FREE alternatives to my EXPENSIVE backpacking gear

what is going on everybody my name is Dan Becker welcome back to the channel we talk about hiking backpacking and gear today we're talking about the gear portion of those three items and if you're wondering why I'm wearing a sweatshirt and it is been 80 degrees Fahrenheit here in Wisconsin it's because I spent a little too much time in the Sun okay so I got the world's worst farmer tan and I don't want to put you guys through that and then I also picked a red background I thought that might actually hide my face I don't know if it did but let's just see if another color might do better is that better or is that worse does that make me look like the American flag red white and blue pretty patriotic though hey maybe we should go back to the red color how's that is that better let's just stick with red so it's the beginning of the backpacking season for most people because well things are finally opening up and I've got a trip planned this weekend I cannot wait to go on and then I've got another trip in the middle of June I can't wait to go on super excited about all that stuff and hope you guys are getting to get out on trips finally too and things are finally opening up for you guys let me know in the comments below sort of the status of where you're at whatever country state wherever you guys are backpacking and if things are finally opening up or maybe they've been open this whole time right let's jump right into it this is the gear that you do not need to buy like if you're new to backpacking you definitely don't need to buy this stuff or if you're maybe going once or twice a year or just maybe dipping your toes into backpacking just to see if you like it this is stuff you absolutely 100% do not need to buy you can come up with ways to do this on your own a hundred percent free with the exception of one item it might cost you just like a dollar or two it's really not expensive at all so I'm gonna show you the items that I normally bring backpacking and then I'm going to kind of give you the free alternative for this stuff and hopefully this will save you guys a ton of money as you're starting out this 2020 backpacking season this is the trail runner that I use this is the ultra timp 1.5 those are the trail runners that I normally take with me those are literally the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn in my life they have a really big my wife calls it a duck-billed toe so I'll just show you real quick kind of bows out here on the top and so I don't wear these like unless I'm hiking my wife won't even let me wear these out in public because she says they're like the dorkiest looking shoes ever I don't really care they are super comfortable so I love these shoes and I don't ever get blisters in them I have not had a single blister or a hot spot since I've gotten these shoes so these work for me they may not work for you but they do work for me for a long time I didn't even want these shoes because everybody had them and I hate jumping on bandwagons but I finally caved bottom and I love them so they're awesome but you don't need those shoes you don't need to spend any money on shoes just use the shoes that you've already got at home so the only thing that you need to think about is are they comfortable and do they have enough tread to get me to not slip and fall on trail if you can say yes to those two questions then you're likely gonna be okay wearing whatever Footwear you've got on the trail so that's gear item number one that you don't need to spend a dime on that you 100% do not need to buy alright number two this is the rain jacket that I am finally going to be able to use on a trail I got this a couple months ago this is the RAB phantom this jacket is a very expensive jacket it costs about two hundred and fifty dollars you can find this for around two hundred dollars I bought this for a little bit over $100 and the reason this is so expensive is because it's so lightweight it only weighs a little over three ounces so this is one of the lightest rain jackets on the planet but you don't need to buy something like this see rain jackets sit in your backpack like 99% of the time the only time you're ever gonna bust out a rain jacket is obviously if it's raining or if it's maybe really windy or you just want to kind of break that win oh don't break the wind please are you are you need a windbreaker out on trail maybe as a hard shell or something but for the vast majority of your trip this sits in your pack and there's been several trips I've never even pulled this out so for me I want this to work I want it to be waterproof and I want it to be lightweight because if it's gonna sit in my pack I don't want to think about it it's just dead weight that I end up bringing for a lot of the trips but you don't need to buy this you can get away with going to like a Walmart and going to the camping section you can even get a six pack on Amazon for like less than ten bucks of these rain ponchos now yes they are disposable yes they are very thin plastic but if you bring one or two of them with you it's gonna work just fine for the majority of the backpacking trips out there we're not talking about like mountaineering or extreme weather conditions or anything like that we're just talking about general backcountry camping for the vast majority of people a cheap 99 cent poncho that you can literally buy at Walmart in the camping section is perfect and that's pretty much the one item that you'll have to spend a dollar on like seriously dude a dollar you're worried about a dollar like get over it all right the next item a pillow this is the outdoor vitals pillow I have never used this I just got it sent to me very recently but I will be trying this out this weekend I'm really looking forward to it you don't need to buy one of these though they don't mind me saying that you really don't you don't need to buy a pillow you don't even need to bring a pillow these are super convenient but you could [Music] just use your down jacket you could ball this up you know put it inside of a stuff sack and use it as a pillow you could use your clothing as a pillow you could use something else as a pillow but you definitely don't need to spend money on a pillow now a pillow is probably gonna be a lot more comfortable and for the most parts pillows are really inexpensive you can get them for like as little as 15 bucks but if you're going out for your first or second backpacking trip or you're just trying it out and you're worried about that budget you just want to make sure that you don't spend a ton of money you don't have to worry there's ways to get around using a pillow so gear item number three that you don't have to buy is a pillow okay number four let's talk about stuff sex for a second I have a love-hate relationship with stuff sex I think a lot of times they're kind of useless in most situations but they are helpful for some people because they like to organize that gear and know exactly where it's at and that kind of thing but if you have a backpack that's pretty waterproof like if you have a dynamic back or maybe you're gonna use something else to kind of waterproof your bag you really don't need to bring the stuff sacks you can literally stuff the items that you have in the order that you want to take them out of the pack in your pack so like for instance for me my sleeping bag or my quilt I don't put it inside of any type of a stuff sack at all I literally just take it and shove it down into the bottom of my backpack when I go backpacking and that's it that's what I do if you're worried about water proofing you can just put like a garbage bag inside of your backpack first and then stuff everything inside of that and then kind of tie off the top of the garbage bag and now you've got a waterproof backpack essentially or if you're worried about like a ditty bag and a ditty bag is like where you keep all your duties it's just all the stuff the extra stuff that you bring like your knife maybe in your headlamp maybe and your battery chargers and your cables and your toothbrush or whatever else just bounces around in your backpack you take a ditty bag with you you don't really need to bring even a ditty bag there's a lot of companies that want to sell you it did eBay and I have several ditty bags that I bought and I'm totally for them because I go backpacking a lot but you could just bring a gallon ziplock bag if you want to it's really simple Gailen Ziploc bags actually work decently well you can see through them so you know exactly where everything's at they're waterproof the only problem with them that I found is that they kind of rip easily out in the backcountry so you want to kind of be careful with them a little bit but you don't need to buy that ditty bag you can use a ziplock bag you can stuff stuff down into your backpack you can put your clothes if you want to inside of your sleeping bag and ball that up and put it inside your backpack you can even get rid of your clothing bag if you want to but stuff sacks get rid of them you don't need them for your first couple backpacking trips down the road maybe it's up to you but anyway hope that saves you guys a couple bucks that was gear item number for that you don't need all right number five This Is It this is the last one for this I'm done all right and we just talked about this item on a very recent video I will link that right here or here or I'm just gonna put it it you'll see it it is this here it is a spoon now granted these are really inexpensive you can get this for like eight or nine bucks on Amazon but you can literally check this out on your way to your backpacking trip okay stop it Dairy Queen or stop at a McDonald's or stop somewhere and get a long-handled plastic spoon right after you order your malt or your shake or your blizzard or whatever it is on your way to your backpacking trip and use that instead as a matter of fact ask the person in the drive-through if you can have maybe a spare or two yes they're super disposable yes they'll break easy but guess what if you lose it you won't care if you break it it's not the end of the world and it was a free spoon titanium spoons will cost you ten fifteen dollars this will cost you eight nine bucks a blizzard cost you maybe three four bucks but you got to eat it and you got yourself a free spoon so that's gear item number five that you didn't have to buy for your backpacking trip did you know I have an Instagram I will link it right here for you guys make sure you follow me on Instagram also if you like this video make sure you hit that like button subscribe for more hit the bell notification so that I can send you a video every single time it's released and I will see you on the next one you [Music]

Channel: Dan Becker

Views: 66,074

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Id: 4OK9sPmU7h0

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020