Testing Hiking Equipment

Series Summary

Backpacking combines hiking and camping in a single trip. A backpacker hikes into the back-country to spend one or more nights there, and carries supplies and equipment to satisfy sleeping and eating needs. A backpacker packs all of his or her gear into a backpack. This gear must include food, water, and shelter, or the means to obtain them, but very little else, and often in a more compact and simpler form than one would use for stationary camping. Most backpackers' food criteria are roughly the same, including high energy content, particularly protein, with long shelf life and low mass and volume. There is nothing that can compare to a backpacking or hiking trip. In today's technology driven world, these trips can help you relax and reduce the stress of a thriving metropolis's society. If you are searching for the perfect vacation, learn how to prepare for a hiking trip with this free video series. Learn how to train your muscles and exercise for a backpacking trip. With our expert tips, learn the dangers of anemia and altitude sickness before you hike, and you can also learn how to prevent it. For the girls, get tips for hiking while on your period. Our expert even gives you tips for going to the bathroom on a hiking trip. So, if you are looking for some advice before you hit the nature trails, take a moment to learn to prepare for a hiking or backpacking trip.

Video Transcript

"Before you leave on your trip to go out hiking in the back country, it's really, really important to try out all of your equipment before you go. If it's all new equipment, you've never used it before, you need to make sure. Go on maybe a test hiking trip. You know, take your equipment with you, and you don't even have to really go hiking. Wear your stuff around the neighborhood, wear the boots that you're going to wear, try everything out. Try camping in your backyard, try pointing the water hose on your tent fly, to make sure that your rain fly is going to keep you dry. Because, if you don't run into those problems before you get out into the back country, a lot of times there's going to be problems that you reach there and there's nothing that you can do to fix them. So, it's really, really important to do as much as you can, in order to prepare for those problems before they meet. I mean I've even had to do, like, some repairs on my own backpack where I created a strap out of leather and stuff, just so that it was extra secure, so that I didn't have any problems at all, when I was actually in the back country."