Your Online Backpacking Checklist and Tips on Backpacking Trails
This website gives you in-depth information on what to pack (includes a complete backpacking checklist), what to expect on the backpacking trails, safety tips, and more.
If this is your first introduction to the challenging world of backpacking, don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it seems. You don’t need to be in tip-top shape, or have a ton of money—in fact, once you’ve made your initial investment in equipment, it can be one of the cheapest vacations you can take. You do, however, need a love of nature and the outdoors, and at least a healthy tolerance for a rugged, simplistic lifestyle for a few days. This is when camping is really “roughing it”: deep into backcountry woods with only what you can carry on your back, miles away from cars, people, and showers.
Such simplicity, though, can give one a few days of peace in our hectic modern lives. When we put away from our computers and cell phones, we are as unreachable as we would be if we were on the other side of the planet. With no one to bother us, we are free to fully take in the fresh wilderness air, and the quiet that comes from being miles away from a freeway, a silence that is only disturbed by the sound of wind, birds, wildlife, and maybe the occasional airplane. This is a quiet we rarely experience: it is shocking at first, making you realize how full our lives are with the noise pollution of civilization that we unconsciously pay no attention to. Yet this quiet soon becomes addictive, as if you are taking a breath of fresh air for this first time in a suffocated world.
So up you are up for a strenuous challenge, if you are ready to physically push your body as you never have before, and are to deal with being sweaty, dirty, and possibly covered with bug bites, keep reading. You may just discover you are having the time of your life.