Frequently Asked Questions

Water is heavy and at 2.2 lbs per liter, it’s probably the heaviest thing you carry in your backpack. Despite this, many hikers and backpackers still carry much more water than they need when hiking or backpacking. That’s wasted effort if you …

Backpacking requires a high degree of self-reliance and mental agility since nothing ever goes quite the way you expect it to on a backpacking trip! That said, there are a set of fundamental skills that you can learn and master that will …

The longer the hammock, the more comfortable you’ll be. Sleeping comfort in a hammock is often equated with being able to lie flat at night instead of sleeping in a curved position like a banana. One way to accomplish this is by …

Siliconized nylon, more commonly called silnylon, is a waterproof fabric used to make tents by many smaller manufacturers including Six Moon Designs, Tarptent, Mountain Laurel Designs, and Hilleberg which specialize in making ultralight backpacking gear or expedition-grade tents. It’s also sold in …

Morton’s Neuroma is an inflammation of the nerves leading to your small toes and presents itself as a burning or tingling sensation or the feeling that your sock is bunched up in the front of your shoes, even when it isn’t. Once …

When sizing a day pack, you want to aim for 20-30 liters of volume in order to carry drinking water, extra clothing, food, and other essentials. The easiest way to decide how much capacity (in liters) you need is to ask yourself …

If you spray your tent with Permethrin to protect yourself from Lyme-disease-carrying ticks and blood-sucking mosquitos, you should spray the inner tent or insect netting and not the rain fly, which is waterproof and will prevent the Permethrin from soaking in. Permethrin …

The label ‘Hiker Trash’ is a term of endearment for those in the long-distance hiking community who have chosen to ditch social norms and live another way while on a trail journey. That ‘another way’ can be both wondrous and freeing, yet …

Sleeping outdoors on backpacking trips is a skill just like navigating, camping, packing, layering, trip planning, and all the other skills that backpackers need to learn to enjoy backcountry trips. While sleeping outdoors is not a skill that’s taught in outdoor programs …

More and more ultralight backpacking packs are being made with waterproof materials like Dyneema Composite Fabrics (DCF), Ultra, Liteskin, EcoPak, and XPac. These fabrics absorb very little water and are bonded with a waterproof layer that prevents them from being soaked through …

Skin Out Weight is the weight of your backpacking gear, water, food, fuel, the clothing you’re wearing, your shoes, watch, sunglasses, smartphone, trekking poles if you use them, and anything else on your person or in your pack. Backpacking Base Weight, in …

Metatarsal pain, also called Metatarsalgia (met-uh-tahr-SAL-juh) occurs when the ball of your foot becomes inflamed as a result of jumping, running, or hiking. The feeling is similar to having a pebble in your shoe under the ball of your foot. This is …

How many pairs of underwear do you take when backpacking? While some people (like myself) only bring one pair, no matter the length of the trip, most SectionHiker readers bring two pairs on multi-day trips, one to wear, and one to wash …

Many of us shy away from eating dried pasta on backpacking trips because it takes so long to cook and uses too much stove fuel. But did you know that you don’t have boil dried pasta using the amount of water recommended on the …