outdoors.deoblog.com

Packing Clothes

• They are water tight. If rain should get in your pack, or if that Aunt Jemima butter-flavoured pancake syrup you couldn’t resist packing decides to leak, the ziploc will protect your clothing.
• They compress clothing. This is particularly true of new ziplocs, which are airtight and allow you to "vac-pack" your clothing.
• They help you organize your clothes. Whether you decide that all socks go in one bag and all t-shirts in another, or if you prefer to keep each change of clothing in its own ziploc, they help prevent the chaos that a backpack is prone to.
• They are re-usable and environmentally friendly. A sturdy ziploc can be used many times. Buy the freezer variety, not the sandwich bags.

Keeping Things Dry

• If recreational water is available (eg. a creek to swim in) decide what you are going to wear in the water. Wear only that in the water. The rest of your clothes should stay dry.
• Keep your wet shoes for in the water and keep your boots dry, if at all possible. Take your camp/wet shoes in your back pack (in a plastic bag). If you do need to cross water, consider taking off your boots and socks, putting on your wet/camp shoes, crossing the water, then putting your boots and socks back on. Not only is it uncomfortable to hike in wet boots, it also makes it much easier to earn some big blisters. Remember that your feet have to last for the whole trip; treat them well.
• For any kind of strenuous hike, wear your hiking boots or good shoes. Wet hiking boots will not be as hard on your feet as a poor pair of dry shoes.
• If your boots do get wet, and you know you will be hiking in dry conditions, do the following:
  • Change into dry socks
  • Pour/squeeze out any water from your boots and put them back on.
  • Wring out your wet socks, and hang them on your pack to dry. Be sure they will not fall off.
  • Continue hiking in your boots.
  • If the original wet socks dry out, change back into them and dry the second pair. Keep doing this until your boots are dry again. In dry conditions, this should take about a half a day.

Clean and Dirty

• Rule #1: You will get dirty. You will not be able to pack an entire change of clothes. (Extra t-shirt, extra socks, extra underwear; that's about it.) You can always wash when you get home.
• Keep your clean clothes in ziplocs. Put your dirty clothes in garbage bags or in plastic grocery bags. If you do this:
  • The ziplocs may not need to be washed to be re-used. (Remember that we are supposed to be environmentally friendly, so we should be re-using wherever possible.) This means less work and ziplocs which will last longer.
  • You can keep track of what’s dirty and what’s clean.
  • Wet and dirty clothes don’t make your clean clothes wet and dirty.
  • When you get home, you will know what goes in the laundry and what doesn't need to be washed (especially on shorter trips. On longer trips, most often everything is dirty.)
• Don't change wet or really dirty clothes in your tent. This can really mess up your sleeping bags. Change in the vestibule of your tent, if possible.
• The only things which should be kept in your tent are your sleeping bag, foam pad, and night clothes. Unless you have a luxury of space, don't take your packs into your tents, and don't accumulate a mess of dirty clothes in your tent and vestibule. Keep all extra clothing (clean or dirty) in your pack.
• If you run out of clothing, wash out something dirty to remove the sweat. Dirt we can live with. To wash your clothes on a longer trip (or a particularly dirty short one), wash them in one of your pots. Avoid using detergent, since this is harmful to the environment. Since your clothes probably still retain some detergent residue from their last washing at home, dump the water a good distance (100 m or so) from any water source such as a stream or lake.
• When you dress in the morning, try to anticipate the day. This is not always possible, but make it easy to peel or add layers. For example, on a cool, clear morning that looks like the beginning of a hot day, start with wind pants over shorts and a shell over a t-shirt. Remember that hiking will make/keep you warm.
• For cooler sleeping conditions, leave one set of clean clothing (sweats and t-shirt or sweat shirt) with your sleeping bag. In this way, you can always change into clean clothes before climbing into your sleeping bag to help keep it clean.