Devils Loop Equipment

Tent – we took a two man, three season tent, (a North Face Bullfrog) that weighs about four pounds. It kept us dry. I carried it.
Space blanket – Will carried this to protect the floor of the tent – I carried it after the first day.
Sleeping bags – I carried a synthetic fill sleeping bag and Will had a down bag. They were each stuffed into a Lowe attack nylon summit pack that doubles as a compression bag. (When we climbed to the Crater Mountain lookout Will got a bottle of bug juice down in the padding of his bag. We didn’t find it until the DEET had disolved a hole in the foam and leaked through the nylon making a fine mess.)
Thermarests – we each carried a 3/4 length thin thermarest.
Pot & stove – I carried a little MSR butane stove inside of a set of nesting titanium pots. The whole setup, including matches, base and repair kit, weighs a pound and a half.
Gas – I carried four cartridges of MSR isobutane fuel. We used tthree cartridges and weren’t trying to conserve. (We made tea over and over as we sat and looked at the rain…)
Cups, bowls & spoons – We each had a plastic bowl, a plastic spoon and one of those thermal cups you get at gas stations. We also had a plastic fork that remained in Will’s pack from an overnight school field trip to Vancouver Island.
Water bottles – I carried one 1 liter nalgene bottle and two 1/2 liter bottles. Will carried a 2 liter camelback bladder in a little neoprene bacpack. Except for the first day when he put a liter into it (and the second day when it was all he carried up Crater Mountain) we left Will’s camelback empty.
Maps & compasses we each had a compass. I had the six green trails maps required to show the whole route. Art cut the pages out of his hike book so that we had a route description.
Tooth brushes & toothpaste – we brushed every night – except when it rained.
Cameras & film – Will carried a Minolta Maxxum 35 mm autofocus camara and a Sony Mavica digital. He had three roles of B&W 100 film and half-a-dozen floppies. I carried my old Nikon FM with the 50-75 zoom, and three rolls of B&W 100 film. I tormented Will all trip by trying to take his picture, but I didn’t know how to work the digital camera so none of the shots I took with that camera were saved.
Books – I carried a hardcover book on Linux and open-source software by Glyn Moody which I read out loud to Will in the tent. He carried a book by Neil Gaiman about Douglas Adams to read when it wasn’t raining.
First aid kit – I carried my usual backpacking first aid kit. As we started down stuff on the second day my knee started to hurt and I began popping Advil.
Sun block, sun glasses – Will had a pair of Cebe glacier glasses and an oversized tube of banana boat. I had a pair of glacier glasses, a tube of bananna boat and a bottle of bug-sun. Except for the first and last days we never needed them.
Bug nets & juice – We each carried head nets and bottles of bug juice. We didn’t encounter any bugs, but when we got home we both found our legs covered with mosquito bites.
Toilet paper & trowel – carried by Will.
Matches & candles – we each carried a little container full of matches and a candle as a fire starter. We burned Will’s candle in the shelter. I also had two containers of matches in the stove. We had scraps of sandpaper in each container to strike the matches on. We used all of the matches in one of the stove containers and half of the matches in the other one because the rain made everything so damp. Before the next trip like this I’m going to invest in a lighter.
Headlamps and extra batteries – Will had a micro headlamp with two extra AA batteries. I had my regular Petzel headlamp with that big flat extra battery.
Knives – we each carried a knife but I made Will pack his where we could get to it for the lunch sausage.
Garbage bags – before we left I stuck in half a dozen of those big black bags because they didn’t weigh anything. We used them – I put one over our packs every night and I put one down as a floor to the vestibule. We also ended up using one each to hold our dirty clothing. We gave a couple to Art and Arthur, but it wasn’t big enough for Arts’ pack.
Extra socks – I took three pairs besides what I was wearing. Will also had three but his were cotton atheletic socks. He complained that his feet hurt. His mom thinks his feet grew two sizes between the time we bought the boots in June and the time we took the trip in August.
Extra shirts – I carried tthree white zip-T polypro shirts. Will had several T shirts. He didn’t use his extras but I used mine.
Fleece pants – I took an old pair of expedition weight tights. Will carried a pair of fleece pants. He also carried a pair of long cotton pants with zip-off legs that were several sizes too big and a pair of swimming trunks. He wore all of them, sometimes simultaneously
Fleece jackets, gloves & hats we each had our polar fleece and were glad of it.
Parkas & rain pants – we each had a Patagonia parka and a pair of rain pants. We only used the pants one day, but we were glad we had them.
Sandals – We each carried a pair of Tevas. Miscellaneous – I also carried a big stuff sack for hanging food, a length of accessory cord, a leatherman tool, and a couple of spare straps. Will had some cord and a pair of small binoculars.

Food (which I carried):

  • twenty tea bags
  • twenty cocoa packets
  • sixteen instant oatmeal packets
  • two containers of Whole Foods rice crackers and a pound of almonds
  • 2 summer sausages
  • a bag of twelve flour tortillas
  • fourteen individually packaged string cheese fingers
  • eight pouches of freeze-dry – four of which were the 40 ounce size
  • six "soup in a cup", repackaged into ziplock sandwich bags.
  • sixteen Mars bars and sixteen bags of Skittles.

  The total food weight was about twenty-five pounds for two people for eight days. Will’s pack weighed about twenty five pounds, including his water bag. Mine weighed about seventy-five pounds at the start but I was down under fifty by the end!