Backpacking: Do More with Less

I see people all the time toting around 40-60 pound backpacks while they trudge along, compressed beneath the weight and groan when we get to camp only 6 miles later. The next morning, their backs ache and their legs are worn out. The 6 mile trek back to the truck is torture. Their entire backpacking experience is a miserable, tiresome ordeal. I'm not talking about the old couch potatoes, but the former high school football players. The guys who run a mile every morning before work are bringing up the end of the line. It's not because I'm in better shape than them. On the contrary, my beer belly makes it to camp before any of us, but beneath a 17 pound backpack, I'm carrying the lightest load, even if their bodies weigh less than mine.

I don't bring much weight on my backpacking trips, 17 lbs or less for overnight, 22 lbs. for 3 days and only an increase of food for any trips longer than that. Some people tell me they can't afford to spend the kind of money that I did on my gear. I look at their $250 Osprey backpack and their $150 Northface jacket and tell them they already have. My gear isn't expensive and it's not the best, but it's durable and it light and it works. My $9 LED headlamp isn't as bright as their $60 light, but it weighs less than their batteries and it allows me to see at night. I don't want them to lug around 1/3 of their body weight in junk, but they don't believe me when I tell them that for half the price of their gear, they can have the same stuff that weighs half as much.

If you're willing to listen, I'll tell you how.

Shelter: In fair weather with few bugs, you can ditch the tent and opt for a lightweight tarp instead. Bring along a few tent stakes and some string. Combined with hiking poles, your tarp is now a lean-to style shelter at half the weight of a tent. If you like this setup, you can get some of the tarp shelters that are even lighter but more expensive. Kelty makes the Noah's Tarp and GoLite has a tarp shelter available on campmor.com. REI also has tarp shelters. Personally, I use the MSR E-Wing Tarp Shelter.

Sleeping Gear: Ditch the heavy, inflatable pad and get a cheap foam pad. They're not as comfortable to sleep on, but if you don't have back problems and you can find a smooth patch of ground, these blue or green egg-carton foam pads make a lighter, cheaper substitute. Mine ran about $20 at Academy. Your local sporting goods store will carry them. Also, you can trim about 18 to 24 inches off the bottom and let your fee rest on the ground since it's your head, torso and hips that need the support.

Sleeping Bag: If the weather isn't too cold, bring a fleece sleeping bag. Wal-Mart and any sporting goods store will carry them for $10-15. They roll up small and weigh less then a lot of backpacking mummy bags.

Water: If there are streams in the area, bring a micro filter for the whole group and refill your water bottles as needed. You can make a silt filter by placing a coffee filter in a funnel and then placing a paper towel on top of that. Pour the stream water through the filters and into your bottles. Then add your iodine tablets and in twenty minutes you have drinkable water. Also, don't get the big canteens or Nalgene bottles. Get 1-liter bottles of water from the cooler at your local gas station. They're $1.25 each and come with cold water in them. I get my water on the way to a hiking trip. You can reuse your bottles and if you lose one, it's no big deal.

Pillow: Take your fleece jacket and shove it inside a stuff sack. Now you have a pillow. There are also inflatable pillows that resemble the inflatable sleeping pads made my Thermarest. There are numerous off-brands that run from $4-$10. They're quite comfortable.

Stove: Forget the Coleman single burner or the propane powered stoves. Don't even bother with the butane or fuel bar stoves. Experiment with the numerous homemade alcohol stoves. My favorite is the tealight stove. Look it up on youtube to find instructions. It takes about five minutes to build and cooks my meals in about 10. I frequently make a pot of rice and sausage while I'm setting up my shelter. By the time camp is made, my food is ready to eat. The stove runs off of a tablespoon of HEET, methyl alcohol available from any Wal-Mart, gas station or automotive store.

Pot: You're not cooking a seven course meal, so forget all those pots that came in that set. Bring one pot with a lid. Make sure it has fold up handles so it will take up less space. Coleman.com makes a great kit called the Solo Cook Kit. I found mine at Wal-Mart for $25. I take the biggest pot with me. My stove, spork, windscreen and fuel fit inside. And the best part is that the lid can be turned over and used as a frying pan.

Flashlights: Forget Maglite or whatever else you have. If it runs off of anything bigger than 2 AA batteries, it's too big. And don't bring a lantern. Get a cheap LED headlamp. 2-3 AAA batteries will run that light for a dozen backpacking trips. I've done multi-hour night hikes on half dead batteries and still never lost power. Don't get one that's big and fancy. The one at Wal-Mart that's $7 will work fine. LED headlamps, end of discussion.

Cutting tools: If you go backpacking with a machete or hatchet, you're overdoing it. You can build shelters, cut saplings to use as a crutch when you twist an ankle, and trim down annoying branches that protrude from your sitting log with a good fixed-blade knife. Mostly, I just bring a sturdy pocket knife and if I have to cut something thick, I hammer the blade into the wood with another stick, carving out notches until I cut through. Find a Buck knife with a 3 inch blade that's made from 420HC steel. It's stronger than stainless and holds an edge a lot longer. I've seen some recently for $15.

Now that you know some of the cheap things you can purchase, here's a little exercise you can do when you evaluate your gear. When you get ready to pack your gear for a weekend backpacking trip, divide everything into three piles. On the left, put gear that you absolutely need. Food, shelter, light, water, sleeping gear, etc. In the middle, place the items that you really want to bring to make the trip more fun. On the right, make a pile of the items that you could live without but would be nice to have on the trip. Now, pack everything from the first pile. Test your pack and feel how light it is. Now that your pack is half empty and lighter than it's ever been before, put the second two piles back in the closet. You don't need them!