Packing Your Hiking Gear
May 8th, 2009 by DavePF
Experienced hikers would tell you that one of the most important thing to do is is packing your gear because you wouldn’t like to leave what is critical and bring what you don’t need.
This would largely depend on the trip itself whether special gear is needed. Packing will become easier the more you do it.
Every trip will bring insights to whether your camp gear were sufficient or whether you need something more. In the end it’ll be easier to pack to the bare minimum and enjoy some ultralight backpacking.
In order to keep your supplies dry, one of the best ways is to use three plastics inside your internal frame backpack. You can also use 3 large stuff sacks. The bottom bag would be for clothes, 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 cash. If you need quick access, use the exterior pockets.
I use ziploc bags a lot to organize my gear. You can further segregate your breakfast from your detergent, repair kits, cellphone, and more with this useful plastic bag. A must-have if you want to ensure that your gear stays dry.
Remember to include the first aid kit. Anything can happen in the outdoors. A mess kit, bugspray, waterproof matches and whistle are also great to have. Put the items that you might need quick access to 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.
It is very important that you have enough food and snacks. You need a lot more food on a backpacking trip than normal because you will burn a ton of calories. You would only truly know how much food you need through trial and error and to be on the safe side carry more food than you think you might need. The same goes for water. Carrying too much water won’t hurt as much as not having any. 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. The dried fruits provide fiber and nutrition while the nuts provide you a vital source of energy, natural fats. Energy bars and gels can also give you a boost. Avoid chocolate when it’s hot unless you take the necessary precautions to prevent it from making a mess as it is melted by the heat.
Canned food should be avoided because they’re heavy and the waste is not easily disposed. You need to carry your rubbish until you can dispose of it properly.
Dehydrated foods are great for hiking because they’re very light yet a very good source of nutrition and they taste wonderful. It’s a good idea to pack a camp stove. You’ll save more on fuel is you use a liquid fuel camping stove. They also work well in sub-zero temperatures unlike propane stoves that can freeze at a certain temperature and you may have problems lighting it up.
Avoid cotton clothing as best as you can because cotton absorbs your sweat and being in wet clothes in cold weather is really bad. Synthetic or nylon fiber or wool clothing including socks, underwear,shirt and fleeces are quick drying.
If you don’t want to miss out anything, prepare a checklist. Think about everything that you might need on a hiking trip. Then you decide which ones you really need and which ones you can be without.
