Backpacking question

[labbie]

Planning my first ever backpacking trip for late March 2019, approx 40 miles over 5 days so nothing super high distance-wise. But covering that distance with a pack is totally new to me. Endurance should be ok, as I'm planning to maintain a good running base over the winter, basic strength stuff 1-2x a week too.

Other than sneaking in a hike with the pack once a weekend on my non-long run days, is there anything I'm missing training-wise for a backpacking trek?

[wawa]

My approach to training tends to be a little bit low-key, but I actually didn't do a single loaded hike before I set off for my first backpacking trip. Mine have only been long weekends, so a little less onerous. But I'd not worry about training fitness wise as long as you're planning to try out your equipment ahead of time. Shoes were the bigger deal that the pack for me. Took a few tries to find the right boots. (and then it turns out I'm effectively allergic to backpacking, so that killed THAT)

Other factors - similar to running long - figuring out your food takes some trial and error. Gotta balance weight and volume and tastiness and sufficient calories and prep factors and so forth.

eta: I did test my sleeping setup on a car camping trip before going too.  Made sure I didn't hate my sleeping pad, was warm enough, etc.  And made MH buy a new one because his was LOUD.  Like, it made this awful creaking noise every time he shifted and he's a restless sleeper.  Kept me up half the night.

Oh...I just remembered, I kinda lied - I didn't go on hikes with my actual backpack, but I did go on hikes toting a child on my back a few times.  So...yeah, maybe no loaded hikes is a bit of a stretch.

And of course actual test packs to make sure your stuff actually all fits in the pack along with your food and water and resulting pack is not eleventy billion pounds.

[Susie]

I agree with the test trip.  Do a single overnight somewhere before your through hike, so you are confident that you know how everything works, fits together, packs, and unpacks, and give yourself enough time between the test trip and the through hike to make any necessary modifications.

Back when I was backpacking more (i.e. pre-kid), I didn't really train specifically for it.  Running was mostly sufficient.  I got sore spots from the pack, but nothing unmanageable.  

[labbie]

Oct 25, 2018 10:26:41 GMT -5 wawa said:

Shoes were the bigger deal that the pack for me. Took a few tries to find the right boots. (and then it turns out I'm effectively allergic to backpacking, so that killed THAT)

Allergic as in, you hate it, or as in something happened to you?!
Sounds like I'll be good to go with everything except the actual 1-2 night test run, unless that happens in my living room. We won't have all our gear until after Black Friday and there's no way in hell I'm winter camping in Western NYS (at least not yet!).  Maybe if it's not totally frigid in Dec/Jan at some point we'll go somewhere near home for a night or two. 
I'm zeroing in on the shoe situation, and testing out the food options and the equipment we do have. So far so good.

[wawa]

Oct 25, 2018 12:54:18 GMT -5 labbie said:

Oct 25, 2018 10:26:41 GMT -5 wawa said:

Shoes were the bigger deal that the pack for me. Took a few tries to find the right boots. (and then it turns out I'm effectively allergic to backpacking, so that killed THAT)

Allergic as in, you hate it, or as in something happened to you?!
Sounds like I'll be good to go with everything except the actual 1-2 night test run, unless that happens in my living room. We won't have all our gear until after Black Friday and there's no way in hell I'm winter camping in Western NYS (at least not yet!).  Maybe if it's not totally frigid in Dec/Jan at some point we'll go somewhere near home for a night or two. 
I'm zeroing in on the shoe situation, and testing out the food options and the equipment we do have. So far so good.

I break out in hives from heat+pressure+friction. It had been happening for a while, but I didn't figure out what was causing it. Like long days riding, I'd get these crazy bands of hives around the edge of my shorts. I thought it was a really weird heat rash maybe. But then our second backpacking trip I broke out on turrible hives under my waist strap, shoulder straps, sports bra band and from the top of my socks down.

It itched so bad I barely slept. It was miserable and we cut the trip short and spent the next night in a hotel. I haven't come up with a workaround yet. Bike packing maybe. I just need to be careful with my shorts and bra choice.

It gives me great pause in considering a Ironman. It starts to happen about 4 hours in, so I'm good up to an Oly, but my super slow marathon my feet and bra band area were nice and red and welted and itchy.

[labbie]

Oct 25, 2018 13:04:24 GMT -5 wawa said:

Oct 25, 2018 12:54:18 GMT -5 labbie said:

Allergic as in, you hate it, or as in something happened to you?!
Sounds like I'll be good to go with everything except the actual 1-2 night test run, unless that happens in my living room. We won't have all our gear until after Black Friday and there's no way in hell I'm winter camping in Western NYS (at least not yet!).  Maybe if it's not totally frigid in Dec/Jan at some point we'll go somewhere near home for a night or two. 
I'm zeroing in on the shoe situation, and testing out the food options and the equipment we do have. So far so good.

I break out in hives from heat+pressure+friction. It had been happening for a while, but I didn't figure out what was causing it. Like long days riding, I'd get these crazy bands of hives around the edge of my shorts. I thought it was a really weird heat rash maybe. But then our second backpacking trip I broke out on turrible hives under my waist strap, shoulder straps, sports bra band and from the top of my socks down.

It itched so bad I barely slept. It was miserable and we cut the trip short and spent the next night in a hotel. I haven't come up with a workaround yet. Bike packing maybe. I just need to be careful with my shorts and bra choice.

It gives me great pause in considering a Ironman. It starts to happen about 4 hours in, so I'm good up to an Oly, but my super slow marathon my feet and bra band area were nice and red and welted and itchy.

Oh damn. That sounds horrible. So....another good reason we won't be too far from a hotel. I've had exercise induced vasculitis (red, blotchy all over) on the tops of my feet during summer training sometimes, but thankfully it didn't itch (knocks on wood). 

[wawa]

Oct 25, 2018 13:07:44 GMT -5 labbie said:

Oct 25, 2018 13:04:24 GMT -5 wawa said:

I break out in hives from heat+pressure+friction. It had been happening for a while, but I didn't figure out what was causing it. Like long days riding, I'd get these crazy bands of hives around the edge of my shorts. I thought it was a really weird heat rash maybe. But then our second backpacking trip I broke out on turrible hives under my waist strap, shoulder straps, sports bra band and from the top of my socks down.

It itched so bad I barely slept. It was miserable and we cut the trip short and spent the next night in a hotel. I haven't come up with a workaround yet. Bike packing maybe. I just need to be careful with my shorts and bra choice.

It gives me great pause in considering a Ironman. It starts to happen about 4 hours in, so I'm good up to an Oly, but my super slow marathon my feet and bra band area were nice and red and welted and itchy.

Oh damn. That sounds horrible. So....another good reason we won't be too far from a hotel. I've had exercise induced vasculitis (red, blotchy all over) on the tops of my feet during summer training sometimes, but thankfully it didn't itch (knocks on wood). 

Yeah, it's weird. It's not technically an allergy in medical terms im told, but it is histamine related. Delayed pressure uticaria. I used to have cold indiced uticaria (I got hives from cold) but that went away and now I've got this related but frankly more annoying version.

[ktzmoh]

I've never done any specific training for backpacking. Just follow Susie 's advice and go for an overnight so that you know how all your gear works and have a better sense of what you have but wont need and what you need but don't have. Also, wawa is probably right - the boots are likely to be the biggest problem. Make sure you break them in and give yourself time to find the right pair.

You might have some sore shoulders, blisters, or some strawberries on your hips, but all part of the backpacking experience!

[Susie]

Oct 25, 2018 12:54:18 GMT -5 labbie said:

Oct 25, 2018 10:26:41 GMT -5 wawa said:

Shoes were the bigger deal that the pack for me. Took a few tries to find the right boots. (and then it turns out I'm effectively allergic to backpacking, so that killed THAT)

Allergic as in, you hate it, or as in something happened to you?!
Sounds like I'll be good to go with everything except the actual 1-2 night test run, unless that happens in my living room. We won't have all our gear until after Black Friday and there's no way in hell I'm winter camping in Western NYS (at least not yet!).  Maybe if it's not totally frigid in Dec/Jan at some point we'll go somewhere near home for a night or two. 
I'm zeroing in on the shoe situation, and testing out the food options and the equipment we do have. So far so good.

MH is the one who got me into backpacking in the Adirondacks (Eagle Scout and all), and I have given him a very firm, I will try anything BUT winter camping -- so I don't take this lightly -- but I think the test run is so much more important than almost anything else that I really, really, really urge you to figure out a way to make it happen.  This movie was a great motivator in that regard!

[labbie]

Oct 25, 2018 14:08:35 GMT -5 Susie said:

Oct 25, 2018 12:54:18 GMT -5 labbie said:

Allergic as in, you hate it, or as in something happened to you?!
Sounds like I'll be good to go with everything except the actual 1-2 night test run, unless that happens in my living room. We won't have all our gear until after Black Friday and there's no way in hell I'm winter camping in Western NYS (at least not yet!).  Maybe if it's not totally frigid in Dec/Jan at some point we'll go somewhere near home for a night or two. 
I'm zeroing in on the shoe situation, and testing out the food options and the equipment we do have. So far so good.

MH is the one who got me into backpacking in the Adirondacks (Eagle Scout and all), and I have given him a very firm, I will try anything BUT winter camping -- so I don't take this lightly -- but I think the test run is so much more important than almost anything else that I really, really, really urge you to figure out a way to make it happen.  This movie was a great motivator in that regard!

Love this movie! If Reese can do it I can do it :-) You've got me seriously thinking about it...I mean, I run in all sorts of winter weather so not sure why it feels like an automatic no to sleep out there with proper gear. I'm going to try and wrap my head around it, and pray for some mild Dec/Jan temps, haha.

[Susie]

labbie , what pack are you using, btw?  Every year I drool over the Gregory Deva, but the reality is that I don't have the time (with a small kid and now a 2nd pregnancy) to go on a trip longer than I can fit into my Jade pack.  Someday.  I'm Gregory packs4lyfe, they make an XS that fits my short torso really well, plus they were awesome when the zipper on Calvin's pack separated from the fabric.

[Wines Not Whines]

I agree about doing a test run. I haven’t gone backpacking in a while, but I used to do it quite a bit. Before our first big trip, we went on some long local hikes and a couple of overnights. We changed some of our initial plans based on those tests, like swapping out some gear and deciding some things weren’t worth the weight and other things were. I also learned how much I was willing to carry on my back for 6 hours a day.

[labbie]

Susie, I haven't been measured or tried anything on yet so it's fair game. We're going to REI and EMS this weekend to start that adventure. I won't pull the trigger until after Black Friday because I want to try a Zpacks Arc Haul zip pack (and they only do mailorder and usually have mad BF sales).

[wawa]

Oct 25, 2018 15:03:40 GMT -5 labbie said:

Susie, I haven't been measured or tried anything on yet so it's fair game. We're going to REI and EMS this weekend to start that adventure. I won't pull the trigger until after Black Friday because I want to try a Zpacks Arc Haul zip pack (and they only do mailorder and usually have mad BF sales).

We don't have any of their packs, but we do have some other zpacks gear and really like it. Odds and ends. Stuff sacks and my beanie. I think h has more. Oh and the possumdown gloves which is weird, but they're really effective. I wear them running when it gets really cold.