There are several techniques to find out how heavy your backpack is before a trek. The most common method is to stand on a scale with and without the pack on. The differences between the two numbers is the weight of the pack. There is another way. For years my dad keep looking in stores at fishing scales. The problem was none of them handled more then like 40 pounds. Eventually when in San Diego I found scales that went up to 120+ pounds. I came to realize that these scales were for sea fishing. As you can see in this picture, the scale has a loop across the top of it. All we do is slide a hiking stick through this ring and then put the stick between two shoulders, two cars, rafters of a building, or what ever was available. Now hang the pack off of the hook and you get the packs weight.
Once you know the packs weight, decided if it is more then a third of your body weight. If it is you should reduce its weight. But that is a discussion for another post....
Add CommentsNew comments will not show up until they have been manually approved, do to problems with spam. Weighing My Backpack @jjlash on 08/31/2010 I recently purchase a digital luggage scale for just this purpose. Only goes up to 100 lbs, but that is more than enough for me :-) Weighing My Backpack @Joseph Durnal on 09/05/2010 I don't want to know what my pack weighs ;) I know I always over do it! It really only hurt me once though, too bad that was at Philmont and kept me off Baldy (still did 50 miles of our 70 mile trek though). My injury time at Philmont was an interesting and unique experience though. I recently took my 8 year old backpacking, now, I worry about the weight again. I did the scale thing. His pack was about 22 lbs wet to his 60 lbs. A little heavy, but, a lot of that was water, by the time we got to camp, it was probably about 18 lbs! I figure that for most scouts, youth, a 40 lb scale is plenty, if it is more than that, it is probably to much! Weighing My Backpack @webmaster on 09/20/2010 Depends on the age and size of the youth. Obviously a 16 year old is going to be able to carry a lot more then a 8 year old is going to be able to carry. Also it depends on the weather and environment the trek is in. Yes a 100lbs scale should me more then enough. The most I ever carried was around 80lbs. |
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