Conscious Choice: Wild, Wild, Life

June 1999

Wild, Wild, Life

by Mark Long

There are few pleasures in life that I find more rewarding than an afternoon nap alongside a creek after a hard day’s hike. Once the backpack comes off and camp is set the real pleasures of wilderness camping begin. A little water on the stove for some tea, a handful of gorp, and a quick soak of tired feet, all accompanied by a chorus of songbirds, and it is hard for me to remember what my urban existence is all about. The longer the trip, it seems, the more I shed my acculturated layers, and the more distant become the pressing demands of schedules not my own. I have been backpacking since I was a child and I have yet (after 30-plus years) to grow weary of living out of a pack or lugging all of my immediate necessities on my back, as long as I can do it enfolded in the wonders of backcountry travel.

No book, and certainly no article, can take the place of experience when it comes to venturing into the backcountry with only what is on your back. But, knowledge is a vital first step in gaining that experience as safely as possible. What follows is an attempt to lay out a few basic "musts" for the first-time backpacker, along with a brief mention of some wonderful places nearby to try your hand (or feet) as a backpacker. There are three areas in which you should have at least an adequate knowledge level before you ever take that first step from blacktop to trail head: basic techniques, gear, and destinations.

Above all, your trip should be planned with full awareness of your own physical limits. Backpacking, at its most common level, is not an overly strenuous activity. The biggest problem is the discomfort of the weight on your back rather than the strength and endurance needed to actually make the hike — and this is especially true in the Midwest. However, if you are out of shape and haven’t walked farther than from the couch to the fridge in the past year, do not plan to hike the entire Appalachian Trail this season. You want your trip to be enjoyable, and the best way to ensure that is by planning a route in which you will be able to pause and notice where you are rather than having to keep pushing through to reach your destination.

One of my axioms in the backcountry is that schedules kill. It is important to have one: to notify people when you are due back, and to do what you can to keep to it. But life in the wilderness does not always conform to schedules and there are times when the demands of the "outside" world should be subordinated to the realities of weather, trail conditions, injury, and other surprises. Backpacking trips, at least for me, are built around providing as much relaxed time in a wilderness setting as possible, not in seeing how many miles can be logged or hours hiked. Sure, the more you hike the more you will see, but it is also important to experience more than the visual.

Basic Skills

Wilderness skills are vital to ensure that your presence in the backcountry does not do serious harm to the ecosystem or limit the wilderness experience of those around you or those who follow you. It is important that you leave "camping" expectations at the trailhead and reorient your thinking to wilderness context. The things that you associate with family car-camping trips or Boy/Girl Scout outings of your youth should remain pleasant memories while you are on the trail. Forget the roaring bonfire, the s’mores (they are certainly possible in the backcountry, but marshmallows fair poorly, at best, in a backpack, and bears love chocolate!), digging trenches around your tent to divert rain water.

The worn cliché about taking only pictures and leaving only footprints still offers a sound, cogent code of behavior in the backcountry. Be mindful of the impact of others on your experience and mold your behavior accordingly. A wilderness experience is an increasingly rare phenomenon, in large part because more and more people are in search of them. It is an irony that we should never lose sight of.

Any major backpacking destination in the U.S. will have at least one published trail guide in print; the more popular destinations will have many more. There is also a veritable flood of "how to" books and magazines dedicated to the art and science of backcountry travel. They range in ambition from the introductory (backpacking) to the advanced (rock and ice). It is a good idea to read as much of this material as possible before heading out on your first (or second, etc.) trip. There is a great deal of good information in this literature that will help you in assessing your level of comfort in the backcountry, choosing a destination, and selecting the gear that makes the most sense for you. In the end, if you are in doubt about your abilities, go with an experienced friend or sign up for a guided trip with a commercial outfitter or a hiking club (the Sierra Club offers inexpensive trips led by an experienced "amateur").

Backcountry ethics are an important part of life on the trail — for you, for those you are sharing the trail with, and for the the area in which you travel. There are many introductory guides to hiking that will provide you with some of the basic rules of the trail, and knowing them should not be considered an option. It is also important to know the particular rules of the area that you are hiking in, because they are different for every location. Not only do regulations change from state park to national forest, they vary within national forests from region to region. Park information offices and trailhead registry sites should provide the rules in printed or oral form, usually in both. Take the rules seriously.

What You Need

The explosion of the "outdoor" industry over the past 20 years has provided a mixed bag of results for backcountry travel. There is little doubt that technological advances in outerwear has made life in the wilderness a more comfortable place. Tents have gotten lighter, backpacks more sophisticated, and boots — well, more colorful. It is important to remember that these changes are driven as much by fad and fashion as they are by thoughtful consideration of what is needed in the backcountry or what works. Regardless of whether you can afford to outfit yourself with all the latest and most expensive gear you can find, you should resist the urge.

Having worked as a guide and in the outdoor retail business for years I have seen far too many people overcompensate for a lack of experience by relying on their gear as an emotional prop. I had one client who was not able to make the hike because of all the weight in his pack, and when we divided it up with the rest of the group we were more than a little upset with having to carry his inflatable sink and other absolutely unnecessary trinkets. Do not carry what you do not need. A technique I always rely on to keep my pack as light as possible is to carefully examine its contents when I am unpacking after a trip to make a mental note of what I did not use. I am amazed at how different the content of my pack has become over the years as a result of this exercise.

The essentials for a safe and successful backpacking trip include the following: a solid, lightweight tent or bivy bag, a backpack of the most basic sort (forget what the clerk tells you; external frames are far better for most people unless you are mountaineering), a lightweight gas stove, and a packable sleeping bag (leave the one with pictures of geese on the inside at home).

A sleeping pad of some sort is a necessary "luxury" for most (the older I get the less I consider it a luxury). Of utmost importance is comfortable footgear (remember, Bob Marshal hiked much of the west in tennis shoes, but full-grain leather is probably a better option), and basic food-stuffs like rice, pasta, and oatmeal (leave the freeze-dried food to the astronauts; it’s largely inedible). You don’t have to buy it all at once; many outfitting retailers will rent you a pack, sleeping bag, and tent. I strongly recommend renting before you buy so that you can assess the type of gear that you like and make sure that backpacking is for you before you lay out hundreds of dollars for gear. I am always happy to find basically new gear in resale shops or yard sales, but I always wonder about why they were purchased in the first place.

You will also need a first-aid kit of some sort. There are wonderful pre-packaged kits available on the market (especially those made by Adventure Medical), but they are expensive compared to making your own. It is important to remember that anything in your kit that you do not know how to use is wasting space and adding weight to your pack. It is also providing you with a false sense of security. You can buy the biggest med kit on the market but it will do you no good if you do not know how to use what is in it.

As someone who has been on both sides of the "selling floor" the best advice I can give you is to push the clerk beyond the rehearsed sales pitch and to ask pointed questions about what they use and where they have used it. To be honest, many people working in even the best outfitting stores in the area have little real experience in using what they are selling. Use your best judgment about who on the sales floor seems to have legitimate claims to experience and push them for all the advice they can give you.

The most important decisions you make will concern your clothing. What you wear in the backcountry is of more than esthetic concern. Your clothing system (and you should think of it as a system) is your first line of defense against inclement weather and the most dreaded of all backcountry afflictions — hypothermia. Exposure, as it is often called, is not a "winter" phenomenon exclusively, or even largely. Winter campers are usually hyper-aware of their core temperature. Far more threatening is a rainy, forty degree afternoon hike.

A proper set of clothes will keep you dry, for the most part; and warm in any case. Rule one, two, and three — No cotton! Wet cotton is more harmful than nothing at all. Cotton attracts moisture (is hydro-philic) and sucks heat from your body in the evaporative process. Use only synthetic (hydro-phobic) clothing while on the trail, especially for your first layer.

Most importantly you need high quality rain gear (top and bottom) when venturing out into the wilderness for an extended trip. Regardless of the weather forecast you must be prepared for dirty weather. The options for foul weather gear are limitless, it seems, but there are a few basic requirements that your rain shell should meet. The most important is that it be fully waterproof; whether it is expensive "breathable" material or an old coated nylon slicker will depend on your budget. Do not rely on a poncho, especially the three dollar stadium variety. (Don’t laugh, I’ve seen it.) You need rain gear that will withstand an all-day storm. Staying dry is the first step toward staying warm and safe. It also must be tough enough to survive the inevitable abrasion of life on the trail without shredding in the first five minutes.

Destinations

Once you are comfortable with the rules of the trail and you have outfitted yourself, you are ready for the fun part — planning your trip. This brings us back to the hiking-challenged Midwest. While I could spill endless ink telling you about the many great paddle destinations in the region (perhaps in a later article), there is a paucity of choices for those traveling on foot. The good news is that the choices that we do have are wonderful in their own right. And, of course, you are not limited to the Midwest. The Smokey Mountains are but a long day’s drive from Chicago. The Front Range of the Rockies are much further but, depending on your time frame, well worth the effort. The northern Rockies can be reached by rail in a very pleasant trip to Glacier National Park via Amtrak. If you can afford the ticket, that is a whole world of incredible backpacking at your beck and call.

However, let’s start closer to home and with less ambition. In state, the only real option for an overnight trip is found in the Shawnee National Forest, the state’s only claim to (semi-) wilderness. My first trip to the Shawnee I was struck by how much it put me in mind of the southern Appalachians, with fog lying in the valleys and a wet, verdant, ecosystem. The Shawnee is over 277,000 acres, with over 27,000 acres designated as wilderness area. There is a relatively extensive trail system through which one can access the most remote areas of the forest.

One of the most unique features of the Shawnee is the Garden of the Gods Wilderness Area, which offers a unique visual experience for the Midwest. Sadly, as with all National Forests, there has been rather extensive logging in the Shawnee over the past decade, including in some of the most beautiful sections of the Forest, such as the Bell Smith Springs Recreation Area. Yet, there are still many miles of beautiful trail to be hiked and plenty of places to pitch your tent in relative isolation.

But the North Woods are the real gem of the Midwest. There are two great locations for hiking through the particular beauty of this precious ecosystem. Beware, however, that both are very crowded in season. There is plenty of natural beauty to see and play in, but you will not often be doing so alone. The first is the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Nestled along the shores of Lake Superior, the Porkies are a beautiful state park with over 90 miles of hiking trails that wind through the 60,000 acres of "mountains" on Superior’s south shore. There is enough vertical relief to provide any excursion with a challenge and magnificent views for the payoff. There is also the wonder of Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world (by surface area) and a simply stunning place near which to rest your head. There are a few stands of old-growth white pine left in the park that suggest the majesty that once was the old North Woods.

The park itself offers some easy trails and 13 cabins to rent in the backcountry, making any trip in little more than a walk in the woods if you want to hike cabin-to-cabin. There are also backcountry campsites that have tent platforms and fire rings. On the whole a trip to the Porkies provides a relatively user-friendly first trip into the backcountry, although it is still remote and there are plenty of bears, so do not treat it too lightly. The downside to all of the above is that the park has become very crowded over the past ten years. Hiking any trail in the park during the peak summer season can feel like you are in the Forest Preserves. Nonetheless, the Porkies is really a perfect destination for a first trip.

Further north, and in the middle of Lake Superior, is Isle Royale, the nation’s smallest National Park. Isle Royale is subject to the same assets and drawbacks as the Porkies. The park is 45 miles long but only nine miles wide at its widest point. Nonetheless, there are over 165 miles of hiking trails on the island. The island itself is long and rather narrow and is cut by deep bays and attended by hundreds of smaller islands. It is also home to a large moose population and a few wolves remain from what was once a much larger pack. There are primitive shelters on the island that are open to first comers and wonderful campsites available along the Superior shore or by one of the many inland lakes. It is difficult to write about the park without drawing on time-worn superlatives because it stretches the ability to capture it in print.

Isle Royale is a very busy place; there is simply no way around the crowds for most of the season. Access to the island is tightly controlled by the park and is possible only by sea plane or scheduled ferry (unless you have your own rig in Lake Superior). Reservations on either should be made well in advance. Boats leave from Copper Harbor and Houghton, Michigan, and from Grand Portage, Minnesota.

Despite it’s popularity, though, Isle Royale is a splendid destination for first-time backpackers because there are fantastic places to camp within an easy hike of the boat docks, allowing you to push yourself as much or as little as you feel comfortable. The more adventurous can slake their desire for the big hike by doing an end-to-end hike from Rock Harbor to Windigo Harbor. Be forewarned: if you leave the island without seeing a moose it is because you did not try.

After you have tested your mettle and honed your skills in these Midwestern locales the wonders of the Rockies and the timelessness of the Smokies will beckon. I promise. You will hardly have dried your gear and cleaned your boots before you begin planning your next trip, scheming about your next locale, ordering maps, and figuring out how you can afford to quit your job and hike full-time. I know; I did it. But even the wonders of the high peaks of the Rockies and the mystique of international destinations do not lessen the pleasures to be found in return trips to any of the places you visited first. Once the pack is hoisted and your rhythm is set you will lose yourself in wonders of wilderness immersion.

Resources

Literature
Magazines — Backpacker, Rock and Ice
Books — From Backpacker Magazine.
Everyday Wisdom, Karen Berger, Mountaineer Press
Leave No Trace, Annette McGivney, Mountaineer Press
Making Camp, Steve Howe, et. al, Mountaineer Press
Backpack: One Step at a Time, Harvey Manning, Mountaineer Press

Outfitters
Active Endeavors, Chicago, 773-281-8100; Evanston, 847-869-7070
Eastern Mountain Sports, Chicago, 312-337-7750
Erehwon, Chicago, 312-337-6400
Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), Oakbrook Terrace, 630-574-7700; Niles, 847-470-9090

Guides
National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), 307-332-6973
Northwest Passage, 847-256-4409
Outward Bound, 888-882-6863
Sierra Club Outings: local, Fran Caffee, 630-859-1687; national, 415-977-5522

Destinations
Headquarters Isle Royale National Park, 800 East Lakeshore Drive, Houghton, MI 49931; 906-482-0984
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, 412 South Boundary Rd., Ontonagon, MI 49953; 906-885-5275
Shawnee National Forest, 50 Hwy. 145 South, Harrisburg, IL 62946; 618-253-7114 or 800-MY-WOODS (699-6637)

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