SLEEPING PAD  Julie packed a foam pad to place under her sleeping bag and use as a seat cushion. I should have done the same, Hawk says. “It’s going to add weight, but it’s a necessary item. You gotta have it, or you won’t sleep. ” A 14-ounce closed-cell foam pad, or a comparable pad under $100, will do the trick. Alas, even the best air mattresses are 50 percent heavier.

COOKWARE  I grabbed a pot from my kitchen while Julie had a titanium camping pot. No question which was better: while Julie’s titanium cost about $60, it weighed a full pound less. “They work well, they’re relatively thin so water boils that much faster, which means you burn less fuel, and they’re pretty durable,” says Hawk.

We both had mini, store-bought stoves which, combined with small propane canisters, weighed about 1-and-a-half pounds. But Hawk says that many hikers nowadays go one step further, creating makeshift stoves out of used soda cans that weigh just a few ounces. “You could go to PCTA.org. They have links there to a number of lightweight websites that provide free directions,” he said. “You could get your total cookware system down to 4 ounces. But you’d lose some convenience.”

CLOTHING  My cotton, hooded sweatshirt was the big tip-off that I’ve never camped in the rain. “No cotton,” Hawk says. “It gets wet and stays wet, and it’s actually pretty heavy. That will cause you problems.” Instead, opt for a fleece top (Julie had one), and make sure your hiking shorts are made from a synthetic material. I could buy a pair for about $20, Hawk said, pointing to my cotton cargos. Also pack a set of wind and rain pants for when it gets chilly, he advises.

Your jacket should be your weightiest piece of clothing, but even there, newer models made of Gore-Tex come in at just over a pound. (Though you’ll probably spend more than $100 for one.) My old North Face was passable, while Hawk was genuinely impressed with Julie’s REI shell jacket. “It’s waterproof, somewhat breathable, and it can really keep you warm,” she explains. “Plus, it’s Julie Blue, my favorite color.”

I packed ski gloves, which were overkill for a non-winter hike. Julie had some nice, fingerless wool ones with a mitten flap, a far better choice, Hawk says. Each of us brought a ski cap for cold nights and a baseball cap for the day, though Julie’s was a synthetic material with mesh sides while mine was a weightier, standard Red Sox cap.

Hawk generally liked my long underwear: a lightweight Bergelene top and bottom I’d picked up years ago at EMS, plus a second thermal top. Julie says she gets very cold when sleeping at night, so she packed a ton of clothes, including an extra down jacket. Hawk reminded her that we were packing for a low of 35 degrees–not 20 or 10–and talked her into tossing out about half the stuff. “She had two pairs of long underwear bottoms. We took a pair out. And we took a pair of socks out. And one of her long-sleeve shirts out. Right there was close to three-fourths of a pound we took out,” he says.

WATER  Like tons of hikers, Julie and I packed Nalgene bottles. Like tons of hikers, we made a mistake. “Nalgene bottles are good and rugged and all that, but they’re significantly more weight than bringing a No. 1 plastic bottle,” Hawk says. My 1-liter Nalgene weighed 6 ounces, whereas a No. 1 plastic bottle, like a SmartWater bottle, does the same job while weighing less than 3 ounces. Just look for bottles with wider mouths for easy filling. (CamelBaks, while über convenient, are likewise more weighty.)

I didn’t pack any water filtration system, which isn’t smart. Julie uses a small bottle of iodine, while Hawk says he prefers Aquamira, a two-part treatment solution that comes in a pair of minuscule, 1-ounce bottles.

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