The Backpacker’s Field Manual by Rick Curtis

[Craig Shelley]

This book covers a broad range of topics and it is quite up-to-date. The author recommends that you carry it on all your backpacking trips. It’s a “field manual”, according to the author. At 417 grams for the book, this is a good indication that the author isn’t really going to emphasize lightweight backpacking. However, there is quite a bit in this volume of interest to the lightweight backpacker. It is well written. It has a ton of detail on topics as diverse as weather, first aid, and types of insulation used in clothing. It should be read together with a book that emphasizes lightweight backpacking, but it is a good introduction to backpacking.

[Patrick Young]

The book has a lot of information from gear selction to bear bagging. A lot of this gets pretty detailed and I learned or relearned a lot things I had forgotten over the years. The only thing it lacked was extensive information on going ultralight though it did touch on several aspects. Seems very up to date.

[Thomas Knighton]

Being new to backpacking, I picked up this book as a primer for my understand of the subject of backpacking. It's target audience is primarily people like me, who are new to backpacking and want to get out but aren't sure where to start. In this regard, it's fantastic. Further, I can imagine an experienced backpacker making use of this as well to remind them of things, to say nothing of it being a good reference.

The downside is that the book, as was already mentioned, only touches on ultralight backpacking, and just barely that. Instead, the primary focus is to teach new folks the basics so they can go off into the woods and be safe, a worthy purpose.

The reason this book is a 4 as opposed to a 5 is simple. First, as I've already mentioned, it only touches on lightweight backpacking at all, which is something I feel new folks should learn from the get go, it'll make them more likely to keep hiking. Second is the extremes of the author's ideas of LNT camping. I'm all for minimizing your impact, but when the author tells the reader to scatter pinecones and brush back over the campsite, it just got a bit ridiculous to me.

All in all, a good book and well worth the price!

[Author]

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