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Backpacking can seem daunting for first-timers, me included. So when my sister and her partner, who are seasoned backpackers, offered to give me an introduction, I was more than willing to try it with people who knew what they were doing! I wouldn’t call it a real backpacking trip, more a “taste of the backpacking experience,” because it was a less than 24 hour trip – just an afternoon and morning – on very flat ground. We hiked the California Riding and Hiking Trail in Joshua Tree National Park, which in total is 38 miles, but we just did 10 miles. Here I recap some of the tips I learned within these 24 hours.

Preparation: Our Packing List

• Backpacking backpack
• Sleeping bag and mat/inflatable pad
• Food: We didn’t bring a stove, so relied on cold foods: cheese and salami sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, turkey jerky, nuts, dried mangoes, granola bars (these Clif bars are my fav!), chocolate, and madeleines. Would highly recommend balancing the sweet with the savory, and it’s totally recommended to bring snacks that make you happy 🙂
• Water/electrolytes: I carried about 20 pounds, mostly of water that I didn’t end up consuming. We estimated 5 liters per day, per person. Would recommend investing in a water reservoir (the plastic pouch with the tube straw) to attach to your hiking backpack. I used to think that these were weird and preferred drinking out of normal water bottles, but quickly found that they make the hike so much easier because you don’t have to pause and reach into your backpack every time you want a drink, you don’t have to hold your water bottle, and, perhaps most importantly, having the straw right next to you at all times ensures that you keep drinking consistently. As someone who easily gets dehydrated on long hikes, I’ve found that you drink more and are more likely to stay hydrated if you’re taking sips constantly, rather than drinking big gulps a few times. Using a water reservoir that you can carry in your backpack is ideal, and will help ensure that you stay hydrated throughout the hike, hands-free! We used this one and this one.
• Headlamp: Super useful at night. We used the Nitecore NU25 and Black Diamond Astro headlamps. You can also bring a flashlight, but headlamps are still preferred because they allow you to free up your hands.
• Phone/phone battery: Make sure you have a downloaded map of the hiking area, since you’ll likely have spotty service, if any. Keep your phone on airplane mode or turned off. During the night, keep your phone in your sleeping bag/jacket pocket, especially if it gets cold, so the battery doesn’t drain overnight.
• Compass
• Hiking shoes: Sturdy hiking shoes go a long way! I highly recommend Merrill Moab shoes (see here and here) – I found them to be very sturdy, pretty comfortable without much break-in time, and high quality with a good grip, which especially comes in handy on steep/more slippery trails (or rock!). And I like the mid-heel ones as it keeps dirt from getting into your shoes on the trail (just make sure to wear ankle or quarter length socks!)
• Hat: Wear a wider-brimmed hat that covers all 360º of sun rays — you’ll be glad you did! 
• Sunglasses and sunscreen
• Beanie and gloves: To keep warm in the mornings and evenings
• Toilet paper + plastic/paper bags to store used toilet paper + hand sanitizer: If you’re backpacking somewhere like Joshua Tree it’s advisable to pack your soiled toilet paper, which sounds gross, but toilet paper can take over a month to biodegrade and be dug up by animals or get unburied, and you don’t want it littering the environment!
• Bottom line: Pack as light as you can, and bring only what you truly need!

Hiking

One thing I didn’t know is that you want your hip belt to be pulled tight around your waist, right above your hip bones, so that your legs bear most of the backpack’s weight rather than your shoulders. If you remove the backpack straps from your shoulders, the backpack should remain upright and in place, held in from your hip belt. It can feel a little hard to breathe at first, but your shoulders will thank you later! 

Camping

If possible, find a place to put your sleeping bag before it gets dark — my sister’s partner mentioned that one time he lay down somewhere after dark and thought he had found a good spot with a bump in the ground that he could use as a pillow, and only after getting several neck bites did he find out that he had plopped right onto an ant hill! Try to find a place that is protected from the wind, is on a relatively flat surface, and is on soil rather than grass (sleeping on the grass can kill it – we want to preserve nature the best we can while we’re traversing it!).

Place your backpack, gear, and food at least a few feet away from where you’re sleeping, in case animals get attracted to the food. If possible, hang the food from a tree. We saw several bats and heard coyotes during the night, but thankfully didn’t have to deal with bugs or any other threatening creatures.

We didn’t bring a tent, so we literally slept under the stars, which was by far the most memorable part of the trip. The sun set at 4:30, and by 5:30 there was nothing else to do other than watch the stars, cuddled in our sleeping bags. And boy is the middle of a desert an ideal place to watch the stars! There were so many stars in the sky, forming a beautiful work of art right in front of our eyes. I would highly recommend backpacking during a new moon if you can, which made the stars even clearer in the night sky. We saw Jupiter, bright and white and high in the sky, and Mars, lower in the sky with its distinct reddish hue. We saw Orion and probably many other constellations that I didn’t know. The best part was the meteor showers — it was a pleasant surprise to see several shooting stars! Some happened in the blink of an eye, and one happened relatively slowly enough that I could trace its arc across the sky, which was incredible. With all our attention focused on the stars above us, we couldn’t help but notice how small we were in this vast universe. I drifted in and out of sleep, waking about every hour to the beautiful painting of stars in the sky and remembering where I was. It was especially cool watching the stars shift — every time I opened my eyes the stars would have shifted to the left, as the earth rotated!

That said, a tent would have provided some protection against the strong winds. It was brutally cold and windy, especially after 1am. The low was 40ºF, but I did not do a good job of keeping the chilly air out of my sleeping bag. Next time I would also bring an inflatable sleeping pad or a more cushioned mat – the floor mat I used was thin and did not cushion my hip bones; by 1am I felt like I was sleeping directly on the hard ground which added a considerable amount of discomfort, along with the cold. But I survived the night and was rewarded in the morning with a beautiful sunrise, where I could watch the red ball rise and bathe the desert landscape in a soft warm glow.

In the high spirit of Thanksgiving, I left that day thankful as ever for hot showers, flushing toilets, running water, and warm beds. Would I do this again? Probably, in warmer weather and with a more cushioned sleeping pad. You can go farther than on a day hike and reach areas you wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise, do some amazing stargazing, and spend some quality time immersing yourself in nature and the beauty of the wilderness, away from technology and civilization. It can certainly be uncomfortable, however, so having the right gear and preparation is essential to making your backpacking trip as enjoyable as it can be!