Making Sure That You Dress Appropriately During Your Backpacking Trip

by Ric Henderson 

If you are going on a backpacking trip, you need to make sure that you dress appropriately.  This means that you cannot overdress or under dress, but at the same time you need to be able to be prepared for anything.  It is not an easy thing to do, and you are going to have to put some time in to make sure that you get everything right.  Remember, every extra thing that you have in your pack that you don’t use is something that you carried for no reason at all.

The first step in making sure that you have the right clothing is going to be research.  You will need to know the terrain that you are traveling on as well as the weather report for the time that you will be traveling.  Just because you will be traveling during a hot time does not necessarily mean that you can get away with shorts and because it is hot during the day, it does not necessarily mean that the nights will be as comfortable.

You may read some things that will tell you that layering is best, but what you are doing is creating more weight that you are either going to have to carry or wear.  While you will still layer, the method that you use and the clothing that you wear will not be what you may think.  Regardless, it is going to be on your person and you are going to have to lug it up the mountain and through the trails.  If you think clothing is no big deal, throw some underwear, socks, shirt, sweatshirt and jeans on the scale.  Pretty amazing at what it weighs and that is the reason that you want to make sure you are wearing only what you need.

Even if you are traveling through colder weather, you can get away with lighter clothing.  There are items that are made with Gortex shells that will keep the cold out and not weigh that much.  When you take off a layer like that, you are removing something that weights less than half of a heavy sweatshirt.  That makes a big difference over the course of a few days.

Now in regards to the types of clothing that you are going to wear, meaning short sleeves and shorts versus long sleeves and pants, the terrain will have a large affect on that decision.  For instance, if you are traveling in the summer and are in open terrain, wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt is not a problem.  If you are traveling through rough terrain or deep in the woods, you will need to get breathable light weight long sleeve shirts and long pants.  You do this because of the threat of falling down, bugs or getting scratched by the greenery in the area.