Beginner Backpacking Questions You Might Be Afraid To Ask

hey all Dixie here today I'd like to do another silly questions video I know some of y'all who watch this channel are members of the homemade wanderlust backpacking form group on Facebook but for those of y'all who aren't familiar with what I'm talking about occasionally I'll make a post in that group and encourage people who have some sort of question that they've been wondering but have been a little intimidated to ask because they think that it might be a silly question and then myself or some of the other members and they're like thirty thousand plus now so all sorts of levels of backpacking experience and surely somebody in there knows the answer to their questions I do this because some people like to act like they were born an expert at whatever their thing is and the same is true in the backpacking world but all of us begin everything as beginners and last time I checked you know toddlers don't get criticized for not being born potty-trained so it's a good idea to just remember that you started as a beginner no matter what activity that you enjoy doing and other people want to learn to enjoy those activities too so you got to offer my hand as they're making their way up all so anyway here are some of the most recent silly questions when hiking lays a bear canister do you keep your food in it the whole time you're hiking with it or only when camping at night the purpose of a bear canister like the purpose of a food bag is to have some sort of receptacle to store your food while it's unattended for example while you are in camp and sleeping at night that way bears don't learn to associate humans with food because obviously that would be a bad thing and when Bears start to do that they're often using eyes now it is said that even when food bags are hung properly in some areas bears have learned to harvest them and then that leaves you in a bad situation because you're now in this potentially long stretch of trail with no food so that's where sometimes requirements for a bear can comes in because they have not yet learned how to break into a bear canister at least from what I've heard you would basically follow the same rules with your bear can as you would if you were hanging a bear bag I personally like to have snacks easily accessible usually in my hip belt while I'm hiking that way I can munch while I'm moving the trail other people like my friend perked prefer to sit down and take designated breaks so for him it wouldn't be that big of a deal to keep his food etc in his feed bag or his bear can and the convenient thing about bear cans if he strapped them to the top of your pack is that you don't have to go and open your whole pack and dig down in there to get access to food because boom it's right there on the top so no you are not required to keep your food in a bear can at all times just because you're in an area that requires you to carry a bear canister if you sleep in a hammock how do you change your clothes in privacy privacy what is privacy on the trail I'm just kidding this is actually a pretty good question one that I did not consider before deciding to make a rain fly out of clear plastic painters drop cloth to use over the hammock that I started with on the Appalachian Trail which in itself was just kind of a mess of a setup so I managed to just change while I was in my hammock you know I would just pull I change the clothes in there with me and kind of you know curl up like a burrito in the hammock and and do the best I could that's not the most comfortable or easy way to do it so some of the ham occurs in the forums said that what they do is they either stake their tarp or rain fly real close to the ground on one side so they've got a bit of privacy and some other said that they'll just drop one side of the tarp while they're changing in the evening or in the morning to allow for a little bit more privacy either way if you've got folks camping around you I mean at any given time somebody could cut off through the woods to go hang their food bag or to go use the restroom so it might be a good idea that if there are people within close proximity you could just say to them like hey guys I got to change real quick if you don't mind don't come over here unless you want to see the full moon in the daylight do many many people go on a thru-hike without their spouses yes I have met several married people who were solo hiking some of the spouses are able to follow in an RV and kind of help them out along the way I've also met some people whose spouses weren't able to do all that because they had a full-time job back at home but they were able to take some vacation days and meet their spouse on the trail somewhere and they either took a mini vacation in a town while the hiker took a few zeros or something to that effect I even met some people who started early enough to give themselves time to go home for a family event or just a visit home I feel like that could be a little more dangerous because if you're really really missing your family and you go home for a visit then you might end up staying there because it could be real easy to get back home and say I've missed everybody and I'm real comfortable but you know then then maybe you got what you needed out of the hike anyway I would say though that having a supportive spouse would definitely be very important because you're gonna have days where you may not have service and might not be able to communicate unless you have a GPS device that allows you to do so but I think being able to plan some meetups and and communicate as much as possible makes for a successful trip even for folks who are married whose spouses cannot join them there's an eerie feeling of being outdoors fade yes I think for some people it might take a bit longer than others for myself I grew up playing hide and seek in the woods and as I got older I would go dirt road riding I would sit down on dirt roads and study for final exams because I didn't have the distractions of being in the library or you know at the computer lab at school so I spent a lot of time outdoors growing up for somebody who did not I could see how things could be a little bit more eerie especially at night when you're backpacking alone and you don't have the luxury of just hopping in a vehicle and going somewhere if you choose to however I think that it could be compared to maybe the nervousness of starting a new job or anything where you're putting yourself into a new situation where you're not familiar with it and eventually over time it becomes very very normal and you thought why was that ever nervous about this in the first place and for myself that's kind of how backpacking got and especially camping alone it just became like second nature to me but at our roots the wilderness is really where we come from the way that we live today in buildings and structures and and really the society of convenience is relatively new in the span of the time of humans existing so over time I think it'll become more of a very natural thing to be out there and experience the wilderness and it should feel less eerie I do think it's important for people to continue to put themselves in situations where they are uncomfortable not necessarily a dangerous situation but whether that's speaking in front of a group or learning a new skill but just kind of putting ourselves out there and getting comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable because I think that in those situations we grow the most for the ladies how do you not pee on your boots when you have to go out in the bush and I assume that the person who asked this question is probably from Australia because they usually refer to it as the bush first of all I would say having a wide squat will help some making sure that your feet aren't right under you as you continue to do this your legs will get stronger also gravity is your friend I like to face uphill if I can now I'm not saying squat on an extremely steep hill but just having a little bit of grade will help so not peeing on flat ground and you want to face uphill so that way the pee hits down and runs downhill behind you that way it's not puddling up at your feet while you're going I've never tried peeing sitting on a log I know some people like to go number two sitting on the edge of a log I would say you would want to find a narrow log if you try to do this or a narrow down tree and make sure that you kind of angle your backside back instead of you know kind of leaning forward and hunching over because then you're liable to just shoot pee on your feet like that anyway also they have devices that help women pee while they're standing up so they don't have to worry about squatting down there are some called the piece style the Shewee etc I've heard that you might have to try a few different kinds before you find one that's really compatible with you but for when I understand you can just unzip your pants place the pee device in place and you can pee without having to take your pack off or anything like that of course you'd have to have the device easily accessible on your pack somewhere to be able to do it without having to take your pack off what I've done personally is just try to do my best but I accept that sometimes I'm going to splatter a little bit on my shoes and if you pay attention to when a lot of ladies go to the restroom and come back to a group they probably go a little bit on their shoes to curious how do you pack for plane travel do you carry on anything some people do carry on their pack I like to have trekking poles and I've never tried to carry trekking poles on the plane but from what I know that's a no-no you have to check them so I just put my pack and my trekking poles and everything in a bigger bag I gotta use duffel bag from Goodwill for about five dollars so I felt good about reusing something and then I put all my stuff in there flew in it and when I got to my destination I just tossed the bag it was kind of tattered and starting to tear up anyway you could go with some sort of collapsible bag that's easy to stuff into a box and always mail it back to yourself if you choose to or mail it to yourself general delivery at that post office if you aim to return to the same place and fly out of the same Airport and that way you can repack it again and then go back home with it another hiker mentioned that they talked to the airlines and from what they explained to this hiker they said that anything that's inside your luggage is covered by their loss or damage policy but the luggage itself is not so if you end up checking your pack just the way it is or I guess even if you were to carry on I don't know exactly how it might get damaged like that but the bag itself is not protected so if you're gonna check your stuff then for sure I would recommend putting it all inside of a duffel that way none of the straps or anything that's kind of flopping around gets hung up and ends up torn up and then not covered by the airlines but this could vary among airlines so I would say the safe way to go is the pack at all and a bigger duffel but if you're gonna check the bag like it is and I would check with Airlines and see what their policy is on that if you're hiking in micro spikes is it stupid to not be caring and a sex does one go with the other it really depends on the trail it is not a necessity that just because you have micro spikes that you have to have an ice axe you could be on a trail that's just asked over but there aren't any real steep climbs you're not on the edge of anything dangerous where you might have to self arrest and therefore micro spikes would be just so you're not slipping around on the ice while you're trying to walk down the trail so for example one day I'd a hiked from Newfound Gap to Charlie's bunion and back and I needed my crow spikes but nowhere in that stretch that I need an ass X because again I wasn't in an area where if I slipped and fell I would have to self arrest to save my life and that's the purpose of an ass axe is in that horrible emergency situation where you are falling down a steep slope and it's going to mean life or death unless you self arrest then that's what those are for so just make sure that you research the trail that you're going on and if you do find yourself approaching an area where you think that it might be necessary to self arrest if you were to fall if you do not have an a sex it would be a good idea to go ahead and turn it back around and head back to the trailhead but of course it would be best if you can find out ahead of time and know what you're getting yourself into before you get out there how much TP is too much and how much is not enough well as I always say we pack our fears on a serious note the trail really taught me to conserve toilet paper when you're out on the trail and you really learn to carry only what you need it kind of teaches you how wasteful you might actually be so for myself personally everybody's a little different it depends on you know how clean your backside is we need to use the restroom for myself I generally do three reps around my hand per day and then I add on a couple of extra days just in case I also use baby wipes so you know I might start with toilet paper but I make sure to finish up with baby wipes so keep that in mind because if you're only using toilet paper you may use more some people will use a rock a stick moss or some sort of other thing they find on the ground to do the first wiping to get you know the bulk of it off and then kind of clean up with toilet paper or baby wipes in the end some people even just take a whole roll of toilet paper they'll pull out the inner cardboard tube mash down the rest of the roll and stick it in a ziploc bag I don't usually do this but sometimes that's the easiest way just by a single roll in town and if you're on a long-distance backpacking trip then just use it until you run out and you get a new roll but if you do find yourself in a pinch and you have soap on trail you could always do use water in your hand and then make sure you wash your hands real well afterwards I've also used like moss growing on a tree when I ran out of toilet paper I only ran out one time it is an unfortunate situation and not a comfortable place to be in but you learn as you go and if that happens and next time you'll definitely address so that it doesn't happen again just make sure if you use something that you found out on the ground that it's not poison ivy poison oak etc can you take bear spray into the u.s. from Canada I couldn't find anything definitive as far as the u.s. saying that they do not permit people to bring bear spray across the Canadian US border however I did find something from Canada saying that generally they don't allow any type of mace or pepper sprays because that's considered a weapon but the exception is if it is intended for animals and it specifically states set on the label and I'll include a link in the video description of this video if you want to read more about what they allow and what they don't allow this information is from 2016 so I assume that that's current enough for now of course if you take that risk and then they tell you no then you've wasted 40 dollars so because I'm not absolutely positive about bringing it from Canada into the US then the safest route would be to order it on Amazon and have it delivered general delivery at a post office at your destination town or you could always buy it in the area that you're gonna go if you're gonna be hiking in bear country a lot of times gas stations hardware stores anything that's around a town that's known for backpacking and spending time outdoors they're likely gonna have it no it's all of that said I have successfully and without any issue carried my bear spray from the u.s. into Canada and then from Canada to the US and we told them at the border that we had it but they didn't give us any problems with it at all I don't even know that the US side asked us when we came from Canada back into the US now this is for driving across the border because flying with bear spray is a big no-no accidentally had my bear spray on me in an Airport one time and I had to toss it when I went through security I just forgot that it was in there but they definitely caught it has anyone done it through hike while on prescribed injections that are more controlled I have to do one injection on my thigh every week and I'm wondering about logistics of this while on trail I don't have any personal experience with this but another hiker chimed in and said that he is currently doing a 1200 mile section on the PCT right now and he does have to have daily injections what he did is he went to the kitchen store I assume that's a chain I've never heard of it before but I assume that you could find them on Amazon and he got a plastic box that's meant for holding saltine crackers and I believe that he stored his injections in there and maybe even the used syringes but he said that he's found a lot of campgrounds that have the sharps containers for proper disposal and I'm sure if you hit a town while on a thru-hike if they have some sort of urgent care or something like that they would probably let you drop your sharps I don't know this for sure so you might want to check ahead of time but I assume that if they're disposed of properly somewhere that would be encouraged not you know discouraged when I saw this question I felt like this might be an opportunity for me to chime in if somebody didn't want to carry all of their injections and they had some way of accessing them if they were at least able to get to a town once a week then one less convenient option might be to leapfrog yourself if you have two different vehicles now of course this is going to be a potentially more expensive option but I saw somebody doing this on the Appalachian Trail and it could help somebody get out there and do a thru-hike who might not otherwise be able to just because they hadn't even thought of this idea so what a fella that I met out there did is he got somebody to help him to get two cars to spring around Georgia so the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and then he drove up to a dirt road somewhere some access point where you can get a car to the trail and then he hiked south to the first vehicle and then he leapfrogged up and then would hike south again to this vehicle so he was in a northbound direction going up the trail but he hiked southbound each day and the reason that this works better for people who need to be in town more often I would say everyone - probably three days max and and maybe even potentially less than that is because there are a lot of access points on Appalachian Trail it's just that not a whole lot of folks are coming through there so it makes hitchhiking to town from those access points difficult or sometimes probably even impossible but if you are leapfrogging yourself and you can get in there then you know you're able to get places that you wouldn't otherwise get a ride and you can find these different parking areas either in the a wall 80 guide or in gut hook which is an app that you can get on a smartphone are the mile markers that were made out of sticks and stones on the ATP CT and CDT already there or did you make them the answer is both most of the ones on the 80 if not all of them I think maybe only one on the AC I had to make because everybody that came before me made them and they were really excited about celebrating those hundred mile markers on the Pacific Crest Trail I made probably half of the ones that you see in my videos and then on the CDT I would say most of those if not all of them I made it just seemed like people weren't quite as excited I guess because the CDT is such a create your own adventure trail that it's kind of hard to track the exact miles you do so I think they just kind of let that go but I just made markers for the official mileage on the actual trail if I happen to be on it for a hundred mile marker on the CDT if Tyvek is waterproof and robust why aren't loads of tents being produced from it the short answer is Tyvek is heavier it doesn't pack down as well and it's also a lot noisier although with time as you use the Tyvek and kind of rough it up it does get softer and less noisier just to give you an idea about the weight tie back is about 1.9 ounces per square yard and this is the construction grade Tyvek that you see when people are building homes and other buildings still not aligned however depending on the denier number but it roughly runs about 1.4 ounces per square yard you will see many people using Tyvek as a ground cloth though it's just pretty durable and functions well and it's a lot cheaper than buying a proper footprint for attendance actually is another version of Tyvek that is softer and more breathable and it's usually used in clothing and tark tent did make a tent out of this for a little while but it was considered highly water-resistant instead of actually waterproof and for a shelter that you're taking out on the trail in my opinion that's kind of problematic but to each his own and I did actually see instructions for making a tarp tent out of the construction grade Tyvek so if you're interested to check that out I'll put that link in the video description also but I'm curious if any of y'all have made any kind of shelter out of time back I'd love to hear about that in the comments alright y'all well that is all I have for you today if any of the more experienced folks in this community would like to add anything to the answers that I gave to some of these questions please feel free to do that in the comments below also if you have any questions that you feel kind of silly about asking go ahead and do that in the comments below because chances are other people are wondering the same thing so hopefully either I will have an answer for you or again maybe some other folks who are more experienced in this community thank y'all for watching today and if you found this video helpful or you enjoy the content of this channel don't forget to subscribe before you go thank y'all again and we will see y'all next time [Music]

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 112,756

Rating: 4.9758658 out of 5

Keywords: Backpacking, hiking, thru-hiking, travel, toilet paper, bears, bear spray, bear canister, Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, pct, cdt, outdoors, border, fly, airport, hammock, gear, tyvek

Id: bAJLNT0aEws

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 24 2019