the Adventure Lifestyle magazine

sleeping eating and drinking WATER Water is the thing you cannot do without. It is also a common cause of trail illnesses so follow these rules about taking water from the wild: 1. Do not drink any water without treating it. (This also includes snow, even at high altitudes'! Giardia lamblia, a waterborne parasite, is common in streams across North America. 2. Only fill your bottles from a running source (although choose a slow moving section to avoid stirred-up dirt and debris). Totally static pools of water may contain toxins and algae that treatment can't eliminate. Your options for clean water are boiling, filtering or treating . Boiling is still the most foolproof way of sanitizing your water, but the process can be time-consuming, wastes precious fuel and may not work at high altitudes where water boils at too low a temperature. Water filters are dependable for filtering out mircovermin but bulky and expensive. For treating water the lightest and easiest product to use is iodine tablets, which will kill almost everything. Use neutralizers (which are often sold along with tablets), lemon peels or drink mixes to cover the iodine taste. EAT LUNCH ALL DAY Hiking all day burns lots of energy and many trekkers find themselves consuming twice as many calories as normal. The key to staying energized is to stoke the fire while you walk by eating trail mixes, energy bars and fruit . These digest rapidly, providing energy almost instantly. Eat half as often as you drink, whenever you stop to check the map and anytime you start to drag behind. If you stop in towns, keep an eye out for AYCE (trail talk for All You Can Eat) places and load up on protein (many hikers don't get enough protein because proteins tend to be heavier and more easily-spoiled than carbohydrates). FOOD WITHOUT FIRE Although a hot meal is nice in the morning, stoves increase pack weight, campfires are increasingly illegal and both take time to get started. Go to the grocery store and use your imagination to find foods that don't need cooking. Try crackers, fruit, granola bars, peanut butter, beef jerky, bagels and cream cheese, cold cereal (with powdered milk!, GORP (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts-synonymous with trail mix) and sun-dried fruit. DEHYDRATED AND FREEZE-DRIED FOODS While dehydrated and freeze-dried foods take a long time to cook (wasting fuel) and require water, their convenience, long shelf life and low weight make them indispensable on long hikes. On shorter treks, many hikers carry canned foods and whole foods which require no preparation, taste better and retain a slightly higher percentage of vitamins and nutrients than dehydrated and freeze-dried foods. To stay warm while sleeping, eat before you go to bed (especially proteins such as meats, cheeses and nuts that will slowly generate energy while you sleep). Wear a hat and socks and wrap everything but your face in the bag. Most people are tempted to wear clothes to stay warmer, but backcountry experts recommend sleeping naked in your bag. Your clothes will trap moisture close to your body making you hot one moment and cold the next. This will happen even if you are wearing wicking layers because your outermost "layer"-the sleeping bag-locks in the moisture. Keep tomorrow's clothes in the bag with you; they fill empty space and you'll have something warm for the morning. Sleeping pads are for warmth and comfort. The ground can be substantially colder than the air and even the thinnest insulating layer between you and the cold earth will make a huge difference in temperature. See Gear: Sleeping Bags, 68. Life is a circuit hike where you'll always step in your own shit on your way back around. Improperly disposed of waste and contaminated water spread disease (hepatitis, Giardia. typhoid) in both wildlife and humans. Most trail diseases come from contaminated water and most water is contaminated by feces. urine or both. One method of control suggested by the National Outdoor Leadership School (albeit one unpopular with many backpackers). is to pack out your poo. Too nasty? At least follow these rules in order to minimize impact: 1. Make sure no one will find it. Dig a hole not more than six inches deep (it's the bacteria in the upper layer that decompose the feces). 2. Keep it at least 200 feet and downhill from water sources. 3. Take advantage of biodegradation by digging separate holes for each instance so that the underlying organisms can do their thing. iPACK'ING OUT You can rightfully call yourself a backpacker when you master "one-piece trash." backpacker slang for the ability to cram all your day's trash into a solitary container. such as a plastic baggie. Using sealable plastic bags to combine all your trash will keep your gear from smelling like dinner. Your only trash should be from food. first aid and cleanup. SMELLABLES To avoid run-ins with bears and other animals. use a "bear bag" to isolate all your smellables. The bear bag should contain everything that smells (food. toiletries. pots, stove, gas. gum, bug spray. that T -shirt you spilled beef stew on etc). If you're not sure. put it in the bag. Suspend a rope 15 feet off the ground (the rope will sag with weight so pull it tightl between two trees at least 20 feet apart (and at least 20 feet from your tentl. Throw a second rope over the suspended bear cable. tie one end on the bag, pull it up and tie the other end to a tree. Don't pitch your tent in the "bearmuda triangle" (the area between the fire. the sump. and the bear bag). This is the area in which wildlife is most likely to hang out. HOW TO SHIT IN THE WOODS BY KATHLEEN MEYER TENSPEED PRESS. APRIL 1994 LOW IMPACT BACKPACKING AND SAFETY, SOFTPATHS BY BRUCE HAMPTON AND DAVID COLE STACKPOLE BOOKS, OCTOBER 1995 WALKING SOFTLY IN THE WILDERNESS, THE SIERRA CLUB GUIDE TO BACKPACKING BY JOHN HART SIERRA BOOK CLUB FOR CHILDREN, JUNE 1998 LIPS MAKIN' BACKPACKIN' BY TIM CONNERS AND CHRISTINE CONNERS THREE FORKS/FALCON. APRIL 2000 THE WELL-FED BACKPACKER BY JUNE FLEMING VINTAGE, MARCH 1986 THE ONE-BURNER GOURMET BY HARRIET BARKER CONTEMPORARY BOOKS, JULY 1981 MINIMAL HIKING, BEYOND BACKPACKING BY RAY JARDINE ADVENTURELORE PRESS, JULY 1999 EROSION Plant life in many backcountry areas hangs on for dear life and in dry regions such as New Mexico. Utah, and Wyoming. vegetation grows very slowly. To protect this plant life. don't take shortcuts (on switchbacks. for example) or blaze a trail off the path to pass other hikers. In open fields where there is no trail. spread out instead of walking in a line. Use designated campsites wherever possible. SUPPLIES Biodegradable soaps such as Mountain Suds or Dr Bronner's are designed to clean everything from you and your clothes to your dishes. In a crunch. you can use sand, dirt or the coals from your fire (many household body soaps and nearly all home water filters are carbon-based). All-Purpose paper is the second must-wipe yourself and your pots and pans with it. Do not use deodorants. especially when going to bed. as wildlife and insects are attracted to perfumes. •

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