I've got three different bags, depending on what I'm doing.

The first is a Camelbak Hydrobak:



It holds the following:

• ~1.5L of water
• two energy bars with a packet of peanut-butter
• a fox 40 micro whistle and BSA Hotspark on a quick-link
• A leatherman Freestyle
• A princeton tec Scout headlamp (with spare set batteries)
• A rain poncho
• moleskin
• a packet of tissues
• coffee filters
• katadyn mp1 tablets
• a large bandanna
• A mini roll of electrical tape

I use that for typical short hikes (~5 miles or less). I'm not sure what it weighs exactly, because it's too heavy for my postage scale and too light for my floor scale, but if I had to guess I would say it weighs around 5lbs. It's pretty effortless to hike with.


My next bag is a Camelbak Cloud Walker:



That's what I use on longer day hikes and light overnight trips. What I carry in it varies, but at it's heaviest it comes in right at 20lbs (and that's with 2.5L of water).

My last pack is an old Jansport internal frame pack. I'm not sure what the model is, and it's no longer made; but it's built a lot tougher than their modern stuff and it has served me well for a long time. I use that on longer hiking/camping trips.

With that said, the bag itself is heavy compared to more modern packs and it's starting to show its age. I'm probably going to start looking for a replacement soon.

That one the weight varies way too much for me to even ball park it. I know that, for one trip, where I was carrying a lot of weight in food, water, winter clothing, ammunition, ect it got to be well over 40lbs. Then I had a rifle strapped to the outside for another ~8lbs or so. At that point I was seriously thinking about hiring a pack mule or something.