Hi @lhoelscher,

Yay! Welcome to the world of backpacking - you'll love it!

I wanted to reply to your post just to connect you with another recent post about backpacking for beginners, and I think that the information in the responses will help you out a lot. I've written a response to that post as well which includes a list of items I consider to be essential while backpacking.

Have fun on the trails!