The King of Comfort

My wife and I just got back from a 4 day backpack trip. We go almost every weekend, but not usually for 4 days. This one was a special time away with just me and her. It struck me as we were out on day 3 that backpacking is mostly about different degrees of comfort. The only difference from real life is that everything you carry backpacking is about weight.

There are really two essential things when it comes to backpacking - water and weight. You can't live without water. We carry it with us on our backs (hence the clever title 'backpacking'). Everything else about backpacking is a balance between necessity and comfort. For instance, I can get my food down to under a pound per day. Unless I want things like steak, cold beer, chocolate desserts, or watermelon, then the pack weight goes up a hair. Somewhere in there the item seems to lose its appeal when you realize you have to carry it everywhere you go.

Items like a sleeping pad are nice, but not essential. You won't die without it, you'll just be really, really crabby the next day because you didn't get much sleep. Camp shoes are nice so you can get out of your smelly old boots at the end of the day, but you can live without them. A camera is great to have along. So is a book, an extra pair of shorts, sunglasses, video equipment, a new Mercedes, and flat screen TV, a new bowling ball, and an escalator (to take you up the hills). Somewhere in there you have to drawn a line. Is it between flat screen and bowling ball? Or maybe between Camp shoes and sleeping pad?

The ONE thing that really strikes me over and over about backpacking is that it FORCES me to have to look at what really matters. I have to live simple backpacking. It is hot enough and hard enough without 60 pounds on my back. The difference between a full water bottle and an empty one is extremely noticeable, let alone toting the flat screen.

And when I come back from a trip, I look around me at all the crap I think I need to live. Stuff I am sure that I would die without. Stuff that is all completely essential, like 5 pairs of jeans, two vehicles, food in the cupboard. With backpacker's eyes, the 'essentials' don't look quite so essential.

So how much could you live without? What could you get rid of to lighten your pack? How much do you really need that thing?

A missions organization I knew when I was in Bible college had a perfect theme:

"Live simply so that other's can simply live".

Profound, Huh?