My son and I are heading out in the morning towards Pigeon Forge and will stay the night at a hotel. The next morning when we wake up we will meet up with Pasty White (from the Backpacker.com forums), have breakfast and then head to the Alum Cave Trail. We will hike up Alum Cave, have lunch at the bluff, then head for the Mt. LeConte shelter for the night, and hope not to aggravate any bears!

The next morning we will head down the Boulevard Trail until we get to the Appalachian Trail and then make our home in the Icewater Springs shelter (atop Mt. Kephart) for the night. While there we will go and check out the Jump Off and of course Charlies Bunion. The next morning we will head out to Newfound Gap via the AT, and back to our truck for the return trip home…

So, I will be out for a few days, and will be sure to post a TR when we get back. However, what I am getting at today, is the packing. This morning I repackaged all our food, treated our hiking clothes with permethrin, then dragged out all the gear to start sorting through and determine what to take, and what to leave. I took some pictures during the process, and after I got it all sorted out, I decided to do a pack video (as in what I am packing ~ not the actual packing process).

So, following will be some of the pictures, and then I will also post the video. I am posting the video for ideas as well. (Don’t mind the hastiness of the video, I was trying to keep it to one video and had to hurry it along.) If there are things I may be doing wrong, or that can just be done better, please let me know by leaving a comment. What I am carrying is what has worked for me so far, but I am still a pretty new hiker, so I am willing to take qualified advice for making things better. So, thanks for reading, and watching.

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