5 Backpacking Mistakes I made for YEARS that were STUPID as hell

Edited By: @luke_mckay

BIG FOUR 🤘

OTHER SLEEPING STUFF 💤

FOOD & WATER 🍴

CLOTHING 👔

ELECTRONICS 🔌

MISCELLANEOUS 🤘

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[kurtjensen]

When I was a backpacker. We didn’t even have cell phones. And I wore all the wrong clothes. Had the wrong tent. And had the wrong food. And yet here I am today still alive at 71 years old.

[OccidentalonPurpose]

Calibrating amount of water you carry based on how much you drink and distance to next source is fine. But extra still nice. Sometimes sources turn out to be dry or just unpleasant. Also, when you come across others struggling it's nice to be able to offer water. Finally, you never know if you or someone in your party is going to be injured or otherwise stuck in place for an extended period of time. It's nice to have water on you while providing first aid because that's one less thing you need to worry about.

[tidelinetoalpine]

For people who pack too much food I recommend finding a hiking partner who is broke and has a big appetite to unload your extra food on as your go. It’s a win-win.

[StamfordBridge]

You carry extra food and water for the same reason you carry an SOS device.

[kelliesharpe]

I’m East Tennessee born and raised so I’ve hiked a lot in my life. A lot, a lot. I never thought about windy days when I was younger. I don’t mean high wind warning days, just days of like 20-30mph winds which are common 3 seasons out of 4 here. Then one day I was hiking on an above breezy day and a giantass tree fell about 10ft in front of me. The only reason the branches didn’t get me was because there were no branches near the bottom…it was a pine. It shook the ground and didn’t fall slowly like in the movies…it just slapped the ground in about a second. If I had been less than 10 steps ahead I wouldn’t be typing this comment.
Never again. A nice breeze is great, above that and, nope.

[jackhobmeier]

For finding the perfect amount of food to bring with you there are 2 ways of thinking. You can be super scientific with it or you can look at how much you normally eat on a 2 or 3 night backpacking trip and plan around that.
What I personally like to do is to bring enough food to where I know I can safely survive then see what I can bring on top of that. We won’t die if we go a few days without food but you don’t want to starve yourself.
I also find that the dehydrated food gets old so I do a lot of food prep at home. There are some good books to read on the topic my favorite is “the well-fed backpacker” by June Fleming.
Hope this helps!

[jeppej]

You should try drying your own food. This really changed our menu while hiking. Basically you can dry anything and then cook what you would back home. But the easy way out is minced meat and basic vegies. Those combined with macaroni, dried potato, rice etc and different spices gives you tons of variety.

[hikingaftersixty]

My first night of my first through hike I DID look up to check for widow makers. The 3 pines surrounding my tent all looked healthy and very much alive. In the middle of the night there were gale force winds, rain and hail. One of the pines, 10 feet from my tent, toppled, fortunately away from my tent. As it fell, one of its branches sheared off and hit my toes. SO, it doesn’t have to be a dead tree to become a widow maker. I was just lucky.

[shoresy]

For anyone that owns a Garmin device, I recommend getting Garmin's Search and Rescue (SAR) insurance. It's only $35 / year and covers any expenses incurred for a rescue / extraction. A helicopter rescue can run $50 k or more!

[buckman]

Food tastes so much better when you sit in a camp chair while eating.

[frankcarlsen]

One thing I always wonder about when I watch survival videos is that two must have things are so seldom mentioned. This is the super lowtech time tested items:
1: The emergency whistle. These whistles can be over 120db and that is loub. So loud in fact that ear protection should be worn when using it. This sound level can be maintained without breaking the vocal cords.
2: A small extra compass.
I have these two thing hanging from zippers on my Ski clothes. My Mountain bike clothes etc. Don't stick them in the backpack because that might be lost when you need them.

[rayosunshine]

Your mom told me when you were a baby all you would eat was Knorr made with mother's milk😶‍🌫

[wika]

I have to say that i wasn't interested in hiking by any way until i found this channel, first i was like "this Kyle dude seems cool" then got me hooked and thinking a hike of my own, there is some beautiful trails here in Finland so i planned a hike some before the summer ends... Thanks Kyle keep on the awesome work !

[tullochgorum]

Skimp on food if you like - running out is unpleasant but not fatal. But always carry some spare water. There's so much that can go wrong - injury, illness, dry water sources... In a desert lack of water can kill you within a couple of days, and even a few hours can be damn unpleasant (don't ask me how I know...).

[Mayleos]

The term “widow maker” in the lumber industry actually means dead branches up high in a dead or living tree. It doesn’t exactly mean a dead tree next to you.
Ive learned sooo much about backpacking ever since I became subbed to your channel! I’m actually on my way to go camping right now! Thank you for everything

[bihlygoat]

I’m such a geek that when I get back from a backpacking trip, I count up how many calories I ate each day (from wrappers). Then I put in how many hours of hiking I did, and how many non-hiking hours (for first and last day). I actually came up with a formula to calculate how many calories I need each day. Probably a PITA to try doing this while shopping on a thru hike. But for shorter trips where I pack all my food ahead of time I’ve finished with only 1 extra bar left after 3 days.

[helpfulcommenter]

that footage of Flossy filtering muddy water through his Sawyer BEFORE the bandana will never ever absolutely EVER get old. Luke is on nonstop troll patrol with that shit. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🔥🔥🔥🔥

[martinhafner]

I learned the widowmaker issue early on. Being an assistant scout master and one of the main camping guys, looking after the safety of the kids really raised my awareness. On my own, I could maybe get a little complacent, but with scouts in tow, it's all about bringing them all back safe.
You never want to face a parent and explain what went wrong. So I learned to scan for dodgy trees. Dead, too much tilt, asymmetrical branch loading or questionable root structure. And most commonly, bad branches. But a lot of the camping has been in Idaho's Palouse area and southern Arizona. So widowmakers are just the first step. Flash flooding paths, pooling areas and lightning risk (relative high ground, tallest trees) are the big ones. Depending on location, dangerous animals can be an issue. Idaho had re-introduced Canadian gray wolves besides the usual bears and cougars. Arizona has lots of venomous nasties, black bears, cougars and jaguars. The jaguars give the border patrol agents nightmares.
I've actually had two trees blown up by lightning within 50 yards of my tent during one storm at summer camp. Big trees with 2-3 foot diameter trunks. Lightning is no joke in Arizona, especially in the mountains. On one backpacking trip near the Palouse river, which is just a 200 foot deep sudden slit in the ground, we had one scout that was a sleepwalker. The river was about 50 yards away. No moon. Precautions were taken.
Minor risks are too close to water, low/cold air pooling and insect hives/nests. Each campout was training time for how to pick an ideal camp site. Since I was always doing safety training, it was pretty easy to focus on all the real risks and not skip any. To be honest, safety monitoring and training are the only mandatory tasks for a scout leader when on an outing. The boys should be doing the rest. Let them screw up and learn. Just don't let it get dangerous.

[snailie]

Not a backpacker here, but I do long tours with my motorbike every summer all across Europe. I can totally relate to the "buying/bringing too much food" thing... same here 😅 I like the idea about the SOS device, maybe I should consider getting one of these, too. Never thought about it thus far, so thanks for the inspiration!

[randallminchew]

I hike in the southern Utah/northern Arizona desert. You need to bring all of your water with you. You will die if you think a spring or creek is going to be reliable. But yes judge the mileage of the hike and the temperature of the day and bring accordingly. No less then tree to four Liters.