Budget Backpacking Gear for Beginners

what's going on guys it's paul here and i did a video last year covering an ultralight backpacking setup and that video was primarily targeted at those of you that you've been backpacking for a little bit now you're ready to drop some pack weight and you're looking for maybe cheaper alternatives to the expensive more industry standard ultralight gear that's out there well thanks to the law of diminishing return what i have here is a backpacking setup that is a few pounds heavier but at less than half the cost so this video is going to be more for those of you that are just starting out backpacking you know you don't want to carry 50 pounds on your back but you're also working within a tighter budget and you don't have anyone nearby where you can easily borrow gear if that's you then stick around i'm going to go through this entire pack and everything within it it's not going to be the perfect gear for every person in every region but it will at least give you a good starting point so let's get right into it and first of all everything that you see here packed up in this bag comes out to a base weight of 14.8 pounds now if you're not really sure what the difference between base weight and total weight is i'm going to discuss that at the very end of this video so getting into the gear the pack that i chose for this setup is the backpack that i started with over nine years ago i have since upgraded but it held up really well for me for a couple of years so it's what i'm recommending it is the teton sports hiker it weighs in at 3.75 pounds and you can find it on amazon for about 85 dollars now the backpack is the first of what's known as the big three sometimes you'll hear backpackers refer to their big three and what that's referring to is your backpack your sleeping bag and your shelter it's called the big three because that's often going to be the three heaviest items in your setup as well as the three most expensive so you'll get kind of an overview of the bag as i go through and start unpacking things i'll start up here in this hood and the first thing i'll pull out is the first aid kit now this is something that you can really easily just assemble with things that you probably already have at home so this is a sandwich bag filled with things like band-aids neosporin some tape allergy tablets ibuprofen some gauze cough drops tweezers for most backpacking trips where you're going to be on a well-established trail and only a couple of hours from help this is really all that you're going to need i know that if you go to some of these outdoor stores you're going to see these big fancy first aid kits but a lot of the stuff in those kits is unnecessary especially if you don't have the proper medical training on how to use the things in those kits then it's really just going to be dead weight so i'll set that off to the side and the next thing that i have in this pocket is the ultra pod connected to a phone adapter so i mentioned this in the last video absolutely not a necessity but if you want to get pictures and videos with your phone this is a great way to do it the little tripod you can set on the ground you can strap it using the velcro strap to a tree you can strap it to a trekking pole and use it as a selfie stick it's just a great way to document your trip and the two of these together come in at 3.4 ounces the ultra pod you can find for about 15 and the phone mount usually runs for nine to ten dollars so that's everything that i have in this pocket right now but that's typically where i would also carry my snacks so the next thing that i'll go through is what i have in this hip belt pocket this pack only has a pocket on this one side of the hip belt but what i'm going to keep down here is anything small that i want to be able to easily access without taking the pack off so i have things like chapstick sunscreen not bug spray i've actually been trying these off botanicals bug wipes i've only used them on the last couple of trips but they seem to be working pretty well so far so i keep two of those wipes inside this pocket hand sanitizer since it's finally becoming available again and my gerber dime multi-tool i have talked about this before as well absolutely love this little multi-tool it has a screwdriver pliers scissors tweezers and of course a knife and oftentimes this is the only knife that i'll take similar to what i was saying about the first aid kit unless you're doing something like bushcrafting or going well off trail and trying to blaze your own trail you really don't need your giant fixed blade crocodile dundee knife something like this is perfectly sufficient and really i use the the scissors way more often than i do the knife anyway so the gerber dime weighs in at just 2.3 ounces the price fluctuates a little bit but typically you can find it for between 15 and 20 dollars i'll zip that up and next move on to the outside pockets where i would carry water simple life water or smart water bottles are perfectly fine these are the 700 milliliter just because it's what i had left over from my previous trip typically i would say you probably want to carry a total of at least two liters of water so get the two one liter versions but either way smart water bottles work really well you can just stick them down in the side pockets and you're good to go the only other thing that i have on the outside pocket is over here these are my tent poles i'm going gonna get into the tent in a few minutes so i won't talk about that right now next this pack has two zippered pockets i will first open this one where i have just my water filter so this is the sawyer mini i did a video just recently where i compared six different water filters and while this one does not have the fastest flow rate at its price and size you really cannot beat the sawyer mini so it comes in at 2.4 ounces with the included squeeze bag and you can find it for 20 dollars next on the other zippered pocket i have toilet paper something else you're finally able to find at the store again just keeping that in a ziploc bag to keep it waterproof then we have the classic orange poop scoop shovel trowel whatever you want to call this you can find these for four dollars and it weighs 1.8 ounces and the only other thing that i have in this pocket are my six tent stakes so with that i'll move on to talk about the tent now this bag has this compartment down here at the bottom which is typically called a sleeping bag compartment i don't think i have ever kept a sleeping bag down here primarily because when i get to camp typically the first thing that i'm going to do is set up my shelter so i want that to be the first thing that i'm able to pull out of the bag so i keep my tent down here in the bottom instead of a sleeping bag because you're going to want to set up your tent before you pull out your sleeping bag anyway i will unzip this and pull out the rain fly and then the rest of the tent now the tint that i ended up choosing for this setup is the ozark trail one person hiker tent which comes in at 4.1 pounds that's for everything that's the tent the rain fly the tent poles and the stakes and it sells for thirty dollars now let's talk about this tent for a second because i can already foresee the comments about me recommending an ozark trail tent the reason i went with this is first of all because similar to the backpack this tent was my first backpacking tent that i purchased nine years ago and the reason i went with it at the time is because well a thirty dollar tent was really all that i could afford now i did a lot of research before doing this video to see if i could find any other good options around that same price range and what i will say is that for thirty dollars you will not find a better tent than this tent now of course the tent does have its downsides first of all that it's 4.1 pounds which is on the heavier side for a backpacking tent secondly it doesn't have the best ventilation especially with the rain fly on so you're more likely to get some condensation build up on the inside of your tent and thirdly it is a walmart tent and a lot of people for one reason or another just don't like walmart they're not known for making the most top of the line gear but for thirty dollars unless you can find some super deal on some used gear you really cannot beat it from all of my research what i found was that once you move into the 100 to 120 range there are some other tents that are a little bit nicer and i'll still link those below if you want to check them out but if you're working with a tight budget the ozark trail tent i think is a good option now i'll zip this up and one thing that i'll show you as a quick little tip is this bag and a lot of backpacks have just a lot of straps hanging off of them so one thing that you can do so that you don't have a ton of straps just hanging all over the place for some of the straps like these down here at the bottom that i'm not really going to adjust that often i put a zip tie around the the excess but for some of these that i may need to adjust from time to time i got some velcro straps rolled up the excess and just put a velcro strap around it kind of keeps the bag a little more condensed to keep you from having any loose straps hanging all over the place so with that said i will open this up and the first thing is on the inside of this hood i know i talked about the pocket on the outside the top earlier there's another pocket on the inside and this is where i'm going to keep first of all the headlamp now if you follow this channel you know that i love my nightcore nu20 headlamp which sells for about thirty dollars and that's pretty good as far as head lamps go but if you're looking for something even cheaper this is the fox ellie usb rechargeable headlamp it weighs only 2.6 ounces and sells for just 12 dollars it's also ipx5 waterproof so a lot of similarities as far as features to the nightcore just a little bit heavier and not quite as bright the next thing that i have in this pocket is my essentials bag so this is another ziploc sandwich bag that has some basic things like toothbrush toothpaste some soap some tape a little repair patch for my sleeping pad i have some kleenex and i also have this emergency poncho i mentioned this poncho on the other video and i think some people got the idea that i was recommending you take this as your only rain protection but no this is an emergency poncho so it's for emergency situations if the weather is forecasting even a chance of rain when i'm backpacking then i'm going to take some other rain gear and i'll talk about that later on in this video this i'm going to take even if the forecast is absolutely no rain i'll probably leave my big poncho at home just to save a little bit of weight but in the mountains the weather can change really quickly so it's good to have this on hand just in case another tip and a good reason for carrying one of these is that if your rain fly say you get a hole in it that's larger than what a little piece of tape will cover or if you just get a leak in your rain fly the waterproof coating can wear off over time so if it's raining and you notice a leak in your tent you can pull this out drape it over your tent it'll get you through the night it'll be the best dollar that you've ever spent and then when you get home you can work on a more permanent fix overall for whatever it is 1.8 ounces or something like that it's well worth carrying one of these so that is everything that is up in the hood next we'll finally get into the main compartment of the bag by undoing this clip and then there are two very long drawstrings when there's no extra gear up here so you undo those and now we have access into the main compartment of the bag the very first thing in the top here is my food bag there's no food in it because we're just talking about base weight right now but this is a bag from outdoor products you can get these they come in a set of three and it's three different sizes as ten dollars for the set i've been using this set for a long time and it's held up really well and the only thing that i have in this bag right now is my long-handled spoon which you can also get from walmart i promise walmart did not sponsor this video but you can get this long-handled spoon for less than a dollar like 85 cents and it works really well especially if you're eating the freeze-dried meals because it's long enough to dig down and scoop up the food without having to stick your hand into the bag the other thing that i'm going to carry in my food bag at all times is a gallon ziploc bag this is the trash bag you should always carry a trash bag with you so you can pack out your trash so i'll set that off to the side and the next thing that i'll pull out i don't know if you can see this back here this bag has a sleeve that is for a hydration bladder but instead what i keep right there is this foam sit pad i've cut off this little probably one foot by two foot section from what is a long foam roll pad that you get at walmart again for about ten dollars and this is what i use at camp as my sit pad you can use it as a kneeling pad it's a closed cell foam so it's waterproof it's just really handy little thing to have and this section weighs just barely over an ounce so that's really handy to have now one extra tip that i'll show you this is a larger section because i've cut multiple sit pads out of this one but if all you do is cut that little sit pad from this foam roll then you'll still have a very large pad left if you want to you can carry that with you and the best way to carry it would be to roll it around like that you're going to before you put anything else in the pack shove that down in the pack and let it unroll to kind of line the inside of the pack by doing that you add an extra little protective layer of your gear in the pack and is taking up almost no space you could still take this to put underneath your sleeping pad to add a little bit of extra insulation and a little bit of extra padding now next inside the pack everything else that is remaining inside this pack is inside one of these compactor bags so this is similar to a trash bag these compactor bags are a little bit thicker so they're a little more heavy duty for example i have used this bag on the last three or four trips so it's still holding up well this is a 20 gallon bag and i'm just using it as a pack liner basically it's an extra waterproof barrier so even if i were to get the bag wet somehow i know that everything that's inside of this bag like my sleeping bag everything inside of here is going to stay dry so i'll pull this down to the side and the very first thing inside of this bag that i'll pull out is my clothing bag this blue bag that it's in is one of the others in the set with the yellow one that i showed you a few minutes ago this is what i'm keeping my clothing in and right now for any trip that i would be taking right now in the middle of summer here in georgia the only extra clothing that i'm going to carry is an extra pair of socks and an extra pair of undies so unless it's cold enough where you're hiking that you need to carry an extra insulating layer you really don't need to carry anything extra except for socks and underwear i know you're thinking by the end of a long day of hiking i'm going to smell terrible yes but the next day you're probably going to be hiking again and 10 minutes into that hike you're going to smell terrible again so just cut out that extra weight so setting that off to the side the next thing in this pack i'll go with the cook set if you saw my last video you know that i like to wrap my cook set in a bandana and the reason that i do that is so that when i'm cooking i can set the bandana on the ground and i have a nice clean space to set down things like my stove container or my spoon or whatever i have a nice clean space to set things which is really helpful inside the bandana is this stainless steel cup pot has a capacity of 18 ounces weighs only five ounces and costs only five dollars the handles fold in to save space nice little cup for five dollars next what i carry inside that cup is the stove this is the 10 ish amazon stove i did a video recently comparing this to the brs stove which is a few dollars more brs stove is a little nicer so you can check out the video if you want to know more info about these but for the price this thing lasted me for many many years and you really can't beat it so check that out if you're interested and the next thing inside this bag is the sleeping pad this particular pad is from a brand called g for free but it seems like there are several sellers on amazon that sell the same type of pad it weighs in at just 15.6 ounces and the price tends to fluctuate a little bit but typically you can find it for about 20 this is an inflatable sleeping pad and one of the things i really like about it is that it has a built-in pillow so that's one less thing that you have to worry about one less thing you might forget at home and you don't have to worry about your pillow sliding around at night now this is an uninsulated sleeping pad so it's not going to be ideal for the colder months but one of the things that will help with that is having a synthetic sleeping bag and that happens to be the next thing that's inside this bag down in the bottom is this sleeping bag this is the kelty cosmic synthetic 40. so this is a 40 degree sleeping bag but they also sell the same one in a 20 degree version and a zero degree version they also have them in a long and a regular this one is the 40 degree long version it weighs in at 45 ounces or two pounds 13 ounces and it sells for a hundred dollars as you can see the bag comes with this compression sack so you can really compress the bag down it'll fit a lot better in your backpack that way the shell is a 20d nylon so it's a very soft comfortable bag i've been pretty happy with it so that is everything that's inside the bag now let's talk about some of the optional weather dependent items first of all being rain gear as i mentioned earlier if there is even a chance of rain predicted for my trip then i'm going to take more than just that emergency poncho that's where this comes in this is the frogtogs ultralight 2 poncho this thing weighs only 8.2 ounces and you can typically find it for about 10 the reason that i sometimes choose to go with a poncho instead of a rain jacket is that with a poncho and this is a one size fits all so it's fairly large it's got a good bit of room the good thing about that is that when you put it on you can put it on over you and over your pack even though you have that pack liner inside to keep your gear dry it's nice to have this covering the entire pack so things like the padding in the shoulder straps and the hip belt do not absorb water and now let's talk about gear for when the temperature begins to drop now all of your gear but especially your clothing is going to be very very dependent on where and when you're hiking so everything that i initially had in this pack outside of the food and water of course is basically everything that i would need about six months out of the year here in georgia in other parts of even the u.s that is not the case and you're going to need some cold weather gear so ultimately talking about cold weather gear could be an entire video series in itself but just to kind of get the bases covered what i'm going to carry living here in georgia if the temperature begins to drop like i said you might want to take a base layer an insulating layer the other thing that i'm always going to go to is some type of beanie or hat something that's going to keep your head warm and then we get into down jackets now of course you do not have to use a down jacket in fact there are some scenarios like if you're in a lot of snow or where it's really wet you may be even better off with something synthetic but the benefit of down is that it packs down so small so this is just another budget option for you to look into this is the down jacket i've been using for a while it's from a brand called 32 degrees it's a little puffy down jacket and you can find these on amazon for just 30. this is a good option for you to look into it's worked well for me especially for the price so with all of that gear covered if you're wondering why my water bottles were empty or why there was no food in the bag that is the difference between total weight and base weight total weight would be the entire weight of the backpack and everything in it on your back when you hit the trail so that's going to include water and food all of that good stuff base weight on the other hand which is what is more frequently used when discussing backpacking weights is your pack and everything in your pack except consumables so that's going to exclude your water your food and your fuel and the reason for that is that those consumables that food fuel and water the amount of those things that you need to take on a trip will vary dramatically depending on where you're hiking when you're hiking and how long of a trip you're taking in fact the weight of those things is going to vary throughout the course of your hike so instead of total weight because it varies so much typically base weight is a much easier metric to compare so if you've received any value from watching this video please give it a thumbs up it really helps out the channel you can also subscribe if you'd like to see more of my content in the future thank you so much for watching and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: GearTest Outdoors

Views: 353,973

Rating: 4.9454918 out of 5

Keywords: Gear, Test, GearTest, Geartest.tv, Backpacking, Kayaking, Hiking, Hunting, Camping, Outdoor, Canoeing, Canoe, Kayak, Light, Ultralight, Food, DIY, Weight, Snacks, Camp, Low, AT, Appalachian, Trail, Overnight, Weekend, How, To, Review, Wilderness, tech, sony, wildlife, 4K, Survival, Backpack, ULTRALIGHT, ultra, UL, budget, cheap, hiking, stove, amazon, fuel, comparison, titanium, picnic, burner, thru, hike, thruhike, Beginner, Budget, New, Hiker, Backpacker, First, Tent, Sleeping, Pad, Bag, Pack, Lightweight, Cheap, Starter, Teton, Kelty, Cosmic, Hike, Water, Filter

Id: V-N-GJjywLA

Length: 23min 19sec (1399 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 15 2020