I'm a Mont Bell fanboy myself. My gore tex jacket and pants from them have been great and I have nothing but good things to say about my Ultralight S.S. #3 sleeping bag. Henry Shires Tarptents are also a good thing. On my last trip last summer I packed out about 25 pounds of garbage (weighed it on a deer hunters scale) because I thought the extra exercise would be good for me! Two years ago 25 pounds would have put me at about 70 pounds total load, I don't think I was breaking 50 pounds even with a huge garbage bag strapped to the back of my pack. Knowing I was going to be walking along a river for the last 13 miles helped, I could filter some water into my bottle, drink it all, then walk off with an empty bottle knowing that water was close by.
