Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/993620
W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 31 BACKPACKING INTO RETIREMENT A JOURNEY TO THE LIGHT SIDE I ADMIT IT—I AM SOMETHING OF A DINOSAUR—"OLD SCHOOL", AS IT WERE. A PRIME EXAMPLE IS MY AP- PROACH TO BACKPACKING OVER THE YEARS. I CAME OF "BACKPACKING AGE" IN THE 70S. THE STATE-OF-THE ART BACKPACKING GEAR BACK THEN SEEMS RATHER LOW TECH BY TODAY'S STANDARDS. While living in northern Idaho and western Montana for over 30 years, I wasn't paying attention to the changes happening in the backpacking gear going on. I was content with the old ways. For example, I eschewed freeze-dried food. As long as I could lug it, I brought in real food, and my dogs were my trail companions. Forty pounds was just a slightly heavy "day pack" to me then. As I moved through my 50s though, it was becoming tougher to do things the "old way." I started to looked for ways to trim weight. Smaller stoves, simpler meals, fewer clothes, etc. Still, 45–50 pounds was about as light as I could get, especially if it included fishing gear. en I became "enlightened". by DOUG STEVENS I live close to Glacier National Park now, but I rarely went there. Sure, I would take visitors over Logan Pass. I even stopped there for a day hike to Hidden Lake—but backpack? No way. So many people, and I couldn't take my dogs, unlike the nearby Bob Marshall wilderness. Yet a close friend of mine kept telling me just how awesome the backcountry was, that I owed it to myself to go with him on at least one trip, to find out for myself. So I did and it changed my backpacking life. We did a quick four-day trip into the Belly River area of the northeast part of the Park. I was awestruck at the beauty around every turn. For this trip, I relented and went freeze-dried. I had a "lightweight" tent (4 lbs) and still my pack was 45 lbs going in, 40 coming out. (at's the down-side of freeze dried food—your pack doesn't get much lighter through the trip). Yes, some of that Comparing the two packs—on the left is the 22-25lb load vs 1970s vintage external frame pack Author's wife, Tania, traveling ultralight, in the rain at Cobalt Lake, Glacier National Park