My Budget Backpacking Gear List (Plus Tips to Save More Weight And Money)

hey y'all dixie here today i want to share with you a budget gear setup that i had intended on taking out with me during a stretch of my pen hoodie chill thru hike and i still aim to once it's safe to get back out there but the gear that i've included in this list i feel is quality enough that i'm willing to take it in the woods out on a backpacking trip and i feel like it would hold up for anybody else who was doing so and and i really made this list with the person in mind who is just getting into backpacking and doesn't want to spend an arm and a leg on the fanciest gear they just kind of want to feel things out but for less than 500 i feel like somebody could really get into this with some decent gear first things first let's start off with the big three if you're not familiar with what that is that just means your shelter your pack and your sleeping bag usually those are the items that are gonna be the heaviest but they're also three very essential items the shelter that i've chosen for this budget list is the nature hike vic 1 tent that's a 15 denier nylon one person tent it already comes seam sealed it comes with aluminum tent poles eight stakes and a ground cloth this tent like most one-person tents only has one door but once i climbed on the inside i thought it was pretty cool because it actually has i guess what i'd call one and a half vestibules because of course there's the vestibule where you enter the tent but on the other side you actually have access to that space from inside the tent so i thought that was pretty neat this tent is technically a single wall tent because it doesn't have a separate rain fly from the inner body but the door is made out of mesh also there is mesh where i was talking about the the half vestibule and then there are two skylights on the top of the tent which i really thought was so neat so you can just prop up this little post and it velcros to open up the vent or you can close them down so if you're really getting a gully washer rain storm coming in and you don't want to take any chances of getting wet then you can shut those down the setup for this tent wasn't bad and there are actually some instructions that come on a little tag that's sewn inside the stuff sack for the tent and i really liked how there were these little twisty hooks that you attach the tent to the tent poles i don't know it's different than anything i had seen before i guess i'm easily amused total weight for this tent is 43.6 ounces and that includes the stakes the stuff sacks all of that but i was able to shave off an ounce by ditching two of the tent stakes a little compression band that came around the body of the tent i just didn't find that necessary even after packing up the tent and then the stuff sack for the ground cloth i just crammed in the stuff sack with the body of the tent inside that larger stuff sack so just getting rid of those few little things 42.6 ounces is the total weight and the cost of this tent is 122. before i move on i just want to say that there are some more lightweight tint options for about the same price for example the lan chan one that i reviewed a while back would be a much more lightweight option at about 29 ounces but this tent is freestanding so trying to think from the perspective of a beginner this tent will set up and even if you can't stake it out perfectly you're not really going to have to stress about it where the landshane you'd have to have trekking poles it's not freestanding it takes a little bit more finesse so depending on your skill level you might feel more comfortable going with the land shannon saving weight but for a free standing tent that i feel like is a good option for beginners i think this is a good place to start for my pack i went with the 3f ul gear water resistant pack it's a pretty inexpensive pack for what you get it's made out of nylon and has an internal capacity of 40 liters external capacity of 16 liters for an overall 56 liters of room to put your stuff in i feel like it has most of the desirable features in a pack including a large mesh packet on the outside pretty sturdy shoulder straps and hip belt straps they seem thick and cushiony there are large hip belt pockets i was actually impressed with how much room there were there in the hip belt pockets because snacks it's got what i call cupholders or the little side pockets to put your water bottle tent poles etc on either side and then two little straps above that so i assume to help fasten something like your tent poles to the pack and there's an elastic bungee cord on the big mesh pocket also some other gear attachments on the outside of the pack and there is a hydration port going from the inside of the pack to the outside if you choose to drink from a water bladder with a tube and then on the inside it's pretty much one large big storage area except for a little pocket flap i guess you would call it that's got a zipper on it so you can keep easy to reach stuff right there i assume some people might put their water bladder in there if that's what they drink from but i would probably just carry essentials there that i wanted quick access to i was happy to see that there were some pretty sturdy straps especially the sternum strap on the pack because when i got my pack for the camino from 3f ul gear it was a pretty decent pack but the sternum strap was made out of like ribbon that you would tie up in your hair if you were gonna cheer at a football game on friday night that's the way i described it when i got it so the sternum strap would just loosen up while i was hiking and that was kind of annoying so this strap seems like that it'll do better at staying in place the only downfall i would say of this pack is it doesn't have an internal frame and the material is just kind of flimsy i wouldn't say that it's not able to withstand you know being on trail like it's going to fall apart but it's just not a sturdy stiff type material so they recommend that you use either a sit pad or if you've got an accordion type folding closed cell foam pad that you put that on the back panel to help kind of stabilize and make everything more sturdy there on your back you probably could go without it i would not think that it would be super comfortable to have lopsided gear pressing on your back so i'm going to go with the little closed cell foam sit pad that i got from gossamer gear that came with my mariposa pack and you can buy those separately from gossamer gear because the pad does not come with this pack for 10 bucks and they weigh 2 ounces the pack itself weighs 31.8 ounces and costs 57 from aliexpress and if you add 10 for the sit pad to put back there you're looking at 67 and an added two ounces so 33.7 ounces another thing that i would highly recommend adding to this pack is a pack liner because it is not a waterproof pack and even when i hack with a waterproof pack i still add some sort of liner but they only cost five dollars for a pack of two which is way cheaper than a box of compactor bags i mean if you already have a compactor bag then you can use that for zero dollars but you can buy them online also from gossamer gears website and they only weigh 1.35 ounces and for our final component of the big three the sleeping bag i looked at several different sleeping bags and finally dialed in on the aegis max ultra light goose down sleeping bag it's an 800 fill power sleeping bag with a comfort rating of 52 degrees a lower limit of 43 degrees and then an extreme limit of you're probably going to die past this of 15 degrees this sleeping bag weighs 18.6 ounces and is available on amazon for 95 now i know that the comfort rating is a little high on this sleeping bag but if you're just getting in to backpacking i highly recommend that you do it in the warmer season so preferably in early summer or late summer early fall where you're not miserable at night but that way if you make some mistakes with your clothing or your gear or if you end up wet because you didn't set your tent up right then you're not putting yourself at a high risk for hypothermia and then as you get more familiar more experienced you can kind of start trekking off in some of the cooler seasons however if you feel pretty comfortable with your current level of experience but you just been out of backpacking for years and you're like i really wanted a warmer rated sleeping bag so i could go in cooler months then there also is an aegis max g1 series that's available through aliexpress the comfort rating on that sleeping bag that's also 800 fill power is 39 degrees it has a lower limit of 30 degrees and then extreme rating of zero degrees the g1 is a little bit heavier of course at 26 ounces it's also a little bit more expensive and runs about 118 of course all of these prices that i'm mentioning today are subject to change things go on sale etc but at the time that i created this content this is what the prices were i have both of these sleeping bags now and i'm hoping to get to test them out at both of their comfort limit temperature ratings so i can let you all know because i'm a cold sleeper so i like to know if a temperature rating is true to its number especially for folks like me who sleep a little colder at night next up i want to talk about the sleeping pad that i selected and when i first got into backpacking i thought you don't need a sleeping pad like it's not a necessity but it it really was for me and i really feel like it is and that it would be a mistake to go without one for several reasons first of all a sleeping pad helps insulate you from the ground and second of all it's important to sleep at night if you're gonna backpack during the day and i did not sleep well without a sleeping pad so i recommend trying one out and the one that i'm gonna carry with me that i've included in this budget list is the sleep and go inflatable sleeping pad it's two inches thick blows up pretty easily and it's rated a 2.1 for the r value that just means its ability to insulate you and if you're gonna backpack during three season weather the minimum r value that they suggest that you have is a two so it's just above that with the higher the r number being the more insulating value it has so anything below a two you probably don't want to take with you in the cooler months this sleeping pad weighs 14 and a half ounces and is available for forty dollars on amazon the dimensions of this sleeping pad are 23 inches wide by 75 inches long and it comes with a little patch repair kit so if you're in the field and you get a blowout you can slap that on and if you're gonna have an inflatable sleeping pad i highly recommend taking that with you because i've had a couple of times where i've needed to use mine while on trail and it makes for a better night of sleep if you don't have to sleep on the ground but rest easy knowing that this sleeping pad has a lifetime guarantee i thought that that was pretty neat now if you wanted to save money here and you tend to sleep on your back then you could probably save money and weight by going with a closed cell phone pad they have a lot of different ones on the market but the cheapest one that i found you can get online it's a blue roll up pad and it costs about ten dollars i believe i got mine from dick's sporting goods online i think walmart.com has them but you can trim the pad to where it fits the length of your body perfectly and shed some weight i think when i carried the one that i started with on the appalachian trail it weighed about 10 ounces or so closed cell phone pads are generally lighter than inflatable pads unless you get a pretty expensive inflatable pad so for 14.5 ounces and the added comfort of being able to sleep on my side or on my stomach and not have my hips dig in the ground it it's worth it for me so anyway that's just a tip if you're looking to save more money and more ounces of weight but for me carrying a little bit more weight having 14.5 ounces and spending 30 more dollars it's worth it for me to be able to sleep more comfortably on my side or on my stomach and not have my hips digging in the ground now let's talk about food and water first of all cooking on trail is optional if you don't want to cook then you'll definitely save weight and money on the supplies that you would needed to have purchased to be able to cook but for me having a hot meal on trail is absolutely priceless and it's a big morale booster for me so i'm gonna carry cooking items and i included them in this list to start with you'll need a food pot i'm gonna carry my old trusty stanco grease pot it's made out of aluminum so full disclaimer make sure you do your research and figure out whether you're okay with cooking on aluminum i'm not recommending that you do it i'm just telling you that that's what i use while i'm on trail the stanco greasepot runs for about seven dollars and weighs 3.6 ounces i've been using this food pot since i started my through hike of the at in 2015. and if you're going to cook you've got to have a stove to heat up your water so i went with the brs stove that's what i'll be carrying with me i had it on my cdt thru hike and it's still kicking it costs about 17 on amazon and weighs .85 ounces yes less than an ounce the food bag i'm gonna use to store all of my food and then to hang a bear bag at night is the coughlin's dry bag the 25 liter bag is 10 and weighs 2 ounces and that should be plenty big enough to store my food and probably my food pot etc and that also and then you gotta have something to eat with so i'll be carrying my tocs titanium long handled spoon that costs ten dollars and weighs just a little over a half an ounce point five five ounces but you can save ten dollars right here on this gear list by taking a spoon that you have from home or by acquiring a plastic spoon some to go plastic wear if you end up eating out somewhere just kind of set that aside so that's one spot where you could shave off a little bit right there i will say if you're going to continue backpacking though investing in a 10 spoon might sound crazy but the titanium seems to hold up forever it's also very lightweight and having a long handled spoon if you're gonna eat mountain house meals in those little envelopes that they come in being able to dig down to the bottom of it without having to stick your whole hand in there is pretty convenient for water treatment i went with the sawyer squeeze mini because it only weighs 1.62 ounces and costs about 20 dollars now you're not going to get as high of a flow rate if you went with the regular sawyer squeeze but for half the price it's a pretty good deal for those just getting into backpacking now let's talk about rain gear the best deal hands down that i have ever found on rain gear is the frogtogs ultralight 2 rain suit now it's it's got its limitations it's not extremely durable it's not something that you should take out on a trail that is not well maintained but for a highly traveled trail where you're not going to be trumps enough through the briars it really does do well i took it on my through hike of the appalachian trail i did have to change it out a little over halfway through because mine finally got ragged enough that i needed to to switch it out but it's lightweight the small suit only weighs nine ounces of course that's gonna vary depending on what size you get it's breathable it's not so attractive it's certainly not cute but when you're out on trail it's more about functionality than being fashionable the jacket has elastic around the wrist too which i really do like it's nice to be able to kind of tuck your hand inside of it and have that elastic be on the outside or if you have gloves on then having that elastic you know go well on the outside of your gloves and it tuck in so that rains not just pouring down the sleeve of your raincoat is really nice and also the waistband on the pants are elastic so you can roll them up if the legs are a little too long for you and for all of that it can be yours for only twenty dollars that's really actually a good deal if you think about it because it's the jacket with a hood that is adjustable and the rain pants next let's talk about electronics it's important to have a light source while you're out on trail and most people who go backpacking these days aren't lugging with them the old coleman lantern so i went with the nitecore new nu20 headlamp it's 360 lumens it's got three different settings as far as brightness goes and then it's got an adjustable head on it so it just kind of clicks down and and you can point the beam where you want it to go the only downfall to this headlamp is it doesn't have a red beam but it only weighs 1.88 ounces and costs 30 dollars which is pretty reasonable for a headlamp if you are going to upgrade for just another 10 or so you could get a decent headlamp that does have a red beam on it the red beam is a desirable feature because that way you're not blinding other people when you're shining the light their way but also if your eyes have adjusted to the dark then that red beam isn't harsh and doesn't interfere with that but probably my favorite thing about this headlamp is that it's rechargeable now let's talk about footwear for the most part you can go backpacking with any tennis shoes you already have at the house as long as they are big enough you want to make sure that you've got a thumb width space between the tip of your toe and the end of the shoe and when you tie it up you can do the tap test you just tap your toe on the ground and if your toes hitting the front of your shoe then you probably want to size up a half a size or so so you don't end up losing toenails while you're going downhill with all this added weight on your back and your toes are drumming on the front of your shoes you don't have to have anything fancy or a certain brand for footwear my friend perk hiked the appalachian trail in new balance tennis shoes but if you are wanting specifically a trail runner shoe that has an aggressive tread then adidas has a line of trail runners available on amazon and i found the men's rockadia for 45 dollars and i'm looking forward to testing those out now let's talk about clothing first of all you're going to want to have something to put all of your clothes inside of like a stuff sack me personally i like to use dry bags so i'm adding redundancy to my waterproofing so i'm going to use one of those coglins dry sacks the 25 liter will be plenty big enough again those cost 10 and weigh 2 ounces now as far as clothing goes i'm assuming that most people have some sort of athletic clothing that they like to go running in or go to the gym or play basketball with their friends it doesn't have to be anything name brand real expensive just something that's synthetic material and not cotton because cotton holds in moisture so it can cause chafing and then also because it holds in that moisture if you're hot during the day and sweat and then the temperature drops you can get hypothermia and die so we want to avoid that if you truly are on a very tight budget and you don't have athletic clothing already at home then you can omit the cooking items that i mentioned earlier and just go with foods that you don't have to cook on trail you could look into cold soaking and also the sleeping pad that i mentioned the closed cell foam pad you could go with that ten dollar pad and save thirty dollars instead of buying the forty dollar inflatable pad and then put all of that money towards new clothing to take with you on trail walmart has a pretty wide array of athletic clothing for a decent price my friend aaron who edits this channel through hike the cdt and wore some 12 dollar russell athletic shorts from walmart also you can go to thrift stores and probably find some higher end brands that are gently used so you you've got some options and hopefully you do already have some things at home for myself when i do go out on this stretch and use all of this budget gear i'm going to use clothing that i already have at home athletic type stuff one of the things i'm going to use is this fleece right here instead of my expensive puffy coat so i if i'm going to do the whole budget gear thing i'm going to do it all the way through so those are all of the items that i feel like are essentials on the list like you need to have these things to go out on a backpacking trip but i do want to mention a couple other optional items if you will the first of those is trekking poles they're not necessary not everybody even likes using trekking poles but for me i like kind of getting in rhythm and trekking poles help me do that also if you end up upgrading to a tent that's more lightweight but needs trekking poles to set up like i was mentioning that lanshan tent then it'd be a good idea to have those you can get a low-cost pair on amazon for twenty dollars it looks like they've got pretty decent reviews i know some walmart's carry pairs of trekking poles for twenty dollars or so or if you want a free option there's always a walking stick that you find in the woods along the way somewhere while you're on your trip the next optional item that i want to mention is a battery bank if you're somebody who uses your cell phone a lot taking pictures or if you're going to use that as your source of navigation or carry other electronics with you that you think you might want to charge along the way then it's probably a good idea to look into a battery bank you can get a 5 000 milliamp hour charger from anchor which i feel like is a good reliable brand for twenty dollars so these optional items if you already have something else that was on this list that you don't have to purchase now you could always trade out for that or go with a cheaper version of something but these are just some things to think about all right so let's talk about the overall price and weight of this gear list after everything that i considered essential on this list so aside from the trekking poles and the battery bank the total gear cost me 498 dollars so just under 500 it could cost you even a little bit less if you already have some of this stuff and then the total weight for the essential gear items in this list plus the clothing that i'll be taking with me came out to 10.56 pounds and i was a little surprised that it was only 10.56 pounds because people generally associate budget gear with being really really heavy gear and this is actually pretty close to a ultralight gear setup now if you're not familiar with what ultra light backpacking is that's basically having a base weight that's under 10 pounds base weight is just the items that have a constant weight so anything that's not a consumable examples of consumables might be fuel toothpaste water food anything that while you use it on your trip it ends up lightening the weight of your pack whereas your tent your sleeping bag all of that's going to stay constant throughout your hike and this is just a way that people can compare pack weights but it's it's really not something to stress over because you could be an ultra light backpacker but end up having a heavier total pack than somebody that doesn't have an ultra light base weight but they have less consumables in their packs i think it's just something that some people like to nerd out on the fact that they can continue to make their pack lighter and lighter by making different changes and cutting off grams and you'll find out if you're that type of person or if you're somebody that just wants to be comfortable but you're not really stressed out about the number associated with your pack however if you are interested in the ultralight world i do feel like you could take this gear list that has the essentials of what you need to get out there and start backpacking and and kind of change it and tweak it a little bit for example you could go with the lan chan one tint that i mentioned and save like 13 or 14 ounces right there in almost every video i make about shelters somebody says that they just use a 10 tarp from walmart an 8x10 tarp weighs about 18 ounces so if you're really on a tight budget i guess you could look into that too all of this gear that i talked about of course doesn't include everything that would be in the base weight because you still need water bottles to collect water and store water and drink from if you're gonna take a battery bank then that would need to be included also it doesn't include toiletries or a med kit but if you go light on all of those things again if you're hiking in warmer weather and you feel like hey dixie's bringing a beanie but i don't necessarily need one you know then those are things that you can shave off but i would recommend for beginners not to stress out about being ultralight or worrying too much what your base weight is in my opinion there are are two things to consider how comfortable you are while you're out actually hiking and backpacking because the weight of your pack is certainly going to be related to how comfortable you are if it's too heavy you're going to be miserable but then there's comfort at camp so if your pack is too lightweight on the other hand and you don't have everything that you need to be comfortable at camp then that's really not going to make for an enjoyable trip so you can load up and be super comfortable at camp or you know take basically nothing and be really comfortable during the day and miserable at camp i think it's much more important to have the mindset of does this work for me does this make me comfortable and happy on trail without overburdening me rather than does this count towards my base weight but the more you're out there you'll figure out what you're willing to sacrifice as far as comfort and also what you absolutely cannot live without well that's all i have for y'all today i hope that you find some of this information useful especially if you're just getting into the backpacking world or if you've got somebody that you've been trying to talk into it now you can sell them for less than 500 they can have everything that they need to join you on your next trip and if you or the person you've been trying to talk into backpacking decides they hate it at least they didn't pour a ton of money into it and they can probably sell some of their used gear if they wanted to reclaim some of that one more thing before i go i just wanted to mention that it is time for another giveaway and i'll be sharing more details on that with y'all soon but this time i'm going to be giving away the big three from this budget gear list so the tent the sleeping bag and the pack to a subscriber but again look for a video coming up with details about how to enter if you're interested in winning that again thanks so much for watching y'all and we will see you all next time

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 239,276

Rating: 4.9406509 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: PEe7w5C_e1Y

Length: 27min 58sec (1678 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2020