What do I mean by that? Well let me explain.

I realized last night that much of my survival gear is based on my readings in books and online and purchased either impulsively or because I convinced myself I couldn't do without it (I'm VERY good at this). I also realized that this has led to my having a plehtora of stuff. Now for me I use all of this stuff when I camp or hike or at least try to so that I'm familiar with it and will know how to use it when the time comes that my life may depend on it. The desire to use all of it has led to a hiking pack which (in the rare case it's fully loaded) weighs 50-60 lbs. Had I been blending my 'this is nice to have' camping gear with hiking gear and with survival gear thinking of ALL of it as survival gear...as required? I think I may have been...my lust for gadgets and gear may be interfering with reality! The shock nearly killed me.

This led to my repacking my bags last night (for the zillionth time in the last 2 months). I realized that I don't need half of it to actually 'survive' or even to do many of the things I enjoy doing outdoors. Possibly much less than half. I started really thinking hard about each item before putting it back into my bag...I could commit to so few items that I ended up not packing anything.

I recalled the pyramid in the SAS Survival Guide. Of all the things needed for survival he puts 'kit' at the very tip...a tiny piece of the picture. I wondered just how many things I could do away with for the purpose of survival...which led me to wondering how much stuff I could do away with for hiking, camping, or for good. This became a very frustrating exercise and resulted in my dreaming of myself like Bear Grylls running wildly through the woods with nothing but a canteen a knife and a flint...and no clothes of course. I don't think it helped that I was watching Season 1 of Survivorman before going to bed and was able to see Les Stroud naked in at least one episode.

This morning my thoughts wandered to this topic again (as you can tell by this extremely verbose post) and I thought back to how I like to hike with as much gear as is practical so I know how to use it and realized that this was exactly the opposite of what I should be doing. Regardless if I realized it or not I was replacing equipment with skill. I should have been purposely taking only select items so I could practice doing without the luxury items (which, even if I couldn't admit it, is what they were).

Now I worry that I've caught the ultralight virus bug and that I really am going to be running around in the woods with very little equipment...taking things too far as it were. Concerned that when I get home I'm going to toss everything that won't fit in an 11 oz. backpack into the closet never to be seen again.

I've lost the fine balances I'd convinced myself I had!