Prioritizing What You Need

When you're out on the trail, especially if you have a time to keep, it's very helpful to load your backpack so that you don't have to unpack everything to get to something you use often while trekking.

Comfort Items

Comfort items are things such as a sleeping bag, tents, cooking stove, and other things you would normally only use while set up at camp or stopped for long periods of time. These items should be packed on the bottom of the bag, or further from top zippers.

This helps to ensure that you aren't throwing your sleeping bag and extra socks in the dirt to grab your water purification tablets. It also saves time and energy, as you can read about in the compression section to the left.

Essential Items

Essential items are things that you are likely to use while moving through your adventure. This set of items includes water purification tablets, first aid, a knife, cordage, and small rations such as beef jerky.

These items are usually light weight and fit perfectly with how internal and external frame backpacks are loaded. You simply stop, dismount the pack, open the zipper, grab what you need, mount back up, and keep moving. On external framed backpacks, which usually have attachment adapters, essentials can also be stored on external pouches for easy access.