Backpacking (wilderness) facts for kids
Backpacking is an outdoor recreation where gear is carried in a backpack. This can include food, water, bedding, shelter, clothing, stove, and cooking kit. Weight is necessarily key. Backpacking trips consist of at least one night and can last for weeks or months, sometimes aided by planned resupply points or drops.
A skilled backpacker minimizes their impact on the environment, including staying on established trails, not disturbing vegetation, and carrying garbage out. The Leave No Trace movement ethos is direct: "Leave nothing but footprints. Take nothing but photos. Kill nothing but time. Keep nothing but memories".
Backpackers must always be prepared for difficulties, whether mishaps are experienced or not. These include adverse weather, difficult terrain, treacherous water crossings, heights, dangerous animals, dehydration, heat exhaustion, hypothermia, altitude sickness, illness, fatigue, injury, disabling waterborne diseases, and anxiety. The remoteness of backpacking locations can exacerbate any mishap. Survival gear and the skills to use it are paramount.
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Accommodations
Backpacking camps are usually more spartan than campsites where gear is transported by car or boat. In areas with heavy backpacker traffic, a hike-in campsite might have a fire ring (where permissible), an outhouse, a wooden bulletin board with a map and information about the trail and area. Many hike-in camps are no more than level patches of ground free of underbrush. In remote wilderness areas hikers must choose their own site. Established camps are rare and the ethos is to "leave no trace" when gone.
In remote parts of Great Britain, especially Scotland, bothies exist to provide simple (free) accommodation for backpackers. On the French system of long distance trails, Grande Randonnées, backpackers can stay in gîtes d'etapes, which are simple hostels provided for walkers and cyclists. There are some simple shelters and occasional mountain hut also provided in North America, including on the Appalachian trail. Another example is the High Sierra Camps in the Yosemite National Park.
Equipment
Backpacking gear begins with a suitable backpack, proper both in size and fit. Next is clothing and footwear appropriate for expected conditions. Third is an adequate amount and type of food. Fourth is some form of sleep system (typically a sleeping bag and perhaps a foam pad). Fifth is some amount of survival gear, once again appropriate to the planned trip and skill-level of the backpacker. After that, everything is optional.
A shelter appropriate to expected conditions is typically next.
Water
Provisions for adequate water on a backpacking trip must be made in advance, whether that is knowing of potable sources such as lakes, streams, and springs en route or a means of filtering or purifying tainted water supplies as encountered.
Even in most seemingly pristine areas water needs treatment before consumption to protect against waterborne diseases carried by bacteria and protozoa. The chief treatment methods include:
- Boiling over fire, stove, or other heat source
- Treatment with chemicals such as chlorine or iodine
- Filtering (often used in conjunction with chemical treatments)
- Treatment with ultraviolet light
Water may be stored in appropriate bottles or collapsible plastic bladders. Hydration packs are increasingly popular.
Food
Backpacking is energy intensive. It is essential enough food is taken to maintain both energy and health. As with gear, weight is critical. Consequently, items with high food energy, long shelf life, and low mass and volume deliver the most utility.
In all cases, both kit and fuel necessary to prepare and serve foodstuffs selected is part of the equation. Small liquid and gas fueled campstoves and ultralight cooking pots are the norm.
Food dehydrators are popular for drying fruit, jerky, and pre-cooked meals.
Many hikers use freeze-dried precooked entrees for hot meals, quickly reconstituted by adding boiling water. An alternative is Ultra High Temperature (UHT) processed food, which has its moisture retained and merely needs heating with a special, water-activated chemical reaction.
These have roots in the U.S. military's MRE, and eliminate the need for a stove, fuel, and water. MREs can be difficult to find in retail stores, though a good selection is often available in a (U.S.) military surplus store.
Winter backpacking
Winter backpacking requires a higher level of skill and generally more specialized gear than in other seasons. Skis or snowshoes may be required to traverse deep snow, or crampons and an ice axe where needed. Winter sleeping bags and tents are essential, as are waterproof, water-repellent, and moisture dissipating materials. Cotton clothing retains moisture and chills the body, both particularly dangerous in cold weather.
A winter bivouac can also be made in a snow cave. It has thermal properties similar to an igloo and is effective both at providing protection from wind and low temperatures. A properly made snow cave can be 0 °C (32 °F) or warmer inside, even when outside temperatures are −40 °C (−40 °F). It is constructed by excavating snow so that its entrance tunnel is below the main space in order to retain warm air. Construction is simplified by building on a steep slope and digging slightly upwards and horizontally into the snow. The roof is domed to prevent dripping on the occupants. Adequate snow depth, free of rocks and ice, is needed — generally 4 to 5 ft (1.2 to 1.5 m) is sufficient. A quinzhee is similar, but constructed by tunneling into mounded snow rather than by digging into a natural snow formation.
Skills and safety
- Survival skills can provide peace of mind and may make the difference between life and death when the weather, terrain, or environment turns unexpectedly for the worse.
- Navigation and orienteering are useful to find the trailhead, then find and follow a route to a desired sequence of destinations, and then an exit. In case of disorientation, orienteering skills are important to determine the current location and formulate a route to somewhere more desirable.
- First aid: effectively dealing with minor injuries (splinters, punctures, sprains) is considered by many a fundamental backcountry skill. More subtle, but maybe even more important, is recognizing and promptly treating hypothermia, heat stroke, dehydration and hypoxia, as these are rarely encountered in daily life.
- Leave No Trace is the backpacker's version of the golden rule: To have beautiful and pristine places to enjoy, help make them. At a minimum, don't make them worse.
- Distress signaling is a skill of last resort.
Interesting facts about backpacking
- A rule of thumb suggests a fully loaded backpack should weigh no more than 25% of a person's weight.
- Proper hydration is critical to successful backpacking. Depending on conditions - which include weather, terrain, load, and the hiker's age and fitness - a backpacker needs anywhere from 1/2 to 2 gallons (2 to 8 liters), or more, per day.
- Winter backpackers stick to wool or synthetic fabric like nylon or polypropylene, which hold less moisture and often have specialized wicking properties to dissipate sweat generated during aerobic activities. Layering is essential, as wet clothes quickly sap body heat and can lead to frostbite or hypothermia.
- Backpackers package their food in plastic bags while avoiding heavier jars and cans.
- Humans can carry weight under 50 pounds (23 kg) in a safe manner, and a weighted carry is as beneficial for the cardiovascular system as a light run, and for exercise, a weighted carry helps avoid injuries.
- Carrying loads appears to have differentiated humans from other animals.
Images for kids
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A backpacker during the California Gold Rush
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Trekking route 14 in Zerfenti (Ethiopia)
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Expedition cycle touring, Torres del Paine National Park.
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Hikers in the Koli National Park.
