Essential Gear for the Consummate Backpacker

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

When you’re a backpacker or a hiker who enjoys long jaunts through undiscovered territory, it goes without saying that you need to pack light. When you’re traveling solo, there’s no additional aid or transportation: just you, your feet, and gravity. Because of this need to stay light, it helps to narrow down the few essential items you’ll want to bring with you on your next backpacking trip.

• A Water Filter – Bringing a water filter, especially as you travel along a lake, river, or stream, will be greatly beneficial. Why? It reduces the excess energy you’ll have to spend preparing to filter water while keeping you adaptable. After oxygen, water is the most essential compound we need to get our bodies going: do you want to be ready when your bottle runs out?

  Keep in mind that many water filters are not very heavy. They might take up a little more space than you’d like, but the trade-off is more than worth it.

• Proper shoes/boots – Since you’ll be spending a lot of time on your feet, you won’t want to break in a new pair of shoes or boots the moment you decide to go backpacking. Instead, you’ll want some comfortable shoes that have already been broken in, and shoes that you know you can rely on after all of the wear and tear that walking in the wild is bound to bring them. Having your feet well taken care of is also an integral way to keep your spirits up well after you have started your backpacking trip.
• A Swiss Army Knife – We all know about the practicality of a Swiss Army Knife, so why is it so especially important that you bring one along with you while backpacking? Putting the practicality aside, a Swiss Army Knife is tiny, lightweight, and won’t take up the kind of space some of your other tools will. Some people even clip their knives or include them on their keychain. Besides, you never know when it will come in handy.
• The proper “living” equipment – If you’re backpacking out in the wild and plan on spending more than a few nights out under the stars, you’ll need to remain both comfortable and warm. Both are integral to getting a good night’s sleep, which will be even more important when you’re out backpacking throughout the day. Bring a small, lightweight sleeping bag that covers your body and traps heat well, as well as a pan for cooking.

When filling your backpack, keep these essential items in mind so you know what to be prepared for – and how to pack it light.

Three Steps for Packing Your Backpack

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Unbeknownst to casual or first-time hikers, the weight and quality of your backpack – not to mention what it contains – can be one of the most important predictors as to whether or not you’ll have a good time hiking. Why is this? Because backpacks that are too heavy or drag on the shoulders will wear you down, making you expend more energy than you need to and ultimately making it an uncomfortable experience. Here are three steps for packing your backpack in a way that won’t slow you down.

#1. First, make sure you have a decent backpack.

For the hiker, the backpack is the best “expense” to take an opportunity to really splurge on something of high quality. Backpacks with steel frames that rest on your back, distributing the weight of their contents can be highly helpful, and it might feel like you’ve got some extra support from somewhere as you carry it. A simply school backpack that only drags on your shoulders, pulling them tight and hurting them, simply won’t do here. If you’re going to overspend at any point here, spend more money on quality on a backpack.

#2. Plan in advance.

Planning in advance to fill your backpack with the essentials will help you make sure you cover your bases. Do a mental walkthrough of your planned hike and ask yourself what you feel like you’ll need. A cell phone or not? How much water? Some emergency food, or a meal? Depending on the length and quality of your hike, these answers will be different for everyone.

Planning in advance will also help you to pack more tightly, as you’ll be able to fit items better if you plan them out rather than simply “stuffing them in.” Stuffing them in will lead to an uneven weight distribution and will drag you down while you’re out on the hiking trail.

#3. Review and remove.

The key is to pack as light as you can, while not sacrificing any of the materials you know you’ll need. Water is kind of heavy, so that might be a necessary evil for you (unless you carry your own water filters). Do you want navigating electronics, or can you do without the technology? Review what you’ve got, try out your backpack and see how heavy it is. Try not to imagine how heavy it is now, but how heavy it will be after an hour of hiking. What can you afford to lose? These are important questions to consider – the key is to do most of the preparation and thinking before you take your hike so that later you don’t have to.

Photo Credits: richardmasoner