For about 20 years (ending about age 55) I was out about 30 nights a year, mostly Boy Scouts. Some of it was car camping, some was Alpine Trekking, most was a day-hike in, one or two nights in a tent and hike out in the morning. Water was always the big planning issue. I used Polar Pure* to treat water dipped from a lake (beyond scat distance from shore) or pump filtered into a 5-gal. collapsible bladder (I/we carried two bladders on the ends of wooden hiking staffs across our shoulders) and then Polar Pured.
Main Gear:
Tent: Eureka Timberline Outfitter 4 w/ Vestibule; HD plastic sheet footprint cut to size inside and out; storm rigged; palm pusher for tent stakes
Pack: Kelty Super Tioga external frame with full storm cover + lean-to legs
Pads: Therma-Rest folding closed cell foam and 3/4 self-inflating (these strap to the lower frame)
Bag: One of several down mummy bags rated to the expected temperature. Dry, wicking polypropylene thermal U-wear, socks and hat adds 10 degrees of warmth
Chair: Therma-rest self-inflatable stadium pad + Crazy Creek folding ‘Camp Chair’
Filter: Pur Katadyn
Light: Typically didn’t stay up late enough to need a lantern; hung a small Maglite from the ridge line inside the tent.
Water: 2 ea. 1-qt. Nalgene bottles - 1 flavored, 1 clear water
Staff: Solid cherry 5’6” staff with laminated and shaped grip, rubber cane tip working end.
Hat: Tilley Cotton Duck or Stetson Explorer Fur Felt 2 3/4” brim
Deet: 100% in the little orange bottle, couple drops on a bandana
Typically did thiis with 3 other people and divided things like cooking kit and Whisperlite stove, white gas bottles and dehydrated food among us. We didn’t carry much clothing - rain pants served as long pants and rain jacket as overahirt on cool mornings, etc.
Now I only do large group trailer camping (Boy Scouts on Scout Reservation) so I use an aluminum Byer folding cot and have the tent all to myself
Polar Pure was no longer a legal product for some time. The active ingredient,iodine, was prohibited by DEA, because Meth heads could use the product to make dope.Those in the know laid in a lifetime supply before the end. Eventually, after 4 years of negotiations, the family business owner convinced DEA that if the price was raised to $20 for just grams of product the cost of this ingredient was higher than the street value of the Meth it could produce.
So ‘those in the know’ now have a low-cost lifetime supply of little brown bottles with a few beads of Iodine in the bottom.