| What do you do when you need to be home | | | | made of wax paper, doubles as a good fire |
| instead of backpacking? Dream up new ways to | | | | starter, eliminating its weight from your pack. |
| backpack and new ideas for backpacking gear. | | | | Existing waxed milk and orange juice cartons |
| Here are some of my most recent backpacking | | | | could be used for this. |
| ideas for products and techniques. | | | | Backpacking Ideas - Techniques |
| New Backpacking Ideas - Products | | | | Create body heat. You can carry less cold |
| Swamp cooler t-shirt. This is for hot desert hiking. | | | | weather wear and sleeping gear if you have more |
| Just soaking your shirt in a stream and wearing it | | | | body heat. To create more, eat fats before going |
| wet is a great way to keep cool from the | | | | to sleep. Fats create heat when they are digested |
| evaporative effect, but twenty minutes later you | | | | (this is why eating whale blubber helps Eskimos |
| are far from the stream and the shirt is dry. The | | | | stay warm). Corn chips are oily enough to help if |
| idea here, then, is a shirt that has water bags | | | | you can't stomach a half cup of olive oil before |
| attached. Once filled, they slowly leak the water | | | | bedtime. |
| into the fabric of the shirt, keeping you cool for | | | | Air conditioning your tent. On hot and dry days, |
| hours. | | | | try wetting any large piece of cloth in the nearest |
| Solid fuel fire starter sticks. Add a | | | | stream and laying it over the roof of your tent. |
| strike-anywhere match head to army fuel sticks | | | | The evaporative cooling can lower the interior |
| and you have an instant fire starter. It would be | | | | temperature of the tent by ten degrees. If you |
| something like a mini emergency flare. | | | | are using a shirt or other clothing that you'll be |
| Rain cape tarp. Not of a poncho, but a tarp that | | | | needing, allow enough time before dark for it to |
| has a chin strap and a few velcro attachments | | | | dry completely. |
| down one side. It would be cheaper and simpler | | | | Night hiking. I purposely planned a five-day |
| to manufacture, and easier to actually use as a | | | | backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevadas to coincide |
| tarp. It would also easily cover you and your | | | | with the full moon. Each night I slept until the cold |
| backpack. If you have ever held a rectangular | | | | bothered me, then easily hiked through the rest |
| tarp around you and over your head to keep the | | | | of the night by moonlight. It got to carry a lighter |
| rain off, you get the idea. | | | | sleeping bag, and it was a unique experience - one |
| Disposable water container. The idea here is to | | | | of those backpacking ideas I had wanted to try |
| have a water container for those long hikes in the | | | | for a while. However, it did mean taking a leisurely |
| desert when you need to carry extra water. | | | | nap in the sun every afternoon. |
| When you have used it up, the container, which is | | | | |