It even has a rain cover built in, which is great when I’m riding my bicycle across town on a rainy day. Determining when and where water will be available is part of route planning. Monitoring rain in the area you’re going to hike and contacting locals can help you determine if smaller creeks might act as water sources. Last ozark trail backpack fall when hiking dry sections of the Ouachita Trail, we planted water caches for insurance, but this involved driving to pick up empty jugs after the trip. With the added height of an inflatable pillow and sleeping pad my head height was indeed close to the curvature of the tent ceiling but there was still enough room.
When you do have to answer the call of the wild, make sure to stay at least 100 yards away from a water source and bury any solid waste at least 6 inches deep. Trailspace’s community of gear reviewers has field-tested and rated the top daypacks. I’ve had this pack for 2 years and I’ve beaten the living daylights out of it and it still performs just as well as the day I bought it. I don’t make it a habit of buying my gear from Walmart, but this was a excellent purchase. I use this pack on a daily basis to carry my office clothes while I ride my bike to work and to carry light loads while out Geocaching. I priced other internal frame daypacks before my trip and this was by far the cheapest.
No need for a tube of foot cream or sunscreen, so I estimate what might be needed and pack that amount. As you can see from the photo, I still had foot cream, sunscreen, first aid cream, and Dawn Soap at the end of eight days. The floss is for size reference, but I’m looking for smaller floss containers. I despise plastic floss picks when I see them in the woods. Whatever you use should be placed in your trash bag and carried out. I use an empty coffee bag for trash because it’s light and can be folded down to the size needed.
Here the 30-mile Current River section picks up, following the river for two miles before veering south toward Stegall Mountain. Enjoy views of the Ozark landscape as you gain 500 feet of elevation up 2.5 miles to the top of Stegall Mountain. Camp out at the top overnight, catching a glimpse of a full sky of stars if it’s clear.
Backpacking Light community posts are moderated and here to foster helpful and positive discussions about lightweight backpacking. Please be mindful of our values and boundaries and review our Community Guidelines prior to posting. Overall, it could have been roomier, but the weight savings were attractive to me with only one spar instead of two. Furthermore, I didn’t plan on being in the tent other than during the nights, so a roomier but heavier 1-person tent wasn’t desirable.
My only knock on it would be the lack of a small water bottle pocket. All told, I’ve had the pack on my back for about 50 miles. Keeping the load under 15 pounds seems to be the key. I really wanted to use it for our fall two-nighter on the AT, but was unable to fit my bivy with a 20 degree Kelty Cosmic down bag inside.
I took this pack on a 5-day mountain bike ride from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Washington, D.C., and it performed very well. Spend some time at the base of Mina Sauk Falls, beautiful ozark trail chair even when water flow is subdued. Imagine Mina Sauk of the Sauk-ton-qua tribe leaping to her death over these falls, enraged over the unfair death of her Osage warrior love.