Solo Backpacking Issues
Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad. — Samuel Johnson
So, you’re a loner then? Reminds me of my mother. Not her, exactly, but what she thought of me. Every time the news ran a story of another nice, quiet, law-abiding guy without a whole lot of friends who went nuts, took a gun to work, and murdered everyone, she said she thought of me.
If there’s time we can get back to mass murder a little later, but right now let’s think about some of the practical aspects of traveling solo.
For one thing, you have to carry everything yourself. You and you alone. You’re completely dependent on the integrity of your equipment and your skills to deal with any and all problems. Your pack may rip. You may spill fuel or food. You can fall and get hurt. You can get lost. Something big may bite you.
Then what?
Well, we always get back to the personal basics: smarts and experience. And equipment basics: weight, size, complexity, cost, mechanical reliability and repairability. And stove basics: heat output, durability, fuel availability, stability during use, toxicity of fuel, and general danger.
Traveling alone just means that you do it all. Cost might be an issue, but then again, if your life depends on something, you’ll buy the best you need, regardless of cost. For a solo hiker, weight, size, complexity and reliability become a lot more important.
Alcohol, solid fuel and wood stoves shine. You can’t get anything lighter or simpler, and if you make it yourself you can make a stove that’s at least as good as anything coming out of a factory.
When you’re out alone you need to be focused. You need a fumble-proof stove in the morning when you’re stiff and cold, an easy-to-use stove during the middle of the day when you just want a quick cup of something warm, and a hot stove in the evening while you’re settling in for the night. Because you’re carrying everything yourself, you need the lightest option available.
I counted all the items that I carry on a typical backpacking trip. There are about 55 of them. If I add just one ounce to each item (28g), my pack ends up weighing almost three and a half pounds (1.6kg) more. Add two ounces per item and it’s seven pounds (3.2kg). I can feel that. So can you. It doesn’t sound like that much until you heft it. I’ve gotten tuned in enough that I can feel the difference after filling a 25-ounce water bottle.
But go the other way. Cut your base pack weight down to 15 pounds, then cut an average of one ounce off everything, and your base weight is now down to 11 and a half pounds. That’s about a 23 percent difference. Do it again and you’re down to eight pounds. That’s about a 30 percent difference. The lighter you go the harder it is to shave off more weight, but the more dramatic the difference is, and the proportional change too, so after you start to lighten up, switching to a light stove and cook set can make a real difference in itself.
And when you’re 15 miles from the nearest road, halfway through your dream trip, all alone out there somewhere, you’ll have lots of strength and endurance in reserve. If something happens and you need to travel fast you can. You won’t be under a killer pack, groaning, leaning and stumbling with each and every step. You’ll be in charge.
Exercises
- Get some more friends. You’re not really that ugly. “Things in mirror are prettier than they appear,” as the saying goes, but of course you may be an exception, so get a second opinion if possible.
- Pick one of your new friends and have him or her climb onto your back. Then try to walk around. Yeah, right. Now you’re catching on. Humps become you.
- Make a list of everything you need to take backpacking with you, under any and all circumstances. Since you’ve already weighed it, you can write the weight next to each item. Keep this handy as a checklist for your trips. You’ll find that it’s now a lot harder to forget things you need to take. Once you do this, you can give up some of your memory by removing unneeded parts of your brain, for even bigger weight savings.
- Sure you’re going to die, but you need to do that every now and then to keep in shape. Don’t worry about it. Plan ahead, be smart, and you will delay that inevitable moment. Meanwhile you can relax. Breathe deeply. Everything will be OK. Use the time to scan overhead for incoming asteroids.