Best custom hiking bear/food bags online shopping and backpacking tricks. Because you have to carry and fit it all into your pack, backpacking gear has to be lightweight and compact. That’s why, with a few exceptions, it’s not practical to simply repurpose car camping gear. Remember, too, that you’ll be splitting up gear like tents and pots and stoves when you hike with a friend. The following are essential items you’ll need for any backpacking trip: Tent: Plan to share because a two-person tent weighs less and is more economical than two one-person tents. Bring a tent rated for three seasons (spring, summer and fall) rather than a four-season tent because you’re not ready for mountaineering just yet. Learn more by reading How to Choose a Backpacking Tent. You can also check out our guide to the best backpacking tents.
Lowering backpack weight trick : Shelter/ Tent. 2 lbs or less for a solo tent. 1 lb or less for a tarp. See ultralight tents. Sleeping bag should be down material. It is lighter, more compact, and warmer than its synthetic rival. Yes, it can get wet and become almost useless. However, with a proper dry pack liner (see 1), that won’t happen. Tarp, not a tent. Tents can weigh twice as much as a tarp shelter. A tent provides two walls – an outer one for shelter and inner mesh one for a bug-free enclosure. You only need the outer one for shelter (a tarp). What about the creepy crawlies though? Use a mosquito net for your face, everything else will be covered by your sleeping bag. Discover extra info on Custom Hiking Backpacks Online Store.
Today technology has made hiking much easier. Smartphones allow you to map and overlay weather in real time. LED bulbs are bright and last thousands of hours. There’s a lot of great technology out there that’s helpful. That is, until it fails. So when I pack the ten essentials, I generally include two options, a high-tech version that works great, and an old-school version that works if the high tech version fails. The small size and low weight of hiking gear today makes this possible. Ask yourself what the worse conditions could be on the hike, and then pack for that. And if you’re in the desert or at altitude, remember that it can get very cold at night.
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. Discover additional info at hilltoppacks.com.