Ever wondered how a few quirky tricks could completely transform your backpacking experience?” From a silicone-enhanced sleeping pad to a no-slip pillow trick, these clever tips might sound strange at first, but they solve common problems every backpacker faces. Say goodbye to sliding around in your tent or waking up to adjust your pillow—let’s dive into these practical hacks that make your outdoor adventures smoother and more enjoyable!
Here are 10 backpacking hacks that might not make a lot of sense at first but actually are extremely useful.
1. Silicone Dots on Sleeping Pads
You might be wondering why the bottom part of my sleeping pad is covered with small dots well I put them there myself using store bought silicone to keep the sleeping pad from sliding inside of the tent during the night otherwise I would always keep sliding over to one side. This trick will level up your backpacking game effortlessly.
2. No-Slip Pillow Trick
Another problem is your pillow, because it always wants to slide off from your sleeping pad and then you wake up to correct it but luckily you can
fix this quite easily by putting your spare t-shirt over both of them or any other shirt or jacket that you aren’t wearing.
3. Extra Water Bottle Cap
During the night I always carry an extra water bottle cap in my kit which is meant for two things mainly I use it to put on top of my t Stakes so that they don’t dig into my hands or feet when I’m pushing them into the ground. And secondly itacts as an emergency backup in case I lose one of the caps for my water bottles.
4. Pot Cleaning Trick
A small hack that makes your backpacking adventure so much easier. To clean out my pot I use a small piece of netting that I cut out from the plastic net bag that a lot of vegetables usually come in it does a really good job of scraping everything off its smaller than a sponge and I prefer it over pine needles which I know that a lot of people use because I don’t want to look for Pines every time that I want to wash my pot having something small like this is ideal.
5. Olive Oil
You should carry olive oil when hiking you need to get a lot of calories because you burn a lot of them and the easiest way to do that is by adding fat to your meals because it contains more than two times the amount of calories per gram compared to carbs and protein olive oil. Specifically contains more than 100 calories per tablespoon which means that I need to add just a few tablespoons to each of my dinner to reach the desired calorie amount and keep on hiking the next day.
6. Volume Measurements
Hikes for pots that don’t have any volume measurements. You can scrape them yourself on your spork. If you won’t scrape off any Coatings from the pot, you could also Mark them on your water bottle but I personally prefer to do it on my Spork because I tend to change my water bottle every now and then and then I have to redo all the markings on my specific Spork I’ve made two markings one for one cup of coffee or 200 ml and one for two cups of coffee or 400 ml.
7. Check Ground Level
Before setting up my tent I always place a half full plastic bottle on the ground which allows me to quickly determine if the ground is level or not to do this first adjust the water bottle so that the water inside of it is sitting straight then simply go around the water bottle and check that it’s sitting at a 90° angle relative to the ground if it isn’t the ground isn’t straight this allows me to determine whether a specific campsite is good or not and compare it to other campsites in the area.
8. Clean Before Setting up
A lot of times selecting a good campsite especially here in the mountains is a bit tricky because from the distance the ground may seem level at first but it actually isn’t after cleaning up the ground. I always lay out my tent fabric on it first and then lay on it myself this way, I can easily find out in which direction my sleeping mat feels the most comfortable in and also find out if there aren’t any holes or rocks in the ground that I need to take care of first.
9. Hang Your Flashlight At Safe Place
At night I always keep both zippers for the tent inner mesh on the upper side and hang my flashlight between the cords on both of these zipper pools that way if I need to find it quickly. I always know where it is, plus if I line it properly it also acts as a lantern giving up enough light for the whole tent and if you wear glasses you can also hang your glasses here for the same reasons.
10. Keep Dry You Socks
If I need to drive some socks from hiking in rain all day I always put them underneath my shirt because my torso is very warm and it ensures that they’ll be completely dry by the morning. But before you start typing that it doesn’t work please try yourself and compare it to other methods, because I’ve tried them all myself and I know that this is the best technique by far it’s pretty disgusting obviously but it works.
You can make your backpacking journey hassle-free by using this simple yet effective trick. By the way if you want to know which hiking socks are best for me, you can read me blog Best Hiking Socks. if you know of any other weird or uncommon backpacking hacks please write them down in the comments to help out other people.