Is there an easy way to get water from the Camelbak to the cup? Seems that pouring from the opening in the Camelbak might waste water, removing the bite valve might cause it to losed in the tube. What do you do???

You can pinch the bite valve with your fingers and squeeze the bladder and you can get it to flow.

My (day)hiking / hunting/scouting, bag is around 5 lbs, with out water.
I scaled down my pack a couple years ago, because I realized I was either going to have some stuff I needed, or nothing, because it was to dang heavy to drag around.
I am down to this:
Cammenga compass - wrist band, tritium markers

GPS - Garmin 60CSX

Wistle

Knife - Buck Crosslock with Drop point & saw blade. (5oz)

Bic lighter, fire source 1

Sweedish Firesteal - Flint, fire source 2

Match case - (fire tender inside) with dryer lint, 3/4 of a esbit tab, fishing line and 3 small hooks, and (out side) a couple feet of duct tape wrapped around it.

1 small snow Peak Titanium Bowl - water procurment & boil

Bandana

1 AMK heat sheet

1/4 roll of toilet paper

25 ft of para cord

Medicine - (3each) - Nexium, Immodium AD, Benedryl, Vicoden, & Chapstick

2 AA bateries - for GPS


Thats it!

(note no first aid kit, I make due with the drugs, Bandana, tolit paper, & Duct Tape)


Things I might add depending on the trip distance:
Food, energy bars, snickers
First Aid kit
Multi Tool
folding saw (this goes in the bag 75% of the time anyway)
Firearm - revolver
Emergency Bivy
Water Filter - Katadyn guide

As a rule though, I like to go as light as possible.

That's a very good point. Things definately weigh more after a few days without food. The usual problem is most people lack the skills needed to travel light, so they fall back on gear. If you look at someone like Nessmuck or the Alps Iceman you'll see people that would travel long distances through the wilds with little more than a blanket, knife and fire kit.

The problem is we can't predict the future. If I thought the only risk I faced was getting lost then the blanket/knife/fire would be all I'd bring. However, if I then break a leg I'd probably be screwed. So I pack a few things for that possibility. Then I think of a few more dangers and more gear is added. Soon I was ending up with the 30lb day hike pack, which, quite frankly here in Texas is silly. I've pared it down to my survival kit which I've posted in the past, some water bottles, and a first aid kit. I want to enjoy the freedom of the woods without a hospital/military surplus store on my back.

-Blast, just rambling

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.

Hi Raydarkhorse,

Can you share with us with do you carry with you and in your 20 lbs pack?

Thanks.

I'll have to get it out for a full inventory, I'll try to get it out in the next couple of days

In a perfect scenario we all should be able to go out with just our survival kits and live, but mtnlvr68 was talking about the entire pack not just the survival kit in it.

I agree with raydarkhorse. If we were perfect we would all be sitting under a waterproof shelter built from only natural materials and cooking fresh trout over a fire with only a pocket knife and a book of paper matches in hand. However that is not the case and we all supplement our basic survival kits with items we each feel will benefit us best in a survival scenario. For example: I am terrible at starting a fire with a bow and drill or plow method so I carry more fire starting ability than a guy who is good at it.
As far as luxury items I was referring to things like; A gortex bivy sack instead of a plastic garbage bag. A 123v flashlight instead of a photon micro or chem lite. A snow peak titanium cup is definatley a luxury item compared to a sheet of tin foil when it comes to boiling water. IMHO...

I've lost track of SERE graduates who think they are defacto experts on survival. They are experts in some aspects of survival, but mostly moving very fast and unobserved away from bad guys. How many of us are going to run from Colonel Saito with Creedence Clearwater Revival singing 'RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE?'My #1 don't leave home without it survival item is my Wiggy bag.If I ever do manage to get in a wreck, I am NOT building Fort Zinderhoff with my knife,spearing, snaring or shooting Bart the Bear or dancing nekkid like Robin Williams in THE FISHER KING, er Tom Hanks in CASTAWAY building fire like some rite of boy to man passage initiate.No Sir, I am going to curl up in my warm bag, chew on some fruitcake by the fire and blow my whistle and work my mirror.If that doesn't work, I'll initiate plan B and go walkabout as recorded by A.B. Banjo Patterson in his poem turned national Anthem of OZ.I don't care what Nessmuck did or how light a pack can be made.This is survival, not some Zen pursuit of non attachment and Muir Minimalism.Being slave to an arbitrary wieght in the literature is just as burdonsome as a truly to heavy pack.