My first really serious backpack trip was when I was 14y/o when I went to the BSA Philmont Scout Ranch. I carried gear I could obtained from friends & relatives but it contained a number of ex-military gear. I carried 49 pounds leaving base camp. Move twenty years later when my own 2 boys were entering the Boy Scouts & I became an Assistant Scoutmaster. Then came my search for really good gear instead of ex-military. I was so proud of the pack I spent $300 on and it weighed ~ 9 pounds “EMPTY”. It really carried 50 pounds really well. After my first Sierra trip with our troop I carried 50 pounds and I was the “light” adult. After that hike I got serious in finding a better way of backpacking without all the weight. Two things had a big impact on me & my search for lighter pack. The first has been mentioned by others was Ray Jardine’s book. It really opened up a lot of possibilities for me. The second was a phone call I made to Read Miller asking about his article on hiking the John Muir trail with Boy Scouts. When I called him he also put on his friend that was over at his house. The friend was Glen Van Peski. We had a very good discussion about hiking with lightweight gear then Glenn told me he was coming out with some packs that he was having made that were similiar to his G4 pack pattern that he had published. I quickly ordered one of Glen’s G4 packs. Going from a 9 pound pack to a 1 pound pack was an eye opener. Next were tarps, down bags, esbit stoves, etc. Then I needed a smaller pack because the G4 was to big. So the G5 was next then the G6 as everything got smaller & lighter and my skill developed such I did not need a number of items I used to bring on trips.

During all this time I was going on hikes with my two boys and the other scouts throughout the local mountains and the Sierra’s. My gear was very different from other leaders & scouts. Usually they would laugh at my gear then I noticed within 6-12 months they started to use the gear that they were previously laughing at. I was fortunate to go thru Woodbadge and I had some tickets that eventually lead to the articles I published on backpackinglight.com. I then decided to take a Wilderness Trekking Course I Dessert Southwest course from Backpackinglight.com. This was the first time I was out with other lightweight backpackers. I learned so much but also confirmed what I have been doing was going the right way. The challenge I had from this course was going as light as possible to Philmont Scout ranch which saw my pack under 15 pounds with food & water or under 7.5 pounds with just my gear. 2010 saw me teaching a course in Montana with Ryan Jordan and crew in Montana for scout leaders.

Home: Camarillo, CA

Age: 55

Favorite Training Ground: My favorite places to train are the Santa Monica Mountains & Mt. Pinos area here in Ventura County. My favorite places to hike have been the Sierra Mountains, Lake Tahoe area, Grand Canyon, and of course Philmont Scout Camp.

Current Plans: Teaching efficient lightweight hiking skills through publications and courses. Getting out into the woods with Scouts and other friends. Working on designing lightweight packs for young/small Scouts as well as gear kits for them. This year saw lots of trail time in many different areas such as Grand Canyon, beginning of PCT, Georgia section of AT, helped teach a BSA Leader Lightweight backpacking course in Montana with Ryan Jordan plus a number of others, and another trek at Philmont Scout Ranch. Next year plans are starting to get firmed up but look like another spring trek in the Grand Canyon with Todd, a part of the John Muir Trail with Scouts, and possibly get to Montana to help teach another BSA course with Ryan Jordan.

Favorite Gossamer Gear Product: My favorite piece of Gossamer Gear for years has been a silnylon G5 pack that has seen a lot of miles on it. But the piece of gear that had the biggest impact on my hiking was the G4 pack I got from Glenn’s first production run. The G4 really changed how I looked at gear & backpacking.