Owner Review by Michael Lissner

Owner Review of
Beyond Backpacking: Ray Jardine's Guide to Lightweight Hiking

Review by Michael Lissner
22 August 2004

Contents:
1. Tester Biological Information
2. Backpacking Background
3. Product Information
4. Table of Contents
5. Product Description
6. Comments
7. Summary

1. Tester Biological Information:
Name: Michael Jay Lissner
Trail Name: (The) Chemist
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Height: 201 cm (6' 7")
Weight: 88 kg (195 lb)
Email Address: yourmothership (at) hotmail (dot) com
City of Current Residence: Berkeley, California, USA
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2. Backpacking Background:
I have been backpacking for the greater part of my life. I started with traditional backpacking while a Boy Scout, but my current style is a highly minimalist one relying more on skill and discomfort and less on creature comforts and toys. Although my backpacking style is an evolving thing, at this point I usually clock in 27.4 k (17 mile) days with a base weight (without food or water) of about 5.4 kg (12 lbs), including my tarp, frameless pack and down quilt. My usual stomping grounds are any of the terrain within three hours from here.
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3. Product Information:
Title: Beyond Backpacking: Ray Jardine's Guide to Lightweight Hiking
Author: Ray Jardine
Publisher: AdventureLore Press
City and State of Publishing: Arizona City, Arizona
Publisher's URL: http://www.adventurelore.com
ISBN: 0-9632359-3-1
Year Published: 2002
Pages: 529
MSRP: 19.95 USD
Measured Weight: 713 g (25.1 oz)*
*Weight was measured on a digital scale made by Sunbeam that claims accuracy to 1 g or .1 oz.
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4. Table of Contents:
Introduction
Nature Enriches
The Myth of Heavy-Duty Gear
Packweight

EQUIPMENT
The Backpack
Tarp and Tent
Groundsheet and Pad
Quilt and Sleeping Bag
Umbrella
Remaining Equipment
Clothing
Footwear

HIKING CONSIDERATIONS
Food
Water
Stealth Camping
Campfire and Cook-Fire
Physical Conditioning
Hiking Pace
Foot Care
Walking-Related Stress Injuries
Stretching
Hygiene
First Aid Supplies
Photography
Knots for the Hiker

OBSTACLES
The Avalanche of Adversity
Rain
Lightning
Cold
Snow
Creek Fording
Hot
Mosquitoes and Biting Flies
Ticks
Poison Ivy and Oak
Snakes
Bears
Cougar
Personal Security

LONGER JOURNEYS
Forging Dreams into Goals
Financing the Journey
Resupply
Partners
Trail Shock
Hiking Enjoyment
The Power of Focus
Supercharging Mileage
The Artistry of Hiking
Re-entry

BACK TO BASICS
Sewing Your Own Gear
Seam Sealing
Ray & Jenny's PCT 1994 Gearlist
The Sacred Tripod
Select Bibliography
Author's Profile
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5. Product Description:
This book is an update to an earlier book that was also written by Ray Jardine, The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook: Innovative Techniques and Trail Tested Instruction for the Long Distance Hiker. While I have not read that book because it is out of print (and used versions just get more and more expensive - currently they run about 60.00 USD), I understand that this is a rather sizable update and rewrite. From what I understand, in writing this book, Jardine attempted to modify his earlier book from one that was written with the PCT hiker in mind to one that is more universal to everyday hikers looking to drop major weight off their backs in order to hike any long distance hike. The result of this rewrite is a book that details for about 500 well-illustrated pages various methods of ultralight hiking that Ray and his hiking partner Jenny developed during their many thru-hikes of the PCT.
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6. Comments:
I first read this book while I was abroad in Spain in 2003, and it really got me thinking about ways that I could take weight off my back. Since having read it, I have tried most of the methods it outlines, including many of the sewing projects that it has in its final section, "Back to Basics." Some of the ideas in the book that I have tried have proven to be spot on for my hiking style, and others have not worked out so well for me. Before I launch into a more detailed description of the various chapters of the book, a few words should be said about the entirety of the book itself. By and large it is a high quality book. It is more or less free of grammatical typos (not something that can be said about all field guides), and the material it has is generally quite clearly written. There are times when I find the writing becomes a little bit foggy for a moment, but in almost every case that this happens, it eventually makes sense. This is a book that is worth reading more than once because few readers will pick up the details of everything that it says the first time through. It does however, have a few stylistic problems that make multiple readings rather challenging.

In my experience, the tone of the book is very difficult to overcome. The book is written from a perspective that indicates that it knows its techniques are correct, and that other hiking styles are wrong. A large percent of its content consists of explaining why one ultralight method is better than another more traditional method. While this is fine for a field guide - in fact it is pretty much necessary - rarely do these comparisons attempt to give an unbiased point of view. One example of this occurs when Jardine is discussing the advantages of a tarp over a tent. While he goes on and on about what makes tarps better than tents, he does not say many of the things that people like better about tents (such as the way they definitely keep bugs out 100% of the time).

The other problem that Jardine falls victim to throughout is what we at BGT call projecting, which is assuming that if something works well for you (the author) it will work well for the readers. While in general his projecting statements are ones that most people would agree are true, for me they make assumptions that I find somewhat presuming. Many examples of projecting can be found throughout the book, but one that I have found for purposes of explanation is on page 92 when Jardine is discussing the relative advantages and disadvantages of sleeping quilts versus sleeping bags. In this section, he writes, "In reality, sleeping beneath a quilt is no different than sleeping under blankets at home, and with only a minimum of practice a person learns not to dislodge the quilt while turning over." In this statement, he assumes that any person can learn not to dislodge the quilt with very little practice. I have sewn myself a quilt, and I am still learning how to turn over without losing precious heat - thus, not just any person can learn not to dislodge the quilt. This is not to say that he has to make only universal statements, but rather that if the above sentence had read, "In reality, I find sleeping beneath a quilt is no different than sleeping under blankets at home, and with only a minimum of practice, most people can learn not to dislodge the quilt while turning over," it would have been a more comfortable sentence for me. Good. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, we can focus on the material of the book itself.

The first few chapters of the book spend some time introducing the methods that are to come and the evolution of their existence. They explain that the methods are all designed with the minimalization of weight being their heart and soul. They give some historical background to the commercial nature of the outdoor industry, and set the stage so that readers of the book can question the methods they use while backpacking.

Once all of the introductory work is done, Jardine moves into a section in which he focuses on gear in chapter after chapter. Being somebody who loves gear, I greatly enjoyed these chapters. When I first read them, they were really quite outlandish for my style of backpacking. Very frequently while reading a chapter I stopped and quietly asked myself if his technique would be effective enough, or if it could really work as well as he claimed. Because of these doubts, it has taken me a long time to integrate most of his ideas into each of my trips. Slowly but surely though, over the past year and a half, I have been using more and more ultralight techniques in my day to day backpacking. Since reading this book, the average load on my back has gone from about 20 kg (45 lb) with boots on my feet to about 9 kg (20 lb) with tennis shoes. My average daily distance has almost doubled and my body is usually less sore at the end of a day than it was when I was carrying heavier loads. Generally, after switching from one of my traditional methods to one that he details in his book, I can't imagine going back. Indeed, if somebody asked me to carry some of my older equipment on my next trip, I would be appalled at the thought of carrying such heavy and complicated gear. Looking back on my old gear today often makes me laugh at how heavy it is and how brute-strength my mentality used to be ("I can get it up the hill one way or another!!")

Lowering the load on my back did not come easily. One thing that gave me special trouble was switching to running shoes rather than boots. Jardine claims that they provide plenty of support, but the first few times that I tried them out, I rolled my ankle in a most painful way. The good news was that I was only on day hikes, but the bad news was that my ankle had been damaged for the next week or two at least. One chapter's methods I haven't even tried yet is the umbrella chapter. Jardine claims that they are the best piece of equipment since the shoulder strap, but I just can't bring myself to try it out. It is more weight in my hands and more awkwardness while on the trail. I have enough trouble meandering narrow trails without having to think about my umbrella getting caught on branches and the like. This is not to say that actually using an umbrella would be as bad as I think it would, just that even a year and a half after having read this book, there are techniques that I still haven't dared try out.

After having talked about gear for about 150 pages, Jardine begins discussing technique. For me, this is where the book got even more interesting. In these chapters, he outlines pretty much all of his various techniques, right down to what he eats and how much of it. He has some pretty strong opinions in this section, and while I found them to be very interesting, I haven't tried a whole lot of the techniques, preferring to store them away in my brain for later use. I have found that picking up on the general idea of each chapter has been more fruitful than actually trying out the techniques word for word. For instance, in one of these chapters he explains how to go about doing what he calls "stealth camping." When reading this chapter, I filtered out the information that I found interesting (e.g. cooking dinner away from where you sleep is a good measure in bear country) and read the rest to see what other ideas could be extracted. While finding few ideas that I really wanted to try on my next trips, I read the rest and stored it away in my brain for later digestion. Pretty much all of the ideas that are in this chapter are good ideas, and make backpacking in general a more doable and pleasurable experience. I found a highlighter was useful in this section.

The next section, pages 295-412, focuses on "Obstacles" such as cougars, bears, water, snow, etc. (pretty much anything that has the potential to really ruin a trip one way or another). I find it interesting that three of these 14 chapters, "snow, rain, and creek fording" focus on water, the so-called nectar of life, but that's another story. All in all, these chapters are useful and present a lot of interesting information. Again, the ideas they present have a bit of a take-it-or-leave-it feel. I found some of the ideas to be good, and others were allowed to fall by the wayside either because I already knew them, or because I didn't agree with their details. Luckily, I haven't had the opportunity to really test very many of these chapters.

The next to the last section, "Longer Journeys" discusses just that, longer journeys. It is a section that has hard sought information such as "Trail Shock" and "Resupply." I found these chapters to be invaluable because of my plans to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. I have definitely read this part of the book more than a couple of times, and would recommend them to somebody that wanted to do a long distance hike in a heartbeat.

The final section of the book is a sewing primer that gives instructions on how to make several homemade projects. I have made several of these projects, and all in all the instructions are enough to make the sewing possible. The finished products that resulted are not always the best or most modern, but they are always light, and always custom, which is nice. I have used several of the pieces of gear that I made with these instructions for some time now, and those pieces of gear are holding up very well. If it weren't for this section, I would not be making homemade gear at all, so I appreciate this section a lot.
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7. Summary:
As a result of this book, I now carry a tarp rather than a tent, a sleeping quilt rather than a sleeping bag, a Pepsi can stove rather than a Peak1 Stove, and the list goes on. Though hard numbers are tough to come by (because I didn't compute the weight of my pack when I was a heavyweight hiker), I would wager that my base weight (without food or water) has dropped about 70% since reading this book. It is written in order to teach about ultralight techniques and it does that in a way that is better than any other book I have read (which consists of a lot of backpacking literature). Some of the sections are a bit hard to read at times because the tone is challenging, but in the end this book has become one of my most-used reference materials (aside from the dictionary and atlas of course). The best part is, because of the sewing chapters in the back of the book, I have actually gained a new hobby. At this point, about 60% of the gear on my back was sewn or made by me, saving me a lot of money and keeping me busy on weeknights when I would otherwise be watching television. I definitely consider this book to be a must read for any aspiring ultraligher or thru-hiker.
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