Date: 2004-05-15
From: Kincora

To: Kincora
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Backdraft's Entry: Inventory   I know there is a 'Gear' link on my Trailjournals.com already and you can go there to get the specs on the gear common to all backpackers. You can find out how much my pack weighs and how my trekking pole was constructed. This entry, then, will attempt to give you an idea about all the tools and goodies a hiker (or at least in the case of this poor hiker) carries with them.    My backpack has a main compartment divided into a separate bag compartment on the bottom. It also has three outside pockets and if you want to know anything more about my pack, please refer to the the 'gear' link on my Trailjournals.com. This inventory is meant to augment, not reiterate the other.    In the main compartment go my tarp and ground cloth rolled up and tied tight inside my 3/4 length sleeping pad. In go my hard shell, thermal leggings, knit hat, gators and my spare ankle socks. Add my Waldees that I use for camp shoes and my Poof football that I use for a pillow (and also as a football of course) and it is ready to be cinched tight shut by the outside straps.   Into the separate compartment goes my sleeping bag (stuffed in a trashbag) my food bag and my pot. I'll list what food I'm carrying in a moment but in the pot wrapped in my camp towel is the 3 oz. potted meat can I use for my stove, my pot handle, my cup, and a dishrag, and my tinfoil windscreen.   In the largest pocket of my bag goes this journal, a novel, and my data book. These items and my pen all wait there in their own freezer ziploc bag. If I'm carrying trail mix, it would go into this pocket and I also like to leave town with a liter of red wine stored here as well. I also keep my ziploc freezer bag trash bag in this pocket.   In one outside pocket, I keep my headlamp, pack cover (in its' very own stuff sac) and my camera case. In the camera case is my camera (in its' own ziploc sandwich bag) a spare memory card (when its not in the mail) 40 ft. of cord I use for hanging bearbags and my Gameboy and a game( when it comes in the mail).    In the other side pocket, I keep my Walkman (when I'm not wearing it) and a ziploc freezer bag full of misc. tools and medicines. In this freezer bag can be found my toothbrush and a sample size toothpaste tube, my retainer, and an eye-dropper full of chlorine I use to treat my drinking water, a small lighter, a spork, a rubber band, a prescription pill bottle with some Ibuprofen, but mostly full of vitamins and a tube of 1% hydrocortisone cream that has saved my life on more than one occasion. Oh, and also my four tent stakes (when they're not in the ground as they are at the moment) which I use both to pitch my tarp and as a pot stand over my alcohol stove.   In one mesh pocket on the outside of my bag, I carry my water in 2 20 oz. soda bottles. In the other mesh pocket, I carry 16oz. of denatured alcohol in a flask with a 1oz. lid, spf 45 sunscreen (only because I coudln't find spf 15 in a small enough bottle), a small bottle of Jungle Juice (95% DEET), 250 ml. of squeeze Parkay and 65 ml. of pure olive oil.   In my pants or kilt, I'll carry my plastic cards and whatever cash I might have. If I have extra pockets (like in the pants but not the kilt) I might carry pocket change or another ziploc sandwich bag full of trash.   5 Days of Food:Breaksfasts: 6 oatmeal packets (3 days) 2 Nutter Butter Candy Bars (1 day) 2 Snickers bars (1 day)Lunches: 5 Top Ramen of assorted flavors 5 Snickers barsDinners: 2 Instant mashed potatoes and 1 Stovetop Stuffing (2 days) 3 Lipton rice or noodle Dinners and 3 3oz. bags of Tuna (3 days)Maybe 2-3 lbs. of trailmix and maybe not. And that's it. Seldom more than that and often less is all my possesions important enough to life on the trail.