i cant stress enough the value of backpacking. some relate this to camping but the two could not be more different. with camping you can bring a cooler full of meat and beers and sleep in a 20lbs tent. backpacking brings you back to your natural state. thats right some 300 generations ago we were all part of hunter gather societies. when you go backpacking you only bring the essentials and you face the elements like your ancestors did. i was boy scout and the first backpacking trip i had pushed me to the limits. i was young 13 but i carried a 50bs pack (i was only 120lbs) through rain and walked up a mountain. i made my tent in the rain, cooked in the rain and loved every second of it. it was a complete diversion from my comfortable life in suburbia. when i went back to school on monday i knew i was opperating on a different level than my classmates.
i had one merit badge which was wilderness survival. basically you have to build a shelter out of wood using a pocket knife. the night i did it there was a lot of raiin i could hear kids in the backround screaming and crying as their makeshift shelter fell on them. it was hardcore as these kids had to ruff it out till the morning. anyway it was an examlple of the elements at play.
conversely living in mexico also makes me more adaptable and stronger. i am used to shit that is unthinkable to americans. when i get on public transprort i am packed like a sardine(im standing with my head bent over in vw van with no where to sit usually). when i lived in the philippines i experienced hrs without power.
eating at fancy restuarants is bullshit. i remember taking a canoe trip to canada it was 2 wks and by the end we were tired of packaged meals. we ened up killing a snake with a large rock. i remember cooking it in crisco and to this day it was one of the best meals i ever had.
point is try and live without and you will grow in ways you could only imagine



Last edited by royaldude on Fri Sep 14, 2012 1:04 am; edited 1 time in total
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Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback. (The Dude)

the dude abides

you're right if you're talking about real backpackers. not the hordes of spoiled rich kids who go on a holiday gap year and follow the airconditioned tourist trails

no dude im talking about kids taking a backpack and going out to the wilderness. obviously the wilderness is more extreme out west but i got lyme disease in the east. bears(wolfs or mountain lions) exisit out west but odds are you could get ticks in east easier.

i am 27 and i became a man the time i took a backpacking trip with my old man. he later wrote a letter to me about his respect to me about me carrying a heavy pack and doing the hard climb up a mountain. after the first day he sat me down and told me about sex i was 13 he also had a bottle of whiskey. he gave it to me. i remember drinking it and the fire i felt. i couldnt believe people drank this so i took another shot only to reaffirm how hardcore whiskey was and is.


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Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback. (The Dude)

the dude abides

I agree, a few months ago I use to with a former friend ruck with +100lb ruck for 3 miles everyday. I loved it, made me more aggressive, brought back memories of my time in the army. My friend though bailed out, he was a guy who was raised by a single mother and was supply in the Army, he only did 30lbs cause of "back" issues. Guys, you really should try rucking, start light and slow and build yourself up. When I was hanging out with my friend (we shall call him beta). We go to parties with his other friends, these guys were +6' ( I'm 5'10" and he is 5'7") They were Alphas, but I joked and messed around with them, but beta was all quite. One of the Alpha guys went rucking with us before and saw first hand how serious I was in rucking.

I swear, rucking will toughen you up and gets you fit fast. Heaviest and longest I went was around 75 miles with a 80lb ruck. I never knew the distance I went, but it was almost 3 days with 2-3 hours of sleep. I did a 30mile ruck march in 12 hours, but I think my 75 mile took longer cause of a mountain, snow and forests. People tell me that I need a car or a bed and other shit, but no. I've been through worse and live within my means.

its tough to carry 50 plus lbs and walk up a mountain and deal with the elements. i think people can be tough and never backpack BUT when i met people who have backpacked they are usually more hardcore


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Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback. (The Dude)

the dude abides

This past few months, I realized that hardcore is psycho to the average person. I'll be honest, my only friends now are veterans and active military. They are old guys from Korea on up. Only one is my age and we been friends since elementry. I truly believe a man should be out in the wilderness for awhile and carry what they need to survive. Sadly, in today's society, they will think you are crazy. Friends I thought they were, left me. I need to get away from this p***y country.

royaldude wrote:

its tough to carry 50 plus lbs and walk up a mountain and deal with the elements. i think people can be tough and never backpack BUT when i met people who have backpacked they are usually more hardcore

I have never given this much thought, but it makes sense. Very few back-packers it seems. For myself, I very much enjoy it- So called "camping" out of the back of an RV is so grandma to me.

I am a bit past 50, and I can still pack and carry for 21 days....did one last year in the US. Clothing, shelter, med kit, cooking utensils,
sleeping bag and food, total weight 68lbs at the trail-head. By the way, a good Leatherman is important to have...
All food of course is 100% dry weight only. Add to that a few items on the belt- knife, plastic water bottle, and a GP 100 with a box of 50 rounds of 140 grain HP. You lose a little pack weight every day, and at a week in you can tell the difference.

Outwest

I've never backpacked but I've spent nights on the beach. Cooking utensils is one thing u can eliminate. We made skewers from tree stems. We skewered meat, veges, potatos, onions fish, shirmp, peppers, etc & even toasted bread on the skewers. You can prop & fix them in place with stones.


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Gypsy Life - Don't look back, you're not going that way

Key to eating healthy is?..don't eat anything that has a tv commercial.

When faced with choices, flip a coin' ... it works not because it settles the question for you but because in that brief moment when the coin is in the air, ... You suddenly know what you are hoping for.

I got a question. What's the advantage of traveling with a big backpack as opposed to a regular luggage case? Is there an advantage for a perpetual traveler to use a backpack?

Also, how do people carry those huge backpacks on their backs all day? I couldn't do it for longer than 5 or 10 minutes. Yet even petite women can carry them. How do they do that?

I don't like the look of a huge backpack on me cause it kind of makes you look poor, like a hippie who lives meagerly. That isn't going to look good to women right?


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Happier Abroad Grand Ebook
Meet Foreign Women

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

Once I retire in (hopefully) Chiang Mai, I can't WAIT to start doing some backpacking!!! There are so many cool places to go out and see in Asia. China, Vietnam and India all sound appealing.

I live in the city, but whenever I climb the nearest mountain and sit at the top where there is nature I feel at the most supreme peace. Loking down at the filthy city where everyone is clustered an really give you insight in regards to the insane nature of humans. To live in a secluded natural environment is my dream for the future.

In many places in the 3d world, they do not like backpackers. They see them as white trash who are smelly and who bring nothing except cheapness, drugs and trouble. That is not the kind of tourist they usually want to see.

So, while it brings out a man in you in the US, it brings out scorn in them. Think twice before you start backpacking.


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A brain is a terrible thing to wash!

ladislav wrote:

In many places in the 3d world, they do not like backpackers. They see them as white trash who are smelly and who bring nothing except cheapness, drugs and trouble. That is not the kind of tourist they usually want to see.

So, while it brings out a man in you in the US, it brings out scorn in them. Think twice before you start backpacking.

I agree. Also, a lot of the backpackers seem to be stupid spoiled kids from the states with no sense of danger and awareness for their world. Then this happens:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html


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I am a terrible person.

ladislav wrote:

In many places in the 3d world, they do not like backpackers. They see them as white trash who are smelly and who bring nothing except cheapness, drugs and trouble. That is not the kind of tourist they usually want to see.

So, while it brings out a man in you in the US, it brings out scorn in them. Think twice before you start backpacking.

The OP is talking about an entirely different kind of backpacking than what you see traveling overseas- not even the same thing at all.
Winston's question about luggage is just too funny...don't think he is the outdoors type! LOL

The poster was referring to remote wilderness experience, not smelly degenerates with backpacks looking for hookers in third world countries! Too Funny!


Outwest

Backpacking emergencies makes your more of a man than the actual backpacking IMO.