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Let me confess that I am not an ultralight backpacker. Or that I even concern myself much with the weight I carry in my pack. When on a camping trip, I like having all the various comforts and amenities along with me, and no matter how heavy my pack is I still find a way to carry it. My tendency to overpack is not helped by owning a 100-liter pack that, no matter the length of the trip, I somehow always find a way to stuff full.

Ultralight backpackers, on the other hand, become obsessed with ounces. Experienced ultralighters can get the base weight of their gear down to 15 pounds or less. They find myriad creative ways to reduce weight, like cutting off the handle of their toothbrush or using a tent-stake as an eating utensil instead of packing a spoon. Yuck! Personally, I don’t mind carrying the extra ounce to have a spoon that is solely reserved for eating.

The bulk of my backpacking experience comes from working as a trail guide at YMCA Camp Menogyn, which, with its emphasis on extended backcountry expeditions for youth, is concerned more with carrying all the necessary gear for an expedition and is less concerned about how much all of it weighs. Menogyn is not an ultralighting outfit in any sense of the word. This past summer, I led the longest backpacking trip that Camp Menogyn offers for its participants, a 40-day excursion to Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). My 100-liter pack’s base-weight was somewhere around 40 pounds. Add in shared group gear and provisions for two weeks at a time, and my pack could weigh as much as 70 to 80 pounds—or more! Aside from weigh-ins for our bush plane flight, we weren’t too concerned about how heavy our packs were. All we really knew was that they were heavy!

Backcountry camping Menogyn-style, we needed to carry all that we could envision needing for forty days in the wilderness—repair kit, first-aid kit, extra food rations. Gear breaks and needs to get fixed, the food resupply plane might not arrive on time due to weather, and we needed ample first-aid kit supplies for anything upwards of a grizzly bear attack. Backcountry camping is about carrying enough supplies and knowing how to use them to prepare for every eventuality. But of course, it’s not just all about the necessities either. My group carried, for our entertainment, the luxury of a frisbee and plenty of books as well. And no, none of us ripped apart and burned the pages of our books as we read them—not even David Foster Wallace’s 1,079-page tome Infinite Jest. My reading on this trip included a book about two authors/filmmakers who spent five months in the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic following caribou—though their packs weighed upwards of 100 pounds with camera gear and provisions, they still found the wherewithal to pack a George W. Bush doll so that President Bush could too see the Arctic (cue the video in the link to 3:45 to see the Bush doll’s cameo).

As I transition from an extended backcountry expedition in Alaska to a thru-hike of New Zealand’s Te Araroa trail, I’ll be encountering a very different style of backpacking than I’m used to and have been trained on. So different in fact, that I might as well be starting from scratch! Aside from a lot of the gear looking similar, not much of the practice of travel is the same.

Backcountry camping, like I am accustomed to, is about spending a significant portion of time in federally-designated wildernesses, or areas with little human influence. Thru-hikes, which include more famous trails such as the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail as well as Te Araroa, also pass through many wildlands—but include lots of contact with the developed world as well; in the case of Te Araroa, the trail passes directly through New Zealand’s two largest cities, cuts through miles of sheep pasture (it is New Zealand, after all), and is around 15 percent hiking on roadways.

Another large difference is that backcountry camping does not necessitate hiking a large number of miles each day. In ANWR, our group averaged just four miles of ‘progress’ each day towards our end point of the Dalton Highway. This relaxed schedule allowed us to be free to set out on day-hikes and wander more or less where our hearts desired within the Refuge. In fact, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has no designated hiking trails. On Te Araroa, the objective will be to get from Point A—Cape Reinga, the northernmost tip of New Zealand’s North Island—to Point B—the city of Bluff, the southernmost tip of the South Island. I will be following closely the trail of Te Araroa the whole time—hopefully not head-down looking at my feet constantly, but looking about and enjoying the scenery. But ultimately follow the trail I will, and the daily goal will be to put on the miles to complete the trail in an ever-shrinking time window (my hiking partner Annemarie has a firm deadline to return to work at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and I last-minute delayed my start on the trail by about two weeks when an opportunity popped up the night before my departure). With 2,000 miles to cover, and potentially only 3 ½ months to do it in, we could be faced with hiking an average of 19 miles a day. Woof!

Finally, the difference in the food. In ANWR, my trailmates and I carried so much food on our backs—up to 15-days’ worth—because we could only get resupplied only so often by bush plane. In order to carry that many meals, our food needed to be dehydrated, and all 40 days’ worth of food was packed well ahead of the trip itself. Given the amount of time that our dehydrated trail food spent sitting in thin plastic bags all squished together, it is no surprise that all our provisions tended to meld into the same generic trail-food taste. With thru-hiking, I do look at food as being an upside. While the South Island of New Zealand does have several long sections between towns, the number of miles we will cover each day will allow for more frequent resupplies of our provisions. And also the chance to eat at restaurants and fast food! Indeed, my perception of thru-hiker victuals is hiking all day long just to eat at the next McDonalds.

With all this in mind, here’s what I currently have planned to take on Te Araroa. I did myself a favor by downsizing to a 65-liter pack so that I can’t stuff it too full.  Currently I have my base weight down to just under 30 pounds. How much of this stuff I will still be carrying at the end of the trail will be a guessing-game over the next 2,000 miles. I included brand names and trade names just to be specific about the gear I have, but recommend finding whatever works best for you, whether brand name or not. I myself have little brand loyalty and have amassed my outdoor gear collection via Craigslist, the REI® Garage Sale™, and discount sections at outdoor gear stores.

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Backpacking and Sleeping Gear

• Osprey® Rook™ 65-Liter Backpack
• Mountainsmith® trekking poles
• REI® Zephyr™ 25⁰ synthetic sleeping bag
• Sea to Summit® Thermolite™ sleeping bag liner (+10⁰)
• Nemo® Tensor™ inflatable sleeping pad
• The North Face® Asylum Bivy™ single person tent

Clothes

• Hiking Clothes
  • 1 sunhat1 pair sunglasses1 synthetic shirt1 Original Bug Shirt Company® bug shirt1 pair synthetic underwear1 pair trail running shorts1 pair synthetic socks1 pair La Sportiva® Bushide™ trail running shoes1 cotton handkerchief1 rain jacket
  • 1 pair rainpants
• Non-hiking clothes
  • 1 synthetic shirt1 lightweight fleece1 medium weight fleece1 puffy jacket1 pair synthetic underwear1 pair synthetic convertible pants/shorts1 cotton handkerchief1 pair lightweight gloves1 beanie1 pair Xero® sandals1 pack-towel
  • 1 pair synthetic socks

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Cook-Kit

• Optimus® Crux™ stove with case (uses isobutane/propane fuel available in New Zealand)
• 1 2-liter aluminum cookpot
• 1 potgrips
• 1 spoon
• 1 rubber spatula
• 1 Leatherman® multi-tool
• 1 plastic tupperware
• 1 lighter
• 1 small bottle Dr. Bronner’s® biodegradable soap
• 1 small green Scotch-Brite™ pad
• 1 bottle Potable Aqua® iodine tablets (50-count)
• 1 stuff-sack for carrying food
• 2 32-oz Nalgene® water bottles

Toiletries

• Small tube of toothpaste
• 1 travel toothbrush
• Small tube of sunscreen
• Small tube of hand lotion
• Small bottle of hand sanitizer
• 1 small first-aid kit in an old pill bottle
  • Moleskin®Assorted small bandages1 roll athletic tapeAnti-biotic ointmentDiotame anti-diarrheal tabletsIbuprofenHydrocortisone creamSmall and large nail clippers
  • Tweezers

Electronics

• Petzl® Actik™ headlamp with rechargeable battery
• Luci® Base™ solar charging lantern
• New Zealand wall outlet adapter
• American charging block
• Charging cord compatible for all electronics
• Smartphone (to use for photos, staying in contact, and navigation apps for the Te Araroa)
• Wristwatch

Extras

• 1 Repair Kit (fitting inside old pill bottle)
  • Gear repair tapeInflatable sleeping pad patchesThin sewing threadThick waxed sewing threadAssorted sewing needlesSafety pinsZip tiesDuct tape wrapped around pill bottle
  • 2 spare shoelaces
• Journal
• Pen
• Book (Jennifer Pharr Davis’s The Pursuit of Endurance. Why not start off with a book on running the Appalachian Trail?)
• Aluminum wallet with ID, New Zealand cash, and credit cards

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Happy Trails!

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