Originally Posted By Gershon
Johnny,

I asked my son what he thought of this trip. His first question was "Does he want to get a divorce?"

Remember, since it's your idea, everything that goes wrong will be your fault. Murphy says things will go most wrong when it's a 2 day hike back to the car. Then there is the long, quiet drive home.

He suggested starting with either car camping or hiking, but not both at once. Hiking is inexpensive. If you like it, you can start building packs with decent quality to use on a car camping trip.

My guess is most of us got into backpacking either through hiking or car camping. Things are a lot more difficult in the woods than they appear in our imagination. That is, until we get used to them.

My suggestion is to keep the 4 day trip as a goal. But forget about gear for a week and take a hike this weekend. Go far enough so you can have lunch on the trail. Yet don't go so far that blisters will be a factor. Depending on terrain, 4 miles is a reasonable goal.

If you can plan the ending of the hike in a place where you can cook and have a fire, you have experienced everything but sleeping overnight.




lol I see your point. I definitely will be practicing when I eventually get gear (after the first trip or two of regular camping at a campsite).

All the other suggestions are extremely good and I will take heed of them. One that I think I've got set is just the distance hike. I've been to Starved Rock national park here in IL and we've hiked those trails (lots of stairs) carrying probably 10-15lbs of camera gear or a 3L camelbak with a few extras. I've got a well broken-in pair of Keen hiking boots along with some smartwool socks I regularly use on long hikes.

I've still got a long way to go before I'm ready so we'll see if I can even get it done this year. The Branson idea is a good one. I'll have to run that past the wife but I'll sweeten the pot by saying we should ask our friends (who have a timeshare there) to come with and stay at the room for two out of four nights. But again, we'll see how things go.