I just got back from a two night backpack trip. You are so right about the too much food. It rained on my trip and for what little weight it adds rain gear should always be brought. The leader of the trip forgot his rain paints and his rain jacket crap out on him. This guy really knows his stuff so it really goes to show that even the most experienced can just brain fart at the last minuet and gear can fail unexpectedly (Murphy's law).
I got a fire started before it really started to poor. When the leader got to the fire he turned my small fire into and BIG warm fire. It took those who got wet over an hour to get dry.