After years of collecting tips from editors, contributors and guest experts, Backpacker has rounded up 42 of its best backpacking hacks — and the refreshing thing is how few of them involve buying anything. The collection, drawn from the magazine's archives and published this September, leans heavily on improvisation, reuse and the kind of dirtbag ingenuity that long-distance hikers are famous for.
Some of the tips are gloriously mundane. That plastic clip from your loaf of bread? It can hang wet socks to dry or clamp a stuff sack shut. Old swim shorts can replace hiking shorts; a battered aluminum pot from the kitchen can do the job of a fancy titanium one at a fraction of the cost. The magazine even suggests cold-soaking half a block of instant ramen in a 16-ounce Nalgene bottle — a trick that, with practice, lets you eat dinner while you're still walking.
Associate editor Will Brendza chipped in seven personal favorites, including clever alternative uses for Seam Grip (the adhesive usually reserved for patching tents and jackets) and what he calls the cheapest, lightest dog bowl money can buy. The through-line of the whole list is that one good item should do several jobs: ultralight packing, the editors argue, is less about owning cutting-edge gear and more about squeezing multiple uses out of everything you carry.
The roundup is organized into practical clusters. There's a set of tricks for turning household junk into functional replacements for pricier gear, a batch of 11 'smart swaps' that channel old-school dirtbag spirit, 12 moves for getting more out of the items already in your pack, and eight DIY gear projects pitched as ideal first builds for anyone curious about making their own kit.
For anyone planning a hiking trip this year, it's a genuinely useful read. Lightweight backpacking gear has never been more accessible or affordable, as the editors point out — but entry costs still add up fast, and the difference between a $500 setup and a serviceable one is often just knowing a handful of these tricks. If you're heading out on your first multi-day trek, scanning a list like this before you shop can save real money: you probably already own the bread clips, the Nalgene, and the pot.
Who is this for? New backpackers building a kit on a budget, ultralight devotees always hunting for grams, and anyone who enjoys the small satisfaction of solving a trail problem with something fished out of a kitchen drawer. It's also a nice reminder that trail wisdom isn't purchased — it's accumulated, one clever fix at a time.
Story via Backpacker.