Assignment #15- Haley Noehren- Backpacking is Fun

I have talked at length about my love for running, psychology, and poetry so I'll switch things up for this blog post. I can absolutely geek out over backpacking and nature and just spending times in the woods. Sorry Cronon, I love the wilderness and I have had to live off the land. When I was 12 and unmotivated, my family introduced me to a foreign concept called backpacking. I had been hiking many times before and enjoyed it, but this was different. We would pack as little as we needed into these weird looking backpacks, carry freeze dried food that we could heat up over a light weight Bunsen burner, hike 10 miles and then camp and hike 10 miles again the next day, and literally filter our water out of a stream. A stream. I though I was going to die. But after we finished our 8 miles on the first day I couldn't wait to wake up the next morning and hike again.
And now I love hiking. The scenery you get to take in and the feeling of accomplishment that you get after hiking 20 or more miles is amazing. And now I can go on and on about different backpacking supplies you need. For example, there are many different brands and styles of packs that suit different hikes, trails, and people. At the bear minimum, always get a pack with a waist strap. Before I got my real pack I would carry 10-20 pounds just on my shoulders. It was awful. Now that I have a real pack I can carry 20-30 pounds primarily on my waist. Since I'm distributing the weight, I don't get as sore and can hike more miles the second day.
Another thing I discovered with backpacking is that you can eat spaghetti and apple cobbler in the middle of the woods. Since you want to pack light when backpacking my first idea was that we would just be eating granola bars and gu packets (these are really sweet packets that come in different flavors and are packed full of electrolytes and carbs, and basically have the consistency of honey). But then I discovered that there were such things as freeze dried backpacker meals. So basically you can eat an actual meal in the middle of the woods if you just have some water to boil. It's amazing.
Ok, I'll end my love letter of backpacking now. But I could go on and on about my different adventures in the woods and the necessities of backpacking. I love hiking and backpacking is just a way of extending my time in the outdoors.