Ways to Lighten Your Backpacking Load When Traveling – Our Backpacking Guide

Taking on a backpacking trip is an inspiring way to travel as it immerses you into a new culture and challenges your comfort zone. Packing only the essentials with you, backpacking will allow you more freedom to explore a foreign country without any ties – unless you pack too much, which can slow your trail and weigh down the fun.

When you’re carrying a backpack and trekking on rugged terrain, cutting down your belongings to its bare essentials is critical as it saves energy and reduces the chance for blisters, aches, and pains down the line. To that end, here are ways you can lighten your load so you can cover more miles without feeling like the world is on your shoulders.

Tip #1: Repackage Food and Personal Care Items

Bulky bottles of personal care items like sunscreen and food packages such as canned goods can take up a large portion of your backpack’s space. Keeping them as is will only add unnecessary weight, so evaluate all the items you can place into smaller containers to save on weight.

For instance, you can place your vitamins, ear swabs, face cloths, and just about anything in snack-sized plastic bags instead. You’d be surprised how much room you can make by repackaging your items, so take the time to move items around for a lighter pack.

Tip #2: Limit Your Wardrobe

Committing to a backpacking trip means leaving behind the need to dress up to impress – after all, it’s all about taking in the beauty of nature. Choose your clothes wisely and open up to the idea of washing the clothes yourself to eliminate the need for carrying your closet just for a fresh change of clothes.

As for personal care items, if you’re planning on staying at chain hotels, you can utilize their free shampoo, condition, and soap so you can shave shower products off your back.

Tip #3: Invest in a Down Sleeping Bag

A down sleeping bag is designed to provide more warmth without adding extra weight with its warmth-to-weight ratio compared to other synthetic bags. This makes it the ideal choice as you can significantly lighten your pack.

Tip #4: Choose a Lightweight Backpack

You can scale down your essentials to the bare minimum, but the effort will be for nothing if your backpack is taking up most of the weight and space. On that note, the rule of thumb is to steer away from backpacks that adds more than three to four pounds to your load. This means that you have to choose wisely and opt for lightweight designs, such as backpacks made with lighter materials, fewer pockets, or even a frameless construction.

In Conclusion

Backpacking trips can be a life-changing and highly adventurous journey, which is why packing lightly is critical if you don’t want to weigh down your experience. With that in mind, the basic tips above should give you a clue on how to pack efficiently so you can feel light on your feet and cover more ground with only the bare essentials on your back.

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