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A guy on the Eagle Rock loop told me my 30 pound base weight was 'just gear fear' and I still haven't settled it
Ran into a hiker named Pete at the Little Missouri crossing on the Eagle Rock Loop in Arkansas back in April, and he watched me repack my food bag and said the extra 6 pounds I was carrying was just 'fear of being uncomfortable, not fear of danger.' Everyone online preaches ultralight or die, but carrying a real stove and an actual sleeping bag in 38 degree rain two nights later felt pretty reasonable to me. I get the logic, but telling people their pack is too heavy when they're 9 miles from a trailhead with no cell service seems like the wrong advice to hand out so freely. Did anyone else have a moment where going lighter on paper looked way worse than it actually did out there?
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laura_schmidt823d ago
The phrase "fear of being uncomfortable, not fear of danger" really bugs me because those two things stop being separate when its 38 and raining. Being cold and wet for hours wears you down, and a worn down hiker makes bad calls. That is how small problems turn into real ones. People love to say the gear is just in your head until somebody gets shaky and trips on a root or cant get warm at camp. There is a line between packing smart and packing scared, sure, but nobody on a forum knows which one you are doing from a base weight number. The guy watching you repack your food bag also wasnt the one who had to sleep in that rain.
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