GetBackpacking! Resource Page: Tips to help you get started — and keep you going

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GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking Class of February 2017

We love backpacking. We sell lots of useful, essential and fun backpacking gear, our GetBackpacking! program helps you learn the ropes, then offers trips to keep you on the trail.

We also write a lot about backpacking, sharing experiences, offering tips. Our GetBackpacking! Resource Page is a good starting point for answering the questions you might have about life on the trail.

  1. GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking! Our three-part program is the perfect place to launch your backpacking career. We start with a two-hour session to acquaint you with gear, follow that with a 5-hour in-field training session that covers everything from hiking in a full-pack to packing to setting up and breaking down camp, to food and cooking. Then, in the third session, there’s a weekend graduation trip: three days and two nights on the trail. Learn more here.
  2. Trading Up: Taking Your Backpacking (Gear) to the next level As in any other activity, you start with basic gear. And it makes you happy — until it doesn’t. Eventually, it’s time to trade up. Find our thoughts on how to make that happen, here.
  3. GetBackpacking! Our Graduates Speak We spoke with several graduates of one of our GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking! classes to see if backpacking was a life changer for them. (Spoiler alert: it was.) Read their thoughts here.
  4. 4 Tips for Backpacking with Children Hiking with kids? Our Jaala Freeman, with thru-hikes of both the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail, shares four tips from the backpacking “Lorzigs” family. Read how their experience can benefit your backpacking crew, here.
  5. The Art of Desert Backpacking: 5 Great Tips Planning a backpack trip to the desert Southwest? Our Jaala Freeman shares 5 tips based on her (and husband Tommy’s) thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.
  6. Winter Backpacking: Prepare for ‘Me’ Time Winter backpacking is full of rewards. One is getting to know yourself better. Tips on how to make the most of 12 to 14 hours of tent-imposed isolation.
  7. Storage and Care of Backpacking Equipment Your backpacking gear is good to you on the trail, you should be good to it off. We share some tips on how to extend the life of your gear between treks.
  8. Why do I Need Hiking Poles?  For starters, if you still hope to be backpacking into your 30s, it’s a good idea to start preserving your knees today. Need more reasons? Here they are.
  9. Save Your Summer! GetBackpacking! It happens every year around mid-spring: you begin planning your epic summer backpack trip. Then, again every year around the first of August, you realize you’ve yet to strap on the pack. Some quick escapes to help you save your summer!
  10. Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, with GetBackpacking! grad Susan Levy. Of the 12 graduates from our first GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking class, Susan Levy seemed especially eager. Turns out she had big plans after graduation: to thru-hike the AT. And that she did. We talked to her both before and during her 2015 trek (with some Random Thoughts tossed in).

Here are quick profiles of some of the places we love to backpacking; click for details: