January 17th - Making My Backpack Lighter

I was sitting in a shelter with some other thru hikers and we were talking about how we do everything we can to lighten our packs. I even broke the stem off my toothbrush so I have a little less weight on my toothbrush. I hike most of time without a sleeping back and just carry warm clothes instead. I don't carry a tent. I do everything I can to me as light as possible. I think my pack weighs eighteen to twenty pounds and that's with two or three days of food and water. I am boasting to everybody that I have the lightest pack. Then, one of the hikers whose trail name is Morpheus looks over and says, "I have heard of thru hikers who have done the most outrageous things to lighten up their load. But, I have never heard of one that cut off his finger to be lighter." We all laughed about that.

- Jacques d'Amboise