Ultralight Tip of the Week

[Joe Kuster]

Antti,

The issue with the cooking in camp is a entirly different mindset. The initial reason I was exposed to this technique is aggressive bear avoidance. For some areas (Yosimite Valley for isntance), this was paramount to a safe trip. Some in the UL community have adopted the same technique (not all of us mind you) but for a different reason(s).

The primary reason I use this technique is that you can choose your campsite with completely different criteria than your cooksite, so you can enjoy your meal on an exposed ridge line with a view while camping in a more protected area.

Mileage is the second reason, you can often eat on the trail at a excellent cooksite when your hungry, not necessarily when you are ready to bed down. That way after you've finished dinner you can still tick off a few miles before dark if you've still got some energy and aren't desiring a prolonged campsite atmosphere. This is a big deal during the winter months as the nights can be much longer in some areas and you simply may not need that much time in camp and instead can be skipping down the trail in the dusky light.

[Mike Clelland]

Reply to Joe –

I just got back from a nice trip in Yellowstone.

Me and my pal Erika cooked during the hike, and then stealth camped. So many wonderful benefits, both practical and philosophical.

A – You can cook near water, and clean-up is easy.

B – I always find a renewed energy burst after dinner on the trail.

C- We hiked right until sunset. Our campsite was based entirely on a nice flat spot.

D – we were in grizzly bear terrain, and it just "felt" safer with no kitchen area nearby.

E – It was easier to hang the food because it was all in a few stuff sacks, because we were really tidy when we packed up after dinner.

[Everett Vinzant]

Mike,

You brought up something I've been wondering about. It sort of violates the bowling ball tip. I like to put all my food in a bear hugger. It's basically a 7 liter ditty bag that is contoured. It hangs easy. Point being, I've added weight, AND made a "bowling ball." However, eating on the trail is easier (for me, your mileage may vary). Is there something I'm missing?

Second, somewhat loosely related question. I've never seen a UL backpacking list that includes Bear Spray and/or its weight. Is it considered a consumable and not added to bpw?

[Dean F.]

Whoa. I just read through this thread and I have to jump back a couple of pages:

I find it INCREDIBLY annoying when I find egregious misspellings in a published book. Confusing their/there and then/than in particular annoy me, and I'll tell you why:

I don't move my lips when I read.

What I mean by this is that, unlike some, I don't "sound out" what I read and then interpret the sounds. I just read. And I am a voracious and lightning-fast reader. When I run into a sentence that uses "then" when it should be "than" I actually mentally trip up a bit and have to waste 3 seconds of my life re-reading the sentence and trying to puzzle out what the cretin who wrote it is trying to say. I have actually abandoned books that make this mistake consistently. It is simply too painful to go on reading them, and I will gleefully thrash them on my Amazon reader reviews. Thus I disagree with George when he claims that "If you can undrestnad waht the syombls maen tehn the msseage is succsseful." Does that mean that as long as my patients survive then I'm successful, no matter what other complication they have? Obviously not.

If you are WRITING A BOOK then you are a PROFESSIONAL WRITER and should WRITE WELL. Actually, to be fair this is the editor's job, but I'll hold authors accountable to some extent, too. (Obviously this does not apply to forum posts- just published works. And, actually, I'm more lenient with fringe self-published stuff, too.) I agree that spell-checkers are a crutch and that editors who rely upon them should be flogged. It also doesn't help when the spell-checker tries to "help" by automatically changing a word that I spelled correctly into the wrong word. That really chaps me because it makes ME look like an idiot, and since I have a love of obscure words and complex sentence structure it happens to me quite a lot.

[Colin Parkinson]

Hey Mike I just did the stealth camp thing last night as the Bruce Trail Association only allows you to camp at designated spots that are on average 100k (60 miles)apart. Nice!

P.S. I love stealth grey for illegal camping

[Mike Clelland]

I feel strongly that as long as you are clean, tidy and don't build fires, no ranger (or land manager) would ever complain. When I do "cheat" and camp in a non-designated site, I make a very real effort to camp using all my skills and insights/

[Renais A]

Was there a tip of the week last Thursday (7/28)? The last one listed on the BPL homepage is 7/21. I'm wondering if the URL didn't get updated.
Jim

[Dale Wambaugh]

That's one thing I'm lovin' about hammocks– you can camp where no one in their right mind would pitch a tent: 45 degree slope, rocks, running water? No problem! And you leave nothing but your footprints.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Is there a way to buy an eBook of this? I don't like to buy physical books because of the shipping costs and because they just sit around after I've read them once or twice. I see there is a Kindle version but I'm not sure if I could read that on my computer. I'd love to buy a nice pdf that I could just read on my computer.

[Nick Gatel]

You can download a free Kindle application for your computer and even you iphone or android. I have a Kindle and sometimes read the books on my computer or iphone. And what is really neat is the application will sync to the last page you read on a different electronic device.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Thanks Nick. I'll do that.

[Einstein X]

Hey Mike,

Why is it so important for you that other people don't see you eating close to the trail? You really don't offend me is you're eating some cereals or trail mix, sitting on a rock on the trail. Is that an American thing? On some trails here in Europe you almost trip over other hikers on the trail. It doesn't bother me on my hike.

Eins

[Henk Smees]

Hi Mike,
I just sent you an E-mail regarding Tip 152 . If this has been discussed and you’d like others to chime in as well, just let me know and I’ll copy/paste the text here.

@Eins
I’m Dutch as well (although I live in Spain) and I feel about the same. Maybe you’re right about it “being an American thing”. Nevertheless, Mike! has addressed this subject in the book (dunno whether you have same or not – if not, I’d strongly recommend it); he actually says, in Tip 92 where he writes about “stealth camp”: “Stealth means ……… To me this is very important, because (and this answers your question) it allows other campers (in this case, walkers) to enjoy the sensation of solitude in the wilderness."

Having said that I understand your feeling about being seen or not being seen from the trail, I must admit that, when we "finally" got here (we'd been walking for hours XC – there were no trails at all), I loved the feeling of having all the nature (in this case a high-altitude meadow near a lake) all for ourselves:

The lake at sunset:

[Einstein X]

Henk,

Sure I agree that with camping it's a whole different story. Actually camping on the trail is not really polite indeed, so sure it helps others wilderness experience if you camp away from the trail and out of sight. Next to that in most European countries it's illegal to make a wild camp. I still make wild camps though and using stealth techniques helps me not to be found by a forest manager and it significantly reduces my impact on the environment and wildlife. Nevertheless, as I said, I can't imagine that if I'm sitting on a rock next to the trail eating a Snickers and another hiker passes me by, that I've just ruined his wilderness experience. I'm only taking a trail side break and I don't think I need to walk 200 meters off trail for that. In fact, going off trail for every break actually increases close to trail country side erosion IMHO.

Eins

[George Matthews]

Anything that fits in the category of Tip 152* is one of the best parts of backpacking to me. I process this tip while hiking.

I believe the tip about cooking away from the trail relates to the stove set up and spreading out of gear that usually accompanies that activity. IMO it depends on how busy the trail is that you are on.

On a recent trip my wife and did not see anyone else for hours before and after we cooked our lunch. There was a perfect spot near a nice stream. A nice sitting rock. It was a few steps from the trail, but no one knew we were there. So it depends.

* If you don't have the book, then you don't know #152 : )

Of course, 153 is the best tip.

GET THE BOOK!

[Keith Selbo]

I liked all your tips so far except for this one. You can't tell if water is good unless you test it. You can only hope your luck holds out. I continue to see these unscientific testimonials on this site and frankly, I think it's editorial irresponsibly to print them without a disclaimer if at all.

[Daniel Paladino]

I thought this was a pretty good disclaimer, personally: “Explosive diarrhea with a foul sulfurous odor.”

But in all seriousness, you can't be 100 percent sure of safety without first testing the water. If people are willing to take a little risk to drink fresh delicious spring water, Mike's tip should help them assess the source.

[James Marco]

Mike, I agree. But drinking water right from the source is NOT for the inexperienced nor careless. I think this should have been a little more in depth, though. Including the main symptoms for the main two pathogens and the various bacterial diseases aquired by having a dead animal upstream from you would have made people a bit more cautious. Even as an appendix to the book to keep the tips flowing in a neat, informal way, this info would have been valuable to the new comer (perhaps to more than new comers…)

In the spring especially, this often requirs a good knowledge of the terrain. Indeed, winter snows can be contaminated if gathered too close to the ground, let alone runoff streams (often rocky but no water come summer) and artesian wells (water bubbling out of the ground may simply be runoff from a slightly higher elevation in spring.)Anyway, such experience is usually gathered through hiking the same area several times.

That said, I have been known to partake of untreated water. With a partner?? Well, I think I will zap it with the new fangled glowing thingy. Ya gotta keep the wife happy.

[John S.]

I wish the tips were in separate threads so they could be followed easier.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I got the eBook (for the Kindle App on my Mac) about a week ago. I'm about 2/3rds of the way through and I've really been impressed. I've been reading a few other hiking/ultralight books at the same time and this one is the best. You might not agree with everything, but it's full of fresh thoughts and it'll get you thinking and mulling stuff over.

I'm at a time where I feel that my gearlist and techniques are getting pretty mature (ie. not changing a lot from trip to trip) and this book has added a bunch of fresh ideas/techniques that I'm stoked to try out.

[F. Thomas Matica]

I'd say if you must experience drinking from puddles, do it on day hikes when the consequences may not be so dire as when out for several days. Or hope that it doesn't strike until you get home. In an emergency, do what must be done and follow all sensible tips to assure (almost) a decent source. Some folks have a built in immunity to the bugs and some have built it over time. Why take the chance, use your filter or tablets. The water tastes just the same coming out of my filter as it does directly from the stream. There is a certain subjective pleasure that comes with drinking directly from the creek, so do so if you must.

[Diplomatic Mike]

I always drink straight from mountain streams here in Scotland. The water might have the odd dead deer in it upstream. Adds to the taste.

I have to laugh sometimes when i meet some walkers boiling water. If only they knew the water they were drinking in their hotel the night before, came straight from a mountain stream, piped directly into the hotel. :)

[Justin Baker]

Yeah, well your body is used to it. Laughing at others boiling water shows how ignorant you are from your own personal experiences. If you told someone in your group to drink the water, and they got sick, you would probably change your mind and they would be very angry at you. You can get sick from the freshest looking high mountain streams. It can happen if you don't drink it every week.

[Diplomatic Mike]

I've introduced many 'foreign' friends to pure mountain stream water. None of them have ever been sick.
Modern man is too worried about 'what if'.

Research here in the UK points to modern societies infatuation with 'cleanliness' being a factor in the huge increase in asthma amongst the population. Everything seems to be cleaned with anti-germ this, and anti-bacteria that. Kids don't get a chance to build up immunity to anything.

I didn't mean to come across as poking fun, but sometimes i think we worry too much.

[dreamer]

I can only speak from my own experience over the last 12 years. I drink lots of untreated water in the Rockies. I treat more in the North East, but by no means all. Evaluate the source to your own satisfaction and accept responsibility for any potential difficulties. For treatment I've used only Aerobic O7, a sodium chlorite solution sold as a dietary supplement that has no approval as a purifier. About 300 nights out and not sick yet. Excellent book, it's helped me go further in my enlightening.
Best to All, Eric

[Author]

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