10 Most Important Items to Take Backpacking.
Photo by Lukas Allspach on Unsplash
Items I learned the hard way I was glad, or wished I had, when on the trail.
In the summer of 1993, I went on my first of many trips into the mountains of Utah on a backpacking trip. It was a 50–mile trip required for the Boy Scouts of America to progress on the trail to getting an Eagle Scout rank.
It was the first of four we went on in the next four years, (did I date myself?), but also the beginning of a love I carry to this day.
Since then lessons have been learned and products have evolved. When out on the trail anything can happen, weather, illness, and other people on the trip making mistakes. You might even make mistakes yourself. I still do.
Here’s my upfront and forward list. Don’t worry I’ll give the breakdown and why these items are my choice.
A proven and quality pack.
3 liters of water and a way to purify water.
An adequate, but light sleep system.
A high-quality knife or sharp-edged bladed tool.
The proper amount of calories, and an emergency supply of calories just in case.
A high-quality waterproof poncho.
A cooking system that can accommodate boiling water.
SOCKS! Four at least. (An extra change of clothing too.)
First aid; a trauma and a booboo kit.
A physical map and a quality map compass.
Please know this list isn’t the most important to least. It’s a small checklist of things that should be with you when backpacking, in a car traveling anywhere you might go that is a couple hours from home.
High-quality Backpacks for outdoor trekking, and why they’re important.
If you go for a week–long trek, a weekend excursion, or an overnighter, you need your pack to carry your gear without problems. You will never control whether your gear will work and not fail while traveling on foot. You can stack the cards in your favor by choosing a high–quality pack.
Not all high–quality packs mean high dollars. I currently hike with a military surplus pack that will be the most durable in any situation. The trade-in is the weight.
You need to decide, do you want to make sure your pack will hold up to rips and tears? Or do you have a lighter load to be able to take more, or have less weight?
Packs have come a long way they are lighter with a robust build. You need to know how hard you are on your equipment. I know I can go lighter and have my pack make it.
My problem is the number of times I’ve used string to hold my pack together causing myself a lot of pain with rub points. My desert camo military pack has never failed and will never with the weight I have of it.
Water is the most important asset you need to worry about.
The rule of three, most important in survival, can also be a baseline for being comfortable in any outdoor activity.
Three minutes without oxygen.
Three hours from the elements.
Three days without hydration.
Three weeks without food.
We’re not talking about survival, well if everything goes right when we take off on our backpacking trip. We know we are healthy enough to breathe, we have our poncho, clothing according to the season, and enough food for the planned days. Water is the big problem though.
Water is heavy, but water is vital. Go 12 hours without it when pushing yourself and you’ll know what I mean. 60% of our body is water, it’s half our weight, so yes it’s important.
We cannot go without it for more than a couple of hours and be healthy. Not as important as oxygen, but not as available.
Contamination in natural water sources can be very dangerous. Start with enough water to get you by for a full day and a half but plan your trip around water sources along the way. This is also why you need the ability to purify water while on your trip.
Life Straws, Sawyer Minis (my favorite), and hand pump systems are all available. There are always the old purification tablets, but these days, those should be a backup.
Photo by Sébastien Goldberg on Unsplash
Don’t let a lack of sleep be the reason you suffer while on the trail.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of choices for sleeping systems. Many brands, styles, methods, materials, and ways to mix and match them all. The most important thing to decide is how you’re going to set your sleep system up and what you will use to get the best sleep for you.
The next great choice is the weight you will give to this system on your pack. There is a saying in the hiking community. “Ounces are pounds and pounds are pain”, spend one hour on the trail with all the things you want and you’ll know what I mean if you don’t already.
I have a two–season lightweight sleeping bag with a backpacking hammock that comes with a bug net and cover tarp for wet weather. I also carry a wool blanket that is a luxury expense on weight to help fight colder nights in spring and fall.
Some take tents and bags, others put their heavier bag on a tarp with an extra tarp for wet weather. There are military sleeping bivvies’, or using your poncho for cover and a couple blankets, you get to pick.
I will address sleep systems in a later blog to break down the many different systems you can choose.
Blades and backpacking are like peas and carrots.
I’m from the country and having a knife is an article of clothing. When you’re packing on the trail it can be a matter of life or death. First aid, food, shelter, and even entertainment come from having a blade.
Some people will add a hatchet as well, or pack a hatchet only. Hatchets have more drawbacks than knives and can do some of what a knife can do. Together they give you more options for making life comfortable on the trail. Remember that when it comes to blades you get what you pay for and if it fails life will suck.
Always remember safety first. Learn how to use these tools, take safety courses, and practice at home because they can be what puts your life at risk if you don’t know what you're doing. Never cut towards any part of your body.
Backpacking takes energy, so bring fuel for your body.
When you’re at home living life protein is the most important part of your diet. It’s a staple of the human body even when you are exercising you will focus on protein.
The average diet is heavy with calories, more than most people will burn. Carrying 60 pounds in a backpack for most of the day in the backcountry changes everything. Your body will be working overtime and burning calories by the thousands.
I will address the ins and outs in another blog, but the basic thing you need on the trail is calories. Like all things on this list, there are so many choices to bring with you on the trail, remember everything you bring costs weight. Adding to the calories burned.
Freeze-dried meals are the best option hands down, remember though, they take water. You can eat it dry but it will take water from somewhere.
Like other things on this list, I will go into detail about the many options to help fuel your body. The jest of it, pasta carries calories, peanuts carry energy, and food bars give you both and can be a good backup.
When it rains it pours.
Quick story, when I was 11 years old I went on a day-long cattle drive high in the mountains. Us younger kids were loading up our horses when the cattlemen told us the day was good, we wouldn’t need the rain gear. Guess what? 5 hours later we were riding through the second worst rain storm I’ve ever been in in my 43 years.
Take that to a three-day trek on foot with 60 pounds and not having a poncho could be life-threatening. Always have a good high-quality poncho that covers your whole body. I’m not talking a cheap emergency one. Get serious and get a thick one that can provide shelter if needed.
Bring the bush pot.
Cooking systems are a must. Mess kits, Jet Boils, and my favorite the bush pot. Don’t forget the fire though, I put a modern fire–starting product as part of the cooking system. A warming fire and warm food are so important to your state of mind to have a good backpacking trek.
Making sure there is a pot at the very least in your system is very important. This will add to your ability to purify water, and if you’ve packed freeze–dried food you can use water sources to cook it instead of your drinking water.
Get on the web and you will find many different options to get you a proper system. These days the latest and greatest is titanium. It’s lighter and very hardy and will increase the efficiency of cooking.
Your feet are your vehicle, Take care of your feet.
Bring three pairs of socks for a change at the least. And this isn’t for four days this is for the chance you might need all four pairs in one day. Go on day-long hikes to find out what happens to your feet. When they are hot and wet from sweat change your socks.
Like all things, there are so many ways to approach socks. I wear nylon socks under cotton or wool socks that wick moisture and help reduce hot spots. Today there are many different socks designed for hiking and backpacking. You’ll only need to wear one pair at a time.
Never forget the first aid, there will be boo boo’s.
Anyone doing anything at any time anywhere should have a first aid kit with them. The next small cut from a rusty object or even some blunt force trauma could be around the corner. You need to be able to stop the bleeding, clean and sterilize to prevent infection and isolate broken bones.
Most backpackers who have been out for years will tell you to bring two different first aid kits. You need a trauma kit with a tourniquet and plenty of ways to stop bleeding. It’s always smart to carry a small boo-boo kit as some call it that has band-aids prep wipes insect bite protection that is easy to access.
As safe as you might be you cannot control nature, other people, or wild animals. It is also a good idea to keep the proper medications you need and some pain relief, anti-diarrhea, and some sinus medicine, just in case.
Photo by Hendrik Morkel on Unsplash
Paper maps and a compass never lose signal.
Knowing where you’re at in the world is the easiest it has ever been, it’s a beautiful thing to know all you need is your smartphone and you can find where you are.
Unless of course, you’re backpacking in the rocky mountains or out on the Appalachian Trail. Service is spotty if it isn’t zero through many places you would go packing. You can study and have landmarks, that only tell you where you are and have been. Without a map, you might not know where to go.
It’s not enough to have a map, you need to know how to use get training go out close to home, and learn how to use the map and compass. You are never guaranteed to have your trip go as planned. Don't become a statistic.
My daughter and me getting ready to hit the trail on a two-day backpacking trip.