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.
Preventative healthcare is incredibly important, as many diseases and conditions can be caught early with the right tests and healthcare team. While you might associate preventative care with the elderly, tests are vital for disease screenings at all ages of adulthood. These include mammograms, colonoscopies, pap smears, annual wellness exams, and more. Preventative care, however, also includes what you’re eating, how you’re moving, and the habits you’re avoiding.
Wildflowers are at their peak during mid-to-late summer in the northern United States and throughout Canada, but they’re more than just pretty. The bright purple of coneflowers and the blue of chicory are delicious for the eyes, but even better for the body.
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.
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is right around the corner. The weather’s getting better, plants are sprouting, and gardens are being planted. That’s right, it’s time to get outside! I’m lucky enough to live in Colorado, where hiking trails are literally right outside my front door.
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.
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.