My first experience of seeing the modern backpacker was here in the Sierra Nevadas, several years ago. It was a pair of long-distance hikers, battling their way up a trail. They both profused sweat in the midday sun and their packs were gigantic. I remember one had a hydrating tube stuck in his mouth. He was drinking as he was moving, slouched over and using two poles to support his weight.
Jardine suggests that you can whittle your weight down to a fraction of its current size. His pack, 8.8 pounds before food, water and fuel, took him the length of America's longest trails. He sewed his own gear, cut, stitched and bound everything to his liking, and then experimented for years with shedding everything non-essential.
In this giant book, Jardine concludes that a lighter pack is healthier and, as we all know, makes walking a lot more enjoyable.
The crucial heavy-soled backpacking boots are only crucial when your pack is so weighty. Remove the weight, and you remove the need for boots, a heavy cumberbund, a heavy back support cushion. He said that instead of a heavy water bottle, why not just take a much lighter soda bottle?
I now look at Vance’s pack differently. It’s amazing - the way a person packs resembles their personality. In Vance’s backpack, you can see his last minute scatter, his last minute ramble. But in his light pack you can also see what took Jardine hundreds of pages to describe – originality, creativity, skill and comfort in putting things together his way.
We make it to our second camp - a small Peninsula on a small icy lake. By now, everyone looks healthier; away from their offices, and comfortable. After Vance jumps into the freezing lake, Hans suggests we do the same, citing it being 'great.' Andre goes, and then, with trepidation, so do I, and at last, Alvin, who had never before been in the snow. I've always wondered about the point of the Polar Bear Club. But getting out of the water and into the sun, you are suddenly both invincible and on a strange high brought on by the sun piercing your body. The effect seems to last the entire day; I am now walking over plains of snow barefoot. At one point the snow gives in, and in my boxers, I fall in five feet of snow. I yelp, but I feel nothing but the pleasure of the sun.
