As weird as it may sound, I first found out about backpacking through the movie Wild. My first time backpacking was one for the books. Outside of what I saw in the movie, I had zero knowledge of the activity. I went to REI to buy and rent shit on my own. My first trip was to Havasupai–a Native American Reservation in the west side of the Grand Canyon.
The trek to the Havasupai campground is a 10 mile downhill hike. I made all the rookie mistakes you could make during this trip. I packed clothes for several days, entire loafs of bread, with your regular bottles of peanut butter and jelly, and if that was not enough I brought several items to make pancakes in the morning (SMH). I was smart about my sleeping gear. A friend lend me a backpacking hammock, and I rented a lightweight sleeping pad and bag from REI. I felt my over-weight, over-packed backpack about 5 or 10 minutes into my trek. Heading out of this canyon I cheated because going in was brutal for me; I ended up getting the worse blisters you could imagine, and could not imagine having to do the trek, the uphill trek, so I took a helicopter ride out. First thing I did was book a nice hotel suite in Vegas, and made dinner reservations at one of my favorite steakhouses in town.
After this trip you’d think I’d be done with backpacking… Nope! This really got me going, and left me wanting more. Luckily some of the folks in the group I was in knew quite a bit about backpacking, so I picked their brains for as much as I could. This trip happened in the summer of 2018, and I knew I wasn’t going to get into this in the fall with how things were in my life by then.
Fast forward to Spring 2019 and I was poised to overturn every rookie mistake I made. Signed up for a few REI classes, joined several subreddits, revisited the notes taken from my backpacking friends and this pic sums up the results:
This picture was taken in the San Rafael Swell in southern Utah. Unfortunately was not able to test out all of my new gear during this trip because me and my friend got lost and couldn’t meetup with a group we were supposed to. Luckily my friend and I ran into someone from that trip (whom we did not get to meet during that trip). He invited me to go to Grand Gulch in Bears Ears National Monument. This was the ultimate test them all trip. Three Days, Two nights, and roughly 35 miles to go through. Guess what? I kicked ass during that trip. That then opened the flood gates and in 2019 I backpacked the following:
- Coyote Gulch in Escalante National Monument
- Uintas National Forest
- Cirque of the Towers in Wind Rivers, WY
- Maroon Bells Loop in Aspen, CO
- Small Portions of the PCT in Oregon
It also opened the flood gates to many camping trips that happened that summer and fall. Since then I have continued to backpack and also brought along a new friend with me:
TL;DR Went to Havasupai for my first trip where I brought too much shit I didn’t need or use. Got help, adjusted my gear, and have been backpacking lots since.