Ready to take on your next backpacking adventure with ease and agility? We promise to equip you with the best tips and hacks in this episode. We kick things off with an honest discussion on the importance of choosing the right backpack, ensuring a perfect fit, and creating that all-important essentials list. We'll also touch on the importance of fabric selections for varying conditions, the flexibility of convertible pants, and the ultimate protection offered by sun hoodies and Merrells mid-length hiker socks. For those colder evenings, you'll appreciate our insights on the Mountain Hardware Down Puffy Jacket.
Moving on, we delve into our highly recommended gear and equipment for your camping needs. We introduce some game-changers like Toak's long-handled titanium spoon, Sea to Summit's Xcup, a fuel canister, the Platypus quick draw water filter, and the River Country Trekker 2.2 trekking pole tent. Sharing our personal experiences, we'll let you in on some clever ways to cut down unnecessary backpack weight without compromising on essentials. With our tips and tricks, you're going to be able to up your camping game, making your backpacking experience much more enjoyable and far less burdensome. Buckle up for a journey into the world of lightweight and fast backpacking.
A playlist of helpful videos! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKOiuwbqyZG8Csgg1geXG_gFXOSVnByOv
Video/Podcast edited using descript find out more here: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=Sqa-bw
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Products discussed above:
BRS Outdoor BRS-3000T Ultra-Light Titanium Alloy Miniature Portable Picnic Camping Gas Cooking Stove Portable Ultralight Burner Only 25 Gram https://amzn.to/37T72Dj
Stanley Adventure Camp Cook Set - 24oz Kettle with 2 Cups - Stainless Steel https://amzn.to/3qBwILo
River Country Products Trekker Tent 2.2, Two-Person Trekking Pole Backpacking Tent Amazon's https://amzn.to/3ICBZby
Cnoc Outdoors VECTO 2L Water Container, 28mm Thread, Orange https://amzn.to/36stLWn
Katadyn BeFree 1.0L Water Filter, Fast Flow, 0.1 Micron EZ Clean Membrane for Endurance Sports, Camping and Backpacking, One Size, 8018006 https://amzn.to/3Q8sF3t
HydraPak Seeker - Collapsible Water Storage - BPA & PVC Free Camping Hydration Reservoir Bag https://amzn.to/3JqgqNG
Sawyer Products MINI Water Filtration System https://amzn.to/3KgpbsU
Featherstone Moondance 25 850 Fill Power Down Top Quilt Mummy Sleeping Bag Alternative for Ultralight Backpacking Camping and Thru-Hiking https://amzn.to/3JhIkdv
REDCAMP Closed Cell Foam Camping Sleeping Pad, 22" Wide Lightweight Folding Camping Pad for Hiking Backpacking, 72"x22"x0.75", Blue/Grey https://amzn.to/3ivKieV
Klymit Insulated Static V Sleeping Pad, Lightweight, 2.5 Inches Thick, Sleep Comfort for Backpacking, Cold Weather Camping and Hiking, Inflatable Camping Mattress https://amzn.to/3CPMdnV
Platypus Quickdraw Water Filter https://amzn.to/3NUy5PS
Hey, fellow adventurers, welcome back to Natural Medical Adventures and hey, this week on the show, I want to give you tips that help figure out how to do light and fast on the trail. Might be a beginner backpacker, and if you are, you're in the right place, because we're going to talk about some beginning stuff to get sorted out before you go on your first backpacking trip the good, the bad and the ugly. So let's get started. Probably the first thing to think about. I know a lot of people say you should get this last, but you still need to figure out whether you get it last or you get it in the middle or whatever. What is the perfect backpack for me? Now, the perfect backpack for me, I determined, is the REI Flash 55. I've got some stuff hanging off of it right now. This is a pack that I use all the time. I would say mid price range, I believe right around 200 bucks for this. It's a 55 liter pack. It's got a lot of different accessories. I'm not going to go into too much detail here. I have a full video on it and I will link that below along with the product links so you can check that out for yourself.
Speaker 1:
This pack is versatile. It works great. It's far and beyond. My very first pack that I had. My very first internal frame pack was from REI also, but it was from a company called LaFouma. It's a French company. They don't even manufacture, I don't think, us stuff maybe anymore, or very little. It's not an REI at least. It's a very heavy pack, mercable pack. It's a 65 liter pack. I think it's pretty big. It's pretty heavy compared to the other one.
Speaker 1:
Get yourself a pack that fits you. Go to an outfitter it doesn't have to be REI. Get it fitted to make sure it fits. I'm 6'2". You can't see my whole body here, but I have a regular size torso. Everybody's a little bit differently configured. Make sure that you get a pack that's going to fit you and, most importantly, fit your gear when you're getting your stuff together. Create an essential list. I'm going to do a list for you that you can download below. Down in the description, have a checklist of everything that you need and that should help you figure out exactly what you need to pack for your adventure. Hey, if you like this video, make sure to click that thumbs up. Hey, leave a comment below and think about subscribing to the channel. Thanks, you want to dress appropriately and take clothes that are appropriate for the condition.
Speaker 1:
I'm currently in Texas, but I'm getting ready to move to Wyoming August 1st. I'm starting a new job up there and the weather is completely different than where I am right now in North Central Texas Deserts and mountains and canyon. Right now we're in 100 degree heat. There's been a lot of heat related alerts and stuff like that. I'm not backpacking right now this time of year because it's way too hot. Number one. Number two if I was, I would pack differently than when I'm going up to Wyoming.
Speaker 1:
You want to have some type of a hat. I've talked about this in other videos and I'll link to those below so they're more in depth. You want to have a hat If you're going to cold conditions, a warm hat, a little beanie there and different layers of course. So you might want to have a mid-layer like this from Outdoor Research. This is just a fleece mid-layer For pants. I usually wear convertible pants year round and these are from Sportif. I believe I got them on Poshmark, but I believe you can get those convertible pants like these. Like I said, I will link to all this stuff below. They're comfortable because they can adapt to any weather condition, whether it's hot, whether it's cold, etc. And I like to wear pants even when it's hot, because bugs, thorns etc. That could get on you To wear exclusively.
Speaker 1:
When I'm hiking, backpacking, I wear a sun hoodie. This one is from a company on Amazon called Belief. I've done a review on this one before as well. Comfortable, has a hood, has thumb holes so you can pretty much cover up your entire arms from the sun if it's too hot. Spf built into the fabric, etc. For undergarments socks, something like these Merrells. These are just mid-length hiker socks that will work for you.
Speaker 1:
And I wear Equipo underwear because all that stuff that I just showed you is all about synthetic fabrics. You don't want to wear cotton. A wool is fine as far as being a non-synthetic or a wool blend of some sort, but cotton, as I say, cotton kills. Don't wear cotton when you're out there in the outdoors. And as far as shoes go, cotton kills. I wear the Salomon cross trek because there's a cross trek forers. You can see they've got a little bit of wear on them. I've had to patch them right there where I guess where my toe wore a hole in these. They've got hundreds of miles on them. It's still probably got hundreds of miles to go, but they're nice to light and fast, easy to drive. They get wet. That's pretty much my all-around hiking shoe right now. Now moving to Wyoming. That may change because the weather up there is totally different, the terrain is different, the elevation is different, et cetera. Still taking those, but I may not be hiking into those majority of the year like I do down here in the Southern United States.
Speaker 1:
Now, something I forgot to talk about real quick is an outside layer, the down puppy jacket from Mountain Hardware. You don't have to get one like this, but you need to have your top layer insulated. This one would go down, but you can get synthetic layers as well. Just remember that down doesn't insulate as well when it gets wet. Speaking of wet, always bring a rain jacket. This rain jacket here is a pretty inexpensive one. I believe I got it at Walmart. It's from Frogtogs. I'll link to both of these products in the description below, just like I've done with the rest of these. And you always want to have a rain jacket when you're out there in the weather, whether the chance of rain is good or not. Okay, back to the video. Anyway, as far as your clothes. That covers that.
Speaker 1:
Let's talk about toiletries. I don't have any example toiletries for you, but you still want to brush your teeth when you're out there. You still want to floss. You still want to put on deodorant. No, got you. Leave the deodorant at home. You're going to sweat, you're going to be stinky, no matter what time of year you go, no matter where you are. Don't worry about the deodorant. We brush your teeth. Go to the travel section of your Walmart or whatever store. Get you a little small tube of toothpaste. I don't have one as an example right now. If you want to cut off a full-size toothbrush to save some weight, that's perfectly fine, not required. You can take a regular dollar toothbrush from the dollar store or Walmart or wherever and use that just a plain toothbrush and it's probably light enough to do that. Fuck. Can you bring me my chopstick?
Speaker 1:
Now, speaking literally of toiletries, you do want to have a handy dandy poop, kit Poop. I do have a whole video on this, but you want to have some type of a digging tool. It doesn't have to be anything this fancy. This is the Vargo Dig Dig. I want to say Dug, dug, like the video game. That's my main trenching tool for making a poo hole in the woods. I've also got some hand sanitizer in here, some wipes, which you should always pack out. These are just huggies from Walmart, and I have a bunch of napkins from different fast food restaurants.
Speaker 1:
Now for the next thing you want to think about is you want to think about multi-purpose gear. When you're packing your gear, the more things you can utilize as a multi-purpose, the better off you are. I'm a YouTuber, obviously, and podcaster, but I do a lot of my filming and recording and stuff just on my phone. The phone can serve as a navigation tool. You can use it to take pictures, to take videos sometimes it's putting on your signal and things like that. There's different apps you can look at to look at different wildlife, plants etc. To identify those, if you want to, in the wild while you're out there looking, think about multi-uses for different items that are out there.
Speaker 1:
I'm always going to be taking emergency equipment as well and a lot of this stuff is multi-use. For example, I've got sunscreen to carry that year around with me in my emergency kit. The emergency kit is called your Ten Essentials. I don't have every single thing in this kit. I don't have a bag right now that fits everything. But I have a lot of things in here. I've got emergency fire starting tool here, just a fire steel for emergency fire starting Sunscreen already showed you. I've got a compass. I usually carry a map of some sort. I've got some different medicines. I usually do carry a pocket knife, but I also carry this Gerber dime multi-tool which is just good for gear repair and has some other little handy tools on there.
Speaker 1:
I've talked about Ten Essentials a bunch on this channel so I'll link to that video so you can see Some extra medicine In this particular case. This is Emodium. This in case nature calls out. There in the woods you don't want to have to be stopping every 30 minutes to go to the bathroom. You've got to fix that.
Speaker 1:
Now, as far as my first aid kit, which is part of the Ten Essentials, make something very simple A pre-made adventure medical kits.5. This got pretty much everything I need for myself. I do have a bigger kit I carry if I'm going with a group or going with multiple people. Since I'm a paramedic, I'm the default medical guy. This is what I carry. I do have a first aid video. I'll link to that as well in the description below so you can check that out. But definitely want to carry those items right there and a lot of that stuff, like I said, is multi-use.
Speaker 1:
Now, as far as sleeping, as far as sleeping out in the outdoors, you want something that's comfortable. I for a long time was a sleeping bag user, used mummy bags and didn't even realize that backpacking quilts were a thing, didn't realize they were out there. But I did invest in a backpacking quilt. I've showed it on other videos. This is the Featherstone Moon Dance Quilt. It's a premade quilt. A lot of people out there were like oh, you need to get a custom quilt, blah, blah, blah. And that's fine. If you want to get a custom quilt, go for it. But this quilt will go down to about freezing, which is perfectly good for where I'm at right now. Again, when I go to Wyoming, I probably have to invest in a more robust quilt for backpacking if I'm going in in the colder weather, colder climates, snow, etc. This one I have not done yet is backpacking the snow. So that's something I'm looking forward to trying. I'm sure I'll get a chance to in Wyoming.
Speaker 1:
But a quilt like this it's it's got a down quilt. It weighs. I think it weighs about two pounds. It compacts down very small. This is just in its normal storage bag that I have when I'm not on the trip, just a regular laundry bag, just so I can have plenty of loft.
Speaker 1:
The cool thing about quilts is they will cover it over you. They don't have any insulation underneath you. That's what your pad is for, to talk about in a minute. Your pad provides that insulation against the ground and keep you up off the ground so you're not laying directly on the ground. The quilt basically just goes over you like a blanket and you can spread it out. So you're wide and you can spread out or you can put it close against you if it's off its colder weather. It actually has straps as well that will strap to the pad, so they will make a little kind of integrated bed there in your shelter. My pad that I use currently is the climate insulated static V down here in the south, not a big deal. It's insulated and it'll withstand down to freezing temperatures. Now again, like I said, getting up into the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, it's gonna be different. I'm probably have to upgrade to a different pad that's got more insulation and a bigger r-value. But I have reviews on all that the quilt and the pad on my channel I'll link to those below. Let's do product links and check those out wherever you like.
Speaker 1:
What else we need to talk about? We need to talk about cooking stuff. Sounds like a winter Boiling the water now. Now I have a video in depth about cooking stuff. I keep all of mine in this little pot here. This is my entire cook kit. I did clean it from my last backpacking trip, which has been a few months ago, because it's been hot for a while. But I just have a Stanley adventure cup inside of it. I have a Coleman towel that's I cut in half for a kitchen towel. I have the spice missile for GSI, which has some different spices on there and spice up that backpacking food, and I have a lighter. I usually carry a lighter in my pocket as well, but this is my main lighter for the stove and I have the BRS 3000 stove, which is just a little titanium stove. That pretty much is my main cook kit.
Speaker 1:
I do have some other items I'll show you in just a second that are in the deal as well. Just make for a little bit more comfort. I have the longhandled titanium spoon from TOX. Just a polished bowl, a longhandled spoon, will reach down in those food bags. If you're cooking, freeze-dried food works out great. And I have a cup from C to Summit. This is the X cup from C to Summit just goes out like that. Got a nice sturdy rim there so it doesn't fall over and get floppy on you and what else is in here.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah, the fuel canister. Just got a giant fuel canister from Walmart. It's a sterno one. It may change that too as well, because in this colder weather the canister stoves don't work as well. Right now I have a big issue, but later in the season in Wyoming it's probably gonna be a minor issue, hopefully not a major one. Now, a lot of that stuff, you can change it out as much as you want. That's what I'm carrying in now as far as water is concerned.
Speaker 1:
If you have the now gene bottles around which a lot of people that have been camping for a while, they're fine. There's nothing wrong with using a now gene bottle. They are heavy but they are sturdy. Not a big deal. So a lot of people have moved to is a smart water bottle. This smart water bottle is not a full liter one, it's a 23 ounce one or 700 milliliters. If you're nasty and it has a sport top on the top here, okay, so that that helps reduce some of the weight. You got a sport top so you can for easy drinking.
Speaker 1:
Usually if I'm going to do electrolytes or something Brando's got what plants crave, it's got electrolytes I'm adding to my water I'll do a bottle like this because I can easily add that in there and it's not too much water so it doesn't make it too weak. That gets. It's made a chance to get those electrolytes back in my body because I'm better sweating. So what else do we need to think about? I need to figure out how do you're gonna get more water and one way you can do that is by carrying one of these types of deals here.
Speaker 1:
Now, for a long time I was carrying the Sawyer mini, but I have also used the B-free. B-free. This has the, the HydroPak Seeker 2 liter bag upgrade for the. The B-free, b-free is a great water filter, works pretty good. But I pretty much have gone now to the quick draw from Platypus, which is right here. It fits really well and pairs really well with this C-knock water bag. You can take this top off, you can gather your water and filter it really easily. It filters really fast through the Platypus quick draw and no fuel cleaning really necessary. You just shake it is what you're supposed to do to clean it and there you go. I do have some more videos on this on the channel as well, so I'll link to additional product links below.
Speaker 1:
Now, what else do we need to think about when you're making that list? You need to make sure you're taking it absolutely everything that's necessary, but nothing that you really don't need. After you go on a few trips, you're probably going to figure out I didn't use this, I didn't use that, so I can take that off and that's good. That's good. You need to do those kind of things to figure out what items you don't need. But, as I mentioned before, try to use, try to have items in your pack that are multiple use. Another example of that is going to be this pad. A lot of times when it's colder weather, I'll put a pad like this or have a pad that rolls up. Also, this is just a generic, a folding pad, multi-purpose use. You can use this as a seat. You can use this as a pad underneath your inflatable pad to provide extra protection, extra insulation and it's not really heavy. So you can use that as multiple use.
Speaker 1:
And what about tents? What about that? We didn't really talk about that. So I'm going to recommend this one, because this is the River Country Tricker 2.2. It's a two-person tent. It's technically a single wall tent but the way it's designed it has an inner mesh that makes it like it has a fly, but not really so. It works pretty good for one person in gear or, in a pinch, two people and some gear. You can't put all your gear in there usually if you have two people, but it's a trekking pole tent. It has a trekking pole either end of it.
Speaker 1:
I've got a review on this one. I'll be glad to link that in the below so you can take a look at that. It's going to be lighter than a freestanding tent that has poles and everything with it. I'd recommend something like that, but you choose what you think. Hopefully this video has been helpful for you. If you like this video, make sure that you give the thumbs up and if you have any questions or comments, make sure and leave those below. I appreciate you being here. Thank you for being here and hey, I'll see you all on the trail. Bye-bye.