While going for a camping trip can be a whole lot of fun, what isn’t as much fun is lugging along a heavy pack for your trips. In fact, lightweight camping is the way to go as it offers some peace of mind. Why should you worry about the extra luggage you are carrying when you can enjoy the trip without it? So, here we will discuss how you can prepare for a lightweight camping trip. This way you will have to carry less gear and make the most of your camping trip.
Extra Planning Always Helps
Before we delve deep into the details of planning a lightweight trip to a gorgeous place called Cuyahoga National Park, you need to find out, whether you are okay with the idea of planning. Let’s get it straight, every trip requires a bit of pre-planning. Packing extra usually means you need to be ready for some unseen eventuality. People often pack more because they pack these trips for every trip of theirs, when all you have to do, is to customize your trips and pack accordingly. So, plan and eliminate the chances of redundancies in packing gears to ensure smart and minimum luggage for you to carry.
Get the Balance Right Between Bare Necessities and Luxuries
Once you plan a lightweight trip, it’s time to figure out how less on the weight you may be willing to go. Or, in other words, it’s time you found out all about your lightweight backpacking comfort zone.
Finding your lightweight backpacking comfort zone is to find out the approximate weight range for your packing that can let you enjoy everything – right from hiking to the beautiful outdoors without sacrificing your comfort on the trail. So, to strike a balance for your comfort zone, you may get a base pack weight of about 20 lbs. However, for others, the base pack weight reads somewhere around the value of five lbs. The aim may not be to find the lightest gear but to have the pack weight that caters to your needs. Any lightweight trip may have you sacrifice your comfort, but then you cannot have everything, right? Ensure you are a little realistic about the kind of pack weight you are likely to get and be able to carry around.
The Right Gear Makes All the Difference
Whether you are thinking of picking an ultralight backpacking chair or a great compact first aid kit, you may have to make a decent financial investment in your equipment if you are thinking of trimming down your pack weight. Also, you need not be averse to the idea of lightweight backpacking, especially if you are on a limited budget. However, you should find out exactly which gear should you invest in and what are the things which you need to let go of. It will not only help you make smart choices but also ensure that you stick to only the necessary stuff.
Trimming Down Your Kitchen Essentials
Apart from minimizing the weight of your shelter, you may also think about the heavy load of your kitchen equipment. Although you need to pack in plenty of kitchen gear such as cookware, mess kits, and a camping table because you want to enjoy some eating in the backcountry, it may not help minimize your pack weight. So, instead of choosing heavy-duty camping equipment, you can opt for a small portable camp stove to make your camping trip a lot easier.
You can do a little bit of extra work and plan to cook by using things like tinders, lighters, or firestarters to make cooking easy without using any fancy equipment. However, you need to keep in mind that most camping sites do not allow fires. Check out the local regulations to find out whether you are allowed to cook on an open flame. Once you start the process you’ll realize that cooking can be uncomplicated if you have the means, however, little they may seem at the time.
It isn’t so difficult to pack light if you get the intention right, and as we said, you need to plan earlier. If you are already a regular for these camping trips, you’ll get an idea about the things you really need and those you do not, or at least if you leave them behind, you may not miss them as much.