Camping and hiking are beloved activities for all seasons and weather conditions, but if you’re looking for a more extreme wilderness adventure, combine the two and go backpacking. Before you head out on your first backpacking trip, however, be sure to follow these backpacking 101 beginner tips for your own safety and comfort.
Pick An Easy Destination
The key to a successful first backpacking trip is to not overestimate your own skills and abilities by choosing a difficult backpacking destination. Backpacking is designed to test your personal strength and survival skills. These two traits must be honed and built through time and experiences. Begin your first backpacking adventure with an easy destination and a short backpacking duration. This will help to get you accustomed to the basics of backpacking and leave room for error and improvements in the future.
Bring Proper Nutrition
Backpacking is an activity that requires continuous exercise and expenditure of energy reserves. Excessive sweat will also be an issue that can lead to dehydration. Backpacking will leave you with a complete lack of refrigeration, so all the food that you bring must be non-perishable and able to remain edible even in warm, unrefrigerated conditions. Dried fruits, various nuts, and jerky are among the best choices of food to bring on a long backpacking adventure. Also, consider packing multivitamins and immune-boosting powders to ensure that you can keep your energy levels high and your immune system strong to prevent illness while out in the wilderness.
Plan Ahead
After you’ve chosen your backpacking destination, do some research into the area. Find out what the local weather will be like while you’re there. This will help you to pick the best clothes and shoes for your backpacking adventure. It will also be wise if you read up on the hiking trail or area in which you’ll be backpacking. There could be dangers, hazards, or other unknown issues with the trail or area that aren’t listed on the official website. It’s always a good idea to check on the information provided by those who’ve traversed the area previously.
Gear Up
Venturing out into the wilderness for an extended period of time will require you to carefully pack the proper gear for such an adventure. The types of gear you bring will depend on the terrain of your backpacking trail, but some common gear to bring include a first aid kit, flashlight, compass, power bank, personal water filter, sleeping gear, bug spray, sunscreen, and cooking/eating tools.