[pct-l] Ultralight as a must?

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning,

I will be the first to admit that I do not have significant experience
hiking the PCT with a heavy pack -- a pack in the 70-80 pound range.  My
normal load of gear and consumables is most often around 20 pounds.  However,
I do have some heavy-load experience that is analogous.

Over 50 years ago, as a soldier, I was often assigned to scout patrol duty
where I walked through the forested hills with light field gear weighing
about 20 pounds.  Those hikes seemed easy and the miles just slipped by.  Other
times I carried the same load of field gear, but was additionally tasked
with carrying the approximate 70-pound breach section of an M-2, .50 cal.
machine gun.  After a day carrying that load over fewer miles I remember
being very tired.  At that time I didn’t have the advantage of a technical
paper that proved that there is no significant difference between walking
with a light load vs. walking with a heavy load.

Some years later I made several extended trips by canoe through the lake
regions of S. Ontario and N. Minnesota.  Many times per day it was
necessary to carry all of the gear over a height-of-land to enter a
different lake.  I would usually make at least three trips:  I would make
two trips over the trail, each carrying an 87-pound Grumman canoe, and
return empty; and on the third trip I would carry two Duluth packs – one on
my back and one balanced in front – on a one-way trip.  At the time I
remember believing that there was a noticeable difference between the
loaded trip and the empty trip, in fact, when I left a canoe and walked
back it seemed I could hardly keep my feet on the ground I was so light.  Once
again, I hadn’t read a technical paper that proved that there is no
significant difference between walking with a light load vs. walking with a
heavy load.

Today if I were interested in evaluating this difference I would make this
simple comparison:  I would load a pack with eight one-gallon containers
full of water to create a load that weighed about 70 pounds, and then carry
it on a short 5-6 mile hike over a trail with a few up and downhill
sections.  After having lunch I would then dump the water from 6 of the 8
containers to reduce the pack weight to about 20 pounds for the walk back.
If I couldn’t tell any practical difference between the two trips I feel
free to carry any amount of gear on the PCT.

After having carried heavy loads, and after reading the technical paper, I
was reminded of a comment made by the practical, home-spun, philosopher
Yogi Berra.  He said,

“In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice.  In practice
there is.”

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/