Overnight hikes

[Tzetsin]

I've been preparing to do some overnight hiking for photographic purposes. I was curious to see if anyone else does this, and what kind of gear they bring?

This has been a huge thing for me to wrap my head around as I obviously cant carry all that much weight. I'd say about 40 pounds would be as much as i could comfortably hike a couple miles in.

the issue starts up when i start packing my photo gear. If i actually took everything i wanted on the hike, there would be no weight left for survival gear.

I usually hike with 2 gripped cameras with a wide and long lens on, a tripod, and 3 lenses in the bag with filters. All told, the gear I would guess at 25-30 pounds.

I haven't weighed it all though.

Now with overnight hiking i have to bring a sleeping bag/tent/water/food/shotgun/rounds ect my weight skyrockets and becomes unmanageable.

Anyone have some advice for managing this?

Anyone have some advice on the kind of gear I'll "really" be needing?

[dlambert]

For an overnight trip, you don't need a whole lot of gear. Depending on the weather, you'll need an article or two of clothing, and maybe wet-weather gear. A lightweight tent should run about 3 lbs, and a sleeping bag another 3 lbs. or so. I'd bring a sleeping pad (thermarest, etc.), both for the insulation and the support (my back's not as young as it used to be). You'll need a knife and camp saw or hatchet, and a firestarter of some sort. Get a headlamp rather than a big flashlight, and be sure to pack a small personal first aid kit. If you want to cook, you'll need a camp stove, but for an overnight trip, you may consider just bringing food you can eat without cooking.

All-in, fifteen lbs for an overnight trip is doable, but it'll take some practice. I'd suggest erring on the side of more camping equipment (extra water, for instance) and less photography equipment until you know what you're going to need and what you can make do without.

As for the shotgun, I think you're better off having someone along with you if you can manage it. A shotgun won't walk out for help if you bust your leg, after all. As a bonus, you can split equipment across two people (tent, cooking gear, etc.), as there will be some stuff you don't need two of.

[Doug Sundseth]

Photography is all about tradeoffs. So is backpacking.

I'd recommend a single body and either one or two lenses. My choice for lenses is a wide-range zoom (18-200) and a fast prime (35mm for my crop sensor body). You lose some IQ and your options are more limited, but the weight is manageable. If you really need a second body, consider a high-end P&S like the Canon G12 or the Nikon P7100 (they're better than you might think). If you need artificial light, decide how many options you really need, not what you really want.

Think of the limitations as a spur to your creativity and a chance to practice technique.

As far as backpacking gear, David Lambert has given you some good suggestions. I'd be a bit more conservative with warmth, food, and water, but I shoot in the mountain west, so all of those are perhaps harder to come by for me. (Plus, I'm a wimp. )

[Jonbar18]

You have to be a lot more conservative on photography gear. First off ditch the grips. Extra batteries are much lighter and smaller, and even then unlikely you will need them for an overnight trip. As for the lenses, you should be fine with two, three max. A wide, a long, and 1 of what im assuming are 3 primes is more than enough. That's already a good few pounds off. If you need more, ditch the third lens, and replace one of the bodies with a P&S backup. Focus on what's important, which is the survival stuff.

[Tzetsin]

What an adventure

I decided to do a practice run yesterday. Loaded up all the gear thought I'd need threw it on my back, hiked about 2 km, 1km out and 1km back at my parents farm, Broke down the pack set up the tent / sleeping gear stowed the gear away and went to bed.

I didnt take any pictures, even though i had all my gear. It was all about seeing what i could do with everything i wanted.

I had about 80 pounds of gear. I made the hike, but REALLY didnt want to do anything by the time i finished lol

Gear I had on me:

1 70L backpack
1 small cooler that fits into the pack
2 cans of soup
1 small camera bag
1 8-15mm fisheye
1 100mm macro
1 50mm prime
1 2x tele converter
1 kenko extention tubes
1 cactus remote trigger reciever
1 cactus remote trigger transmitter
1 430exii flash
1 70-200mm zoom
1 24-70mm zoom
1 16-35mm zoom
1 gripped 60D (2 batteries)
1 gripped 5D (2 batteries)
1 tripod and head
1 filter wallet with 3 filters inside
1 remote shutter release
1 sleeping bag
1 pillow
1 tent
1 machette
2 tactical knives
1 shotgun (no rounds)
1 Can of bear spray
1 extra pair of coveralls
1 3L camel back of water (Full)
1 pair of dunlop rubber boots
1 pair of coveralls
1 pair of socks
1 sweater
1 helly hanson inner jacket
1 cotton jacket with hood
1 pair of gloves
1 cell phone

The weather was a balmy -10 with 5 inches of snow on the ground.

All in all, the pack was definitely too heavy. you guys are right, too much photo gear... i REALLY hate giving anything up though. Almost every piece has a purpose and believe it or not, I dont have any pieces that dont get used regularly. I could probably pull out the flash, triggers, extention tubes, 50mm and the 24-70. And as you said, take the grips off. That will probably save about 10 pounds.

Either way though, i need to shave about 10 - 20 more pounds before its really feasable.... or start going to the gym so i can handle more weight lol.

As for warmth, I was definetly warm enough, though I wouldnt want to be out there any colder than that with the gear I have. I dont intend on doing any winter hikes anyway, Just getting ready for spring.

Having a second hiker with me is absolutely prefurable, however.... there is not even ONE friend or acquaintance in my list of friends and acquaintances that would come with me on an over night hike. Top that off with most of my hiking is done while working in the field, so I really need to be self sufficient, and work as safely as I can.

[dlambert]

You can cut down some of that camping gear a bit, and keep practicing with a pack -- only work your way up from 30 lbs or so rather than jumping in the deep end of the pool. Every time I've gone backpacking, I lead up to it with some prep hikes to get in shape carrying the sort of load I anticipate.

You've got to lose the cooler and the pillow (use clothes you're not wearing). Cut down to one knife, and I'd be very tempted to leave the rubber boots behind. Leave one of the camera bodies behind, and bring a PFAK and firestarter instead.

And as for the shotgun, I'm not sure where you're camping, but if you're seriously in the middle of bear country, you'd be way better served (a) bringing a buddy, and (b) bringing a bear bag for your food and learning proper camping techniques for bear country. I'm not sure exactly how thick the bears are up in the Toronto part of Canada, for instance, but I canoed for ten days w/ a bunch of Scouts and we were good with just hanging food a good long way from camp. Next summer, we're going out to NM to hike for ten days, and the same sort of precautions apply -- but no firearms. Try reading this column for more info on bear habits: Backpacker Blogs

[Tzetsin]

Ditch the pillow?!?!?! ludicrous lol. Thats insanity... i couldnt live without my pillooooooww...

The shotgun is required where I end up. Even if i had 1 or 4 other people to hike with, I'd still take the shotgun. The areas i frequent are northern and western alberta / bc. I'm not always a long way from civilisation, but often enough. and when i'm not, that would be pretty subjective because I'm almost always at least an hour, to 4 hours drive from any town.

As I'd mentioned, I'd love to have someone come along with me, to carry some crap, or even just for the company, but who? There really arnt that many people willing to do this kind of thing anymore, and fewer still work where I do.

An the rubber boots.... they're rubber boots, but not the way most people think rubber boots.

They've got an extremely aggressive tread, ankle support to rival most downhill ski boots, and are rated to -50C (no joke) while being perfectly comfortable at 30C. I have a pair of marrel hiking boots, and I'd take the rubber boots over those any day. The only thing they dont have is style lol they look like they are... big rubber boots.

Thank you for the link, I'm going to read up on all things backpacking.

[Doug Sundseth]

See, what you really need is a Sherpa or two. Jeeves, find this man two Sherpas!

[OutdoorCanvas]

Originally Posted by Tzetsin

I had about 80 pounds of gear.

1 70L backpack
1 small cooler that fits into the pack
2 cans of soup
1 small camera bag
1 8-15mm fisheye
1 100mm macro
1 50mm prime
1 2x tele converter
1 kenko extention tubes
1 cactus remote trigger reciever
1 cactus remote trigger transmitter
1 430exii flash
1 70-200mm zoom
1 24-70mm zoom
1 16-35mm zoom
1 gripped 60D (2 batteries)
1 gripped 5D (2 batteries)
1 tripod and head
1 filter wallet with 3 filters inside
1 remote shutter release
1 sleeping bag
1 pillow
1 tent
1 machette
2 tactical knives
1 shotgun (no rounds)
1 Can of bear spray
1 extra pair of coveralls
1 3L camel back of water (Full)
1 pair of dunlop rubber boots
1 pair of coveralls
1 pair of socks
1 sweater
1 helly hanson inner jacket
1 cotton jacket with hood
1 pair of gloves
1 cell phone

JUDAS PRIEST!!!!

Dude you need to put it in Bear Grylls mode and just hike in your skivveys and eat the remains of dead animal's for food and make a lean-to shelter out of moss & tree branches and take a cheap disposable waterproof camera. Can do all that with about 6lbs of gear. LOL

No "Photograph" is worth backpacking 80lbs of gear for. Sorry. Tell the chiropractor we all said hello.

[AdrenoJunkie]

The first question you should be askin yourself is ' what am I gonna be photographing?' I do photography backpacking and I can tell you there is absolutely no need in the world for all that gear. Unless you plan on doing landscape, macro and wildlife all in the same trip then you can really cut down on lenses. Each of those things uses a different lens so you could plan a trip for one particular subject and just bring the lens for that. Do you really need two bodies? Unless this is a paid assignment for NatGeo I don't see any reason to have two bodies. If one craps out, oh well try again next time and just enjoy the trip. What is the flash for? I promise you you can live without that. What kind of camping gear are you using? Is it backpacking gear or car camping gear from Walmart? There is a huge weight difference between backpacking gear and car camping gear. If this is something you wanna get into regularly then invest in some backpacking gear. I can recommend some sites if you like. You can trim weight by choosing different food. 2 cans of soup is heavy, you could take 2 packs of Ramen or Cup o Noodles for half the weight of one can of soup. Why in the world are you taking a cooler??? That's definitely unnecessary. I don't know what kind of bears you're dealing with but if it's black bears then see if you can get ahold of a .44 instead of lugging a shotgun. A .44 will bring down a black bear, but I don't know about a grizzly. Really the two main considerations you need to make before you start packing is 1) Do I really need to be prepared for every possible photographic opportunity or contingency or can I just focus one one thing? If you can focus on just one thing then pack only the gear that relates to that particular subject and forget the rest. You can always come back. 2) Is it more important to be comfortable on the trail or in camp? If you're willing to sacrifice some camp comfort then you can trim more weight by doing things like what someone else suggested and use clothes in a stuff sack for a pillow and ditch the actual pillow. And ditch all the machetes and knives. One pocket knife is all you need unless you plan on building a shelter or living off the land. I've backpacked for 4 days and the only clothes I changed was my socks. Theres really no need for extra clothes. I started out lugging 50+ lb packs and now I can go overnight at 20-30lbs (depending on if I have to bring water or if I can get it along the way) and several days for 35-40lbs. Part of that is because I invested in good backpacking gear and part is because I don't try to photograph every possible thing on each trip. If you want more backpacking gear advice PM me and I'd be happy to help you out as much as I can or at least point you in the right direction.