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here we go i'm getting really good at
that
professional academy award winner
technically no i'm jim zellers
i'm alex arnold and this is how we
backpack
backpacking is when you carry too many
things into the mountains and then sleep
i think backpacking is more when you
just want to go a little further away
from the car and you might need to spend
the night
the main reason people go backpacking is
get drunk in the woods
the number one reason to get out there
is just be away disconnect and just kind
of absorb
everything that's around you that's a
better answer yeah
that's true so essential gear for
backpacking
basically you need all the same things
that you normally need for going for a
day hike
really food water and shelter yeah yeah
but i'd also say
probably the most important item would
be a backpack well
yeah you don't you don't have to carry
in your arms i sometimes just take a
wheelbarrow
into the woods comfortable shoes
preferably shorts and t-shirt kind of
depends on the weather of course you
know if it's cold then you need you know
pants and long sleeves
it's kind of nice to have a base layer
type you know wicking layer of some kind
uh just because wearing a backpacking
backpack you're probably going to sweat
more because it's just a lot more weight
on your back
and then probably the biggest difference
between backpacking and hiking is that
you need more layers for camp
later it's going to be cold so you're
going to need a full-on jacket
and maybe a hat things like that yeah
but it can be pretty minimal
you know the idea that you're gonna have
a new outfit for three times a day or
you know an outfit every other day and
you're gonna wear the same clothes just
make
a piece of that part and actually fun
fun backpacking fact
or tip i guess i always sleep with all
of my wet layers in my
sleeping bag with me and i think my
sleeping bag is sort of a little oven so
like my socks got sweaty if anything got
wet during the day if anything sweaty i
just take it off and throw it in the
bottom of my sleeping bag
and then in the morning it's all dry
it's like a magical little oven
another piece of essential gear is some
kind of light for when the sun goes down
first
right and a way to prepare your food if
you're going to heat it up you're going
to need a stove if you're not going to
heat it up
you know whatever you're going to need a
water source yeah if there's no water
source then you have to carry your water
with you the whole way
which is uh incredibly heavy water's
eight pounds eight
pounds per gallon and you're gonna drink
about a gallon a day or use a gallon a
day and so an extra eight pounds is
pretty heavy
a water filter would be added to that
you would also need a first aid kit
because if something does go wrong out
there it's a little bit easier to have a
first aid kit that deep
than to walk out holding your arm for
two days and this is as big as a first
aid kit
should be out there and that's like kind
of bulky as it is
i think it's fine i think it's pretty
bulky i think it's great but the items
that you need
backpacking you know like you can be
broken down into maybe 20 items total
including the backpack the challenge of
backpacking is keeping things light
enough that it's still actually fun
because if you bring everything that
will make you comfortable
then your backpack is so heavy that
you're uncomfortable so you really have
to
find the right balance where your
backpack is light enough that you're
still having a good time
but you have enough of the required
things that you can still enjoy yourself
out in the out in the wilderness
i guess really with backpacking you have
to pay a lot more attention to
permitting and
regulations and make sure that it's
actually legal to go camp where you want
to camp
even somewhere like yosemite national
park which is one of the most popular
and
heavily trafficked parks in the country
you can still just walk into the ranger
station
get a free wilderness permit and still
visit probably 90 percent of the park
at the drop of a hat yeah it's just the
other 10 of the park that you'd have to
be super strategic about how you line up
your permits in advance for many parts
of the country
permits aren't really prohibitive
they're just a way of keeping track of
who's in the back country and how many
people are actually using our public
lands
i mean you shouldn't always think of a
permit as as a hoop to jump through i
mean
it's just like it's just a way of
keeping of who's who's out there
exactly like it's not always a challenge
to get a permit
in so many areas around the country and
we have brown bears and black bears
and all bear cans are designed so that
a big brown bear a big grizzly bear
can't get its jaws around the bear cans
then you can stuff all your food in
there you can leave them just laying
around at night it's not a big deal
so this is not a bear can't you don't
like putting your backpack
yeah and this is the best way to go yep
well so if you were using a bear can
like this then you have to sort of
do team food like each person is going
to carry a bear can like four people
four days
four bear cans and then buy the really
big bear can though
it doesn't matter the size it doesn't
hardly weigh anything it just takes
like half the volume of your backpack
well it doesn't matter
because you mean because all your
stuff's inside all your stuff's inside
of it it's just these things
it matters a little bit though because
you started to pack around a little bit
it's not that big a deal
yeah i just i i don't like that very
kind yeah i mean if you ate this volume
of food
you'd be a giant all that to say bear
canisters are to make sure the bears
can't get into your food
and right they're required in many parts
of north america
many places that you want to go
backpacking you have to take a bear
canister to keep your food safe so then
you just kind of have to work around it
and fighting a bear over food can just
it
doesn't always turn out in your favor
and sometimes it does i mean
it's just easier to bring a bear can you
know
i've never fought a bear oh god what a
pain in the ass
well he normally goes in the bear can
that's why it's so big i go in your
beard it's got a false bottom
there's like an extra compartment in the
bottom of the booth yeah
go to a place that you can dig eight
inches at least
deep and it's always a good idea to
bring a trowel it's pretty easy if
you're in a group
or one trowel your spirit might thicken
up you could probably take eight inches
with it
and understand that just pooping and
throwing a rock over it doesn't count
because
coyotes and bear and
cats and everything love to eat all the
leftovers you left in your poop
i think of it as trying to minimize the
environmental impact so you're trying to
leave no waste and make sure that you're
not
disrupting the local ecosystem and then
you're also trying to minimize the human
impact which is like not
ruining somebody's nature experience by
leaving a big poop in the trail
a lot of people don't sleep well
backpacking number one reason is people
pitch their tent on something that's not
level
all right and their roots sticking into
your bag yeah and i often think like hey
is your bed at home
at a weird angle and no usually their
beds at home are flat i'm like you
should sleep like you do at home
the cool thing about backpacking is
you're gonna leave your home
and go to a dream home in the mountains
that you're carrying and that's why it's
so
fun to make make your little space in
the woods that you're
you're gonna walk away from later and
nobody will know you that you're there
but while you're there
make it your spot the other thing you
have at home that people always forget
backpacking is a pillow so what we do is
we usually bring a puffy down
and then it stuffs into you know some
bag stuff socks
sleep bag stuff sack a t-shirt something
that you can
do with it where it doesn't come out the
size
the simplest form of water treatment is
to boil your water
and that's kind of the old school what
you think of is boiling your water over
stove
and the reason that you don't do the
boiling the water is because it costs
more to carry the gas
in weight water filtration or water
treatment is kind of a broad and varied
subject i mean you can use uv treatment
you can use iodine tablets you use pumps
you can use
other like built-in filters now so yeah
you kind of have to choose your own
system and
and different systems are better suited
to different types of environments
and then there's some environments where
you don't have to treat water where you
just know that the water is safe
but that's uh mostly abroad you know
like in places like patagonia
where any stream you walk by is coming
straight out of a glacier and you know
you can just drink from it i think in
general if you're learning how to
backpack you should treat all your water
a couple things on personal items first
of all um i do see people ring rolls of
toilet paper
just bad idea bad idea roll it off the
roll
into a folded-up deal throw it in a
little bag
call that good when it comes to wine
which i drink the line
um you get box wine okay and here's
something that's really interesting
about boxline
if you're on a longer trip and you run
out of wine all right
now that wine bag serves as a pillow so
you can just blow it up just
pull the thing blow it up and now it's a
perfectly good pillow
and so if you can yeah power out all
your wine then you're gonna sleep
comfortably with a nice pillow yeah
but flip-flops would be the one huge
thing you get to camp flip-flops aren't
that big yeah
that's nice especially if you're hiking
far because foot care
is important like making sure you don't
get blisters making sure your feet dry
out
making sure that they stay clean and i
think flip-flops are kind of a good way
to make sure that you get a little air
and you can dry things and make sure
that you're not like getting all
fungal and blistery
to have a good time on your first
backpacking trip i think the key is
probably choosing the right objective
like finding a good length trip with the
appropriate amount of physical challenge
with a nice destination
and and to make sure that you can
actually have an enjoyable camp
situation
you know you basically don't want to get
totally crushed the first time you go
back back in
bring good food make yourself
comfortable sleeping
and allow yourself enough time check out
unplug
and you know spend some time listening
to the birds
right on cue you train that guy right
i think if you've never backpacked you
shouldn't underestimate how much more
tiring it is to have a full backpacking
pack and load with food and water and
attend everything yeah because i think
it's easy
to look at a map and think oh seven
miles that's an easy walk but once you
have a medium sized pack on and you're
carrying all your equipment
you know you feel a lot more tired you
know it does demand different things of
your body and i think that if it's your
first time backpacking you should sort
of have some patience for that
and know that it's going to feel
different than whatever else you do with
all things in backpacking it's like
there's an
optimized way to do things but really
you can do it anyway
i feel like how-to videos are oftentimes
slightly prohibitive to people where
it's like oh
you know i shouldn't try this thing
until i've learned how to do it
perfectly and you don't want perfect to
be the enemy of good you know
and i've seen people hiking into
mountains just carrying a grocery bag
full of stuff
and i mean i do kind of laugh at him as
i walk by but at the same time you're
like
they're going out there they're getting
after they're having a good experience
and presumably in the future they'll
learn how to fit all their stuff into
the bag and not have to carry shopping
bags on the side
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