Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
Howdy guys, i'm new here.
My name is Scott, i'm 17 and a highschool senior. I've spent a few years in the BSA and have probally 50 or so nights of camping under my belt,but never truly been "backpacking". I've been hiking and camping, but never combined the two.
Over my christmas break i'm going with one of my buddies for a 20+ mile backpacking trip on parts of the AT. he gave me a general list, so i'd like to get yall's list too and see what all i need. I've contacted a user here with a kelty moraine 3600ci pack that i hope is still for sale. So that'll be my first pack if i can get my hands on it. I've got a 0* mummy bag i've been using and in its compression sack its probally 9" in diamter and a foot in length. It may work to start with, but i think to become a true backpacker, i'll need a more compact one, so what are some ideas for that?
I've got my eye on some rain gear now, and i'll probally go cheep, like frogg toggs for my first set. I've got a few fleeces to wear under it, including a north face
Where to go from there? Socks, thermals, hat, light, and gloves.. then for when i need my on esental gear, as a stove and stuff, might as well get that list going too. but first , give me some ideas on my basics not including the actual camp gear (stove, tent,etc)
It sounds like you're about to make the same mistake I did when I started out. I was in a similar situation where I had grown up camping etc. but had never combined it with walking (a.k.a. backpacking).
That mistake is - you're looking to buy your pack first. Take my advice and sink a serious chunk of change into a sleeping bag or quilt. I started out with a 0 degree Swiss Gear Mummy bag and between it and minimal gear I could fill up my LARGE Alice pack! That was 12lbs in just my sleeping bag and pack! I quickly ditched that and just started using my poncho liner when it was above 40 degrees at night.
I then bought a Golite Ultra 20 Quilt (these can be had on sale these days since they're being discontinued next year and are great bang for the buck) and started calculating up the volume of the rest of my gear. Picked up a few more items to get the weight and volume down and ended up with a Golite Ion for a pack. How's that for a big difference?
My list before food and water is roughly this. Comments to the side are generally going to be how I intend to further decrease weight and/or volume.
Packing, Shelter, and Sleeping -"Accessorized" Golite Ion (about 1750 cubic inches atm) -Integral Designs 5x8 Siltarp (replace with poncho tarp and true bivy) -Driducks Poncho (modified to work as a "bivy" if it actually rains around here) -Blue CCF Pad cut to torso length (Replace with Thermarest Prolite Small) -Golite Ultra 20
Kitchen -800ml Aluminum Pot (Replace with 600ml Snowpeak Ti Cup) -Firesteel -Mini Bic -Benchmade Nimravus (Replace with Rat Cutlery Izula) -Supercat Alcohol Stove -Alcohol Container -Plastic Spork -Bandanna -Water Purification Tabs
First Aid and Misc. -Assortment of Band aids -Classic Swiss Army Knife -Repackaged Pain Killers -Prescription Meds I have to have -Needle w/ eye big enough to take floss for thread -Toothbrush, Toothpast, Floss
Registered: 02/23/07
Posts: 1735
Loc: California (southern)
Look around and see if you can rent or borrow a pack for this trip, which I assume will be no more than two nights at the most. It will give you valuable insight into what will work for you. Your pack is a critical purchase, and the more experience you have when you plunk down the money, the better.
1) Buy your pack last if at all possible. You will want to get a feel for what gear you *do* want to carry first, and buy your pack to fit that gear. Otherwise most people fall into the trap of buying something too big "just in case" and too expensive.
If you can borrow a pack - great. do that for the first trip, and concentrate on getting yourself a relatively lightweight comfortable set of gear to carry in the pack first.
There's an excellent "18 pound 3 day" gear list you can have a look at on this parent site (www.backpacking.net). it should give you some ideas. Mine is posted in my signature.
When you have a peek at mine, bear in mind that if I roll up my blue foam pad and carry it outside the pack - I can put tha t list of gear, and 4 nights food in a 30 litre(1800 Cubic inch) daypack. That doesn't mean you need to go that extreme right away, just bear in mind that you may not need a metric ton of gear in a huge pack to be comfortable if you think about it carefully.
Don't worry about light or small yet. Borrow or rent a pack, or buy used and cheap. Stay warm - concentrate on clothes that allow you to be out in weather and stay dry, so if weather does get nasty, it won't pin you down. DO NOT go the quilt route without a great deal of experience yet.
Do try your gear in the backyard first. Have a reliable stove, good gloves, and reasonable footwear.
To reiterate, one of my long term constants in camping philosophy has been to carry gear that would allow me to get back to my truck when others were pinned by storms. I've used a GPS in white outs to find my truck that was only 1/4 mile away. Long underwear that wicks is critical.
Most folks carry an assortment of "city" items with no real purpose for camping. As a boyscout they encouraged you to do this, not through malice, but just because "common sense" is a lot more elusive than many think.
Jim
Jim
_________________________
These are my own opinions based on wisdom earned through many wrong decisions. Your mileage may vary.
Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
thanks guys.
I do understand about buying the pack last. I've got i good idea of what i wanna take and accumulating that before. for this trip, i can borrow from my buddy who's done half of the AT. He said that 2000 cubes is the biggest you'll need. I'm thinking 3000 to pack my sleeping bag inside.
I do have a sleeping bag that works well and i'm looking to upgrade to a more compact one. I think personally that the pack should be first, cause i've got access to everything else but, i'll listen and look around and get the rest before i get a pack. And our boyscout leader was a vietnam vet and disagreed with the city stuff. everything we used was basically camp in front of it, shovel,stove, etc. the biggest city item we ever had was the chuckwagon box we built and it had goodies in it. I did lie a little bit, i have backpacked a little bit maybe a mile and half one way carrying what we needed in school packs, and later on my external frame pack. But its old, and deffinately not comfortable.
and also, i live on 40 acres so i've got somewhere to test it out which we do a good bit. Once i get my pack, and stove (on order) i'll spend a weekend night out and test out how packable i can be.
I agree with the advice here--don't sweat the details too much on your first trip. Take more than you need, and learn from the experience.
Having said that, here is a link to our equipment list---part of a new website that we are creating about for those who backpackthesierra. It has all the stuff we take, and if you explore the site a bit, it also talks about what we like, what hasnt' worked for us, and what we'd like to try in the future!
Minimum pack size is completely determined by the gear you carry. That's why we keep saying to buy it last. Assuming the manufacturer is accurate in their listed pack volumes you can calculate the volume of each piece of gear you have and add it all up. Then determine how much room you'll need for food and water and add the two together and you'll be somewhat close to the minimum pack size you can use. Go a bit over though so you don't have to over compress your insulated gear.
Or you could post up a comprehensive gear list and people here may be able to tell you the size range you need to be looking for in a pack. Remember to include how much food and water you need to carry per day you'll be out AND what kind of food it is.
One other component of your gear to continue to keep in mind is that of multiple use. There is no reason to carry a really warm cold weather bag, just to take all the warm clothing you are wearing off to get in it! If you are bundled up, those insulating layers should also be used in conjunction with your sleeping bag. That will allow you to use a lighter/smaller/more compact bag. Give it some thought
_________________________
I dare you to move, like today never happened... -Switchfoot-
Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
I basically will be taking the 18lb 3day list from the parent site. Its normally what i take anyway. food, will probally be a handfull of vienna's and then some of the freeze dried food from walmart in its camping section. Some of the stuff i'd like to know about is what kind of gloves would i need? i wont need anything less than 0* so what kind do i need?
And, what are good brands for thermals? or are the haynes ones everyone has decent enough?
As for buying gear, I always was a proponent of buying the best sleeping bag and pad you can to start with. No matter what, you cannot beat a good nights sleep to keep you going on a trip. These two items are the basis for your gear list.
_________________________
I dare you to move, like today never happened... -Switchfoot-
I agree about wearing clothes in a bag, though I tend to select a bag to match the coldest expected conditions and use the clothes as a safety margin for unexpected drops in temperature. However, I've known others who successfully use them as an integral part of a sleeping system.
Regardless of whether you consider them an integral part of your sleep system or as a safety margin, there are two conditions of using clothes in a bag:
1. The clothes have to be dry. Wet clothes simply soak the bag and make you colder.
2. There has to be enough room in the bag that the insulation in the bag and the clothing isn't being compressed - if it is, it's not going to keep you warmer.
Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
exactly.
Ive always had them as a safty margin. also, my bsa leader, told me when i first joined ,to sleep in a tee and shorts, pack everthing else around your feet. i've been using this technique since and it has always worked for me. I know its an argumentive point, but it works, so i'll stick to it.
Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
well I decided to get a pack today. a Coleman 65 L. It seemed like a good deal, even though its a little big and coleman has always been a good brand to me. But, i did try and fit a sleeping bag like mine in it, and it did fit. And i think wtih everything cinched, it'll tighten down to what ineed it for.
Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
Weighed up my items, and my winter 0* bag rolls to the 5Lb 6oz mark, and the pack, empty is 4lbs 15oz. so basically 10.5 lbs with the bag and the pack, this is starting to seem heavier than i'd like, but we'll see how it all goes in.
My sleeping bag does fit in that lower compartment, so i have the whole upper to store stuff in, i also have the option of zipping the divider between the two open...
Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
alright, i ordered a set of frogg toggs for now. Next thing, is i'm going on a litte trip over thanksgiving break, and i'll be going full backpacking.
I've been checking out trailcooking.com and the FBC, so i'm going to eat off that. I work at the piggly wiggly, so today at work I looked around for some good stuff to use. I'm thinking mashed potatoes, with butter, and gravy then some rice a roni for taste. soup for the second night and i'm gonna use bisquick for breakfast. Sounds tasty to me!
alright, i ordered a set of frogg toggs for now. Next thing, is i'm going on a litte trip over thanksgiving break, and i'll be going full backpacking.
I've been checking out trailcooking.com and the FBC, so i'm going to eat off that. I work at the piggly wiggly, so today at work I looked around for some good stuff to use. I'm thinking mashed potatoes, with butter, and gravy then some rice a roni for taste. soup for the second night and i'm gonna use bisquick for breakfast. Sounds tasty to me!
IMO this is what it's all about - getting out there and doing it. No need for the latest and greatest required and even with almost 10lbs between pack and sleeping bag you can still rock a lightweight setup that shouldn't kill you (or make you want to kill yourself) at the end of the day.
Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
I've always loved it, and i have a stack of backpacker magazines that i've read cover to cover multiple times, but never got out to do it. Now, i cant wait till next week to get out and try some of this stuff. We have a very generous member here, that has decided to give me his extra set of gear including a pack and sleeping bag that save 5lbs a single person tent, hiking poles, thermarest pad, cook set and canister stove, miniworks ex filter and water container. This basically gives me everything i need to go backpacking, minus the rain gear which i have ordered, and clothes which i can get myself. I'll leave his name out of it for now, but he'll read this, since he's posted on the thread, and i'll let the option of letting his name out for him.
Registered: 11/13/09
Posts: 75
Loc: Small Town, SC
Well turns out the frogg toggs didnt get ordered. so i told my uncle to order some cascade series pants by campmor. I think they'll be more durable than frogg toggs.
Have a great trip! A tip for cold weather camping- no matter what your sleeping bag is rated, it will not keep you warm until the inside is warmed up. I usually take a short walk or even do calisthentics before hopping into the bag so that my body at least starts out warm. A nice hot drink or hot dinner really helps too. Do not stand around too much at night and get really chilled before bedtime.
And, if you put on too many clothes when you first get in the sleeping bag, the bag never warms up properly. I have had the best luck by hopping in with just my base layers (after excercising so that I am also warm) to get the bag warmed. I too put cloths inside the bag at the foot and later if it gets colder, I put on more.
Also, keep the head and neck warm. Take a second hat- a 3 oz balaclava works well.
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