Thank you, all. I'm with you all so much on this.
Alan, thank you for the long post. I agree with so much of what you wrote. Being uncomfortable at times is just part of the package. Do you really take a tent only and no tarp? I used to have only a tent. But also brought a tarp to wrap up the packs. At the beginning, I think two were not waterproof. But that was tandem, and the tarp was there for the occasional time we needed it.
Now that I have all dry bags, I could dispense with a tarp and just be uncomfortable if there are four days of rain and I am stuck in the bivy sack. -- Just kidding there. Sort of...
Recep, I've read your trip reports and seen your photos. It does not look as if you travel lightly, with all the electronic equipment and the screen room. But I am sure you are much stronger than I. I'm not going to comment on the hygiene items. When I travel I am more like the voyagers Alan refers to.
Sweeper, I always bring too much food too. I carry out tons of it. Also, as I get older, it seems like I need less food. I often skip meals all together and a small portions are filling. I always double carry. I've never had the physical capacity to single carry. My last trip in Verendrye, I had to triple carry sometimes! I brought too much stuff!
Instead of trying to figure out what to leave behind, the trick is to figure out exactly what is required. Then take no more. As a lightweight backpacker, I have my own minimal gear rather dialed in. It was a process to determine what was truly needed vs wanted.
That is the trick. I am trying to do it backwards because I have not had much success with your method: exactly what is required. So I am trying to look at it from a different angle. (When I was much younger, I did some backpacking. I trimmed down my pack and then the partner decided he could take two pairs of boots and put one in my pack because it was relatively light. I did not permit that. This was back when there were no available hiking boots for women. I had to buy men's hiking boots and stuff them with heavy socks.)
I recently rewatched Bill Mason's video on solo whitewater. It is noteable to me how simple his equipment was and how much I, we, focus on the latest everything, the newest equipment, lightest fabric, canoes costing more than $4000. I want now to step back from that mind set and go back to less.