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Suggestions for lightening you load

Melensdad

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2016 SJPdP to Santiago, Finisterre. Hadrian's Way, 2015. Sections of the AT + National & State Park trails.
1. Instead of packing 8 beers with you each morning just take 6. Total weight savings: 1.5 pounds. You can always get some Vino Tinto at the little bars along the route to fortify you if you run out of beer.

2. At St Jean, open your pack and remove two or three pairs of shoes. You can mail them ahead to Ivar in Santiago. Weight savings 4 to 6 pounds.

3. Instead of that old kerosene lantern, try a headlamp. By leaving your Coleman 1 Mantle Kerosene Lantern at home and replacing it with a Petzl Tikka headlamp, you’ll decrease your total pack weight by 4 pounds, 11 ounces.

4. If you notice you have a baby with you, run back into town quick and find someone to babysit it while you are on your month long pilgrimage. Babies are heavy and become awkward to carry after several miles. Plus they require lots of extra food and gear like diapers.

5. When you arrive in St Jean, set aside all your heavy stuff and ask your friend to carry it for you. Explain that you are trying to lighten your pack.

6. Try to limit yourself to 3, or fewer, stuffed animals.

7. Portable video game consoles are heavy. Instead of your Playstation Vita (1 pound, 10 ounces), download a few games like Angry Birds, Star Wars II, 80 Days, Asphalt 8, and NBA Jam to your iPhone; these will occupy your time so you don't have to interact with other pilgrims.

8. Instead of packing separate bottles of shampoo, conditioner, mousse, gel, detangler, and hairspray, try using a stylish hat to hide your dirty hair from the other pilgrims.

9. Buy all new stuff. If your stuff is from last year, it’s very likely way heavier than this year’s stuff. Go into a gear store and tell them to give you all new lightweigh hiking stuff, and enjoy the weight savings, plus the shiny newness. If anyone gives you grief, such as your spouse, tell them your old stuff was too heavy and it was giving you back pain.

10. If you have some things that are troubling you, tell them to someone on the way to your hike, or to your friend when you meet at the trailhead. It can be very cathartic to get your problems off your chest. This will lighten your pack, if only metaphysically.

Please feel free to add your own submissions for consideration!
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
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I agree with all of this good advice, except #6 might be very challenging ....
Yup I agree. If you see my beloved 'sock-monkey' on the side of the roadway please tell him I still love him, but I just couldn't deal with the added weight.



What do you carry it in ?A DRY SACK?
That is how I do it. The 'freeze dried' water is better than the 'dehydrated' stuff because you can use it to keep your beer cans cold too.
 
That is how I do it. The 'freeze dried' water is better than the 'dehydrated' stuff because you can use it to keep your beer cans cold too.[/QUOTE]
As a non drinker I will leave the beer cans so I'm in a win win situation.
 
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I'm two kilos down and have decided to drop my pack weight from around my --ummm---spare tire and junk in the trunk. Yeah. Lots of unnecessary junk, and difficult to secure.
 
I'm two kilos down and have decided to drop my pack weight from around my --ummm---spare tire and junk in the trunk. Yeah. Lots of unnecessary junk, and difficult to secure.
If you use a Fanny Pack you can easily secure the "junk in the trunk" :cool:
 
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Would that go for a bumbag too? I’m up for any way to trim the load back there
Bumbag or Fanny Pack, either will handle all the junk in the trunk.

A Waistpack, however, takes charge of the spare tire that might be flopping around on the front.

And, since the average shoe weighs about 1# or just under 1/2kg, and since you wear 2 shoes, you have a total of about 2# or 1kg on your feet. But we know that 1# on your feet is equal to nearly 6# on your back, so walking barefoot is the equivalent of shaving nearly 12# / 5.5kg from your pack weight. And if your pack actually weighs less than that then 12# / 5.5kg and you are walking barefoot then you are not actually carrying anything!
 
Bumbag or Fanny Pack, either will handle all the junk in the trunk.

A Waistpack, however, takes charge of the spare tire that might be flopping around on the front.

And, since the average shoe weighs about 1# or just under 1/2kg, and since you wear 2 shoes, you have a total of about 2# or 1kg on your feet. But we know that 1# on your feet is equal to nearly 6# on your back, so walking barefoot is the equivalent of shaving nearly 12# / 5.5kg from your pack weight. And if your pack actually weighs less than that then 12# / 5.5kg and you are walking barefoot then you are not actually carrying anything!
I salute you! Most excellent figuring!
 
A guide to speaking Spanish on the Camino - enrich your pilgrim experience.
You can also cut your toothbrush in half to shave a bit of weight. If you discard the half with the bristles on the end then you can also eliminate the need for toothpaste ... which eliminates even more weight :confused:

But don't you have to add water to reactivate it?
Only if you are thristy. Otherwise it is weightless water.
 
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Oh, and no need lug around those heavy international socket adapters with all their extra weight, just 're-purpose' your grooming kit after you clip your toenails. image.jpg
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Good suggestions, but I'm sure you are asking for trouble with No.3. How can you even think of changing something so nicely old fashioned, probably used centuries ago, with something more modern? The medieval pilgrims did use lanterns, so should we!
And No.6 is totally heartless, how could you....:(

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
 
A guide to speaking Spanish on the Camino - enrich your pilgrim experience.
Does anyone know where we keep the helium tanks?
We could be like the guy in "UP" and fly over the Pyrenees? ...... Oooops I guess that would be ?cheating? :p:eek:o_O
 
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