Pack size

[carlyn]

I'm planning on doing the Georgia portion of the AT this summer. I'm anticipating about 8-10 days of hiking. It will be my dad and me, so things like tent and cookware will be split up among us. Any advice on pack size?

[milktoast]

I would recommend 3,000 ci as a good start, but there are a lot of factors:

Are you planning on stopping to resupply for food along the way?

What type of tent/sleeping bags do you have? They can really vary in size. I would say the tent and sleeping bag are going to take up most of the room in your pack so knowing exactly what you have would be helpful.

--Milk

[bigcranky]

Milk is right, if you have a 20-F synthetic monster sleeping bag, you'll need a much larger pack than if you have a 40-F down bag. Anywhere from 3000-4000 cubic inches would be a good start.

Plan to resupply food halfway through. Much easier.

[Spokes]

Yep, reducing the food weight will help. Go light, go long..........

[Rocketman]

Classic advice is that you buy all of your "bare essential" gear first, and then take it with you when you are looking at packs. Stuff the "bare essential" gear into the different packs, and see 1) how it feels, 2) will you have room left over for food, water and other "essentials" -- as well as room to contain the stuff you forgot to include because you didn't have enough experience to know you would want these forgotten things.

On the other hand, buying the pack first can force you to really think hard about what to carry, later, when you are out of time and money to do the job right. Nothing like that kind of time and money pressure to help you eliminate items that are too bulky or too heavy to carry with the pack you bought many months before.

People seem to have good luck selling "never used" gear on these backpacking discussion groups, providing the price is right ( meaning low enough to trigger a mad desire to own it by somebody else).