I’m teaching a class tonight at REI about lightweight vs traditional backpacking. It’s a bit of a mock battle between me (representing lightweight) and a very experience backpacker Mike Little (representing traditional weight). I’m planning on printing out my notes and then trimming off the unnecessary paper. Gimmicky, no?

Here are my notes for the class, and I wanted to thank the online community for teaching me so many things.

Ultralight Backpacking
Go farther faster with less effort

The principles behind ultralight backpacking

 Creativity – Multi-use objects
Simplicity- Pack only what you need
Awareness- Know your surroundings
Empowerment- You are in control of your gear. Change it or make your own.
System focus- Look at your decisions holistically
Community- Participate in a larger conversation

Benefits

Enhancement of the experience- Women, older individuals, and those with mobility difficulties will most readily feel the change.
Protection of your body- Prevent common injuries. Danger zones: your back, your knees, and your feet.
Freedom and privacy. -Allows you to get farther into the backcountry. Ever want a trail to yourself?

Natural extension of backpacking ideas

 Ultralight backpacking has pushed the industry to lighter options. You are already used to giving up certain things. You leave things behind to go car camping. Leave more things behind to go backpacking. Extend this process to go ultralight.

Steps to lightening your pack

1.Get a scale that shows lbs and ounces.

2.Lighten up your big three: shelter, sleeping bag, backpack. In that order. Shoot for under 6 lbs.

3.Consider tarps. Quilts. Frameless backpacks.

4.Pursue multi-use objects whenever possible

5.Other elements- When was the last time you used x? Do you really need it?

6.Last step- Footwear.

7.Consider volume as well as weight

Shelter

Consider tarps or tarp hybrids. Multi-use- hiking poles eliminate the need for tent poles.

Sleep system

The insulation under your body is compressed and loses it’s warming ability. Consider quilts. Do you need the insulation under your body?

Backpack

How many liters do you really need? Lighter weight options out there. Trim unnecessary features.

Consider frameless packs. Multi-use- use a single cell foam pad as your suspension.

Stove

Alcohol or Esbit fuel stoves. Lightweight and simple.

Use pot as bowl instead of bringing an extra bowl.

Clothes

Bring only what you need. Use synthetic and wool options.

Footwear

Last step- do this after lightening your whole system. Don’t carry a 50lb pack and wear sneakers.

The biggest impact for comfort.

Extra ounces per step.

Multi-use options

Waterproof gear as a vapor barrier at night. Stuff sack for pillow and backpack for under your feet. Bandana instead of toilet paper. Duct tape solves everything.

Resources

 Trail Life by Ray Jardine

Lightweight Backpacking and Camping edited by Ryan Jordan

Strong online community. Join the conversation!

Ok, it’s actually algebra, but don’t fight it. Having calculus in the title makes it sound more intelligent.

Right before my trip to the Seven Devil’s Mtns, I decided that I wanted to come up with a system for food selection. A way to break down caloric density so that making choices would be easy. I came up with this formula:

(c/g) * t * h= backpacking value

Let me break this down. First we have calories/ grams which produces a metric version of caloric density. Next we multiply this value by it’s rating on the tastiness scale. 10 means that I would still eat this after a Thanksgiving dinner, and 1 means that, even if the zombie apocolypse comes and I have no choice but to eat this food or start canabalizing the other survivors, I would develop a taste for man flesh. Obviously, this is very subjective.

Next we put things into categories by their h value, which is their healthiness value. I have three categories: c= carbs, p= protein, h= vitamin and mineraly stuff. Let me show you how this works by demonstrating the formula with mac ‘n cheese.

70 grams (g) of mac ‘n cheese has 250 calories (c). So 250/70 = 3.7. We’ll take that number and multiply it by it’s tastiness value, in this case, 8. I can almost always eat mac ‘n cheese. This comes out to be 29.6, a very good score. Mac ‘n cheese’s value is primarily caloric, so I put it in the c category.

Erin: You mean you were doing this instead of, say, reading our map and compass book?

Addy: Yes, but bear with me. This system is great!

So what foods score the highest on this scale? The far and away winner is (drumroll please) a Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie with a score of 45. I think it is the pink and purple chocolate chips that give it that final extra edge. Carrots, on the other hand, score a measly .9 . You’ve really got to work on that carrots. Sunflower seed butter and powdered hummus did well on the protein front with a little added nutritional value thrown in the mix. Summer sausage packs a lot of good calories, proteins, and fats. Both red peppers and Primal Strips did well in the healthiness category.

I thought about dividing a food’s score by it’s p value–it’s packability, with 1 being akin to an extra pair of socks and 10 being a bear canister. But I decided to not be too excessive.

Erin: We reached excessive several minutes ago.

I even made a google doc for this (whoa! That just happened). If you want to check it out, you can do so here. Other options for choosing food? Frank and Sue have written an e-book, Food to Go, that is slightly more practical than my system and worth checking out. Otherwise, you’ll have to brush up on your math skills and grab a few boxes of Cosmic Brownies. It’s the multi-colored chocolate chips that make them so good. Remember that.

**update: If you do check out the GoogleDoc, you’ll see the awesome additions of Helen!

]]> http://www.dressedindirt.com/2010/12/the-calculus-behind-food-selection/feed/ 7 http://www.dressedindirt.com/2010/10/4-new-foot-care-solutions-im-trying/ http://www.dressedindirt.com/2010/10/4-new-foot-care-solutions-im-trying/#comments Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:17:24 +0000 Adelaide http://www.dressedindirt.com/?p=3924

One of the biggest problems I have on the trail is foot pain. I’ll wake up in the night with feet so swollen they won’t fit into my sandals. During the day, they become very painful to walk on, especially when I am going downhill. I’m trying to become more pro-active about my foot care regimen and tried a few new things on my last trip. Here they are:

Trial lacing system

1. Water

According to the book Fixing Your Feet, dehydration is one of the major contributing factors to swollen feet. For this trip, I guzzled down as much as I could.

2. A different lacing system

I left my Lafuma shoes at home by accident (Eeep!) so I had to find a creative way to give my feet room to do the normal expansion that happens to most hikers. Here’s a picture of what I did. I completely skipped a lace to give extra room to the ball of my foot, and then tightened up the heel to make it stay in place. This arrangement was very comfortable.

3. Night time massage

Every night before I went to bed, I did a simple massage of my feet. I squeezed my heels ran my thumbs up my arch, and then did circles on the ball of my foot. This ended up being a pretty relaxing part of my day.

4. Arnica

Arnica is a homeopathic herb designed to help with swelling and bruising. I happened to get several free samples recently, and decided to check them out. After my nightly massage, I rubbed some gel into my feet, let my feet dry, and then put on my socks.

How did it all work out? It was great! Even though we had elevation gain and loss on rocky surfaces, I felt very little foot pain. I need to do more test runs to see if I actually need the arnica, because I would rather not carry it if I don’t have it. Regardless, I’m going to adopt most of this system for my hike on the PCT.

No, seriously, don’t change. I’ve been teaching a Backpacking Boot Camp with the Portland Women’s Outdoor Club, and one of my missions is to get the participants to bring fewer clothes. To me, leaving a few shirts and pants at home is an easy way to lose weight and bulk from your pack. So I tell them, don’t change your clothes often when you are in the woods, nobody will care.

Reader: You wear the same clothes for days in a row in town, so your advice doesn’t carry much weight here.

Addy: What can I say? The trail has influenced my personal hygiene, perhaps in a negative way. But, while people may notice my smell in town, nobody notices it in the woods.

On a recent trip, I had a participant bring her gear in beforehand so that I could sift through things with her. It was her first backpacking trip ever, and she brought way too much stuff (which we all do when we are starting.) We eliminated two cans of tomato soup, eight fruit and yogurt cups, and a couple of pairs of underwear. “Annie,” I said, “do you really need four pairs of underwear for a four day trip? You are wearing one pair already, so that leaves you changing them once every day and twice on one day.” I convinced her to leave a couple of pairs behind. Underwear may seem like a small thing, but as a backpacker once told me, “Nothing weighs nothing.”

How to bring fewer clothes:

Wear your underwear one day, and then flip it inside out the next day. This way you can bring half as many pairs of underwear as you were planning to. This argument worked on Annie. If you really get into it, you can wear your underwear one day, wash it out that night in a stream, and hang it out to dry on the back of your pack, while you wear your second pair that day. You’ll then be able to bring only two pairs on your trip.

Wear a skirt and go commando. I do, if that’s not too much information. It adds to the breeze effect. I also met a few men who hike in basketball shorts and no underwear because it keeps their manly bits drier.

Bring only three pairs of socks. Wear one the first day, rinse it out and let it dry on the back of your pack (like the underwear). The third pair of socks should be your sacred socks, which are never worn except when you’re sleeping.

Wear the same pants each day. Really. I wore the same pants everyday for a month with no ill effects. They did smell a little gnarly by the end, but that was my proof that I had been on the trail for a while.

Use gaiters. When you are hiking in pants, they will get dirty quickly in muddy areas or places where you need to do a little bushwhacking. Gaiters can be worn with shorts or a skirt and taken off at night and left outside your tent. This keeps the rest of your clothes cleaner.

Bring a maximum of two shirts. If you choose your gear well and go for lightweight, fast wicking clothing, your shirts will be able to dry during the night (unless there is a lot of humidity). If you are rinsing out your shirts in a stream or lake, there is really no point in bringing more than two. I wore the same shirt in town for more than a month, and, because it was the right material, it didn’t smell bad.

Those are my best suggestions, perhaps other people have more? I know that Ray Jardine uses an umbrella for rain gear and leaves the waterproof clothing at home, but I’ve never tested this system. At any rate, when I try to convince new backpackers that they don’t need to bring many clothes, there is always a marked resistance. However, after a little suffering on the trail, people begin to try to jettison gear in any way possible. In fact, at this point, I’d hike naked if it weren’t for all the chaffing and embarrassment.

*Changed her name.

After doing some stair climbing, weight lifting, and her first overnight in the woods, Aubrey is now ready for the next step in preparing for our Hells Canyon backpacking trip. Step three: Building in distance.

Making time to do distance training can be difficult, but they are an essential part of preparing for a multi-day backpacking trip. When I was training for the Appalachian Trail last year, I walked everywhere I went carrying my backpack. I got comments like, “That’s a mighty big pack for such a little girl,” and “Are you training for the military?” I even met a very kind man who assumed that I was homeless and offer me a meal. All of this is fun and goofy, but the point is: you need to get your pack on you as often as possible.

When I ran cross-country in college, we built our workouts on the principle of progression. My coach would tell us, “The slowest runner is an injured one.” In other words, take time to build up your mileage to avoid getting hurt. Take rest days and low mileage days.

For Aubrey, our plan for the first week was to work in one ten mile day, one five, and one three. Here is a calendar of her progression. I would love for her to be able to do more mileage, but that pesky work stuff gets in the way. She is a nanny two days a week and bikes 14 miles on those days, so I’ve counted that as a workout.

I have designed routes for her in town so that getting the mileage in will be easier. Because we will be doing around fifteen miles over difficult terrain in Hell’s Canyon, Aubrey will have to work hard over the next three weeks to be prepared. Go Aubrey, you can do it!

Aubrey's camera broke and she couldn't take any pictures, so this is my incredibly artistic representation of her trip. It may surprise you that I am completely self-taught.

After a couple of weeks of physical training, Aubrey set out on her next big step towards being prepared for our trip to Hells Canyon: she went on her first short backpacking trip. I recommend that people do this early on so that they can begin to feel comfortable in the woods. Aubrey borrowed some gear and went to the woods with her dog, Sunshin. She hiked Eagle Creek, which is a moderate trail in the Columbia River Gorge with a lot of beautiful waterfalls. Because the trail wasn’t too remote and there were other people backpacking there (in case she got in trouble), it was the perfect place for her first trip.

To prepare, Aubrey attended the “Backpacking Bootcamp” class that I teach for members of the Portland Women’s Outdoor Club. Here’s an overview of the material:

Head and shoulders, knees and toes- clothing choices

What you need and what you don’t – packing lists and gear descriptions

Eat like a hobbit- planning food for trips and cooking

Water purification options- I don’t have a clever title for that one

Fighting off the bear-shark- hygiene on the trail and going to the bathroom

You can’t take it with you- Leave no trace guidelines.

I then demonstrate how to pack and open it up for Q and A time. It’s a pretty fun night.

Aubrey cooked her own dinner on the trail using a small canister stove, and purified her water with AquaMira. She told me she felt comfortable and confident in the woods. Late that evening, her boyfriend surprised her by meeting her at her campsite. All in all, it was a successful trip and a good step towards being prepared for a longer distance trip. Go team!

***

My friend Nate just suggested stage three: “Next she will crawl under 500 meters of concertina wire, filled with rotting pig flesh with tiny charges of TNT exploding around her while Nate and Adelaide fire rifles over her head and scream into a bullhorn.  After this, we will go to REI and try on boots together.” Not a bad idea.

You should feel very intimidated by this picture

I am going to break this down in one word: pee-ability. That is, the ability to pee wherever you want. Now, I’m a big fan of leave not trace and peeing away from the trail, but the are some times when you just really, really have to go. If you are a guy, dealing with this situation in a discrete manner is easy (and I don’t have to tell you how), but for a woman, you run the risk of embarrassing yourself by showing off your backside. (Not that this has happened to me or anything).

Here is one example from my life: I was hiking in the White Mountains (I think on Wildcat D), and it began to storm. First it poured rain and then hail. As the wind blew, I hiked as fast as I could, trying to get off the mountain. Then, as luck would have it, I had to pee. I tried to ignore it. I fought it hard because at that moment dropping my pack, going into the woods, and taking off my soaked pants all in the hail, felt only slightly preferable to having my teeth pulled without anesthesia. Eventually, I had to give in. Now, if I had been wearing a skirt, I would have had enhanced pee-ability (I’m working on making that a word), and could have gone to the bathroom without even having to take off my pack.

There are other benefits to hiking in a skirt, but one more word about the pee issue. The shelters on the Appalachian Trail see a lot of traffic, and, if you choose to stay in one you will be surrounded by both your shelter-mates and the tents set up nearby. As a female, if you have to pee in the middle of the night or early in the morning, wearing a skirt diminishes the likelihood of unintended moonings (unless you’re into that kind of thing, in which case, wear pants or hike naked).

I first began hiking in a skirt after several enthusiastic recommendations from men and women wearing them on the trail. I am glad that I followed their advice. Here are a few other benefits I have observed: First, if it starts raining, you can easily slip your rain pants under your skirt, and then put your skirt in your bag. Likewise, if you get cold, you can slip your long underwear on and off very easily. When you’re wearing pants, this is a much more difficult situation. For warm weather, hiking in a skirt provides a nice ventilation, as I’m sure you guessed. I now hike with gaiters so that my legs are protected, and a skirt so that I can feel the breeze.

Yes, the uninitiated may think you are a little weird. For me, I never wear skirts in town, so my friends think it’s funny that I hike in one. They remind me of this often. And, perhaps I should have mentioned this sooner, you do run the risk of being called cute. But let me tell you, enhanced pee-ability and ventilation are a worthy trade-off for a little bit of ribbing.

Aubrey and her dog do a stair workout

My roommate, Aubrey, would like to hike Hells Canyon with me this summer, but she has no backpacking experience. Our agreement is that if she will follow my training program for the next month, then she can go on the trip. She’s agreed and is working very hard. Because she doesn’t have a car, I’ve designed these workouts so that they can be done at our local park. These exercises were suggested to me by the personal trainer Nikki Becker.

So I will hereby christen the Aubrey Jangraw in town workout, week #1

Things you will need: A set of stairs, hand weights, and a backpack loaded with 20-30 lbs.

Part 1

1. Start by walking with the weighted pack on for 15 minutes to warm up.
2. Do a set of stairs followed by ten squats with the backpack on. Repeat for a total of three times.
3. Do the same thing only this time with lunges. Repeat for a total of three times.
4. Do the same thing with sideways squats. Rinse and repeat.

By this time , you should be working up a pretty good sweat. If you don’t feel like you are working hard enough, you may need to find a more challenging set of stairs or add more weight to your pack. Or you may simply want to add more sets.

Part 2

Aubrey pumping iron

Upper body strength building (3 sets of 10 reps)

1. Shoulder shrugs- with one weight in each hand, shrug your shoulders and think, “Why is Addy telling me to do this?” And I’ll say, not in your head, mind you, “Backpackers often overlook upper body strength, and it’s important, especially for women.”
2. Deltoid raise- With straight arms, raise the weights so that they are even with your shoulders.
3. Bicep curls- I think your gym teacher may have taught you these.
4. Tricep curls- behind the head

Core strengthening (25 each)

1. The squirm- Lay on your back with your knees bent. Alternately reach for each ankle without sitting up.
2. Butterfly curl up with twist- Do a sit up with your fingers loosely holding your head and then turn to one side.
3. Cycling- But without a bike, see?
4. Seated bent knee tuck- Sit on a bench with your knees bent. Balance on your bum and bring your knees up towards your chest.
5. Wall reach- Put your legs straight in the air (with or without a wall), point your fingers and reach up to your toes.
6. Crunch- You may have seen this one before.
7. Back crunch- Lay on your stomach with your legs straight. Pull up your chest and let your head curl back.
8. Contralateral superman- On your stomach, extend your arms and legs into the air and say, “Wheee!” Alternately touch down your opposite hand and foot.

Follow all of this with stretching and a cool down walk. Good job!

Doing this workout 2-3 times a week combined with other physical activity is a good way to start getting ready for your first distance hike.

My first caveat: this guide is mostly psychological. I’d recommend pairing it with another instructional site like this one: Cool Little Miniature Stove or this great tutorial from Mungo Says Bah.

Addy’s guide on how to survive making your own alcohol stove

A working Coke can stove

1. Go to the store and buy a six pack of root beer and a gallon of ice cream. That way, if you get really irritated while you’re making your stove you can have a root beer float to cool off. You’ll also have extra cans available in case you make a mistake and need to start again.

2. Become comfortable with failure. This project may take several attempts. Now, I say this, but several people that I have taught this skill to have been able to master it right away, which makes me curse secretly under my breath, but I am very clumsy and it took me awhile. You may be just like me and still trying to develop your fine motor skills. In which case, become comfortable with messing up.

I'm so frustrated!

3. Cut one of the cans to 1 inch using the method you prefer. I like to put the razor from an exacto knife into the one inch mark on my Joy of Cooking book (because it should have at least one function) and score the sides of the can.
Reader: Look. I am holding a sharp object. If I get cut, I will sue Addy. Bad idea: I live in a basement and you would likely only get leftover root beer cans in your settlement.

4. Use the 2nd can to stretch out the first.
Reader: I am so flippin’ frustrated. I will go have another root beer float.

5. Cut the second can to one inch.

6. Punch 5 small holes in the center on your second can.

Argh! Whose stupid idea was this!

7. (Optional) Put cotton or fiberglass in your second can to serve as a wick. I don’t do this, but here at Dressed in Dirt we accommodate all lifestyles.

8. Fit the two cans together- the one with the holes in it goes on the inside. I know it seems counter-intuitive, that two equal sized things would go together, but with a little work you can do it.  Actually, this is the most irritating part of this whole process. Feel free to use the cuss words of your choice at this point.
Reader: Argh. I hate this. Whose stupid idea was it to make this stove in the first place? Reference #1 and #2.

9. Once they are together, poke 24 holes around the top can.

10. Pour a little alcohol in.

11. Light the bottom and then the top.

12 Say hooray! or curse, depending on the outcome. Either way, you will now have a sugar rush from the 4 root beer floats you have enjoyed, which isn’t so bad.

Yay! (or not)

In short:

Be patient

Have fun

Drink a root beer float

Geological marker on top of Mt Katahdin

I recently had a reader ask me for suggestions on preparing for the Appalachian Trail. After I wrote him a response, I realized that other people might like reading it, too. There are a lot of good books on getting ready for the trail, so these are the things that made the most difference for me.

Without further ado, here are my suggestions.

• It’s ok to be cheap. Don’t feel like you have to buy top of the line gear. My friends were a little worried about me because I have lower to middle of the road gear, but once I saw several people with pepsi can stoves and 10 $ ponchos, I realized that hiking the trail is more about determination and persistence. If you don’t have much money, you can still make it work.
• Bring hiking poles. Your statistical chance of finishing goes way up when you use them. My poles and I have a strong emotional bond because on several occasions they kept me out of the bogs in Maine. I love you guys!
• Go slow at first. It’s tempting to put in big miles right away, but if you give your body ample time to prepare, you’re more likely to avoid injury.
• Eat well. I’m currently doing experiments with trailcooking.com to help me raise my standards for on the trail meals. Hiking every day for 5-7 months is hard on your body and the more health and flavor you can add in, the happier you’ll be. Also, if you eat the same thing everyday you run the risk of ruining your favorite food. Mac’n Cheese and I are finally back together, but it took several months of being back in town for that to happen. I’m not sure when instant pudding and I will reconcile. If I could do it again, I would make my own meals ahead of time to supplement the things I bought in town. I would recommend the book by NOLS called “Backcountry Nutrition.”
• Make sure you do several multi-day trips before your start the AT. I tried to carry my backpack everyday even if only on a short in town walk, so that my body could get used to it.

• Make your pack as light as possible. I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, but it’s incredibly important. Ray Jardine is a great resource for ultra light backpacking. The ultralight people can be a little intense, but they’re a great place to start. Some key areas to lighten up:
  • Your sleeping bag. I met several people who switched bags when they went through warmer/cooler weather.
  • Your tent. I love my tent so much that I sometimes sleep in it at home, but the next time I do a long hike I’m going to use a backpacking tarp. You may have seen them, the ones that are held up by your hiking poles are great. Parts of the trail are really buggy, so I would recommend adding some netting to to your tarp.
  • Find multi-use items. For example: anti-bacterial gel can clean your hands, start a fire, or help stop the oils from poison ivy from spreading. If you do use it on your hands, make sure your rinse the area afterwards to clean off the dead bacteria. (I just learned that in my Wilderness First Responder Class class.)
  • A lot of people go for very light backpacks, but I’m a little divided on the subject. A pack w/o a internal frame will only work if you aren’t carrying very much weight to start with, and some people find them very uncomfortable. I’m planning on making one to try it out. For my trip, I used Arc’teryx Bora, which is bulky and I got ribbed about it a little (no one can understand our love), but holds the weight really well and is always comfortable.
  • Don’t lighten up on your first aid kit too much. I just completed a class to get my Wilderness First Responder certification, and after running several scenarios about injuries in the woods, I’m convinced that cutting down on your first aid kit is one of the last places to lighten your load with. You won’t need multi-day doses for anti-allergens or constipation pills (among other things), if you experience those problems, you can deal with them in town. But make sure that you bring plenty of things for wound management and emergencies. This doesn’t have to be excessive, but make sure you have gauze, bandaids, anti-bacterial ointment (never pour anti-bacterial gel on a wound, use soap or water), mole skin (or duct tape), pain medications and anti-diarrhea meds (so that you can make it out if you get giardia). A cut up t-shirt can double as an ace bandage if you have a serious wound, otherwise think about bringing some tape if you don’t want to sacrifice your clothes. A lot of people skimp their first aid kits, but your mother and I both think that is really dangerous.
  • Consider using trail running shoes or light hikers. Boots are very sturdy, but also heavy, and you can probably get away with a lighter option.
  • While you do want to carry as few clothing items as possible, always keep one pair of sacred-never-wet-socks in the bottom of your sleeping bag, and dry your feet out before putting them on at night. This will seriously cut down your risk of getting a foot fungal infection and prevent trench foot (not to mention the quality of life points.)

  This list lays out the things that were most important to me, but I’d love to read other peoples advice, too. It’s fun to hear what works for other people.