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How to Pack Your Backpacking Gear
By Hikerpro | May 8, 2009
Apart from having a checklist, nothing can be more important for your camping preparation than packing your backpack because you would not like to leave what is essential and weigh up you pack with unnecessary gear.
This would largely depend on the terrain and weather and whether special gear is needed. The more experienced you are in the field, the easier it is for you to pack because you would know which gear to include.
Each trip will bring insights to whether your backpacking gear were sufficient or whether you need something more. In the end it could make it easier for you to pack to the bare minimum and go ultralight hiking.
To keep your supplies dry, use three plastics inside your internal frame back pack. You can also use 3 large stuff sacks. At the bottom would be for clothing, fuel, stove and other heavy gear or stuff that don’t get used very often. The bag in the middle should be for food and the one on top for electronics like your phone, GPS and PDAs.
Try not to put your wallet in your pocket or you may learn the hard way like I did that it’s not wise. It took the whole day to dry the money and receipts. Exterior pockets are great for organizing your gear.
I use ziploc bags a lot to organize my gear. You can separate your food from your soap, utensitls, cellphone, and more with this useful plastic bag. A must-have if you want to ensure that your gear stays dry.
Don’t forget the first aid kit. Anything can happen in the outdoors. A mess kit, bugspray, waterproof matches and whistle are important items to have. If you need to quick access to a particular item then keep them in the outer side pockets. You must know where you put important items and try not change where you put them. Losing things is not fun especially when it happens on a camping trip.
You need to have enough food on a hiking and camping trip unless you can buy some along the way. You need a lot more food on a hiking trip than normal because you will burn a ton of calories. You can calculate how much food you need but the best way to estimate your food requirements is by trial and error and to be safe it’s better to have too much food than not to have enough. The same goes for water. Not having enough water can make life very difficult for you on a hiking trip. If you don’t know how much you actually need then carry more than you think you’d need.
A trail mix is one of the best things you can have on a hiking trip. You get a lot of energy from the natural fat in nuts and the dried fruits provide good fiber and nutrition. Energy bars and gels can also give you a boost. Chocolate will melt when it’s hot so avoid it in the hot summer.
If you can, try to avoid canned foods because they’re too heavy. You need to carry your rubbish until you can dispose of it properly.
Dehydrated foods are great for hiking because they’re lightweight yet very nutritious and they taste great. For cooking, you need a camp stove. If you want to use less fuel but won’t sacrifice on performance then use a liquid fuel camping stove. They still work well in extremely cold weather unlike propane stoves that can freeze at a certain temperature and you may have problems lighting it up.
Try to avoid cotton clothing because cotton absorbs your sweat and wet clothes can make you cold real fast. Synthetic or nylon fiber or wool clothing are good alternatives.
If you don’t want to miss out anything, prepare a checklist. First brainstorm what you might need then look at other references on the internet or from hiking clubs. Then you decide which ones get to be inside you pack.
Topics: Hiking & Backpacking Knowledge | No Comments »