If I remember correctly Nessmuk's gear weighed 26 lbs including his 18lb. canoe. He was a frail 110lb. man and wasn't capable of carrying much...I guess necessity was the mother of invention in that case. I hear everything he carried was custom made to be smaller than usual and light...not unlike some people in modern times though the motivation for doing so seems to have shifted.

I've been watching the Ray Mears episodes somebody posted in another link. Last night I watched the episode where he makes a birch bark canoe. They build the whole thing in 7 days and use little more than an axe, a crooked knife, and an awl.