The Weekend Road

Eastern Sierra 3-Day Hybrid Packing List

This Memorial Day marks the 4th anniversary of the trip that lit the fire.  Growing up, I always enjoyed car camping, being in the woods and family trips to the Rockies and Tetons.  However, I didn’t become obsessed with the outdoors until a trip with three friends Memorial Day 2009 to Yosemite’s Half Dome. Since then, I’ve tried to make it up to the Sierras from San Diego as much as possible.  I’ve convinced my wife to use a good portion of our vacation days to do outdoorsy stuff like backpacking in Denali NP.

As I laid out this weekend’s gear, I thought it might be a cool idea to catalog everything that I’m bringing for a 3-day car camping/overnight backpacking hybrid trip.  A buddy and I will crash at his mother-in-law’s house outside of Bishop on Friday night, car camp on Saturday night up the Bishop Creek drainage and then backpack up to Blue Lake on Sunday to fish the alpine lakes during the day and stay overnight.  We can skimp on the cooking gear since we’ll grab lunch in Bishop where we need to pick up our overnight permit and we’ll grab dinner at the Bishop Creek Lodge Saturday night.  Packing for a hybrid trip can be a little awkward since I tend to bring some luxuries along when car camping, plus it’s hard to pack light when fishing and taking photos.  I’ll try to move left to right as best I can starting from the top left.  Feel free to hit me up with questions or advice.

• Marmot Pinnacle 15 Degree Down Bag
• Sea-to-Summit eVent Waterproof small compression stuff sack
• Case of Beer (planned re-supply of Mammoth Brewing Co. Beer)
• Flask of Bourbon
• Cooler
• Outdoor Research Crocodile Gaiters
• Microspikes
• Salomon Quest 4D GTX Boots (barely pictured)
• Camp Chair (this cheap Walmart chair has lasted for ~10 years)
• Ridgerest closed foam pad
• Bear Canister (ugh) - required in the John Muir Wilderness
• Marmot Aura 2P
• Big Agnes Insulated Air Core Sleeping Pad
• Katadyn Hiker Pro Water Filter
• 4 pairs of wool socks of varying thicknesses
• 4 pairs of underwear
• 2 pairs of long underwear - Patagonia Cap 2 and Merino 2
• First Ascent Mountain Guide Lite Softshell pants
• Mountain Hardwear Mesa Convertible Hiking pants
• Deuter Futura Pro 42L - I’m making my buddy lug the bear canister
• 2L Camelbak bladder (not pictured)
• Gregory Large Duffel
• Patagonia Nano Puff Pullover
• First Ascent 18K softshell jacket
• Stio Fleece shirt
• Patagonia Cap 2 and 3 long sleeve
• Smartwool lightweight merino wool long sleeve
• 2 merino wool t-shirts
• First Ascent softshell gloves and wool hat
• Patagonia Cap
• Simms Fly Fishing Vest
• Fly box with flies, flotant, clippers (not pictured)
• LL Bean Pocket Water 4-wt Fly Rod and Reel
• Lightweight spinning rod
• Book - just picked up Everest:  The West Ridge
• Titanium Coffee Mug
• Titanium Spoon
• JetBoil Sol Titanium
• Black Diamond mini-lantern
• Sea-to-Summit Drysack 2L
• 2 Gorillapods - one for my DSLR and one for my iPhone
• Small roll of TP and pack of Wipes
• Small First Aid Kit
• Mini Field Repair Kit
• Gu and Justin’s Chocolate and Peanut Butter - obviously, not pictured is more food, including a Mountain House dehydrated meal)
• Nalgene (not pictured)
• Small tackle box with fake worms, lures (Panther Martins), hooks and split shot for my spinning rod
• Hand Sanitizer
• SOG Multi-tool
• Bic Lighter
• Headlamp
• Iowa Hawkeye Coozy
• Sunglasses Case
• High Gear Altimeter/Weather Port
• 2 bandanas
• Tom Harrison’s Bishop Pass Topo Map
• Compass
• Canon 55-250mm telephoto lens - full moon expected so I think it will be fun to try and get some cool shots of the moon rising above the ridgeline
• Tokina 11-16mm wide-angle zoom lens (not pictured)
• Canon T2i (not pictured) with remote, spare memory card and battery
• Mountainsmith Camera Bag (not pictured)
• iPhone 4s and car charger (not pictured)