Your First Overnight Backpacking Trip: The Honest Checklist

Your first backpacking trip should be short, close to the car, and a little bit too fun to be called training.

Everyone overpacks the first time, and everyone underestimates their feet. That is fine. The only way to really fail a first overnight is to pick something too far and too hard. So here is the plan: three to five miles in, one night, a trail with water and an easy way out. State park backcountry sites are perfect for this.

Borrow before you buy

Do not buy a whole kit first. Borrow or rent the big items for your first trip. Many outdoor shops and college recreation centers rent packs, tents and sleeping bags at very fair prices. You will learn what you like, and what you can live without.

The list

• Pack, about 50 to 65 liters, fitted to your torso by somebody who knows how.
• Tent or tarp, set up in your backyard first. Your first time should not be in the dark.
• Sleeping bag rated below the night’s forecast low, and a sleeping pad. The pad matters as much as the bag.
• Water filter and two liters of bottle capacity.
• Stove, fuel, pot, spoon, lighter. Test the stove at home.
• Food, planned by the meal, plus one extra snack per day.
• Headlamp, map, first aid kit, knife, sun protection, bug spray, toilet kit and bags to pack out your trash.
• Clothes: what you hike in, plus one dry set for camp. That is really all.

Check the rules

Look up the park’s permit, campsite and fire rules before you go. Fire restrictions change quickly, and the site you wanted may need a reservation. Find out about bears or other animals, and how to store food in that area.

Before you leave

1. Do a test walk with the full pack around the neighborhood.
2. Share your route and return time with someone who will actually notice if you do not check in.
3. Check the forecast the night before, and be willing to go another day.
4. Have a bail-out plan. Turning around is a skill.

What nobody tells you

The first night is usually a little noisy and a little restless, and every twig sounds like a moose. You will be tired and proud and a little sore. By the time you hit the parking lot, you will already be planning something longer. That is how it starts.

Take the Base Camp notebook and write down everything you overpacked. Then have a burger on the way home. You earned it.