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It’s not a problem !    I could quit if I wanted to !

I know,  I know.  Last year, I said my gear inventory was complete -- I didn’t need to buy anything else. My whole family rejoiced. I was confident. My tent weighed 3 1/2 pounds, my pack 3 1/2 pounds, my sleeping bag 2 1/2 pounds -- all the best quality. The titanium stove, cook pot, and tent pegs could never be improved upon. The rest of my gear were the smallest, lightest, highest quality available. I was in lightweight heaven. I had achieved lightweight nirvana !

Finally, the vicious cycle of buying gear and selling at a loss, in order to buy better gear, was over. I could now buy shoes for the kids, a dress for my wife, and a flea collar for the dog.

I can't explain what happened, next. I wasn’t engaged in my usual, annual, new gear research. In fact, I wasn’t even thinking about new gear -- I was content with what I had.

I think it was a "good friend" who brought it to my attention--that a new, small, high-quality, ultralight -- 2 1/2 pound tent was available.

Next thing I knew, I was holding it in my hands, caressing it. It made me feel excited and renewed. What the heck! Just one more piece of gear won't hurt, I told myself, and this really is the ultimate piece of gear. It’ll be physically impossible to get it smaller, lighter, and higher quality, so if I buy this one, it really will be the last tent I need to buy.

In fact, now might be the best time to buy it. Summer is around the corner, the kids prefer to go barefoot, anyway. The wife spends most of her time in the garden, during the Summer, so she probably wouldn’t wear the dress. The dog, well heck, God created dogs so fleas would have somewhere to live -- so I bought it.

On the way home, I stopped by another friend’s house to show him my new tent. As I anticipated, he was thoroughly impressed and I was triumphant. He then, excitedly, retrieved his new 2 1/4 pound, 4000 cubic inch pack and pointed out that it was exactly 1 1/4 pounds lighter than my “ultralight” pack. As he probably anticipated, I was thoroughly depressed.

I couldn’t sleep that night. The next morning, I had a plan. I would sell my 3 1/2 pound pack, my Winter sleeping bag -- that I seldom use -- and my baseball card collection. I had to get that pack ! Now my mind was really working. The juices were flowing so keen that I decided to complete the new configuration with a new 2 pound sleeping bag. My 2 1/2 pound bag was getting kind of old and it was really too warm in the Summer, anyway.

I really had my act together. I had gone beyond the ultimate -- I now had a 2 1/2 pound pack, 2 pound bag, and 2 1/2 pound tent. Now, there was no question, the vicious buy/sell cycle was over. There could be no further improvement. From here on out, priorities would change.

Incidently, have you heard about the new, ultralight boots that ..........................

Author: Anonymous