BACKPACKING
Backpacking is all about getting away from it all and back to basics. It’s simply you, your gear, your friends and the trail.
The type of trail you backpack on will determine the type of equipment you will bring but the gist of it is that you strap a 50-100 liter sized backpack over your shoulders and you bring enough stuff to survive in the wilderness for an extended period of time. Things like clothes, a sleeping bag, a tent, some food and first aid supplies.
From a time perspective, the minimum is about 2-3 days but it can go up to much more than that as some people do it for weeks and months. Why do people backpack? Everyone has a different reason – mine is to reconnect with nature, exercise and have a chance to see natural phenomenons. Seeing Western Brook Pond, coming over the lip of Quilotoa crater, the view from atop Mt. Marcy or crossing the Logan Creek Suspension bridge is something that cannot be properly conveyed through pictures or video but the feeling you get is unlike anything else and for me and it is why I backpack.
A quick online search will get you to a site (like this one) where you can learn the ins and outs of backpacking if you want to try your first trek. I suggest that you perhaps try a 2 night trip at a nearby provincial/state park trail and go with someone who has done it before and please oh please, do not make the mistakes I did on my first real backpacking trip.
List of Backpacking adventures
Worthy Quotes
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.
Erica Jong
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
Mark Twain
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.
Mark Twain
To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.
Abraham Maslow
If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.
Mark Twain
Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.
Alfred A. Montapert
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Gandhi
There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
Steven Wright
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Mark Twain
We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.
Robert Wilensky
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
Ovid
Poet (43 BCE - CE 17)
If the lessons of history teach us anything it is that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
Anonymous
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Mark Twain
History is written by the victors.
Winston Churchill
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
If I only had a little humility, I’d be perfect.
Ted Turner
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away
Benjamin Franklin
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
Mark Twain
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
Groucho Marx
Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage. He didn't have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn't have to hear about the way his mother cooked.
Kimberley Broyles
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill
Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.
Benjamin Franklin
A Man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
Benjamin Franklin
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.
Zig Ziglar
Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.
Cullen Hightower
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Benjamin Franklin
There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Mark Twain
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Groucho Marx
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky
Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
Kurt Vonnegut
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.
Yoda
Jedi Master
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.
Native American Proverb
The measure of a life is not what that life accomplishes,but rather the impact that life has on others.
Jackie Robinson
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Winston Churchill
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Benjamin Franklin
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
Benjamin Franklin
To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
Jack Handey
Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as
kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic
pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.
Kristian Wilson
Nintendo, Inc, 1989
We learn something every day, and lots of times it’s that what we learned the day before was wrong.
Bill Vaughan
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin
The manager administers, The leader innovates.
The manager maintains, the leader develops.
The manager relies on systems, the leader relies on people.
The manager counts on controls, the leader counts on trust.
The manager does things right, the leader does the right thing.
Forbes Magazine
If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.
Frank Wilczek
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
Franklin P. Jones
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Plato
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas.
Benjamin Franklin
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry Truman
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
You can do anything, but not everything.
David Allen
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato
Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.
Benjamin Franklin
We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!
Benjamin Franklin
Don’t ever wrestle with a pig. You’ll both get dirty, but the pig will enjoy it.
Cale Yarborough
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson
Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill
Never ruin an apology with an excuse.
Benjamin Franklin
When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.
Thomas Szasz
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
Mark Twain
Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time, to figure out whether you like it or not.
Virgil Garnett Thomson
The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
Mark Twain
Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
Benjamin Franklin
When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.
Benjamin Franklin
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Benjamin Franklin
Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.
Benjamin Franklin
Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.
Benjamin Franklin
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
Albert Einstein
It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.
Benjamin Franklin
Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
Mark Twain
Well begun is half done.
Aristotle
We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle