For going light and still having plenty of room, the REI Quarter Dome tents are a good choice.

Normally, I’m not a fanatic for lightweight backpacking. I don’t mind carrying a few extra pounds to achieve more comfort. But, to the horror of my sweetheart Marilyn, I just went  on an overnight backpacking trip with a collarbone that was still tender from being broken four weeks previously. I didn’t even bother to try to get my doctor’s OK.

The original plan was for my buddy David to carry most of  the weight. Then, two nights before we were supposed to go, David broke two toes playing with his dogs in the living room. A word to the wise: Go outside to play with your dogs!

We could have canceled, of course. But we aren’t that smart. So we began paring down our gear to see how light we could go in comfort–always a series of calculated tradeoffs. Our gear has generally been selected for comfort, function, and durability at reasonable cost, not for lightest weight

I can’t put a lot of weight on my left shoulder yet, so I tried on every backpack I own and the most comfortable was my trusty Gregory Z-65 (www.gregorypacks.com), which weighs 4 lbs 3 oz. and is just large enough  to hold everything I need for a light overnight/weekend. David, who is a pack mule even with broken toes, borrowed my Osprey Argon 110 (www.ospreypacks.com), which, despite it’s huge capacity is lighter (6 lbs. 5 oz.) and more comfortable than any pack he owns..

For tents (more necessary for insect protection than shelter from the weather), I picked an REI (www.rei.com) Quarterdome T1 solo tent (2 lbs. 12 oz.), while David used the roomier Quarterdome T-2 (3-12). We could have shared the T2, but we both like privacy.

My Coleman (www.Coleman.com) Klickitat 40-degree synthetic sleeping bag and Insulmat (www.pacoutdoor.com) ¾ -length pad weigh less than 3 lbs., total.  David’s Mountain Hardwear (www.mountainhardwear.com) Phantom 32 Down sleeping bag and Insulmat pad are even lighter. Two Crazy Creek Hexalite chairs (15 oz. each) added tons of comfort.

Going light doesn’t necessarily mean eating badly. A lightweight stove, two pots and, maybe, a frypan, make an adequate kitchen for an overnight

For cooking, we took a Coleman  Exponent  (25.4 oz with fuel), an MSR (www.cascadedesigns.com) Titan (titanium) 2-pot set and a small aluminum frypan from a discount store. Because our campsite is dry we carried a 6-liter MSR Dromedary (8.7 oz) to fill from the nearest spring in addition to Nalgene bottles.  For illumination, we each had a PrincetonTec Fuel headlamp (2.8 oz).

There are always incidentals: personal hygiene kit, bug repellent, , a rain jacket and pants. Those probably added up to 3 lbs.  Food weighed about 7 lbs. for snacks, dinner (steaks and whole-wheat cous-cous) and breakfast (eggbeaters, bacon bits, and cheese) —no freeze-dried for us! Our biggest splurge was some good wine (in a Platypus wine bag) and my neoprene cribbage board (I won, for a change)

I don’t think David could have done this trip without good boots. He uses Cresta hikers from LL Bean (www.llbean.com) which have a wide toe box and fairly stiff soles to provide his broken toes the support they needed.  With my light pack, I got away with lightweight boots from Merrell (www.merrell.com/us). We both also used hiking sticks (mine from REI, his from LL Bean) to avoid stumbles.

Even with some of the food, my pack weighed just about 20 lbs., and I carried it comfortably. David’s was about 30. We could have gone even lighter, but what we chose was comfortable and bearable, even with only three good shoulders and 18 unbroken toes between the two of us.

Life isn’t a spectator sport. Get out and enjoy! (We sure did!)

On the mend from a broken collarbone, the author found he could still carry 20 pounds in his trusty Gregory Z-65 backpack in reasonable comfort. The escape was worth it.

WALKING WOUNDED

Anyone who had seen us wince as we shouldered our packs and started walking might have wondered at our sanity. But I’ll tell you, the experience was well worth the brief moments of discomfort. Putting 25 pounds on your back and walking away from civilization for a day and a night is pure joy.

We got to spend the day away from our respective offices, enjoyed an afternoon siesta on sun-warmed moss, awoke feeling completely relaxed. We ate well, spent  our evening watching the sunset, the moon rise, and the mesmerizing flare of a small campfire.

When I occasionally woke in the night, instead of the glow of an alarm clock, I could see thousands of stars twinkling through the  mesh of the tent (it was so warm and dry neither of us put the rainfly on our tents.

We awoke in the morning to the sounds of ravens croaking in the trees above our heads. Frankly, it was pure bliss.

It was also a healing experience.

I’ve been going to physical therapy for my shoulder. It has helped me recover. But I honestly think I made more progress on this easy overnight than I had in several PT sessions. Partly it’s because I had reached the point of healing where simply using my shoulder naturally began to make a big difference. David noted that his toes hurt less on the walk out than they had on the walk in.

Life is beset with various aches and pains. Some can’t be overcome easily, but the ones that can be ignored shouldn’t keep you from getting outdoors and having fun.

Some options for safe drinking water: (from left) A reusable water bottle, hydration pack with water bladder and drinking hose, a water bladder, water bottle with built-in filter, and a pump filtration system (Tim Jones photo).

“Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.”

When Coleridge wrote this usually-misquoted line in his The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1798, he was talking about a ship adrift on the sea. But he might as well have been have been speaking to active outdoors people afield here in New England.

Clean drinking water is an absolute necessity when you’re active outdoors. Unfortunately,  places where you can just drink the water are a rarity.

Water-borne baddies like Giardia and Crytosporidium and various bacteria including E-coli hadn’t even been discovered in 1798. People just drank water. Those with healthy immune systems stayed healthy, others got sick and sometimes died. Today we not only have a greater understanding of how you can get sick from drinking unclean water, we also have better means than ever of dealing with the threat.

Once you wander away from the water tap, you have two strategies for supplying clean water for drinking, cooking and clean-up: Pack it in, or treat a local source.

The main problem with bringing what you need is that water is very heavy — 8.3 pounds a gallon. And you can and should drink a lot when you’re outdoors.

A filter bottle lets you drink safely from most wilderness streams (Marilyn Donnelly photo)

Staying fully hydrated helps prevent heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Drinking lots of water is the first item on any list of how to stay cool in the heat of summer. It may even help prevent accidents. I don’t have any hard evidence to support this, but I also believe that dehydration can lead to fuzzy thinking. I’ve often wondered how many outdoor incidents — hikers getting lost or hurt, bikers taking falls, happened because the hiker or biker was dehydrated and not thinking clearly.

In colder weather, dehydration can be deadly. Cold air dehydrates you quickly. and dehydration makes it difficult for your body to stay warm. Try taking a drink of water the next time you find yourself shivering. That’s often all you need to warm up.

Packing your own water is the primary strategy for most one-day adventures and even overnight camping with uncertain water sources. Many springs and small brooks simply dry up during prime camping season in the late summer and fall.

How much water do you need? I’ll commonly carry two liters on a short hike, four liters for a full day and six to eight liters for an overnight. Four liters is just under a gallon so the weight adds up quickly. Eight liters of water weighs more than my tent, sleeping bag, pads, stove and cook kit for a summer overnight. I find the new hydration systems which use a lightweight bladder and a drinking tube much more efficient and convenient than water bottles.

If there are reliable springs, streams and ponds on your route, carrying lots of water it isn’t necessary. On longer hikes, hauling all the water you need isn’t an option. Lightweight filtration systems, available at any camping shop, easily clean enough water for personal use. Some will deliver enough clean water for a small group. Just be sure to replace the filter units as often as the manufacturer recommends. A clogged filter can prevent any water getting through and leave you very thirsty .

Water options

Packing water used to be much harder when the only available vessels were glass bottles, metal canteens, and rubber water bags. Today, we have a host of options.

A lot of outdoor folks use the plastic bottles that you buy water in at the supermarket. These are lightweight, cheap, and available everywhere. However, there have been some questions raised about the safety of re-using them. And some idiots apparently think that, because they are disposable, they can be thrown away along the trail.

Reusable bottles are sturdier, easier to keep clean, and have tops that don’t get lost. The wide-mouth bottles from Nalgene are pretty much the gold standard.

Hydration systems come as a hydration pack or as a bladder-and-drinking-tube combo that can ride in a standard pack. Check out Platypus), Hydrapak, Camelbak, Mountainsmith and Nalgene for examples. The bladders alone or in a cloth protective sleeve make great storage containers for the trail.

Several companies make filtration systems for outdoor use. Filters are generally quicker and more convenient for purifying water than chemical treatments, which often take a long time to work and taste bad.

McNett makes a filter straw called the Frontier, which lets you sip directly from an untreated water source. It is described by the company as an emergency filter.

I frequently carry a Katadyn water bottle with a built-in filter system as a backup on day hikes. I can drink from it or use it to re-fill a water bladder. For overnight or longer trips, I use their Hiker pump filter, which handles a lot of water fast.

First Need also makes portable water purifiers.