LOL
As for seeing what works and what you need, you are very correct. I took a camping buddy on a adventure. We started with full packs with rifles and side arms. The first leg was a steep 1.3 mile incline. By the first mile he was begging to stop and rest.

2nd leg amounted to going up an incline that we had to take our knives to sink in and help pull ourselves up. There was no going around this obstacle. We were making our back trail as miserable as possible to attempt to follow. It also let us view our back trail from distance.

We had a war load out including an additional 500 rds. of rifle ammo and 100 rds. of pistol ammo in our packs not including the 7 rifle mags each. Food, water and shelter for Friday-Sunday evening.

After the little trip was over. My friend scrapped out about 40% of his junk that he was humping. Trimmed he gear to what he really needed and what worked and what he could comfortably carry on his back. LOL BTW some of the terrain required us to drop our packs and it took the 2 of us working together to get them up the inclines 1 pack at a time. I was younger then but I still remember the pain! LOL

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