“Backpacking: an unexplainable sense of tranquility!”

By Gary Ramsey, published in the Adirondack Express on August 21, 2008

 

What’s all the fuss about backpacking anyway?  Why would anybody in their right mind leave all the creature comforts, don a heavy pack, walk up steep slopes, cross rushing streams, brave bears and just pain sweat a lot?  Maybe it’s because backpacking can produce an unexplainable sense of tranquility.  Maybe it’s because backpacking can generate a sense of pride and accomplishment.  Maybe it’s because backpacking is a perfect activity for couples or the entire family by providing an opportunity to grow closer.  Maybe it’s to experience silence, to leave behind all the TV and traffic noise, and to not only hear the quiet, but to feel it too.   Maybe it's to stop your mind from thinking, to experience life on a basic level only having to think about what to wear, what to eat, when to filter water, how far to hike and where to sleep.

But you can’t simply strap on a backpack, head out into the wild and expect to have the best time of you life.  In our everyday lives we walk on hard, flat surfaces and have readily available bathrooms with hot water.  If it starts to rain, shelter is close by.  We have our kitchens, desks and work areas organized with all the necessities within easy reach.  If we need something, we can quickly run to the convenience store.  If we need to get in touch with someone, we can call their cell phone.  In the backcountry there are no stores or cell phones.  You only have what you carry in.  What you have is in your pack.  You need to think through and “gear up” for everything you do.   How will you go to the bathroom and brush your teeth?  What food will you bring and how will you prepare it?  How far can you travel in one day with a 35 pound back on your back?  What if it rains steadily for two days?  You will need to prepare for all these conditions and maybe more.  Overcoming the mini setbacks associated with backpacking is what generates that sense of accomplishment and pride that pulls you and your companions closer.

 

The best place to start is realistically understanding your limitations (and we all have them) and start small, working gradually to more challenging trips.  Most established trail systems in the US have difficulty ratings.  So start on these trails.  Only after you are comfortable on the established trails and have completed a backcountry navigation course should you consider “bushwhacking” to more remote regions.  Easy ratings include short trips with mostly level terrain.  Generally, these trips can be accomplished with little to no exertion.  Moderate ratings include longer trips, rougher terrain and some climbing.   For these trails you need to be in at least average physical condition.  Difficult ratings include prolonged steep climbing or are longer and more remote.  Previous experience and better than average physical condition is required.  Start out with trails rated easy and work up to the more difficult terrain.  Start by just walking and carrying minimal gear.  Since you will have minimal gear in a fanny or day pack, it is wise to select a popular trail where the other hikers can give you a hand if you get into trouble.  Once you feel comfortable on these trails, go back to them and add your fully loaded backpack.  When properly packed, you backpack will weigh approximately 35 pounds.  This added weight will make a huge difference in strength required and speed at which you can move along the trail.  Don’t be surprised if your time doubles!  Without fail, the biggest mistake beginning hikers and backpackers make is taking on too much, too soon.   There is nothing wrong with starting small.  Each time out, you will learn valuable lessons that will make the next trip that much more enjoyable.  

 

Since living in the backcountry for a few days requires you to do just about everything differently, you must approach each trip with the right attitude.  Your attitude will control your reaction to the “hardships” associated with being in the wilderness.  Attitudes are the established ways we respond to people and situations based upon our experience.  Attitudes drive behavior.   There is nothing in any situation dictating you must react one way or another.   If you feel angry about something that happens, that's how you choose to feel.  Nothing in the event itself makes it absolutely necessary for you to feel that way.   It is your choice and you must choose to react in a positive rather than negative way.  Your itinerary may have called for reaching the summit by on a certain day, but you just didn’t make it due to heavy rain the previous day.   And because of the delay, you may not make that summit on this trip.  Disappointed, sure, but how you react to that disappointment is still up to you.   Work on ways to turn that disappointment into something positive.  Can you revise your plans to include a different, closer destination that you haven’t seen before?  Can you take a different route back providing a fresh look at the backcountry?  Can you simply kick back and relax right where you are and study the plant and animal life around you?  It’s just a matter of willfully turning negative energy into positive behavior.  The creator gave humans a wonderful thing, “free will” — the ability to make choices and logical decisions.  Use your powers of free will to turn unplanned events or bad situations into a constructive outcome. 

 

Backpacking promotes a healthy lifestyle.  If you plan and prepare you will experience the aesthetic beauty of the wilderness with its clean mountain air and unpolluted waterways.   There will be a wonderful sense of self-sufficiency, tempered with a tinge of vulnerability that one experiences on an overnight venture in the wild.  What you once considered hardships of the trail simply becomes a new way of doing things.  If you approach it with the right attitude, backpacking is a wonderful way to reduce stress and regroup mentally.  It’s  your chance to get out on the trail and be immersed in the natural environment.  Searching out unfamiliar trails keeps ones spirit and sense of adventure and discovery alive.   These are the things that keep life interesting and fresh.   Give it a try!