Backpacking...

So today at work I am doing several experiments that leave me with lots of time. Time that I am just sitting a thinking or whatever. So today I am thinking about the backpack trip that I am hoping to do this summer, the Wonderland Trail that encircles mount Rainer. It stared at the mountain and thought about the trail a lot while I was on my mission in Washington.

This summer I may be able to do the 93 mile trip. So I have been thinking about what I will take and how to be as light as possible with comfort still. So I have been able to do a lot of reading about lightweight backpacking techniques and I am pretty excited to try some of these out.

Without a lot of trouble I should be able to end up with a pack weight of 20 pounds without food, water and camera gear. One of the reasons for the trip is the photography, so the camera gear will be allowed to be excessive. I am even considering taking a shoot through umbrella to get some really high quality trail type portraits. It really isn't to heavy. Maybe that would be worth it.

If I go to extra trouble I may be able to even get weights down to 15 pounds or less. That would make the camera weight much more bearable. So I guess we will see!