The Art and Comfort of Backpacking - Part One

Backpacking is a great pastime. Thousands, if not millions of people worldwide participate regularly in this wonderful activity. This article is for those of you who tried backpacking, had a miserable experience, and never tried again.

I completely understand how that could happen, but was fortunate enough to have a mentor who guided me past the early mistakes. My goal is to try to be a pseudo-mentor to you in the hope that you will take these suggestions and try it one more time. If you do I am certain that you will have a magnificently memorable experience and become a "backpacker".

There are a number of understandable mistakes first time backpackers make. They are not necessarily listed in order here, but all have to do with increasing the discomfort one has which become additive and create a miserably uncomfortable experience. Your first good experience at backpacking should be pleasant and not present you with a challenge. Try to control all the variables so you can enjoy the outdoors.

Some of these begin before you ever leave your home. Pick a time of year when the weather is mild. That will be different for different areas of the country. Check on the internet using your computer, or smart phone and look at the forecast. No rain, snow, sleet, tornadoes, extremes of temperature should even be in the forecast. The duration of your trip should initially be one overnight starting out early the first day, planning your primitive campsite near clean, running water, or an organized campsite near running water. The following day should be an easy hike back to where you parked, no more than 5 miles maximum.

The terrain should have no more than a total of 1,000 ft elevation change, maximum 1,200 ft over the entire hike. That's cumulative, not per hill or climb. There's nothing worse than staring up a steep trail near sundown knowing that there is nowhere to set up a tent, and no water until you reach the summit and head down the other side to the campsite and then be faced with setting up camp in the dark.

Plan on reaching your campsite with plenty of time to take off your gear, sit and relax, plan the layout, and then leisurely set up camp with plenty of time to cook, eat, clean up, build a campfire and enjoy the camaraderie as the sun sets, lantern is lighting the site and the campfire is crackling happily in front of you.

Now comes the equipment you will need. First, forget brand names for now. The absolute most important aspect of backpacking is comfort, and the second is efficiency. Let's look at comfort first. You will need many of the counterparts of your home, ie, shelter, bed, food and water, clothing, lighting, cooking utensils, toiletries, a stove, fuel, and because you are mobile, something to carry all that stuff comfortably. So, we'll be looking at backpacks, lightweight stoves, tents, sleeping bags and mats, fuel containers, lanterns, flashlights, food, cook kits, and some other personal discretionary items.

The basic items you will absolutely need are:

1. a sturdy pair of hiking boots

2. an easy to set up, lightweight 1 or 2 man tent,

3. a single mantle lantern, and small flashlight,

4. a lightweight liquid fuel or canister stove and fuel bottle,

5. a reasonably warm down or synthetic sleeping bag and lightweight sleeping mat,

6. an anodized aluminum cook kit in which your stove can nest,

7. easy to cook and good tasting food that will be nourishing and satisfying,

8. water bottles and water filtering device,

9. a really, really comfortable backpack.

I can't stress the importance of a comfortable, quality backpack enough. Internal or external frame makes no difference provided it is comfortable to wear when loaded. Any seasoned backpacker will tell you that skimping on a backpack is the surest way to destroy a wonderful experience.

We'll deal with picking out equipment in subsequent parts of this series, but keep this caveat in mind, You will be hauling everything in this backpack and it needs to be comfortable, and well balanced.

Part two will be dealing with specific equipment and resource issues. Part three will continue with specifics with the goal being to get you set for the spring/summer backpacking season, but not overload you with too much information with any single article.

I hope you find these articles helpful and encouraging, take up the sport, head for the trail and that we bump into each other at a campsite.