I usually teach 1-3 Backpacking 101 seminars every summer. If you’ve never backpacked or are new to Idaho, then this article is for you. First off, don’t be intimidated by the thought of backpacking. For your first trip, you don’t have to hike in 20 miles and do a Bataan Death March. In fact, you’d be crazy to. (You’ll want to tweak this list of gear that I recommend or add to it.)
SLEEP GEAR
You’ll want a blow-up pad, blow-up pillow, lightweight sleeping bag. I love the little dome tents, but to save weight you may want one of the little what I call bicycler or bear taco tents. They look like a little casket. I’ve been using some SEA TO SUMMIT gear that is working great. Also take a set of base layers to stay warm at night.
Take a little backpacking chair. They make life a ton more comfortable than squatting in the dirt to eat. Take a small tarp to lay under your sleeping pad. That way, if the tent leaks, your sleeping bag won’t get wet.
LIGHTING
Take a good flashlight. Also, you’ll want a light for inside your tent. I love the SOLIGHT collapsible plastic lights. Take a headlamp.
When I’m backpacking, I’m usually fly fishing, so I wear some nylon shorts that dry out fast when I crawl out of the river. Wear good hiking socks. I use Browning. Hopefully they’ll save your feet from getting blisters, but take some band-aids/moleskin. Throw in a lightweight raincoat. I take a pair of good river sandals because I’m wading in and out of the rivers, but I hike in wearing good hiking boots.
For cooking gear, I take a small aluminum coffee pot, a Boy Scout cook set, a Sea To Summit spork (a cross between a fork and a spoon) and a hard plastic coffee cup. I take motel coffee packs, and at the last gas station when leaving civilization, I grab a few coffee creamers. For TP, firestarter and cleaning, I take a half roll of paper towels. I always take a Sawyer filtered water bottle so I can drink out of streams.
FIRE STARTING GEAR
There’s a lot of options. Magnesium strikers, matches and lighters. I have a magnesium striker in case my matches get wet. Once I had a semi-expensive lighter. One day I needed it, and it wouldn’t work. I took it back to the store, and they informed me that I had to recharge it every year or two. I chucked it and now carry 1-3 cheap Bic lighters. If necessary, I can break one over the wet wood to ignite it.
Carry fuel bars. Test them to ensure they work. One time I was headed up for a backpacking trip. On the way, I had to stop in Cascade and conduct some seminars at a big Nazarene youth camp event. One day I had 6-8 fire-starting demos. I’d circled by Cabela’s and bought a bunch of cheap fuel fire-starting gizmos for the kids to practice with. Gee, I don’t think you could have lit them if you had poured gas on them. Not good if it had been an emergency situation. I learned then to test my fire-starting gear before my life depends on it!
Here are four new to me items that I’ve started testing.
- Olight ArkPro is a flat compact flashlight that combines 4 lights in one compact EDC light. It features a 1,700-lumen Pure Flood, an 800-lumen Spotlight reaching up to 205 meters, UV light, a green laser and waterproof protection.
- NAT PAT-These are little 1-inch square stickers that you place on your clothing to repel mosquitoes, and another for ticks. Nice-saves spraying stinky bug spray on you. Unique idea.
- BOTTLE BLASTERZ-Tablets designed to clean bottles. Here’s how they fit into my outdoor world. You drop the tablet into your water bottle along with hot tap water. They’ll clean my water bottles. I don’t use straws, but my wife always does. I’ve never figured out how to clean a straw. These tablets work on straws too, so if you’re a straw user, check them out.
- I discovered a unique drink named ACTIVATEDYOU. I normally just drink coffee in the morning and then water all day. But this adds a little different twist to things. It’s advertised as having eight nutrient blends to support digestion, metabolism and energy. I sorta like it.
Lastly, I always say the backpacker has two enemies-WEIGHT and BULK. There is a lot of cool, lightweight gear on the market now. Don’t be scared-take off into the wide blue yonder!