Taking to the Hills, And Getting Home Again

Back in my high school days, an English teacher assigned us to read a short story, then think of a title for it. It was Jack Finney’s "Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket." The story’s plot escapes me, but I’ve never forgotten the title.

It came to mind this winter as I’ve read various news accounts of hikers lost, stranded or killed on rugged mountaintops. The reports often include a rundown on how well-equipped the hikers were. Did they have maps and compasses? Were they properly dressed? Did they have radio beepers? What were the "Contents of a Dead Hiker’s Backpack"?

So, I dug out my own waist pack to assess its contents.

How would I be judged?

Am I up to snuff?

A two-year-old granola bar could stand replacement. The water bottle, obviously, will be filled before I go. I carry both a compass and a GPS, though the former is far more valuable. If I’d used it the one time my oldest daughter and I were lost on a trail beyond Ice Glen in Stockbridge, MA, I would have turned around two miles sooner. To use the GPS well, one needs to plan ahead, enter proper data and consult it from hike’s start. I carry it to take readings, should I find an interesting feature that I want to pinpoint and perhaps revisit.

I have a notepad, photocopy of a map of the last public forest I hiked, pencil, flashlight, various first aid items, matches, a small bottle of water purifier, "poncho d’urgence" (a cheap rain slick I acquired in Quebec), Grabber Mycoal toe warmers, Terra Sport sunblock SPF 30, squirt bottle of Deep Woods Off! and a metal whistle (to either discourage woodpeckers or summon help).

Oh, and about 18 inches of duct tape wrapped around an orange juice can lid. You should never be without that gray tape, and I always carry a metal measuring tape, useful to me for figuring the circumferences of large trees. One side of the tape is in regular measure, the other side does the arithmetic for you and gives the tree’s diameter, once you’ve taken a reading around its girth.

I’ve never actually used my Gerber screw-driver-knife-pliers-can-opener-scissor-multi-tool. But I feel confident that, properly wielded, it could discourage an attacking brown bear, or at least a chipmunk intent on swiping my Clif bar.

   My pack items are a little quixotic. Replicate them at your own risk.

    To give more certain suggestions for stuffing a daypack, or a backpack if you’re going to overnight in the woods, I sought out an expert. Karen Berger of South Egremont, MA, has written 10 outdoors and hiking books, another about scuba diving and her latest, about playing piano. She’s written for GORP and National Geographic and Backpacker magazines. She was technical expert to the PBS series "Trailside" and to Grollier’s Encyclopedia. She knows her stuff.

  As we sat in the living room of her home, which overlooks the slopes of Catamount Ski Area, she said her interest in the outdoors — her personal odometer reads more than 17,000 miles on six continents — came from her ex-husband, who persuaded her to hike the Continental Divide Trail. The CDT stretches 3,100 miles from Mexico to Canada, some of it through national parks. But the trail is incomplete.

   "It required a lot of map and compass work," Berger told me. "No two people who hiked it took the same path. You could be on a well-established leg that went for 20 miles, then you’d end up in a clearcut, or a swamp."    

Berger, who has also completed the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail, obliged my request for some tips.

   "Day hikers can be vulnerable to the weather in the mountains," she said, mentioning New Hampshire’s White Mountains. "Day hikers don’t carry the equipment of a backpacker, who can hunker down and wait out bad weather." Any time a trail goes above the tree line, she said, it must be taken seriously.

   Another difference is one of mindset, she said. "Long-distance hikers go for speed. They’re under pressure to complete their trip within a certain window of weather. Plus there’s the human urge to compete."

   A common mistake hikers make is to take too much of the wrong gear. Not that many years ago, only 10 percent of those who set out to complete the Appalachian Trail made it. That number has risen to 25 percent now, she said, largely because of all that’s been written about through hiking and the ability of the new hiker to prepare well.

   High, leather hiking boots remain popular with through hikers (despite their tendency to cause blisters), but more day-hikers are getting by with cross trainers and trekking shoes. "It’s most important that the shoes fit, whatever they are," she said. To carry heavy loads, there’s no substitute for the ankle support of high shoes, though.

  There are times a GPS may be helpful, but it’s more important to be familiar with the trail and to be adept at map-and-compass work, she said. Any day hiker should leave an itinerary at home — and stick to that itinerary. That makes it lots easier in case of an emergency. Carrying a cell phone can’t hurt — though there’s no guarantee of coverage in some of the more remote areas. And poles can relieve pressure on legs and knees.

   "It can even be treacherous coming down Jug End [on the Appalachian Trail in Egremont] in wet weather," she said, "especially for older people."

   Berger said she hiked the Appalachian Trail at a relatively leisurely pace of seven months. "I did 10 or 11 miles a day but would take time to meander or hang around the lean-to or read a book," she said.

    In sum, she recommends taking a map, compass, water, purifying chemical, extra food, rain gear, extra clothing, matches, first-aid kit, Swiss Army knife or multi-purpose tool, flashlight and batteries, sunscreen and sunglasses. That assumes the hiker will know to include regular food, clothing, tent and food preparation utensils.

   I found our conversation reassuring; my daypack sounds adequate. It would probably even get me through an unexpected night in the woods, in warm weather.

    Now, we just need some of that warm weather.

More details on Berger’s suggestions are to be found in her book Backpacking & Hiking (DK Publishing 2005) or on her Web site, www.hikerwriter.com.