New Backpacking Ideas
Part three of "Backpacking
Gear Ideas." A few more ideas for backpacking inventions,
and innovations in techniques as well.
There are a couple new ideas for lightweight backpacking products
here. Then there are suggestions for new techniques to use when
backpacking. Good techniques can often lighten your load as much
as lightweight products.
New Backpacking Product Ideas
Rain cape. Instead of a poncho, a tarp that simply
has a chin strap and a few velcro attachments down one side could
be used for a "rain cape." It would be cheaper and
simpler to manufacture, and easier to actually use as a tarp.
It would also easily cover you and your backpack. If you
have ever held a rectangular tarp around you to keep the rain
off, you get the idea.
Wax paper water container. The idea here is to have
a water container for those long hikes in the desert when you
need to carry extra water. When you have used it up, the container
doubles as a good fire starter, eliminating its weight from your
pack. Existing waxed milk and orange juice cartons could be used
for this.
Swamp cooler shirt. Again, this is for hot desert hiking.
Soaking your shirt in a stream and wearing it wet is a great
way to keep cool from the evaporative effect. The problem is
that twenty minutes later you are far from the stream and the
shirt is dry. The idea here, then, is a shirt that has some kind
of water bags attached. Once filled, they slowly leak the water
into the fabric of the shirt, keeping you cool for hours.
Solid fuel fire starters. Take army fuel sticks and
add a strike-anywhere match head. You have an instant fire starter.
It would be something like having a mini emergency flare.
Other Backpacking Ideas
Air condition your tent. If the day is dry and hot,
try wetting any large piece of cloth in the nearest stream and
laying it over the roof of your tent. The evaporation can cool
the interior of the tent by ten degrees. Just be sure that if
you are using a shirt or other clothing that you'll be needing,
to allow enough time before dark for it to dry completely.
Raise your body heat. You can get by with less cold
weather wear and sleeping gear if you have more body heat. One
way to create more is to eat fats before going to sleep. Fats
create heat when they are digested (this is why eating whale
blubber helps Eskimos stay warm). Corn chips are oily enough
to help if you can't stomach a half cup of olive oil before bedtime.
Walk at night. I purposely timed a five-day backpacking
trip through the Sierra Nevadas to coincide with the full moon.
I slept until the cold got to me and then easily hiked through
the rest of the night by moonlight. It meant I could go with
a lighter sleeping bag, and it was a unique experience - one
of those backpacking ideas I had wanted to try for a while. It
did mean taking a nap in the sun every afternoon.
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