Less Traveled Trails, LLC

Santa Fe, NM

Spring 2017

Seek out the Less Traveled Trails of New Mexico!|by Brian Johnson, Owner & Chief Guide


Less Traveled Trails, LLC

Santa Fe, NM

Copyright © 2017, Brian K. Johnson. All rights reserved.

Brian Johnson

505-490-7033

Backpacking Guidefor theLess Traveled Trails

Brian Johnson

2017

Less Traveled Trails, LLC

Santa Fe, NM

  1. Weight – pack light, be light

The Purpose of Evaluating Pack Weight

Reducing your pack weight opens up the camping experience to more enjoyment because you can:

  • feel better physically;
  • feel better mentally;
  • really see, hear, and feel the wilderness you are in;
  • hike farther if you want to;
  • experience new wilderness areas;
  • take a favorite luxury item—camera, binoculars, tablet, bird book;
  • understand better what you really need.

These benefits, in turn, give you more flexibility to take on challenges that may arise, like:

  • unexpected weather—rain, lightning, snow, wind;
  • unexpected wildlife or livestock;
  • unexpected trail conditions;
  • first aid emergencies.

Remember to:

  • let friends/family know where you are going and your schedule;
  • be aware of the seasons;
  • plan a safe route.

Get your pack weight down to a reasonable level. Cost and practicality may be factors too. For example, spending $1,000 on new equipment to reduce your pack weight from 20 to 19 pounds may be not right for your pocket book or the best use of your time. Gradually trying out new pack weight-reducing ideas is a good approach. Thinking lighter equipment as you replace your current gear is fine. The main idea here is to get outside to experience the wilderness, rather than spending all your time thinking about gear.

The On-Trail Whole-Pack Approach

Lighten up both what you carry and what you wear. Become aware of your entire pack weight, both durables (e.g., sleeping bag) and expendables (e.g., food). Focusing on the big three—sleeping bag, shelter, pack—may divert your attention from weight issues with smaller, less noticeable items. Wear comfortable but carefully selected clothing that also considers weight. Try to combine several items into one—hats for instance—and use footwear that is right for the trail and camping conditions.

Ultralight Strategies – use them all!

There are many sources of information now on ultralight backpacking. Use what works best for you. Overall, the strategies are:

  • If money is no object, buy the latest & lightest equipment;
  • If money is an obstacle and you stay with your current equipment, use your lightest choices of what you have, eliminate duplicated gear, and leave behind optional items;
  • If you have a limited budget for purchasing equipment, combine new with your current gear and continue to upgrade over time.

Use the same approach with new, used, or a combination of new/used gear.

  • Every ounce matters;
  • The bottom line is how much the whole pack weighs when hitting the trail—“On-Trail Whole-Pack;”
  • Use absolute weight for “The Big Three” gear items—sleeping bag, shelter, pack;
  • Use net weight for all other small gear items.

Helpful Tools for Weight Evaluation

It is helpful to have at least one tool for actually weighing gear, so that you can make comparisons and know how much you are carrying. This equipment can help you evaluate the weight of your gear: floor scale, post office scale, and fish scale. With the everyday floor scale you are able to weigh larger gear items and a full pack, when you are at home assembling your gear. This is accurate to 1-2 pounds and is usually done on a comparison basis, where you are comparing your body weight to body + gear weight. The post office scale allows weighing of small-to-medium items, with accuracy down to 0.1 ounce. This is also used for weighing gear at home. The fish scale is handy for weighing full packs at the trail head or to compare several packs in a group. This is done as gear weight only, because you do not have to make a weight comparison as with the floor scale. All three of these tools are quite advantageous to have if you really want to analyze gear weight, but just one will also do the job. In the end, the weight numbers are secondary to how you actually feel on the trail carrying a load.

  1. Food – this keeps us going!

Making a Menu

It makes sense to plan ahead for the food needed on a backpack trip. One approach is to have prepared meals for breakfast and dinner, with lunch being anytime between the two. Make a menu list for each day and take it with you on the trip. Stick to the menu from day-to-day so that you know each meal is covered.

Clelland’s food quantityformula [Clelland, 2011. Ultralight Backpackin’ Tips, FALCONGUIDES] Don’t run out of food, but also don’t take too much! A key ratio to guide menu planning is this:

1.4 pounds per person per day (“lbs/p-d”).

This formula works quite well! Along with wise menu planning, it provides for your basic food needs, but also places a limit on your “mobile pantry” so that you are not overloaded with food weight. For longer multi-week excursions, bump this up slightly to 1.5 or 1.6 lbs/p-d to account for strenuous activity over a longer time period.

In simple terms, a one-week trip for three backpackers would mean carrying a total of 29 lbs, 6.4 ounces (oz) of food (7 days x 3 people x 1.4 lbs/p-d = 29.4 lbs = 29 lbs, 6.4 oz). Take into account fractional days of food needs. Here is another example: a solo backpacker is going out for three days, but will eat the first day’s breakfast at home, then on the way home at the end of the third day will grab dinner at a restaurant. The food quantity formula would yield 3 lbs, 4.3 oz (2.333 days x 1 person x 1.4 lbs/p-d = 3.266 lbs = 3 lbs, 4.3 oz). Yes, take the weight precision down to the tenth of an ounce, just like with your gear!

Nutrition and Diets

Food of high caloric content and an adequate amount is a good idea, but do not leave out the nutritional value in planning the menu. With starchy foods being so prevalent in the common trail cooking recipes—rice, pasta, beans, oats—it is easy to account for the carbohydrates your body needs. It is harder to accommodate healthy amounts of fruit and vegetables. Be sure to take dried fruit, such as apricots, apples, papaya, raisins, cherries, mango, and even pineapple. Eat them along with energy snacks in the middle of the day, or supplement your morning and evening meals. Add dried cherries to that oatmeal, or add dried peas to that freeze-dried bag of curried couscous. You can even get your own food dehydrator and prepare dried fruits and vegetables yourself. Make your own fruit leather from applesauce; it can be eaten straight as a leather or rehydrated in a cup or pot if you would like to add it as a sauce to your mug of morning cereal.

Protein? It’s a good idea to have adequate protein on your adventures. Of course you need it to be in a form that can be preserved. The easiest form is beef jerky, an icon food of backpacking, which stays preserved almost forever. Now days it comes in all kinds of “flavors.” There are also other “jerked” meats, turkey being a common one. Jerky could be the sole source of meat on the trail, or it could be supplemented with hard, dry salami. Be sure to get this salami in a form that does not require refrigeration. It will “keep” for a multi-day backpack, but should not be considered as being forever preserved, as with jerky. So either eat it all on the trip or use it up completely soon after. Don’t just put it in the bottom of your pack, waiting for the next trip three months later!

Cheese can be used as a good source of protein usually in combination with other sources. It will also keep for many days out in the wild.

What about other diets: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free? Yes, these and other diets can be accommodated in the great outdoors. Plan your menu to meet your specific diet’s requirements as you would at home. For freeze-dried packaged meals, read the labels to find what you need. Commercial freeze-dried food companies usually offer a wide assortment of vegetarian meals. With a little more checking you will be able to find vegan and gluten-free meals.

As with shopping for food for the home kitchen, also read the labels of backpacking food, if you care about what you eat on the trail. This applies to commercially-packaged food specifically for backpacking (e.g., freeze-dried meals) and also the usual packaged items you may pick up at the local grocery store. Any type of commercially-processed food may have an array of interesting and questionable ingredients. For one, hydrogenated oils are found in many freeze-dried packaged meals.

If you are concerned about any ingredients on a label, there may be alternatives to consider:

  • pick freeze-dried meals with a list of ingredients that you are willing to tolerate;
  • prepare your own meals at home, from scratch, using a dehydrator where needed;
  • only use food that has no or minimal processing.

The commercial freeze-dried food companies that use ingredients that may be of concern also usually offer other meals that may be more acceptable. So if the curried chicken and rice contains hydrogenated oils or other interesting ingredients, maybe the southwest chili has fewer or none of those ingredients. Or look for a freeze-dried food company that features organic and otherwise natural, basic food ingredients in all of its meals.

Other tips you might find interesting:

  • Another backpacking food icon is hot chocolate…definitely check the ingredients if you include this beverage…get some with real cocoa, not just sugar with who knows what;
  • cook up foods that are easy on your pot and utensils to clean up…if you do it right, all you need is your fingers and some warm water to clean up…with freeze-dried meals, eat it directly from the pouch;
  • don’t bother with buying packaged breakfast meals for oatmeal or granola…it’s super easy to make it up yourself at home…quick oats with boiled water is ready in a minute or two;
  • if bagels are in your menu, get them pre-sliced…sometimes they crumble if they have been in your pack for a few days and you need to slice them on the trail;
  • don’t just throw out the warm water when you are done cooking and cleaning pots…use it for washing up, cleaning your glasses, or simply drink it.

Water

We all need water for sure and, in general, the more we can drink of it, the better. Stay hydrated! Water is a definite weight factor. At 8.34 lbs per gallon, a full one-quart (32 oz) water bottle will weigh-in at 2 lbs, 1.4 oz (plus a few more ounces for the container itself). In dry country with little or uncertain water availability, you may need to carry a lot more. On the other hand, if your trail is along a stream, maybe you can get by carrying a lot less.

Besides the water and container a method of treatment is recommended. Yes, the beautiful creeks, streams, and rivers of the high country are the repositories of wildlife waste, which should be respected and dealt with by simple treatment. The result is crystal clear water carrying Giardi cysts. Only the most pure seeps and springs that by their location would not be contaminated should be trusted. To be sure, even treat these sources. An inspiring backpack trip followed by weeks of intestinal agony is not that inspiring!

What treatment is best? There are many methods and each comes with a weight factor: boiling, pumping, chemicals, and even ultraviolet light disinfection are used. For water on the trail, one of the lightest weight approaches is to use chemicals in tablet form. The tablets come conveniently in small bottles that do not weigh much, with the capacity to treat a lot of water. For the purist in ultralight backpacking, the ounces can be shaved off by using the direct chemical form of treatment, and only taking exactly the amount of chemicals that you will need.

Iodine is a key component needed to kill the Giardi (chlorine is another). The directions with the tablets need to be followed to allow the treatment to become effective. What about the iodine taste? Now there are also tablets for follow-up treatment on the iodine, so we can enjoy the fresh water taste of the mountain streams.

In camp, it makes sense to take advantage of boiling water, often used in making our meals, to treat water. If there is an evening campfire, there would be a lot of opportunity for purifying water for the next day (also for a warm, cozy bottle to place in your sleeping bag during the night!).

Heating Food and Water

The campfire as your heating mode. Using a campfire can be advantageous to ultralight backpacking. If you can depend solely on natural materials in the wilderness for fueling your heat, there is no need to bring with you a stove and fuel. A campfire uses renewable energy, plus may offer you the enjoyment of its radiant heat and ambiance that can be fun in a group setting. If you intend to use a campfire for cooking, be sure you know in advance how to set it up, maintain it, and clean it up, or reclaim the campfire ring. It does take time that could otherwise be spent directly experiencing and enjoying your natural environment.

Always attend to the campfire when it is in use. Do not leave a campfire burning overnight. Completely extinguish a campfire with water or soil. Have water or soil at the campfire ready to quickly extinguish it in an emergency. Have the first aid supplies and knowledge to be prepared for burn injuries. The campfire may be used as the “kitchen” area and a group gathering spot, but do not place it right next to shelters or other gear.

Make a campfire in an area devoid of natural fuel. Mark the campfire ring with rocks, if available, perhaps about three feet in diameter. In the middle of the ring place your best available fire starter materials. Build a “tee-pee” of kindling over the fire starter. Keep the kindling pieces as small as possible and allow space between the pieces to allow for good air flow. Take the time and patience to build a good size tee-pee so that you are sure that the campfire will ignite and begin to burn on its own. Light the fire starter next to the driest, smallest kindling. The goal should be to get the fire going with no more than two attempts with matches or a lighter. Once the tee-pee is burning on its own, patiently add wood of gradually larger size. Maintain air space to allow good air flow.

Good fire starter material can be crucial to getting a campfire going without much hassle. For natural fire starter, look for the tiniest woody materials near your campsite. The driest twigs, pine needles, and shavings of dead and down wood can be the best. If it has been raining, look for the more sheltered places, perhaps next to trees, shrubs, and cliff faces. Toilet paper or newspaper? If you are truly going ultralight on your trip, don’t depend on having it with you!

Now we are ready to cook. When the campfire can be easily maintained to continue burning, you can place pots around the edge in the heat. It is easiest to simply heat water for adding to freeze-dried and other meals outside of the campfire ring. Other more creative and time-intensive use of the campfire for cooking—e.g., foil-wrapped potatoes or corn, biscuits in a Dutch oven, steak on hot coals—are up to you, but may not be agreeable with keeping weight down on your backpacking adventures.

Here are a few tips that may make the campfire experience a lot more enjoyable:

  • use tree sap (“pitch”) as a starter fuel;
  • carry a length of tubing with you to remotely blow into the fire (instead of having your face down in it);
  • from the moment you arrive at the campsite, maintain a stash of wood under your shelter, in case of rain;
  • use an existing campfire ring (but also reclaim it before leaving);
  • coat the outside of the pots entirely with soap before putting in the fire (makes it easy to clean off all the carbon afterwards).

Be diligent in reclaiming the campfire ring before you leave. Try to burn down the wood to small pieces before extinguishing the fire. Be sure the fire is out, using water or soil. Scatter the rocks. Scatter the charred wood. Spread out the ash. “Rake” the campfire area with a branch. If soil is available, spread it over the ash and rake it to mix it together. Use your own judgment to make the area look as natural and untouched as possible.