Carrrying a backpack on a thru hike is like carrying your life on your back. Everything you need to survive must fit inside. I met an ex Marine at a Verizon store in Beumont CA while dealing with my phone issue. When he saw my pack he told me his field pack in the Marines weighed one hundred and thirty pounds when he was deployed somewhere in the Middle East. Survival on the PCT is not the same as survival on the battle field.

As we were planning our hike, Jerry and I found lots of gadgets and devices that were supposed to make a hike more comfortable. They would all advertize as “only” X number of ounces. we woud say, “It’s only X ounces, that shouldn’t matter.” We also made gear choices that we came to regret. We found a great clearance deal on 65 liter packs and purchased them online. We purchased tents on sale that were “just a little heavier” and rationalized that they were sturdier and roomier. We would read about ultra-lite hikers who would cut the ends off their toothbrushes to save half an ounce and say, “that’s just silly.” Some of our food choices were too heavy and we started out carrying five and a half liters of water.

About a week into our hike we came to a startling conclusion. We would never make it to Canada with all that weight. We would be trudging up the hills (50% of the PCT is uphill) gasping for air, being passed up by seeminly everyone on the trail. A bubbly young woman with the trail name of Jukebox marched up behind us on a long uphill climb and passed us whle singing… singing! I can’t even talk, I’m too busy breathing. REI has a great return policy so we decided to return our packs and our tents when we got to Idylwild. We purchased new light weight packs and tents and had a fellow experienced hiker do a pack “shakedown.” “You don’t need that.” “Get rid of that!” “Why do you have a whole package of Q Tips?” etc. The bottom line is that we shaved some signifcant pounds off our load, we are enjoying it more and we have more confidence that we can actually do this.

Most of us go through life with too heavy a load; too much stuff we don’t need, gadgets and gizmos that don’t really improve the quality of our lives. Or we carry a lot of little burdens, thinking that none of them are really that heavy but cumulatively they weigh us down until life itself seems like just a burden. Do whatever you can to shed the excess weight. Jesus offers to take our burdens and give us His yoke. His yoke is easy.

E