MOMENTS IN TIME

BACKPACKING COMBINES walking and camping. That’s why I call myself a backpacker. Wild camping is the latest buzz phrase. Long-distance hiking is popular. I do both. But neither sums up the complete activity. Or that walking and camping are equally important. At least, they are for me.

I love moving through the outdoors. I love spending the night there. When combined, the experience becomes much deeper, much more fulfilling. Repeated day after day, week after week, it becomes even more so. A long backpacking trip isn’t a break from everyday life; it is everyday life, it is what I do every day, what I expect to do every day. That’s why I keep returning to backpacking.

Over the years I’ve been backpacking I’ve had enough experiences to fill many books – and I’ve written some of them! Thinking of standout camps is difficult because on every walk it’s the totality that means most. But certain times do hang powerfully in my memory and do seem especially significant. Here are a few of them…

FIRST CAMPS: The Arizona Trail & the GR5 through the Alps

First camps on long walks are always exciting at the time. The walk has