Investing in Backcountry Camping: Five Must-Have Items for Your Next Adventure
By Kieran Dunch
Backcountry camping can become an expensive habit pretty quickly. As a beginner hiker or even an experienced backcountry sportsperson, you start to look at what you are going to spend for the best gear and you start cutting corners. Believe me, this happens to everyone. Eventually as you get into the habit more and more, you can invest a bit each adventure to build up your roster of good equipment. In the meantime, you might be looking for essentials that enhance your backcountry experience. Here is my list of the Five Things Worth Investing In for Backcountry Camping:
Hiking Poles
Hiking poles might be one of the most useful pieces of equipment you can buy, at any age and difficulty level. Hiking poles serve to create a more stable centre of gravity as you are hiking, and they also have a number of other uses too. They turn a hike into more of a full body endeavour, taking pressure off of your knees and legs, preserving those joints. with hiking poles, you are using your arm strength to push through the trail with each step when you use hiking poles. A good compact pair of hiking poles are worth their money just for the sake of preserving your joints, if nothing else!
Another use of the hiking pole is to test ground and mud. When headed down a trail that is particularly water-logged, hiking poles can provide balance and test the depth of where you are stepping. This makes crossing those nasty patches (or km) of trail much safer for boots and socks! Some other uses include as an extended arm, a balance for other hikers fording streams, and a tarp stand.
I recommend any pair of Black Diamond hiking poles for starters. A pair of hiking poles that are lightweight and compact are the best option, to keep them light and easily storable in a backpack to minimize hassle.
A Quality Sleeping Pad
Despite this item being a no-brainer for most hikers, I believe it tends to be overlooked on some checklists. It’s important to bring sleeping pads up here as a reminder that a sleeping bag is only half the kit that you usually need. A sleeping pad operates by separating your sleeping bag from the ground underneath your tent. It doesn’t matter how good your sleeping bag is, it will lose its warmth and even get wet if there is not a layer between you and the ground. Don’t undermine the importance of a good sleeping pad by investing all of your budget into an expensive ultralight sleeping bag.
When it comes to choosing a good sleeping pad, it’s important to note your budget and needs. Again, this is a category you should feel good spending a bit more on. I look for a pad that is light and packs easily. This usually brings me to the inflatable mattress category of pad, although there are other great options as well. I find a pocket of air between you and the ground really maximizes comfort. Have a look here to find something that works for you: Therm-a-rest pads: Amazon
A Lightweight, Portable Camp Chair
This is another controversial pick, but one I have been obsessed about with a while: A good camping chair! An item like this comes with a hefty downside, because it is a hassle to sacrifice other items to bring this along, but it won’t feel like an issue once you bring it on a trip with you. It falls into the category of a multi-use item that functions in a couple of useful ways.
First of all, nothing beats having a place to sit and relax after a massive hiking day. When you are exhausted after beating wind and rain to finally set up your campsite, the last thing you want to deal with is not having a place to sit. Not only that, I’ve seen a good chair like this be used for drying off clothes, and creating another surface off ground to store items. I consider this an excellent buy that turns out not to be too expensive either.
Some people enjoy the compact camping stool, but some might find it nice to have a compact backed chair too.
A Cheap Rain Poncho
The last two items on this list are quite easy to find, but still make it on my top five list. First up, a cheap and dirty rain poncho! You can find these at any outdoor store for cheap, and they are worth it. Besides having a regular rain layer and a backpack cover, it is super important to carry one of these with you.
If you are in your tent and you have to take a trip to the loo and it is raining, the last thing you want to do is throw on your full outfit just for a short trip. Even hanging around base camp in the rain can be annoying with a full layer, having a light poncho can really be helpful in this situation, too. A cheap poncho gets a recommendation from me.
Something Sweet
Finally, bring something sweet with you on your trip. When planning a menu, some people are tempted to buckle down and calculate every calorie for efficiency. Although I think that is important, it is easy to get lost in that work and forget the joy of a sweet treat after a day of hiking! Having a nice chocolate bar set aside for an end-of-day snack can motivate you to power through those last kilometres of the trail!
Don’t forget to reward yourself for all your hard work by bringing something along!
Thanks for reading, I hope this can lend you some insight in your own trip planning.