Let me address a few points raised by the OP:
brooklyngirl813 said:
I can only carry 10lbs including water and food.
If this is referring to the 10% of body weight target, my interpretation of the base weight advice is that it does not include water and food, although there are others who will say otherwise. I also prefer using a from the skin out target, which accounts for all that you are wearing and carrying. If you use 20% FSO, you have a total weight budget of 9kg. If you are wearing 2kg, have a litre of water and 500g of snacks for the next day or so (3.5kg) your residual is 5.5kg. A 30li pack could weigh as little as 600gm for an unframed pack, or around 1.3kg for a framed back, leaving between 4.9kg and 4.2kg for contents to stay within the target.
brooklyngirl813 said:
I have found that for a camino load, a packing density of 190gm/li works well enough - tight, but not too tight. I have achieved up to 240gm/li, but that is really tight and puts the pack under a lot of pressure. Doing that with an unframed pack leads to quite a lot of distortion with bulges in all the wrong places. I suspect it can be done with a framed pack without altering the carrying characteristics too much. On that basis, a 4.9kg load would need a minimum of 26li capacity for an unframed pack, while a 4.2kg load might be able to be stuffed into a framed pack of around 20li, although I wouldn't recommend that. Overall, it would seem to me that a 30li pack would be an acceptable choice.
brooklyngirl813 said:
I want to experience true backpacking as this is something I've never done before.
The camino is not really a 'true backpacking' experience. You might decide to carry enough food for a couple of meals in case you want to have lunch somewhere remote from a bar or shop, or want to prepare a meal. On the
Camino Frances, you don't need to be self-sufficient for much longer than half a day or so in reality, and you certainly don't need to camp, cook, collect and treat water, etc on the Camino.
If you haven't been back-packing before, and this is your first camino, be a little cautious about cutting down too much weight at the start until you have some better understanding of what you personally need. There is always the option of posting home items you determine you can do without, or just leaving them behind. That is not to suggest that you go overboard, although you won't have too much opportunity to do that if you stick with a pack of 30li or slightly less.
Regards,
