of my pack, so small and compact, represents my home for the next 4 weeks. It also represents a philosophy of simplicity in life. When our encumbrances are reduced to what we can comfortably carry, we can go places we would otherwise not be able to go. The stuff in my life takes the form of my guitars, my books, and my bicycles. I have to have a place to keep all the stuff where it is dry and cool, which means floor space, air conditioners, and dehumidifiers. And none of it fits in the wilderness of the North Cascades. I will miss the joy these things bring but that doesn’t compare with the joy of communion with Creation and Creator that awaits me at the Bridge of the Gods.

Simplicity is not easy. Considerable thought, cost, and certain sacrifices go into any endeavor to achieve it. 14.3 lbs represents closeness to perfection – in body, mind and spirit.