Part of Mark Verber's The Great Outdoors
I am starting a page about Help Someone Get a Good Start Backpacking (otherwise known as the six things that ruin trips).
Destinations: Every year I say, This year I will write detailed trip reports... but I rarely get around to it. Sorry.
Safety: You should be well versed in first aid, have an appreciation for environmental conditions, and know basic survival skills.
Physical Conditioning: The more fit you are, the better time you can have. Be sure to stretch and warm up before you start hiking at full pace. Take good care of your feet with ideas from Footwork Publications. Strike a Pose suggests that yoga can be helpful in preparing for backpacking. Train Short, Go Long suggestions that preparation for long-distance endurance doesn't need to be torture. Supercharge Your Legs has suggestions about preparing your legs for a workout. I have found the book Conditioning for Outdoor Fitness by Musnick & Pierce valuable. A number of people have reported that training in Tai Chi, The Alexander Technique, or Feldenkrais Method ( feldenkrais materials) has been useful, especially after an injury.
Food, Cooking: There is huge variation in what people do for food. I know people who bring: nothing but power bars, snickers, and energy jel so they don't have to cook, others who only eat raw (natural) foods, others who bring full gourmet meals including wine, some who bring canned food, some how carry MREs, and still others who only bring pre-packaged freeze dried food targeted at backpackers. My suggestion is bring enough food to eat healthy (balanced meals) and try to minimize weight. The backpacker oriented freeze dried meals are easy and light, but you can make meals which are just as light (and cheaper) from your local grocery store. I keep a list of food ideas.
Minimize Fuel Consumption: Boil only the amount of water you need. Have the water in the pot before you light the stove, so you can immediately start heating the water. Use a wind screen. Consider using a pot cozy rather than simmering.
Cleanup: I try to minimize how much cleanup I do. On longer trips and trips where the meal isn't that messy (say ramon noodles) I will cook and eat out of my pot. When cooking messy meals, I boil water in the pot, and then "cook" in a freezer bag which is inside a bag cozy. I eat out of the bag and then pack it out. On group trips I use a Orikaso Bowl which can be unfolded and licked mostly clean. [After using the Orikaso for a year or more I am questioning whether it's actually easier to clean than my old bowl. The licking part is easier, but I am not sure that the whole process is or not.] Once things are licked "clean" I use a nylon scrapper to getting any remaining food scraps off without scratching pots and eating wares. A bit of sand can work if you are very careful. Often times there still be a oily film on the items scrapped. Some people use hot water and soap, but I try to avoid that because if you don't rinse well enough you can get diarrhea from ingesting the soap and because I don't like adding soap, even biodegradable, to the water system. Once I have all the particular matter removed I boil a pot of water and make tea. The boiling sterilizes, the tea has tannic acid which helps cut the grease. You can use the tea-bag itself as a fragile sponge.
Bears and other animals: In most parts of the country correctly hanging food in a bear bags can be effective though it takes a bit of skill. Unfortunately bags won't protect your food in the Sierras were the bears see backpackers and think "Great, I get another treat filled piņata tonight". In the Sierras protect your food and the bears by storing your food in bear boxes or using a bear resistant container such as the BearVault (nice and reasonably priced), Wild Ideas Bearikade (lightest hard wall, and expensive), or the Garcia Backpackers' Cache (the original). Photon sent a nicely written email to backpackinglight mailing list suggesting that you should use canisters in the Sierras. Why use a can? First, it might save the life of a bear. Those which get used to raid people's food will eventually be destroyed. Second, loosing your food, especially 4 days into a 9 day trip really sucks. There is a nice document about how to pack a bear canister hosted by PCTA. There are some people who advocate "stealth camping" which is stay away from camp sites that bears habitually visit, cooking your food before you get to your campsite, and sleeping with your food on the theory that a bear will be less likely to bother a human and you will be in a position to defend your food. I don't recommend this in areas with black bears, and I think anyone is insane to do this in brown bear territory. For extra insurance some stealth campers make sure that smelly things are stored in something like O.P. SAK Barrier bag which look a lot like a normal zip-lock bag, but is in theory, odor-proof. A new development are portable electrified containers such as the Palisade EST. The sierra bear police and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (research) bear resistant container create the regulations governing food protection and do not endorse stealth camping as an acceptable method. A technique I used when canoeing and kayaking (and seems to be effective, but you might not find it effective) was to seal my food in a water tight container, and then sinking that container in a near by stream. Eastern Slope Grizzly Bear Group and USGS Alaska Science Center Bear Project have some of the best information about grizzly safety. There is a nice map of where sierra bear boxes are located.
Selecting Campsite: Look for someplace with soft ground. Not only is this more comfortable to sleep on, but if it rains, the water will more quickly soak in. Look for someplace that has good drainage: slightly higher than the near by ground, avoid sleeping in depressions. Make sure you aren't in the path of runoff if there was a severe storm. By lakes will have more humidity which is normally not a good thing. Under a tree or on a hill side will typically be warmer than in a valley or the middle of a meadow. Ridge lines are not a good location because of wind and lightning danger. [FINISHME]
Gear: I grew up following the Boy Scout motto of "Be Prepared". This meant bring anything which you (or anyone you are traveling with) might need during your journey, no matter how unlikely the need might be. As a result I tended to carry a 40-60lb pack... sometimes more. On every trip I would bring cloths which would keep me very comfortable from -10 to 90. [On a couple trips I actually experience ranges almost this large within a two day period, but those were the exception and I expected it to be a broader range than most trips]. Now I am trying to pack lighter. I respect folks doing 5lb ultra-light base weight for a pack, but still value my comfort in camp enough that I don't fully embrace this philosophy. For example, I use a full-length air mattress because I don't like aching when I get up in the morning. My three-season base weight is 8-13lb depending on a number of variables (typically around 10lb). I have a separate page detailing how I select outdoor gear which has links to good review sites.
Hygiene: There is significant evidence that so called "water bore" pests such as giardia are most frequently passed on by poor personal hygiene (e.g. not washing hands during food prep) rather than being direct contact with contaminated water sources. If hands are visibly dirty you should wash your hands to get the particular matter off them. Once large particle matter is removed, Alcohol hand gels are more effective than soap and water washing to clean hands, as well as gentler to the skin. The CDC recommended use of alcohol gels in medical setting rather than the older surgical scrub with water.Take care of your teeth. [FINSHME: Back country "sponge bath"]
Preventing Blisters: It's a lot better to prevent blisters than treat them. If you notice any problems, immediately treat the area. Don't wait to see if a blister will develop. Most "hiking" blisters are caused by friction. There are several techniques which can be effective. The first is to remove the source of the problem. Sometimes the friction is caused by ill-fitting boots, uneven fabric, etc. These things aren't a big deal if you are walking a mile or two, but after 10-20 miles it can be a real problem. So the first step is to do some shake down hikes to make sure you shoes / boots fit, etc. The second technique is to have some sort of cushion that buffer preventing friction against your skin. One of the best ways to do this is using two socks as described in the "socks" section of my clothing recommendations. The third approach is to put a protective layer over the skin to protect it from harm. There are a variety of blister prevention pads such as Spyroflex bandages which function as a second skin. The Forth approach is to reduce the friction by making things slide more easily. One of the most common tricks used on the trail is to cover "hot spots", areas that you can feel "heat up" with duct tape. The duct tape both protections the skin and reduces the friction.
Preventing "Saddle Rash": Next to blisters, the next most common occupational hazard for hiking is "saddle rash": an irritation of the inner thighs or buttock. There are a variety of preventive measures, but the most durable and successful seems to be the use of wicking compression shorts. Another approach is using Body Glide which looks a bit like a stick of deodorant. Finally, some people have found maximizing ventilation by hiking in skirts / kilts is helpful. You can find threads about preventing saddle rash on many forums related to long distant hiking. Treatments for chapped skin can also help prevent problems such as Udder balms such as Udderly Smooth.
Hiking In the Rain: Staying dry is quite challenging if you are engaged in aerobic activities. because you need to not only protect yourself from external moisture, but also have to deal with internally generated moisture (e.g. sweat). The trick, in most conditions, is avoid overheating. There are a number of things that I have found that help reduce internally generated moisture. In order of importance:
The other thing to keep in mind is that getting wet isn't necessarily a bad thing. People often think wet = hypothermia. That is because water is much better at moving thermal energy than air... and hypothermia is about cooling your body's core temperature. In many conditions, it is possible to be somewhat wet and yet still be warm enough. I have found that if I am engaged in aerobic activities, and am wearing something that blocks the wind, that I stay warm enough so long as the temperature is above 45F.
Remember that your body is more or less waterproof and dries very quickly. The problem isn't your body is wet, but the clothing are wet and doesn't dry quickly. As soon as they stop engaging in high output aerobic activities (which can generate something like 7x the amount of heat as sitting quietly) you will chill quickly without added insulation. So the trick is to wear clothing that dries quickly, and have adequate insulation to stay warm when stopping. I used to change into dry clothing after hiking in wet conditions, but I found I don't need to do that. So long as my clothing is not dripping wet (e.g. I have squeezed out the excess water out), my clothing will dry on my body in a warm environment (like my sleeping bag) in 30-60 minutes.
Reducing Pack Weight: Everyone would agree that carrying less weight is a good thing. So no matter whether you are a ultra-light or heavy weight packers, losing un-needed pounds is productive. The following was posted by Steve Sergeant to the backpackinglight mailing lists which is very similar to a study I remember seeing.
A Swiss military report suggests that everyone has a backpack weight threshold at which they become significantly more encumbered. They determined this weight by measuring how much it takes for a person's balance-time to degrade by 20%. You can determine your balance-time degradation by measuring the time that you can stand on one foot without your pack, and then compare that to the time you can do so with your pack on. Apparently the Swiss military sought to optimize the performance of 'light fast' special-forces types. They found that for their typical soldier, balance degraded by 20% when wearing a pack weight between 8% and 10% of their lean body weight. The degree to which the pack carrier's balance degrades directly relates to the rate at which they'll become fatigued. This study suggests ways to improve your backpacking experience. The traditional guideline of 25% to 40% given by some how-to books on backpacking would seem quite high by these standards, so you should try to go lighter. Experiment with loading your pack to minimize the degradation of your balance time.
There are a number of ways to reduce the weight of your pack. Here are a few ideas which have been very helpful to me:
Check out the article 25 Ways to Cut Backpack Weight for additional ideas.
Ultralight: I have been strongly influenced by ultra-light (UL) packing style, but I am on the heavier side of ultralight, or maybe the low side of a lightweight style. My gear is mostly ultralight, but I sometimes bring more gear than I actually need to be safe. Hardcore ultra-light folks are willing to give up more comfort than I am to lower their pack weight. A number of examples:
Scouts: Typically boy scout backpacking is the opposite of ultra-light backpacking. Everything including the kitchen sink (or at least a dutch oven to make cobber) is taken. Gear is typically extremely heavy-duty to survive the riggers of younger boys. Some good references for scouts include:
Preserve: We need to take care of our wilderness. If you carry something in, bring it out. Bring an extra trash bag and pack out some of the trash others have left. Consider not having a campfire every night in areas that are low on wood. Leave No Trace
Finish Off: When When I am going to exit in the same car that brought me to the travel head, I will leave a clean set of clothing, comfy wool socks, sandals, some wipes, a towel, comb, and a small container of water. This way I can get clean up a bit, get out of my grubby trail clothing, and enjoy a nice sip of water if I am thirsty.
Other Technique: There are a number of techniques which I have found helpful over the years:
My experience is that most young children (<7) don't fully appreciate the beauty in nature... so within a mile you start hearing comments like "I am tired of walking!", "I am bored!", "When are we going back to camp?", etc. We have found having some sort of supplemental activity really helps kids enjoy the time. Examples of this are: walking on interpretive trails, taking lead nature walks, making it a treasure hunt (e.g. looking for interesting items you know the kids will be able to find).
We have found that our daughter wants to carry her pack just like her parents carry their packs. On dayhikes she carries her own water, a camera, a couple of toys, a snack, plastic plant & bird identification cards, and a nature notebook & crayons which she draws pictures of interesting discoveries. On overnights she carries everything except her sleeping bag and pad which are too much volume for her pack.
Other resources: