Wanted to share what gear I collected for my first backpacking trip (just an overnight but planning for longer ones).

I realized I spent a fair bit, as I plan to make this a regular thing and wanted to have decent stuff so we (GF and I) can just “up and go” any weekend or off time we want. Considering it an investment and instead of say a 1 week trip with hotels, I’ve got many many trips we can enjoy almost for free from this. Of course this can be done cheaper, or way crazier but this is just my experience buying things I researched heavily and felt confident in and that did prove to work and perform as expected.

Let’s break it down. Items and costs. I had some things already so those costs aren’t included. This includes some essentials and a few clothing items I actually do need in the back country.

$290 pack: Osprey Atmos 65 LT $169 sleeping bag: Marmot Trestles elite 20 $169 sleeping pad: REI Helix $160 tent: Kelty Late Start 2P $80 rain jacket: Columbia $50 freeze dried food and trail snacks etc $40 water filter: sawyer squeeze $40 bear spray: Frontiersman $30 coffee maker: Stanley 32oz French press $20 head lamp: Petzl Actic $20 compass $15 dry stuff sack $10 spork $0 MSR stove and fuel cans (already had) $0 good knife (already had) $0 hydration bladder and bottles (already had) $0 snow peak titanium cook set (already had) $0 flash light stream light already (had) $0 shoes La Sportiva Karacals (already had) $0 basic med kit (already had) $0 bug spray (already had) $0 sunglasses, hat, gloves, appropriate clothes, wool socks etc (had) $0 trekking poles REI (had) $0 basic hygiene kit and poop kit (had)

Total spent $1,093.

If I didn’t have any items to start with, it would have come out to closer to $1,700 My gross pack weight came in at 26lbs including a total of 2.5L of water (location had abundant nearby) and 2 days of food for 2 people. Includes bag itself obviously.

This also doesn’t account what we spent for my GF (she carries less but still has basics bag, pack, pad etc).

We had a great time on our first trip last week and are definitely looking forward to more!