Backpacking Tips: Techniques

TIPS ON BACKPACKING

TECHNIQUES

"At the gates of the forest,
the surprised man of the world
is forced to leave his city estimates
of great and small,
wise and foolish.
The knapsack of custom
falls off his back."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson--

Biting spiders

Ever run into biting spiders on the trail? We did in the Smokies. These clever critters run a single strand across the trail, which when broken allows them to swing around and grab onto the person or horse or whatever broke the strand. It then climbs to a skin area and takes a chunk out of you. We solved the problem by having the lead hiker carry a 4 foot long branch vertically at arms length in front, breaking the strand and preventing the critters from getting onto us. If a hiker comes from the other direction, you can discard the stick since the strands ahead have been broken by the other hiker.

Repairing a hip-belt on the trail

My hip belt on an external frame pack broke at its attachment to the frame while I was in a particularly rugged section of the AT in the White Mountains. My first try using duct tape failed miserably. Then I remembered that I always carry about 5 feet of picture-

hanging wire (which I had never had to use, but kept in the pack repair kit) and with the pliers I carry, I made a quick fix which made the pack as strong as ever.

Hollow tipped tent poles clogged?

Ever find the hollow tip of the tent pole clogged with dirt, preventing insertion of the tent pin? You do carry a Swiss Army knife, right? That corkscrew you were certain you'd never have a need for works perfectly for cleaning out the opening.

Boot laces loosening or untying?

• At the first open clasp hook you reach, instead of going around the clasp from underneath, come from the top and go around and then up, encircling the clasp. This slight change of direction anchors the tension on the lower part of the lace.
• Instead of one single overhand knot before tying the bow, put 2 or 3 over hand knots. This serves as yet another anchor to keep the lace from slipping and loosening.
• Finally, double or triple knotting of the bow prevents the knot from undoing, but is still easy to untie due to the larger diameter of the lace. 
• If you stop on the trail to retie a loose knot on one boot, you might as well retie the other also. The tightness of the newly-retied boot will give the illusion that the other is looser and you may find yourself stopping again to make the tension on both equal.
• Joan J. of Florida suggests you make a normal bow, but before pulling it tight, take one of the loops and insert it underneath the two bows (you'll probably have to actually do this to understand, she cautions) and then pull the two loops tight. This has the effect of double-knotting the laces BUT you can still undo the laces by pulling on either lace tip. It may take a few tries to get the tension right.

Bear-bagging

It's always a good idea to hang your food bag. Only twice has doing so kept my food from a bear's stomach, but every night it keeps my food from the raccoons and other night varmints. One young man I ran into at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore had decided not to use the provided bear pole. Instead, he hung his food bag from a nearby tree which was closer to his tent. Unfortunately, he did not allow the food bag to dangle from the limb, but rather the bag nuzzled up against the limb. Of course, the acrobatic raccoon had an easy time reaching and raiding the food bag, creating a mess and cutting the backpacker's food supply perilously low. This novice hiker had also failed to pack a flashlight, so he heard this raid just 10 feet above his head, but was unable to watch or forestall it in the 2 A.M. darkness.

If you have a dissenting opinion or would like to contribute a tip,
email me at CMorHiker@aol.com

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