When planning what essentials to pack for a backpack trip, there are several factors that need to be considered when purchasing equipment for your time in the wilderness. The most important things to keep in mind are how long you will be out for, and how weight and cost play a role in purchasing your gear. With that in mind we can discuss the 10 most important items for your travels.
My husband and I have perfected the art of road tripping—at least from our perspective. Over the course of several years and dozens of week-long trips around the United States and Canada, we figured out exactly how not to car camp by experiencing it once and vowing never to go back. Sleeping in cramped cars, forgoing fresh food for convenience, and failing to plan ahead are quick ways to make enemies of your traveling partner and your vehicle of choice.
Water permeates all facets (and faucets – pun intended) of our lives: from what we drink, to how we bathe, to where we gather to swim, kayak, ride boats, and even travel. We’ve all heard familiar phrases like “drink half your body weight in ounces per day,” and “eight cups of water per day is the minimum of what you need,” but few of us ever bother to take a look at our water.
Yes, it can be found in a well, reservoir, tap, or bottle, but few of us are familiar with the actual source: springs.
Making sure that you have fresh and clean water is one of the most important skills you can have when you’re out in the wilderness. Unfortunately, even if you have a ton of water around, it isn’t necessarily safe to drink; the biggest threats to your health and future well-being are invisible to the naked eye. A microbial infection can make a problematic time being lost into something downright terrifying.
Living life off the grid can keep you busy with so much that has to be done, but there’s far more to the whole experience than just working. I personally love the life in the woods and think it’s amazing. But more often than not I talk about the work aspects within the walls of this series. Today, I want to talk about the ways in which living off grid is fun, and can help connect you with nature.
Most people would label everything that grows from the cracks in the sidewalks as weeds, but are they? Nope: You can actually eat a lot of plants you probably never noticed before. Unfortunately, I can't include all the foragable plants in your neighborhood in this one article, but the three I chose should be easy enough to spot.
Did you know that maple trees are not the only trees that provide us with the sap necessary to make syrup? There are several different trees that produce a sap sweet and sticky enough to make delicious syrups and sugars. The sugar maple is one of the most well known and most common trees tapped because it has the highest sugar content – which is key to a fine syrup.
If you're ever out camping, or in a survival situation, it's essential to know how to purify water. This is a simple method that anyone could do, and does not require any fancy equipment. All you'll really need is a water canteen, close-knit cloth, another container, and a fire (or camp stove). I recommend collecting water only from flowing sources such as rivers whenever possible. Just do yourself a favor and avoid collecting water near, or downstream from, known animal homes.
One doesn’t truly know the value of something until it is missing from one’s life. Going without and having to work for things brings out the true value in them. Living off of the grid, or even just spending time off of it now and then, can really have a positive impact.
Soap is incredibly amazing and useful. There are many ways to make your own homemade soaps and shampoos, but do you know there are plants out there that do most of the work for you? Some people prefer to make or buy lye to make their soaps, but working with lye in its pure form can be dangerous if not handled properly.
But, fear not: I am not simply referring to the flowers out there that add scents to the soaps. Instead, I am talking about raw fresh soap straight out of nature. In this article, I will teach you about a few plants that can be used to scrub up with.