What You Really Need for Camping & Backpacking | Essential Gear Guide

[Music] what's going on ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the channel i'm alex aka alex the vagabond and in this video i'm gonna share with you all of my essential pieces of equipment for backpacking and camping it's going to be a really informational video but i also want it to be fun and entertaining so stick around if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet please make sure that you are subscribed with notifications enabled so you don't miss out on any upcoming videos and make sure you stay tuned because in this video i'll be sharing all of my tips and tricks of backpacking and many of you have asked for this video over on my instagram you've sent me dms you've left comments asking for a a guide essentially to help you figure out which pieces of equipment are absolutely essential and which pieces of equipment aren't really all that important we're going to do our best to carry as little as possible but to maintain that level of comfort and to obviously be able to survive if the weather turns or if things go south 2020 has been a wild roller coaster of a year but one of the few good things that's come from it is a renewed interest in the outdoors and camping i started backpacking when i was about 10 with the boy scouts and i have continued doing it throughout my entire life all over the world in africa in the united states in europe and one of the great things that comes from more time spent outdoors is a greater appreciation of nature and the natural world and with that comes a desire to protect it backpacking is uh probably the most incredible way for us as humans to get deep into nature and to really feel the power of the natural world it requires us to load up a backpack and take everything that we're going to need to survive and to be comfortable in the great outdoors so one of the first things that is probably going to happen on your first backpacking trip is over packing we just stuff the backpack full and full and full until it's so heavy that it's such a burden to put on your back you probably won't even make it out of the parking lot let alone up the trail for the first day so so in this video i'm going to walk you through the pieces of equipment that i always take with me when i go backpacking and we're going to start with the most important element your backpack [Music] whether you are a girl or a boy you're going to need a backpack and those backpacks are going to look slightly different so this is my fiancee's backpack this is her osprey 65 liters so this is a very lightweight backpack as you can see the the gap here this mesh so that your back can breathe so you're not just sweating up a storm there and it has an h2o holder so you can slip in one of those you know water systems so you don't have to stop every time you want to take a sip of water this is a great backpack and i can't recommend osprey bags more all of the backpacks that i have had in my life for backpacking have been from osprey i recently just got this new bag i've used it twice so far it's the zenith 88 so it's it's quite big the reason i went for the 88 liters is because i'm always bringing camera equipment when i go backpacking i could easily get by with a 65 liter bag but i decided to go a little bit bigger because i wanted to bring my camera equipment you're gonna need to fit everything that you need for your adventure within this backpack so it's really important when you have your bag that it has a good set of hip clips this is where all of that weight is going to sit you want the vast majority of the weight sitting snugly on your hips not on your shoulders that's how you avoid getting a super sore back next up you're going to need a good tent you always want when you're backpacking your tent to be a lightweight tent okay this is the half dome too it's made by rei um i really really have enjoyed this tent it is lightweight this can be attached to the bottom of the backpack i think all in all it weighs about four pounds eight ounces now when you're backpacking you really wanna be aware of weight every ounce of weight adds up if you are camping with somebody else you can always split the weight of a tent like someone can take the actual tent fabric and you know the ground sheet and the rain fly and the other person can take the tent poles and the stakes and that's a good way of just kind of evenly dividing that weight so one person's bag is not super heavy and the other person's bag is way lighter i have used this one person single person tent from msr it's called the hubba i have had this tent for probably coming up on 12 years now it's still in great condition i really really enjoy it it's super lightweight it's very spacious there's a lot of headroom this i've used on bicycle trips i have used it backpacking and it is a great tent msr makes really really good equipment and so i highly recommend the one person hubba tent sleeping bags i just got this disco sleeping bag from nemo it's good to 15 degrees fahrenheit what i really like about this sleeping bag is that it stuffs down to pretty much nothing because this is going to be going into your backpack and as we've already discussed space is at a premium in these backpacks it weighs very little and it's extremely warm extremely comfortable these are called mummy sleeping bags when you are fully zipped up in these type of bags the only thing that is visible is your face with uh with some space for your nose very nice your head would be here you can kind of tuck yourself in but it's very very very comfortable and what i love about this bag in particular it has zipping vents now if you get hot you can unzip if you get cold you can zip back up next up pillows do not take your favorite pillow from home it's going to take up all your space this one is from sea to summit it is an inflatable pillow it inflates to quite a big pillow it's super soft on this side it's kind of smooth almost velvety fabric and when it's time to break camp and to leave you just pull this off like that and there you go then i just stuff that in with my sleeping bag and the stuff sack and we are off let's talk about inflatable air mattresses these air mattresses are extremely comfortable now really lightweight the science has really improved with the thermodynamics essentially that bit of air between you and the ground that's how you are able to really keep your body temperature and your own warmth without losing that into the ground this one is made from therm-a-rest and in my opinion therm-a-rest makes the best inflatable air mattresses and every therm-a-rest that i have had has been incredibly comfortable and quite durable you do want to be careful when you are placing these down on the the bottom of your tent that there aren't any thorns or anything spiky that might put a little puncture in here most of these come with a puncture repair kit between your air mattress your sleeping bag and your tent that is your shelter i will link all of these products down in the description box or you can head over to my amazon page where i will have a full outline of all of the equipment that i've mentioned here in this video all right next up now that we've talked about shelter let's talk about clothing so when i go backpacking i essentially have two sets of clothes one set is designed for when i'm actually like hiking one set is camp clothes you want to keep your clothing layered and light when i'm camping all of my clothing is synthetic and that's because it breathes better it dries quicker the only exception to that rule are my smart wool base layers personally i keep my smart wool long johns and base layer for like camp clothes when you're backpacking and you're hiking and you have a heavy backpack on your back chances are you're gonna sweat so a lot of these shirts have you know built-in vents so i'll take one maybe two of these long-sleeve shirts i'll bring one pair of hiking pants and one pair of camp pants the exercise leisure pants i really like a pair of pants from voiri my camp clothes are warm and comfortable and when you are in the outdoors you really want to think about layering i start with a long sleeve thermal base layer from smartwool i believe merino wool is the best because it's super comfortable but it also breathes and it doesn't stink for days and then after that i will wear my patagonia nano puff what i love about this jacket is that it's super lightweight but it's also incredibly warm zips all the way up and if you get cold you can put their little hood on and what else is cool about this jacket is that it packs down to nothing you can just stuff the jacket into itself not only does patagonia make incredible outdoor equipment uh they give you a lifelong warranty so you can return stuff and they'll fix it for you and they are also extremely eco-friendly this is my hooded jacket it weighs absolutely nothing packs down to nothing goes right into the backpack and then when the sun goes down it starts to get cold boom just pop it right back out and uh and you're warm i also love to bring this jacket yes this is a jacket this is called the patagonia houdini it's a rain shell it's also good for wind if i'm hiking and it gets windy and it's kind of cold and and this shirt is not keeping me warm i like to just throw on the houdini this is a great jacket it weighs nothing and on nights that are particularly cold i will wear this over my nano puff which just keeps me nice and toasty so those are the two jackets that i wear like i said i have a full set of smart wool base layers so these are the long johns the bottom layers and then i have the corresponding top to go with that at night i will wear that and i'll sleep in those as well this is a smart wool short sleeve t-shirt can wear these for days and you do not have to uh to wash them i'm a big fan of all things smart wool i love this shirt this one is made by the north face so if it's hot and you're hiking like let's say in the desert or in a place where you know it's going to be a hot day i like to wear this and it breathes really really well but it also gives me that added sun protection because when you're at altitude the sun is much stronger underwear wise i'm a big fan of ex-officio these are really really good boxer briefs they make male and female versions of these underwear and the best thing about them is that they're good you don't really need to wash them for at least like two days but you can hand wash these using eco-friendly soap like dr bronner's this is really really great soap you can use it to wash your body you can wash your dishes with it and it's eco-friendly i always bring a buff this is a really great piece of equipment if it's sunny you can you know cover you can cover your face from the sun this has some uv protection also nowadays with covid uh if somebody's coming down the trail you can just pop this up most important piece of equipment for a backpacking trip you need a good headlamp now why do i recommend a headlamp over just a regular flashlight with a regular flashlight you only have one hand with a headlamp you have both of your hands you're able to use your hands if you're cooking assembling your tent at night like let's say you get into camp late a headlamp is crucial i really love this black diamond one this is the storm model it has the highest lumens that they make lumens is how they measure the light you can adjust the brightness for reading in the tent at night if you are in an emergency situation and you need to signal for help it has that as an option as well so i'm a big fan this is by black diamond i will link it in the description okay so we have talked about your shelter we've talked about your clothing now let's talk about cooking because you gotta eat i love the jetboil system everything packs into itself not only does the jetboil function as a cooking system for boiling water it has a built-in french press so you can have good coffee when you are in the backcountry so the way it works is you take the bottom bit the stove element and it attaches to the gas it's got a little button here so you can just turn on the gas we are in business you can fill this up with water it clips on so it's secure it's not going anywhere which is good and then you can boil water very very rapidly it's a very good self-contained unit but it's not the only choice for stoves this little stove is made by msr it's very small so it just folds out a pot on top of it this clips right into the bottom as well and you know you get the idea you can put a pot on top of there and boil water or cook on it so these are really really great backpacking stoves you may be wondering what do you actually cook in well glad you asked this is a cookery system by msr everything packs into itself it's amazing the top latches over for when you're traveling this little piece to hold the pot it can come off like so and the top has built-in holes for straining like let's say you're making pasta and you need to strain the pasta out but this is the coolest part it flips over and inside of the pot the larger pot is plate number one pot number two plate number two two drinking cups with tops and everything packs into itself so that's my cooking setup i've used it for years i really really love it this is my cookery set it's from gsi outdoors it's very small it's very lightweight and it has everything that i need to cook up a delicious meal in the outdoors a spoon which you know folds into itself like so a spatula folds into itself and on the inside it's got a towel for drying your dishes a cutting board a pair of tongs as well this little scraper this is good for when you're doing the dishes and then it has a couple of these guys which you can fill up with olive oil salt pepper hot sauce and those actually just fit right in there uh space for you to put like a little scrubbing guy for uh doing your dishes you can put a little bit of dr bronner's into your cooking set and it all zips up quite nicely the last little piece of equipment that you can't forget is a spork i'll say this it's nice to have a really good meal with fresh food but usually on a multiple day multiple night backpacking trip that fresh food is not going to last very long because you don't have refrigeration right so you eat your fresh food on the first day and then you know these type of meals they're called mres which means meal ready to eat they are great you essentially just boil water and then add the water to the bags and wait and you have delicious meals i think they run about maybe six or seven dollars a bag and most of them feed two or maybe even three people they're self-heating ones now so you just open this and it starts boiling it's got a built-in steam vent as you can see it's actually quite good so it's crazy i don't know how they do it really i really don't um you know science right oh it's magic i like to bring fresh food for the first you know day or so i'll bring some vegetables from my home garden here like zucchini squash or something that will keep well and then the next night i'll eat one of those mre things i don't know where you are tuning in from and i don't know what the wildlife situation is in your country but here in the western united states in the mountains we do share that environment with wildlife particularly bears a really good way to keep bears out keep your food safe is to get a bear canister these i think run about a hundred dollars and they're bear proof you put all your food for the trip into the bear canister now packing this into your backpack is going to be probably the most challenging element of packing your backpack but these are essential you're not allowed to go backpacking in the back country in many parts of the united states without a bear canister because bears are prevalent now if you're getting up into grizzly bear country that is a different story entirely you want to be very bare aware you want to make sure that you're cooking far away from where you're sleeping so that your kitchen if there's any little scraps that fall on the floor it's not bringing bears right to your doorstep you would also probably want to bring some bare defenses like bear spray a very powerful pepper spray i will link this down in the description as well with the rest of the equipment that we've discussed today most important element hydration right you can't go and expect to be hiking up thousands of feet into the mountains without staying hydrated now there are a lot of different options for water and filtering your water because unfortunately in many places we can't just go and drink straight out of the stream like you know in the garden of eden we have to use filter systems to avoid bad bacterias like giardia which will have you poop in your pants for a really long time potentially even years afterwards you don't want to get any stomach bugs or intestinal bugs from water systems how do you avoid getting sick from the water well you filter it now there's a lot of different options you can just use iodine tablets but those taste pretty bad what i've recently found and i'm a huge fan of it because it simplified it so much is what's called a gravity system this system it's made by platypus it packs into nothing and it's essentially two bags it's so simple so essentially you take the uh this is your clean water that will hang below your dirty water says dirty and clean so you don't get them mixed up and you fill the dirty bag with the unfiltered water connects with this tube like that it goes into the filter then that connects to the clean all you gotta do is just hang that up it's that simple and you leave it and uh five minutes later the clean bag is full of clean water the dirty bag is empty and what i like to do is i bring this system and then i also bring an additional water bladder this one's from msr it's a four liter and i will transfer the clean water from this bag into this one and then i'll just do the process over again and i found that having about eight liters of fresh water gives me enough water to cook and clean and also fill up my water bottle and my fiance's water bottle and water for the dog and that's good for like dinner and breakfast i like to just get it done and get it out of the way and the gravity system is definitely the best one for that now there are other systems this one is from a company called grail i would use this if i were on a solo backpack trip and i wasn't having to worry about you know filling up a ton of water for camp and for other people so make sure you have a good water filtration system with regards to hydration i like to have on the go water system whoa this one is three liters it's made by osprey this is called the hydra pack and essentially you can fill it up you can seal it off and then this will go into your backpack and the little nipple as it's called you are able to drink on the go without having to stop because it's super important to stay hydrated up in the mountains you dehydrate way faster at elevation stopping and starting to take a drink is no fun i also bring a refillable reusable water bottle great company that makes these is hydro flask it's pretty durable i've dropped it quite a few times and it still works you just clean these out i believe this one is 32 ounces camelback also makes some really good ones this is much lighter than the metal one so if your bag is you know feeling heavy then you should go with the lighter option a couple of other little pieces of extra bits and bobs that will be really useful for you a pack cover this goes right over your backpack if it's starting to rain like if you're gonna be caught out and you have to hike throwing this pack cover over your backpack is just going to essentially be like a rain jacket for your backpack this is a great little mobile solar power bank it's called the stealth angel it will charge your phone a few times it'll charge a camera and you know it also has a it also has a light built into it you're out there for a few days you can recharge your batteries and then you can recharge the battery bank so this is a nice little lightweight option and moving our way down the body we're going to talk about your feet we're going to talk about shoes now taking care of your feet on a backpacking trip is really really important because if your feet get messed up you're not going to be able to walk and you're not going to be able to walk yourself out of the situation so i've been using these boots from zamberland probably 10 years i had a pair of these beforehand which lasted me for about five years and then i got these ones about four or five years ago as you can see they've been nice and worn i climbed mount kilimanjaro in these shoes i walked across the deserts of namibia in these shoes i did a camino de santiago in these shoes they're just incredibly comfortable but i think what's really important is you want the the base here to be from vibram they make really really good super durable rubber and you know the the tread on these shoes lasts forever they use gore-tex technology and gore-tex is really really good for waterproofing and weatherproofing materials so these shoes are waterproof you can just tromp across a stream and as long as you don't you know go underneath the water in the boot you're gonna be dry and fine you're also going to want a good set of wool socks i think if you're going to be going on a pretty long backpacking trip you may want to consider getting sock liners i don't use them on every single backpacking trip but when i did hike mount kilimanjaro i wore sock liners just because i knew i was going to be covering a lot of distance and be walking for nine days straight so sock liners are a good call with these big wool socks and they're just essentially a thinner sock that helps prevent friction between your foot and the sock which inevitably is going to cause blisters and speaking of blisters a super important piece of kit to bring on your next backpacking trip moleskin essentially a super soft like flannel that prevents friction on hot spots so if you are starting to get a blister and you feel it forming you can just cut out a different size of the moleskin and you can use that wherever you're developing your blister and putting this on it is going to help stop that blister from getting any worse last but not least get a good first aid kit you can buy many of these pre-made at any outdoor store or you can make them yourself if you're going to make it yourself i would recommend doing a bit of research online to find out all the different pieces of equipment that you should have in there you know you want to bring some bug spray you want to bring sunscreen a good hat i like a good floppy hat to just keep the sun off and a beanie for night [Music] another really handy piece of equipment is paracord if you bring some paracord and a tarp you can use the tarp and the paracord and tie them off and create like a little lean-to type structure which will give you some some shelter from the rain one last piece of equipment that's very important is a trowel a trowel is a lightweight little shovel and that is used for going to the bathroom so when you need to go number two in the wilderness make sure that you are at least 200 feet away from a water source and that you have dug a hole at least six inches deep using your little trowel do your business put your teepee down there and cover it make sure that that is deep because if it's not animals can smell it and they might dig it up and that's no good for anybody [Music] all right ladies and gents well that is all of the equipment that i take with me when i am on a backpacking trip if you enjoyed this video please give it a big thumbs up share it with the people that you want to go backpacking with and make sure you're subscribed to my channel with notifications enabled so you don't miss out on any upcoming videos if you have any more additional questions you can ask those down in the comment section and i will make sure to answer all of them also if you see a question from another viewer and you feel like you can answer it go right ahead i love seeing the conversations between viewers really makes this community come together so as i always say travel farther fail smarter and never give up make sure you have a great time this summer in the great outdoors be safe be happy be healthy and we'll see you in the next video peace you

Channel: AlexTheVagabond

Views: 223,649

Rating: 4.8298469 out of 5

Keywords: Travel, Tips, Travel Tips, Travel Hacks, Travel Vlog, Travel Videos, Alex The Vagabond, Vagabrothers, camping, camping hacks, camping gear, camping gear 2020, backpacking gear, camping tent, best camping gear, best camping gear 2020, camping gear guide, best camping gear guide

Id: 41UGUr5cv64

Length: 29min 37sec (1777 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 23 2020