My Most Important Outdoor Gear
Gear lists are the go-to “drug” for outdoor enthusiasts at home. They are in every medium, in every social media tool, in every sphere of retail. Whether you are just starting hiking or climbing or you are a 40-year veteran continuing to look for that magical piece of gear that will add some measure of comfort to your adventures, there are plenty of ways to get advice. And we eat it up! The subscriptions to the YouTube channels, the Facebook groups, the Instagram Influencer followers all prove that whatever marketing genius started this gear craze, we all have it. I have personally spent hours at a time watching gear reviews on YouTube, pouring over gear reviews in blogs, tracking down details on a piece of gear seen on Instagram. It works! Look at the popularity of stores like REI, Cabelas, and the brand power of Arteryx, Columbia, North Face. We spend thousands of dollars on gear after spending countless hours researching it.
But is that all we need to venture into the wilderness? Sure, many of those gear reviews teach you the knowledge of how to use the gear. I had an outdoor instructor tell us that the key is not just having the gear, but also the knowledge of how to put it to use. He was not wrong. But what if that was not all that was needed?
Proper Gear? Check. Knowledge of how to use it? Check. That might keep you alive, but will you enjoy that adventure?
Now I am not a long-distance hiker, or some gear expert. I am largely a wanna-be thru-hiker, weekend warrior, occasional section hiker. This summer, since COVID19 ensured that an out-of-state vacation would be difficult, I decided that 6 days on the Appalachian Trail was just what the doctor ordered, and man, was he right! I came off the trail refreshed and wanting to keep on walking (which is why I put Katahdin at the end, so I would not get to the trailhead and keep on going), but some of the people I encountered started me thinking about that something extra that maybe they needed to bring with them.
Of course, COVID19 has messed up many thru-hiker plans. The ATC asked the thru-hikers to leave the trail when the COVID19 restrictions we put in place, largely to limit the impact on small-town EMT that could be involved in any rescue. Most hikers left the trail, some kept on going. When the restrictions began to be eased, many people started thinking about taking a south-bound hike or doing a flip-flop hike (south from Katahdin for some span of miles then flip to Springer Mountain and head north to where they stopped southbound).
As I spoke to mostly south-bound through hikers (“Sobos”), I discovered a wide variety in plans. One young woman had finished her post-doc and had a year between school and starting her new guaranteed job. She was supposed to go to Europe, but with that not available, she figured she should through hike the AT, southbound. She had never been backpacking before and just 25 miles in was debating whether to continue, not sure if backpacking was her thing. I encouraged her to seek out “her thing,” and it did not have to be a thru-hike if she did not want that. Did she have all the “gear” she needed?
Another Sobo was a man who worked coordinating technology conventions, out of work until 2021 with a wife so involved in politics that “she will barely notice I am gone,” he said. He had never backpacked before, but he did train a bit. He seemed eager for the adventure and the challenge of a thru-hike. And there were others. All these people started their trip climbing Katahdin (one of the hardest climbs on the AT) and then walking through the 100-mile wilderness with enough food to carry them 100 miles to resupply. The overarching theme seemed to be, “I can stay at home and wait out COVID or I can through hike the AT.” Why not?
I came upon a young man from Georgia just north of Nesuntabunt Mountain favoring an injured knee who told me about magically finding a trekking pole on the trail which helped him walk. He was trying to decide whether he should climb a small mountain for cell service to call for extraction or walk to a local hiking camp for help and was paralyzed on that bridge with indecision. He had a working cell phone with an app with maps, a new pack, and that magical pole. Surely, a call for rescue is always a hard call to make, but did he have all the “gear” he needed?
Everyone, including myself, comes to the wilderness with some sort of goal. It does not have to be “hike 2,190 miles to Georgia.” It could be hike X miles in Y days. Climb to the top of some mountain. See some remote site that you have heard about. Those are all laudable goals, but they are not THE objective. The primary objective? Return to the trailhead safely, and, as much as possible, enjoy the trip. Safe return and enjoyment, hopefully with some goal accomplished.
To have both that safe return and enjoyment, and in most cases, achieve your goals, you must bring more than the right gear and knowledge to the trip (though they are required). I am coming to believe that the most important gear you can bring to the wilderness on any adventure, be it hiking, backpacking, climbing, whatever, is a PROPER ATTITUDE.
What do I mean by proper attitude?
It begins with an acknowledgement that no matter what gear you have, no matter what experience and knowledge you have, you are not in control here. Your enjoyment and your safety will have everything to do with how you respond to the events that transpire during your journey.
So, the first aspect of a proper attitude to bring any hike is humility. Nature has a way of impressing its will upon you and while that may present a challenge to be overcome through perseverance or skill, there will come a time when you need to know where the edge is, where you must adjust your plans or expectations. An attitude of humility rather than one of a “conqueror of nature” will equip you better to have the other aspects of the proper attitude. That humility will also prepare you to learn something about yourself, the terrain, your skill or your gear as part of your hiking experience. There are few better teachers than wilderness experiences, presuming you can survive them!
I like to say I have climbed Katahdin 10 times, but have only summited 6 times because those other times I accepted that “today was not a summit day” and turned around in the face of what would have been dangerous to continue. And that attitude made those times when I did reach the summit that more precious. I learned as much from the times I ‘failed’ to summit as I did from when I did summit, perhaps more. The failures even often make better stories, “The rain literally washed us down the mountain on the Helon Taylor trail… then the sun came out and Pamola smiled at us.” Remember, the mountain is in control and heeds you not, you are a guest amongst the trees and the rocks that have stood there long before you came and will stand there long after your footprints are washed away by the rain.
The second aspect of the proper attitude to bring is to seek delight in all things, and I do mean all things. Some people use the phrase “embrace the suck” as a term to find joy even in those parts of the hike that are most difficult, but even that has far too negative a connotation.
This summer on the Debsconeag Backcountry trail my wife, Diane, and I had just packed away the tent and began to hike as the rain started to fall on us. The day before had been oppressively hot and buggy, that morning the rain seemed to make everything greener! The rivulets of water highlighted the trail and seemed to make us laugh at the playfulness of stomping through the puddles. Over the next 7 miles and 4 hours, our clothes wet through and our boots filled up with water (we forgot our gaiters) to the point where they were squishy every step, but we were laughing and thoroughly enjoying walking through the woods in the rain. It has a totally different character in the rain, and no bugs!
Even thinking about how that moment may “suck” can prevent you from being fully present in that moment as you try to “power through” the discomfort. Instead seek out the joy of that moment, even if it is uncomfortable to you at first. My wife said she would have never known how much fun it is to hike in the rain had she not gotten caught out in it and just decided to be fully present in that moment. Leave the complaining about the circumstance behind and see the enjoyment that can be found in that moment, a moment only you and your immediate surroundings truly share. Don’t miss it!
The third aspect of a proper attitude is that Leave No Trace (LNT)is not just a set of rules, it is a life principle. There is a whole movement around Leave No Trace to teach people respect for the natural environment and to leave it better than you found it. It can be phrased as “Take only pictures/memories, leave only footprints” or “pack in / pack out.” However, it should be noted that whatever list of rules or slogans are used to express the principle, Leave No Trace is a life principle of respect for the environment and a call to treat it well.
This is important – it is just not about the rules. You can log onto any social media group about hiking and ask if people should leave a colored rock on a hiking trail and stand back and see the flames rise up as people argue about the rules of what should be left in the wilderness. It is a passionate debate about how to apply the LNT principles with good intentions on both sides, but sometimes those principles are sacrificed in a fury to follow and enforce the rules.
What I find most useful about LNT is that applying the principle of leave no trace engenders an attitude of respect towards one’s surroundings. Nature is not just there for me to consume like I consume a hamburger or some movie on Netflix. Nature is a living, breathing thing deserving of respect and dignity and an attitude of gratitude towards what it gives us by being in it.
This attitude of respect gets expressed in not only packing out the trash that one took into the woods, but perhaps carrying some extra out. It may include respectfully teaching others how to better treat the wilderness or learning more about how to better conserve and protect the wilderness resources. Ultimately the principles of LNT and the attitude it engenders can lead to a gentler approach to ourselves, the world around us and others that respects the space and place of all beings around us, gratefully accepting what they bring to us, and treating them with dignity in response. A life principle indeed!
The fourth aspect of a proper attitude that you should bring to your adventure in the wilderness, after humility, seeking delight and LNT as a life principle is adaptability. You should be prepared to constantly revise your plans, improvise new methods to do something, to change plans in the face of weather, busy trailheads or some other unpredictable circumstance. Put another way you must “adapt, improvise, survive.”
The first time my wife and I summited Katahdin she banged her knee on the way up the saddle rockslide. I wrapped it in an Ace bandage, but the clips were missing, so I wrapped that bandage with duct tape, and it stayed on until we got back to the trailhead. In the 100-mile wilderness where the fuel canister I thought was full ran out during breakfast on the first full day, I just cut out my evening tea to make the only other canister I had last. When it is hot out, you take longer breaks and camel-up at water sources to ensure that you are not dehydrated by hiking in such weather. At other times, just getting your tent dried out during a sunny lunch stop can seem like a victory of adaptation. You never know what you are capable of until you are called to improvise in the wilderness. Queue the Apollo 13 scene, “don’t give me anything they don’t have in their backpack…” Your ability to adapt to new circumstances, define a small new victory and adjust your plans in the face of unpredictability aid tremendously in finding delight in all circumstances.
Finally, the fifth aspect of that proper attitude is to know you always have three choices. These words are legendary in my family ever since I first spoke them to my wife after a scare during her first backpacking trip. I meant them flippantly, but she did not speak to me for miles (rightly so). Eventually, the phrase became a funny story and even a life principle for me. In any given moment, you have three choices, you can: 1) go back, 2) go forward, or 3) stay in place (and die?). (Obviously, the last one was a little over-dramatic at the time!)
The principle simply means that at any point you should be prepared to choose one of the three choices. You should always be prepared to go back—sometimes that IS the right answer when faced with certain dangers. One day while hiking a new (to us) trail in the Whites, we discovered, we had not brought a map, had forgotten the first aid kit and we had not told anyone where we were. Three strikes! So, we turned back and stayed safe. When 60 mile-per-hour wind gusts and rain are expected on the tableland, Chimney Pond may be as high as you get to climb that day.
You can always (and perhaps usually should) go forward to your destination. Perhaps the question is more about learning perseverance than avoiding danger, then continue and find that “fifth wind!” Define your own timetable and see what is around that next bend, after that next river crossing, over that next summit.
Then there are times to stay put and wait out weather or rest up or recover from an injury. This could be minutes waiting out a storm or days resting a sprain. The urge to keep moving can be misleading, when sometimes taking a moment to chill in place while the world moves on around you can be as enjoyable as climbing that next hill. (See also seek enjoyment in all things)
You should have criteria defined ahead of time that would help you decide which way to proceed in any given scenario. A good example is to plan a turn-around time when trying to summit a mountain. For example, you may plan to turn around and go back if you have not summitted by 1PM, because there may be thunderstorms in mid-afternoon. Plan for taking an extra day if heavy rain causes you to wait out the rain. Planning those types of decisions ahead will prevent you from having to make fatigue-influenced decisions in the moment (which are rarely best).
So then in addition to the proper gear, and the knowledge of how to use it, add the proper attitude to the things you should take on your hike. This proper attitude of humility, seeking delight, LNT as a life principle, adaptability and knowing you always have three choices also meets another hiker requirement—it has multiple uses! Not only will it provide you a better mental framework to enjoy your hike, it will actually increase the likelihood of you reaching both your objective and your goals while enabling you to learn more about yourself and the world around you. And, for all you ultra-lighters out there, it will not add to your base weight!
Enjoy your hike!
(Thanks to the Maine Hiking Facebook group for their answers about hiking attitude that contributed to the development of this essay.)
