Lessons from the Andes

I spent the first two weeks of 2010 wandering through the Andes.  Through the Andes?  Yes, I flew down to Argentina for two weeks of backpacking and service with Outward Bound Patagonia.  I spent New Year's Eve with the other six members of my fabulous crew (Maggie, Ariel, Ben, Drew, Henry, and Nate) and our two wonderful leaders (Jimbo and Wanda) sitting on logs on a rainy summer evening eating chocolate and making our new year's resolutions.  During the days, we did some service and hiked a ton of stuff.

I learned many lessons on the trail and I figured now would be a good time to record a few.  Should the Appalachian Trail be in my future, it'd be good to remember a bit from Patagonia.
   - Singing makes hiking up things more pleasant.  It's not that hiking up the side of a mountain isn't always wondrously fun, but sometimes musical accompaniment diminishes any frustration that may be incurred by huge patches of bamboo.
   - Eat well.  Our bodies need lots and lots of food when we hike upwards of 10 hours in a day (though eight is more comfortable) and it should be good.  Favorites include oatmeal with raisins and sugar for breakfast, crackers and tuna with cheese for lunch, fruit (fresh or dried) for snacks, and dinners ranging from rice with lentils to pasta with sauce (from packets) to polenta with TVP.  Spices are essential.  Bread is not that hard to cook on the trail and is absolutely delicious for a warm treat.
   - Showering once in five days may seem highly questionable in everyday life, but not showering for eleven days of active hiking is much, much worse.  Bring baby wipes, a loofah (to scrub clean soap-free in rivers), and dry shampoo (which, sadly, we only found out exists while out there and didn't actually bring).  They'll be worth the weight of carrying them around - unless you really want the Kurt Cobain rocker look for the duration of your hike.
   - Trekking poles can indeed be useful.  They're quite good at redistributing weight and helping you balance, especially going up and down big hills with a heavy post-resupply pack.  They're also an essential for fording rivers.  Oregon Trail, anyone?
   - Clothing variety is overrated.  I feel I'm legitimately qualified to make this statement, since I love to keep everything and have far more t-shirts than I'll ever possibly need.  Everything gets dust- and dirt-covered within about .2 seconds and the dirt is permanent within 3 days, but it's easy to go two weeks with one t-shirt, one long underwear shirt, and one long-sleeved shirt, plus two fleeces and a rain jacket for keeping warm and dry.  It'd be easy to go a couple of months this way as well, though fresh shirts (ALL SYNTHETIC, of course) would be a wonderful treat at a mid-Trail resupply.
   - The Outward Bound guide to how to pack your pack: stick to the ABCs.  Accessibility - keep what you might need for the day (e.g. rain gear, camera, refillable sunscreen) at the top of your pack.  Balance - put the heavy stuff in close, packing your sleeping bag and other dry sack stuff at the bottom then cook gear and food then top set of accessible dry stuff.  Compression - compress, compress, compress and everything will be much more comfortable.
   - Five Nalgenes a day makes for a happy, hydrated hiker.  Three drops of iodine, shake and clean the lid grooves, wait thirty minutes, and drink up!
   - Group journal entries are fun.  Potentially very fun, especially when rhyming is involved.  A group journal, shared each night, splits the work of recording the journey and puts each voice into the retelling of the joint venture.  Highly recommended.
   - Finally, keep your feet happy.  Bring sports tape and wool socks, sleep warm and dry to let feet breathe a bit, and lace up those hiking boots nice and secure as you hit the trail for miles of fun.  Or kilometers, if you're not from around here.

There you have it, some lessons from the Patagonian Andes.  The next time you decide to wander into the woods for an extended period of time, keep a few of these in mind.  Also, remember to prepare adequately for whatever animals may be out there, be it bears or pumas.  A puma sighting would be pretty cool.