What to Take Camping

Choosing your equipment for hiking and especially camping is an important consideration. Almost every item will be a trade-off between size/weight/space and cost, with those amazingly lightweight tents costing hundreds more than the cheap heavy version. Most items will be a decision you make based on both your buying and carrying capacity. There are two very important areas, though, where we recommend buying the highest quality hiking gear you can afford: Boots and Backpacks. Beyond these two things, you’ll often be able to save money if you’re willing to carry equipment that is either a little heavier or a little bulkier.

 

Buying Hiking Gear

Not only do you have to figure out what kind of equipment to purchase when prepare for camping or hiking, but choosing where to buy it can also be difficult.

For many items, Amazon.com’s Camping and Hiking section will have some of the more competitive prices. This can be a hard place to comparison shop on any more meaningful point than price, however, and even reading the customer reviews isn’t the same as holding a piece of gear in your hand to feel how solidly built it is or how much weight it will add to your pack.

If you’re not already sure what you’re looking to buy, then, stores like REI that specialize in camping equipment AND that hire knowledgable sales staff who can guide you towards a decision based on what your trip and needs are. These are also, of course, the most expensive places to shop!

The middle ground between these two extremes is somewhere like Backcountry.com, which has a better sort of review and also slightly higher prices than Amazon but still much lower than REI. Of course, you could also check out a proper store first to figure out what you want and then shop online later for better prices!

 

Hiking Boots

Shoes are probably single the most important piece of hiking gear you can buy, and as such we recommend thinking of this as an investment in your health and comfort.  Suffice for now to say that your boots should reflect your environment and hiking goals. For hardcore trekking with a heavy pack, especially in the mountains in winter, we’ve previously worn a pair of La Sportiva Makalu boots that are pretty expensive but worth their weight and now use a Asolo Fugitive GTX that feels better for a slightly wider foot. For dayhikes and quick trips without much gear we’ve used several pairs of North Face Hedgehog trail shoes in the past, and while they were generally comfortable and had excellent grip they rarely lasted more than a year with heavy use. We’ve recently switched to Merrell Moabs, but so far they’ve been travel and dayhike shoes since we have yet to get them onto any multiday trails.

 

Hiking Backpacks

Backpacks are another important consideration, but not quite so important as boots. A good backpack if properly cared for should last for years and years. Recently we’ve moved to an Osprey Aether 85 for a bit more capacity for multi-day winter hiking, but for summer treks in warmish climates this size may be overkill. The main things to look for with a backpack are a good fit and high quality materials.

Inside your pack, ziplocs or other resealable and airtight bags are great for keep your stuff sorted and making sure that no spills or rain or anything amiss gets into anything it shouldn’t Also make sure to get a pack cover to keep out the rain in the first place!

Sleeping System

Tent or Hammock? What about Bivy Sacks? Full-on sleeping bag or just a quilt for cover? What kind of padding to keep you warm from underneath? There are a number of questions to be answered here.

 

Backpacking Food and Cooking

Stove or no stove? Dehydrated food versus prepped ingredients? How much clean up will you be willing to tolerate? There are actually quite a few variables here.

No matter what you decide to do for food, always make sure to pack a bit extra just in case. On longer trips take a full day extra, on shorter a meal or two plus some snacks should suffice. Also ALWAYS take a lighter or matches as back-up. Most modern stoves come with an auto-light, but always have something else in your pack to start a fire easily in case you need it. Oh and while we’re on the subject, resealable bags like ziplocs are great for sorting and storing food but also make an easy way to pack your trash out once you’ve cooked a meal.

– Stoves or no stove? For light-weight and efficient stove cooking, the JetBoil system is pretty hard to bear.

– Dehydrated Food versus prepped ingredients. For solo trips we tend to stick with dehydrated meals from the likes of Mountain House and Backpacker Pantry and the like. Those same prepper meal packs your crazy uncle buys for the apocalypse are good for backpacking as well.

– Pocket Knife. We put this here for a reason. You probably don’t need six different can openers and a leather-working tool. Find a knife that can cut things, maybe that has a pair of tweezers embedded in the handle. Buy it. Gerber is a reliable brand.

– Clean-up. Something to scrub the dishes.

Also camp cookbooks and good recipe websites.

Staying Hydrated While Hiking

Staying hydrated is essential for any outdoor activity, but especially while hiking or backpacking far away from hospitals in case anything goes wrong! To put it briefly, the most common water bottles are those by Camelbak and Nalgene while the most popular purification options are SteriPen, Iodine, and Filters.

When it comes to staying hydrated while hiking, you need to be able to answer three main questions:

1.  How often can I refill with water?
2. How will I carry that water?
3.  How will I make that water clean for drinking?

Between the three of these, you should be ready to stay hydrated while hiking.

Water Access

The first question, of water access, is something you should have the answer to well before you leave for a long trip. Check your map to see where permanent and seasonal streams will be, and read trip reports if possible to determine whether the water quality is high enough to drink and what parts of the year seasonal streams will be flowing. Once you know the answer to this, move on.

Water Storage

Since you already know how often you’ll have access to fresh water, you should also have a good idea how much water you’ll need to carry at any given leg of your trip. Staying hydrated is important, so if you’re new to hiking plan on carrying the upper limits of what might be necessary. Ideally, you’ll want to have around 1.5 gallons per day for drinking and around 1/2 a gallon per night on the trail (that would be around 7L, for our metric readers). However, keep in mind this is a daily total and not necessarily how much you need to carry at once. Use your knowledge of water refill points to determine what your longest stretch of trail without fresh water access will be, and have enough carrying capacity for that. There are, basically two options for how to pack water you’ll need to carry.

Hydration Backpacks. While actually hiking, we tend to have much better success at staying hydrated with a hands-free water backpack. With these you’ll have no need to stop, dig a water bottle out of your bag, then re-pack and then continue. Instead, you can just hit the hose every so often as it occurs to you to drink water. The most popular brand of these by far is CamelBak, but any old one will do as long as it has a hose and doesn’t leak in your pack. Try to find something at least 70oz / 2L so you don’t have to refill too often. (As a plus, the Camelbacks come in their own packs – this can be handy for dayhikes.)

Water Bottles. While hydration packs are ideal for the trail, proper water bottles are much better in camp. We’re particularly fond of Nalgenes because we’ve used them since forever, but they do include measurements on the side which can come in handy for camp cooking. For these, 1L / 33 oz is a pretty common size. For dayhikes, if you don’t have a hydration pack a small waist pack with a couple of bottles can also work.

Water Treatment

Finally, water treatment. While there are any number of fresh mountain streams in some of the less explored parts of Asia, you should still be careful about drinking untreated water. A giardia infection is a nasty thing, and not something to be taken lightly when you’re far away from treatment. No matter which method you decide to use, make sure to find the cleanest water you can to start treating from.

The easiest and lightest water treatment method is iodine. Available in both dropper and tablet form, you simply fill up with water, add iodine, and wait 45 minutes or so to drink. That being said, this treatment gives a pretty distinctive taste to the water so consider packing (sugar-free) drink mixes to cover it up.

The other two popular options are UV Purification and Water Filtration. We’ve been using UV Purification (a SteriPen Adventurer) for the past year or more and find it to work well. Before this we’d used Katadyn Filters, which are a bit bulkier but also filter out sediment (which the SteriPen doesn’t help with).

Hiking Clothes

If it isn’t quick dry, you shouldn’t be packing it as hiking gear. End of story. (Unless you’re really on a tight budget in winter… in which case it happens but still isn’t a great idea.)

Hiking Socks. The should be comfortable, wicking, and have good padding on the bottom/heel/toes. They’re not cheap, but it’s hard to go wrong with Darn Tough. We’ve abused several pairs of these across several continents, and they’re still going strong.

Zip-off Pants. As unfashionable as a lot of these pants look, having the ability to convert easily from pants to shorts and back can be really useful. We use this Columbia, which as an added bonus has a plastic-buckle webbed belt that saves weight and is really convenient for going through airport security, as well as the bug-repellant options from Ex-Officio. As with any hiking clothes, the fabric should be quick-drying and lightweight.

Rain Jacket. Something to keep you dry when it starts to get wet. Importantly, this includes breathability as being wet from sweat is just as bad or worse than being wet from rain. We’ve got an old Montane that we picked up second-hand from a friend. You don’t need anything nearly that expensive, just focus on breathability and weight.

Underwear. It took us a while to switch to Ex-Officio because of the cost, but we’ve since replaced our entire undergarment collection. They dry quickly, resist odors, and stay comfortable for several days of wearing. That’s the perfecta! (If you buy these on Amazon make sure to check prices on all the different colors, as it can vary widely.)

T-Shirts. Once again, quick dry and lightweight. Ex-Officio does shirts too, but so do a ton of other companies. If you live anywhere near a Decathlon store (which unfortunately has no US presence), their Quechua brand clothes are a great combo of quality and price.

Bandana. Something to keep handy to wipe off sweat and cover your mouth during dust storms or keep your face warm in the cold.

Light jacket. A lightweight fleece jacket is always a good thing to include. If weather goes bad in a hurry this can layer up underneath a rain jacket for warmth, and they also make good pillows in camp. Iuse a Quecha fleece picked up cheap at a Decathlon store somewhere, but Columbia has some decent offerings for $50 or less.

Hat. Wide-brimmed is better, to keep off the sun. This isn’t exactly a necessary item, but we find hikes a lot more comfortable when we have hats.

If you’re heading out in winter or colder climes, all the above applies but you should also know a bit more. See the last section of this page for more info.

Headlamps/ Flashlights

At some point on your trek the sun will go down and you’ll still need to see! Lighting is, without doubt, an essential piece of hiking gear. We mostly prefer headlamps because they stop being an inconvenience and become part of your natural movement a lot more quickly than a handheld flashlight. The one qualifying statement here, though, is that in places with a lot of bug at night it can be hard to do ANYTHING while wearing a big shiny beacon on your forehead. When this happens in-tent, consider putting it on the ground pointed toward the ceiling to bounce the light towards what you’re doing.

When looking for headlamps/flashlights, keep in mind these 4 things:

– Lumens. That is, how bright the lamp is rated. Generally, more lumens = brighter headlamp. This will often be influenced by how many LED bulbs the lamp has.
– Battery Life. Your flashlight isn’t worth much if you run out of batteries halfway through a trip. Make sure to check the battery life before you buy, and make doubly sure to take an extra set or two with you on the trail.
– Beam Strength. You want a flashlight that not only gives off a lot of light, but also focuses that light in a straight line the reaches as far ahead as possible. If you have the chance, try to test this somewhere dark before you buy.
– Weight is important, but the differences here will be minimal between headlamps. Pay attention mostly to what kind of batteries it uses and how many spare sets you’ll likely to need, as this will have the biggest size/weight impact. For your own sake, avoid MagLites
– Multi-modality. This isn’t a key factor, but having several different settings can be useful. Think high-beams for walking around at night and low-beams for reading in your sleeping bag.

In general, we tend towards Petzl as the ideal combination of cost and performance. Cheaper and more expensive brands are out there, but we find these to not be quite the same value. If you need to save some cash, however, this is not a terrible place to do it unless you’ll be caving or expect to do a ton of night hiking on purpose.

Though not strictly necessary, we find the Luci Lanterns to be extremely convenient in camp, and since they’re inflatable and solar powered they really take up very little space or weight.

Hygiene and First Aid

Micro towel. There are specialty hiking towels out there, but we honestly prefer a small chamois for its effectiveness and quick-dry capacity.
Sunglasses. Protect your eyes. Make sure to take something with UV protection, and ideally with a case so they don’t get broken when  you stuff them down in your pack.
Toothbrush and toothpaste. Ideally mini versions from the last hotel you stayed at. Otherwise those little colgate ones are handy.
Sunscreen. We simply *need* this, at any rate. You should know your own sun tolerance and judge accordingly.
Lip Balm (with Sunscreen).
Emergency Whistle.
Snakebite Kit. Are you hiking somewhere that poisonous snakes are a concern? Buy a small one and take it along (and be sure to learn how to use it BEFORE you hit the trail).
Painkillers. Be careful with these, as overuse can be very damaging to your body. However, we’ve known a lot of older hikers that take some painkillers for aching joints.

Electronics / Entertainment

We tend to carry more of this than we need, actually, especially on solo hikes. At a minimum we would suggest a book, e-reader, or journal to keep entertained at night. Given the hyper-social world we live in, many people will carry a camera as well. Cell phones are also be a good idea just in case.

GPS and Maps for Hiking

Hiking guides and (to a greater extent) trail maps are an important consideration for any hike. Even if you’re going just for a daytrip in your own country, it isn’t a bad idea to carry GPS and maps in case you get off trail or caught in bad weather. Add in the uncertainty of languages and sometimes poor signposting in foreign countries, and this becomes even more important.

Hiking Maps

We here at Asia-Hikes are sort of from the old school, preferring papers maps much more than GPS devices (especially for long treks where there won’t be reliable power sources for days on end).

Unfortunately for many countries good maps can be difficult to find, especially if you don’t start looking until you’re already on the ground there. For starters, run a search before you leave home for Hiking Maps on Amazon with keywords for your destination country. Another option is to google ‘maps shops’ in whatever city you’re flying into in the country you’ll be hiking in and see if any map shops show up. For some regions, notably Central Asia, this is one of the only good options.

When you do go to purchase, buy as detailed as you can find. We once trying hiking an island in Greece on a 1:200,000 road atlas… and it didn’t work so well! Look for a maximum scale of 1:100,000, and ideally something around 1:50,000 or smaller. For those moments that you find yourself off trail or trying to navigate without much line of site, this can make a huge difference!

(Note: Even if you do buy read on and decide to buy a GPS, always know how to navigate with map and compass! For your own confidence and safety, this is something we firmly believe every hiker should be prepared to do.)

GPS Devices

The reality is, sometimes GPS-based maps are just easier to find. If your choice is between accurate and detailed GPS logs or old and huge scale maps, perhaps the GPS is the better choice. To harp on the the point, though, always carry some type of backup if you’re really getting off the beaten trail!

Some notes on shopping for GPS Devices:

– Buy A Hiking-Specific Device
We know this should go without having to be said, but we’ve seen hikers in the US before trying to use roadmap GPS units on trail. Don’t be that guy.

– Find An Electronic Compass
Some of the lowest-end devices don’t actually provide a compass, so you have to check the readout and keep hiking until the devices catches up to your progress in order to make sure you’re heading the right direction. Look for something with an e-compass as a basic starting point while you’re shopping.

– Loadable Maps
Perhaps the biggest positive of GPS devices is the ability to upload maps from your computer when you’re unable to find anything else. Many devices, even at the low-end, accept maps prepared with waypoints and

On the budget end of the spectrum, the Garmin eTrex is probably one of the better units on the market.

If you’ve got a little more cash to spend, mid-range models offer a few more useful features:

– Track Navigation
Rather than providing a point-to-point distance between location and destination, some models are able to measure the route along a set track to determine how much actual distance you have left to hike.

– Touchscreen Capability
In the day of smartphones as the norm, this is surprisingly not always included on budget GPS units. If its something you consider important, you may have to spend a bit more.

– Altimeter and Barometer
A lot of the hiking you might do throughout Asia will involves pretty drastic changes in elevation. Sometimes it can be nice to know how much uphill slog you have left for the day!

In this range, something like the Garmin Oregon 450 is a good bet. For not a lot more money, you get a couple of extra features that can really come in handy.

Another good option, with the ability to use US Geological Survey maps and a higher-contrast screen (which makes it easier to read in bright light) is the DeLorme PN-60.

Mobile Apps

These days, of course, you already have a GPS-enabled device in your pocket: your cell phone. Once again, don’t make this your only option as batteries and electronics can fail, but for shorter hikes and quick trail recordings we often just use mobile. There are a range of apps (and corresponding websites) out there, but these are among the best resources.

BackCountry Navigator – This is our go-to track recording app, though it’s only available on Android platforms.

WikiLoc – The web interface is shockingly bad and the app isn’t amazing, but there are so many user-generated trails on here that we put up with it.

Guided Tours

The final option, for those first-timers who really aren’t comfortable with the skills necessary for hiking on their own, is to find a guide who can take you out and show you the basics. Websites like GetYourGuide offer trips like this throughout the continent, or you can contact a tour operator in your specific destination to see what they can put together. With a bit of know-how and a decent map, though, this really isn’t usually necessary!

 

Predator Protection

Are there bears where you’re going? What about snakes? Yeti? Go find out! Bears, especially, are a big concern if they exist in the area you’ll be trekking. In Asia these are mostly endangered these days, but do a little research before your trip to see what predators are around and what you need to do in order to avoid them. There are places in the US especially that require bear canisters, but we’ve never come across this while hiking in Asia.

If this is something you’ll need for the area you’re planning to explore, be sure to study up on how to choose and use a bear canister before you go.

Ephemera

Having read through this far, you’re mostly set! A few other pieces of hiking gear that sometimes come in handy when considering what to take camping, and a look at the occasions when you might need them:

– Gaiters. If you’re just starting out with hiking and you’re going to spend most of your time on well-kept trails, this is not something you should be carrying. If you plan on bushwhacking through the Alaskan wilderness, well then yea.
– Trekking Poles. Some people swear by them, other scoff. We’re in the latter camp, and generally prefer the freedom of movement. However, anybody with knee or back problems would be well advised to check them out. There are also lightweight tents that incorporate trekking poles into the pitching process, which could save you weight if you’ll already be carrying them. If you’re looking to buy, make sure to check for rubberized tips and some kind of shock-absorbing joints.
– Sewing Kit. Do you know how to sew? If yes, take one. However, I’ve been amazed by the people who have no idea how to use these but carry them anyways. Yes, you probably should have one, but learn how to use it!

Hiking Gear for Winter Trips

This is a long topic and one we haven’t had a chance to discuss at length yet. For now, see here.