We're getting down to the wire here. I assembled most of my pack tonight. I wanted to actually pack it, but the new Therm-a-Rest is taking a lot longer than I expected to self inflate. The instructions say to let it self inflate when you first unwrap it, then let it sit inflated overnight before packing it up. So that's what I'm doing.
Food! This is breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 5 days. The first day's food is in the plastic bags to the right, separated into breakfast, lunch, & dinner. Those meals don't need to be in the bear canister, as they'll be eaten before we go to bed. Food: 10 Powerbar Gels (2 per day), 3 servings of banana nut oatmeal, 5 cytomax packets, 5 clif shot hot apple cider, 4 instant puddings, freeze dried blueberries, dehydrated apples, dehydrated apricots, 4 clif bars, 4 protein brownies, 1 Big 100 chocolate chip cookie dough bar, 2 Mountain House breakfasts, 5 Mountain House dinners (chicken with noodles, beef stew, beef stroganoff, teriyaki chicken, 2 instant cheese mashed potato mixes, 3 cup-a-soups, 2 miso soups, and one big bag of trail mix that will be divvied up into separate trail-food bags later.
Tuesday through Friday's food is in the bear canister. Mountain House dessert + breakfast, lunch, & dinner for Monday are outside the canister, as is the gel and trail mix.
Monday's food & trail mix packed in one bag alongside the bear canister.
Clothes! Monday through Friday's socks, base layers (wicking underwear & wicking long sleeve shirts), midweight synthetic thermal underwear (top & bottom), fleece pants, fleece jacket, waterproof/breathable pant shell, spare pant shell, spare underwear, & spare socks. Not pictured: waterproof/breathable jacket.
Toiletries & personal grooming: Toilet paper, trowel, camp soap, purell hand cleanser, toothbrush, toothpaste, waterproof/breathable jacket.
Personal stuff in a stuff sack + waterproof/breathable jacket.
Most of the essentials: sunscreen, medicated sunscreen lip balm, 2 LED headlamps, 1 LED lantern, waterproof matches, multitool, compass, iodine tablets, & hat.
Gore-Tex hiking boots, camp shoes, 2 3-liter hydration bladders, water filter, mug, daypack, spork, nalgene bottle, & extra stuff sack. Oh yeah, and my new Gorillapod SLR-ZOOM. That's the alien-looking black & white thing you see. It's a portable tripod that weights next to nothing and wraps around things like trees and rocks.
Mt. Whitney Zone trail map, First Aid kit, camp towel, disposable rain pancho, Ben Gay, ibuprofen, sudafed, & bug spray. I'll also be bringing a larger 24k trail map that I printed & had laminated. The first aid kit will likely be scrapped because we need a bigger one that will be shared among the three of us.
Gregory Palisade backpack & Marmot Sawtooth sleeping bag in its stuff sack.
A friend from work taught me this trick, the sleeping bag takes up about half its packed size if you squish it with your knee, then secure with a compression strap.
Not pictured were the Therm-a-Rest of course, spare batteries, and some reading material. This will be the longest trip I've been on; prior to this, I've only stayed overnight.
