Custom hiking gear purchase advices and hiking tricks. A backpacker prepares a meal by adding boiling water to freeze-dried food. For an overnight backpacking trip, plan for dinner, breakfast and a couple of lunches. Freeze-dried backpacking food is your lightest and easiest option (just add boiling water) for entrees, but it’s also pricey. Save money by going to the grocery store instead. You won’t have a cooler, so perishable things like fresh eggs can’t be on the menu. Learn more by reading Meal Planning for Backpacking. Avoid canned food (too heavy) and try to accurately project how much you’ll eat because an excessive amount food adds weight and bulk to your pack. You need some extra food, though—enough for an added day in the wilds. Here are some specific meal-planning tips for your first backpacking trip.
Lowering backpack weight trick : Use Lithium batteries. They are more expensive, but last longer and weigh less. Go stoveless. There are plenty of non-cook, nutritious and tasty meal plans out there. Leaving the stove, cup, fuel and spork at home can save pounds. Tooth powder vs toothpaste. Yep, there is a “dehydrated toothpaste” and it makes a good substitute for the real thing on trail. See tooth powder recipes. Stuff the fluff manually. Leave extra sleeping bag compression sacks and tent bags at home. Instead, mash your sleeping bag and tent down by hand inside your bag. They will be more ‘flexible’ like this as well… not like an overly compressed ball. See additional details at Ultralight Hiking Gear Online Shopping.
Navigation and maps might be the most important hiking essential. If you know where you are, you should know how to get home. If you’re lost, you’re in trouble. In this case I actually use several devices. GPS watch with track loaded. Dedicated backup GPS device with maps loaded. Smartphone app with offline maps (make sure you’re in airplane mode). Paper topographic maps. Guidebook or hike printout. Compass to navigate with paper. This is pretty straightforward. Use sunscreen and SPF protected clothing to avoid sunburn (and sun poisoning). I also carry a tarp and cord in my pack so I can erect a shade shelter if need be.
I (Ben) have been a professional full-time photographer for almost 16 years. In that time I developed a strong passion for hiking and backpacking. Like most landscape photographers carrying camera gear efficiently has always been a struggle and solving that problem involved dragging out my old sewing machine. Once I made a few camera bags I moved on to stuff sacks, dry bags and of course Backpacks. Boom! Hilltop Packs was born. Find additional info on hilltoppacks.com.