More Backpacking Questions You Might Be Too Embarrassed To Ask

hey y'all dixie here today i'd like to answer some questions that i've received in the comments section of my previous silly questions videos so today's video is going to be kind of a medley type deal where i answer several different questions mainly geared for beginners but even some of you all who have a little more experience might have questions about these same things so you can check the video description for time stamps the first question is about using a cpap on trail and the person asks do you know anybody who has used a cpap on trail and if so could you give us some insight now i don't personally know anybody who has carried a cpap on trail and i haven't myself but i did remember a discussion that went on in the homemade wanderlust backpacking form group on facebook so i referred back to that and it looks like some people found the transcend mini portable cpap useful for using on trail because relatively it was lightweight compared to other options and some folks found that they could use it for up to three nights they also discussed some battery options for charging a cpap while on trail now it looks like online that transcend mini runs about 400 or so but that might be worth it to you if using a cpap is keeping you from getting out on trail also some of the folks discussed that they had a mouthpiece made by a dentist so it's got to be something specifically made for you and by somebody who knows what they're doing but that helped with their issue and they didn't even need a cpap on trail that might be a pricey option as well but again it might be worth it to you and several other people also mentioned that hammocking might help with sleep apnea so those are some things that you could look into and if anyone's interested in joining that facebook group i'm going to put a link to that in the video description there are folks in that group of all walks of life different experiences some people have never been on an overnight backpacking trip and they're just learning and there are a lot of through hikers in that group as well so don't be shy to get in there and ask your questions and you can also use the search bar to find previous posts that have been made on topics that you want to know more about the next question is about trail laundry and how you go about doing that if you hear a backpacker referring to trail laundry they're probably talking about just rinsing their clothing out to kind of freshen it up before they get to a town to do proper laundry in a washing machine so this can just simply be done like it sounds just rinse your clothes out and then hang dry them either on a limb in the sun a rock or maybe even on your pack while you continue hiking now some people would argue that you should not rinse your clothes directly in the water source but folks often go swimming on swimming holes or in creeks while they're hiking to freshen up so in doing this they're getting the same sweat and grime and butt funk and everything else in the water source so my thoughts are if you're gonna rinse your clothing directly in a water source then you want to make sure you're mindful that you're not doing it directly upstream of somebody who's trying to collect their water because that's kind of gross and also if you're using any sort of pesticides like bug spray on you and your clothing then i would definitely recommend staying out of the water source also if you decide you want to use a little bit of soap even if you're using a biodegradable soap you don't want to put that directly in the water source so for those instances i would definitely say to collect your water go 100 feet from the source and then do your laundry there next up is what do females do with their used sanitary napkins while backpacking and the answer is if they're doing it properly then they will pack them out my friend rega used to put hers in an empty peanut butter jar so that it was kept separate from her other trash that way while she was sitting around a group cooking and had her gallon ziploc bag she didn't have to you know have all of that used stuff in sight for everyone else to see you could have like a separate ziploc within your trash gallon size ziploc bag if you wanted to i mean there are several different options but but the main thing is that you're packing them out and not burying them i know in some areas like along the appalachian trail they allow burying toilet paper in the cat hole but you don't want to put pads and tampons in the hole because it's going to take them a long time to break down unlike toilet paper so anyway when it comes to sanitary napkins pack them in pack them out do many women go solo backpacking and the lady who specifically asked this said that she had intended to go out on a thru-hike of the appalachian trail and delayed it because she couldn't find a hiking partner to go with her she has since decided that she no longer wants to wait and she wanted to know if it's more or less fair to tell her family that it's pretty safe out there and that they don't have anything to worry about and the answer is yes there are a lot of women every year who go on a solo through hike of the more popular trails like the appalachian trail pacific crest trail so the truth is that you can head out there on a solo trip but you're not actually going to be alone most of the time unless you choose to be because there are so many people out there chances are even if you're not actively hiking with somebody during the day you're going to have folks who are looking out for you as far as safety goes yes there have been murders on the appalachian trail but relative to any other place in the u.s where three to four million people per year touched that particular area the appalachian trail in my opinion is relatively safe to go for solo travel as a female now if you're a woman or a man who is nervous about going on a solo backpacking trip and you don't have any friends who are interested in going then you can check out resources like meetup.com for your area they may have groups that go out together and then you can get more confident in your abilities before you go on a solo through hike also there may be facebook pages and groups for your particular area where you can meet folks who go out hiking and backpacking and then you can start off your first solo trip just something short and close to home maybe even a mile in from the vehicle stay the night and a mile out until you build up to the idea of being able to do it through hike if that's something that you desire and you don't have anybody to go with you for you ladies who are a bit nervous about going on a solo backpacking trip you should check out the group on facebook all women all trails there is a really good base there of women who are encouraging to one another and some of them have recently been on solo backpacking trips and can probably share some tips that they learned about their experiences the next question is have you seen many men wearing kilts on trail i've heard that it's cooler to do so now i don't know if he's referring to cooler as in the way it looks or cooler as in breezier but either way yes i have seen a handful of men who hike in kilts and obviously i'm not talking about your traditional made out of wool and hand-stitched kilt but something that mimics it that's made out of a more synthetic quick drying material and used in the world of athletics like backpacking etc i asked about this in a post on my facebook page just to kind of get an idea of where folks are getting these athletic kilts and several men suggested sport kilt.com and then there was another fella who used a mountain hardware kilt so i'm sure there are quite a variety of different brands and specifications depending on what you're looking for i've heard there are a couple of benefits to wearing a kilt on trail first of all the fact that yes it is more breathable and breezier so this can help reduce chafing especially in addition to using something like a gold bond powder or body glide for anti-chafing and then of course it makes it easier to go to the bathroom without having to expose yourself quite as much now there aren't only men wearing kilts but there are women who are also wearing kilts or skirts skorts and dresses while they hike one of the skirts that i've heard good things about from the ladies is the purple rain adventure skirt but again i know there are many brands out there and different styles apparently kilts and the like don't bind like shorts and pants when you're going up steep inclines and also they're easy to dress and undress when you're in the closed confines of your shelter how do people find time to take several months or weeks to go do hobbies such as hiking and biking like what about work i feel like this is a case-by-case thing but i only get one day off a week and would love to go for longer hikes so it is a case-by-case basis for sure but i think the main thing is that people who live lifestyles where they're out adventuring a lot that is life to them like they so strongly desire to be out backpacking biking traveling etc that they kind of build their life around that now with that comes for sure some serious sacrifice so i don't think that all of the folks who are out on thru hikes for example are extremely wealthy and they can just afford not to work for six months i think that they give up a lot sometimes that's selling their home sometimes that's only doing seasonal jobs so taking a a big cut and pay from a career to working seasonal jobs like maybe working on ski slopes all winter long and then hiking in the spring and the summer and then going back to doing something seasonal again so it's it's definitely something that can be a big sacrifice for a one-time thing or it can be a lifestyle change but but either way i think the common denominator is these people decided that it was a big enough priority to them that they were gonna make it happen and that might not be that you can go off for a six-month period maybe for you individually that's saving up enough off time at work where you can go one week and that's what you can do but that's okay but most of the people who do something like this it didn't just come easy or they didn't just have this beautiful golden opportunity handed to them they had to really make some sort of big change in their lives to make it happen now i understand that a single parent of five children is probably going to have a difficult time saving up enough money to go on a thru-hike you know let alone getting the time off work or quitting their job to go do it i get that but can't you always do a little bit more than what you're already doing to be happier or to head towards that goal that you have so maybe that mom could take a couple of days of vacation time and take her family camping and from that base camp they go on day hikes during the day you know so i think the biggest thing that i realized at some point in my life is that i didn't want to to live to work i didn't want to just go to work and be miserable monday through friday just to get off and like sit in my pajamas and feel sorry for myself all weekend long while i watch tv and ate ice cream i mean sometimes it's nice to do that but you know i i realized that i wanted more and i wanted to make living a priority but i had an ex-boss tell me that he wanted employees that lived to work and i realized right then that i was definitely the wrong person for that company because life is precious to me and i wanted to make sure that i could enjoy mine to the fullest and thankfully you know i had the opportunity because i didn't have any children or anybody depending on me to to make that lifestyle change when i did but it's never too late for you and it's never certainly too late to head in the direction of where you and it's certainly never too late to start heading in the direction of where you do want to go i think people would be a lot happier as a whole if they would stop focusing on what they can't do and really start putting focus and effort into what they can do my sinuses are not so hot how do you handle blowing your nose on trail do you just blow out one side while holding the other shut this my friends is what we refer to as a snot rocket and me personally i can't say i never have snot rocketed because certainly i have but that's like a last resort for me i prefer to find even a larger leaf as long as i can identify that it's not poison to blow my nose on if i'm just in a predicament but if you find yourself blowing your nose several times throughout the day and you feel like this is going to be an issue for you then i would highly recommend having a bandana or two or three with you you can just tie your bandana to your shoulder strap so it's easily accessible and you don't drop it out of your hip belt pocket or something and then depending on the frequency in which you blow your nose maybe you do some trail laundry rinse it out somewhere and then hang it on your pack to dry and you can always pull out your other dry bandana that way you don't end up causing your nose some like chafing and soreness or it gets raw from rubbing it with a wet bandana and then you can just keep rotating those out as you are on your backpacking trip how do you do river crossings do you just walk right across with your shoes on how easily do they dry do you take your shoes off and try to dry your feet and what do you do if the water crossing is deep and your clothes get wet for the situation of how to cross a river and what footwear to wear i really think it depends on two different factors one how many water crossings are we talking about in a given day and two how blister prone is the individual me personally i'm not very blister prone so regardless if i have one river crossing or 20 i'm probably just going to plow on through because the footwear combination that i use which is trail runners that are very breathable and a thin merino wool sock that is wicking moisture away from my skin anyway then i don't really find any discomfort in having my feet wet in fact if it's hot outside then it's kind of refreshing and if you think about it you're going to deal with the situation of having wet feet if you're backpacking for very long in a downpour also i don't carry additional footwear i don't use camp shoes so i don't have an option of putting something else on i have crossed a river barefooted before when it was freezing cold outside and i didn't want to have wet feet and be freezing cold i don't really recommend that though because you could easily slice your foot open on a rock and need stitches and be in the middle of the wilderness so i'm not saying that you should do that but i'm just saying i have done it before but there are individuals who are extremely blister prone and if they've only got a handful of crossings in a day then it's worth it to them to switch out to water shoes or sandals or something else to do the crossing in and then stop on the other side and do the switcheroo again a word on sandals for me personally i found that my foot slides around in the sandal so i don't feel a stable crossing in sandals as i do in my trail runners now there are some people who backpack all the time in sandals that would probably disagree with me so it really depends on the individual because all of us have different feet now there are areas where it might not matter how blister prone you are if you're crossing water non-stop like for example the gila river area on the continental divide trail in new mexico we cross the gila river over a hundred times in a two day period so i wouldn't have cared how blister prone i was there was no way i could get through there in a reasonable amount of time if i had to stop at every water crossing so for those instances it's not a bad idea to take a break every couple of hours or so and maybe switch out your socks if you're blister prone you might want to carry several pairs of socks if you know your feet are going to be wet a good bit and you can put your shoes and insoles on a rock in the sun and let them dry out a little bit and then just the changing of socks and having your feet dry for just a little while can really help you a lot as far as your clothes getting wet while you're hacking you should be wearing something that you're not really worried about getting wet anyway because it could rain so you could get wet from that and certainly if you're doing a water crossing and you fall in you want to make sure that you're wearing something that's not detrimental if it does get wet i always recommend especially if you're backpacking in cooler temperatures that you have something warm and dry to put on once you get to camp that way if you do get wet during the day from it raining or a river crossing then you've got something that you can be dry in in your sleeping bag so you don't have to worry about hypothermia and if it's pretty cold outside but you're not ready to stop for the day and now you've gotten wet and you're kind of uncomfortable if there's no chance of raining and you're not going to have to do another river crossing you could put on your nighttime clothes that's getting a little risky especially because you don't want to end up sweaty in your clothing and then get in your sleeping bag that's a good way to also get hypothermia another option is you could put on your rain gear on top of your wet clothing at least it's another layer to try to trap some heat in and if you're miserable uncomfortable or you're concerned that your body temperature is getting too low then of course stop as soon as you can and put on that extra set of warm dry clothing what is the etiquette surrounding passing gas while in camp when everyone is separated and can still hear most of what goes on so i'm imagining you know you're camped out around people and you can hear each other shifting around in your tents or putin or coughing or whatever you're doing so this person says do you say excuse me and risk waking anyone up who's asleep or just pretend it didn't happen or that it came from somebody else's tent one of the great things about backpacking is these facades and discomforts that we have tend to fade away and it's the same with putin farting passing gas whatever you want to call it it's a very natural thing for animals to pass gas including us humans so when you're out on trail and you're around somebody for any extended period of time you're both gonna probably have to poot and i found that i was a little worried about this when i started my through hike on the appalachian trail but after being around the same people it just i mean eventually you gotta go and it comes out and people laugh and giggle but eventually you just get over it and i mean i just kind of let them go if i have to do it me and my friend riga used to kind of turn our booties off the side of the trail and we probably still strung it along and made the other person walk through it but we tried to be as respectful as possible i guess but the whole embarrassment thing just kind of fades away and it got to be where i didn't even have to be around somebody for an extended period of time to feel comfortable doing that in front of them i just had to know that they were also a backpacker who was just going to do that you know i mean it's just something that you have to do and it becomes very normal in fact it became so normal to me to just kind of let them rip that when i was through hiking the pacific crest trail i was in town at a shoe store with my friend perk and i bent over to tie a shoe that i was trying on and the sales lady was right there and one just kind of came on out and i didn't really even think about i should be embarrassed about it until i heard perk kind of giggle and i saw the look on the lady's face she didn't say anything you know she just kind of tried to act like she didn't hear it um but it was taking a lot of effort and i was like yeah i forgot that people in the real world don't just do things like this in front of each other and they think it's kind of rude so all of that to say that something that i was concerned about became very normal to me so i guess from the beginning you'll just do what feels right to you know if you hear enough people kind of moving around and you feel a need to say excuse me then go for it chances are people are probably going to snicker when you do that but i really think that you'll find it just becomes something that's very natural because it is don't push too hard for real though all right y'all well that is all i have for you today if you have a question that wasn't answered in today's video then i'll put the link to some of my other q and a's that i've done in the video description or you can leave your question in the comments below and i'm sure that myself or somebody in this community who's got some experience will be happy to answer your question thank you all so much for watching don't forget to subscribe before you go and we will see you all next time

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 71,683

Rating: 4.9689016 out of 5

Keywords: travel, hiking, backpacking, hike, gear, adventure, fun, story, Appalachian, Trail, PCT, CDT, thru-hike, Auburn, Alabama, epic, climbing, canyon, national, nature, mountains, update, park, lake, trail, tents, camping, summer, University, Aubie, River, stream, Mountains, National, Scenic, Dixie, Camino

Id: FyHUpOuXNoU

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2020