Why Backpacking and Camping is the Best Outdoor Activity

Ever since I was little I've been involved in numerous outdoor activities. I began my wilderness adventures with my parents when I was barely old enough to walk. We often took family camping trips together, and after every trip we took I became more comfortable and relaxed with the woodsy environment. In my early boyhood I joined the Boy Scouts of America, in which I learned your basic outdoor skills, such as: orienteering, wilderness survival, boating, and how to cook on an open fire.

Many people don't go camping for the fact that they are afraid of getting their hands dirty. In my opinion you have had an unsuccessful time outdoors if you haven't gotten your hands dirty. There are many different ways you can get your hands dirty, some are more effective than others. I will be discussing three ways you can get your hands dirty: camping, day hiking, and backpacking. With countless merit badges to prove my experience outdoors I believe I have the insight to say that out of all the outdoor activities I have taken part in, that backpacking is the best way to spend your time outdoors.

Camping is always a great quick way of getting away to relax, unfortunately most state parks are usually filled with many other people. When going to a state park you might realize that you where unable to get away completely from society, very often you'll find that all the campsites surrounding you are filled with scout troops and families. Instead of getting away all you might find is a jamboree that will be causing racket all day and surely will continue into the night. Even if you are able to get a campsite that lacks neighbors, The more you camp on state grounds you might start to feel as if you are still not separated from society. You might think to yourself how developed the campsite is, and how many have already come before you and stayed at the site previously to your residence.

Day hiking like camping is also a quick and easy way to get away. You can plan a small route to hike on for the day, but if you think your trail is a great getaway you can be guaranteed that some other outdoorsman has already discovered "your trail." Day hiking does take a lot of physical effort, but cannot nearly compare to the strain accomplished while backpacking.

While day hiking you generally would take a small rucksack containing water and a small first aid kit. On a backpacking trip you would be well equipped with a pack containing multiple varieties of clothing, for the changes in weather; enough water to last you to the next water hole, food, shelter, batteries, large first aid kit and a sleeping bag. When you finally put on your backpack you'll probably have gained a minimum of forty-five pounds. Day hiking is exactly what it sounds like you go out for the day and hike to a secluded spot and try and make it back to your car or campsite by sundown. I personally dislike day hiking because I would rather not backtrack on a trail and see what has already been seen.

At the age of 16 I began using the skills from scouts and applying them towards backpacking trips that I started voyaging on twice a year, once during the end of summer and again during the middle of winter. Every trip I would travel a different stretch of the Appalachian Trail, usually traveling about twenty to thirty miles each trip. During the summer I would travel to the Appalachian stretch in the presidential range located in New Hampshire. In the wintertime I generally hike along the trail section where Pennsylvania and Maryland meet. The winter landscape to me provides more of a feeling of serenity, you will find yourself miles from civilization yet feel as if you where on a Martian landscape. During the summer while backpacking all around you is green, and the forest appears to be very alive.

I wouldn't say camping and hiking on separate occasions is a waist of time, but backpacking takes full advantage of both areas. While on the trail you feel a feeling of self- dependence, because it may dawn on you that it is only you and the mountain and nothing separating the two. While I have been hiking I have gone for days without seeing another soul, unlike any other outdoor activity. Backpacking is also a better way of testing all of your outdoor skills, once on the trail all the resources you'll need can be found on your back, making you very self-sufficient. If you don't have what you need you have one choice give up and wait for a rescue or use the survival skills learned at your state park campground.

I hope that the next time you plan an outdoor adventure, you test yourself to your limits, and strap on a fifty pound backpack. I hope that the next time you go on an outdoor trip you backpack across a mountain range and you are able to look back across three or four mountain peaks and tell yourself "I accomplished something." I'm not going to rule out the idea of going to your favorite state park and sitting around your campfire roasting smors, knowing that safety is twenty feet away in your sports utility vehicle. I'm also not going to rule out traveling to your favorite trail and visiting your favorite scenic view, because lets admit it day hiking is great cardio.

The only thing I want you to ask yourself while your at your favorite state park and scenic trail is " if this is what it is like to get my hands dirty, how does it compare to really pushing myself and achieving the feeling of self sufficiency and really getting my hands dirty."