Hiking Adventures in France: How to Pack Light

Packing light for your hiking adventures is today’s guest post. I want to extend a warm welcome to hiking enthusiast and guest blogger Robert Baker. He loves hiking along remote trails in wilderness areas and appreciating the beauty of Creation. He has traveled extensively across Europe, China, and the United States. When he is not physically traveling, he loves to travel in his imagination by reading science fiction and fantasy books. Robert enjoys sharing his experiences in blogs written for Outside Pursuits.

From the ancient pilgrims’ trails leading toward Mont-Saint-Michel to the epic mountain trails of the Tour de Mont Blanc (TMB), France offers some of the world’s most varied, beautiful, and interesting hiking adventures. However, when you’re following the challenging TMB trail, you don’t want to be held back by a heavy backpack and too tired to admire the breathtaking views.

Image by Franck Barske from Pixabay

You can’t walk 110 miles through the Alps with just a T-shirt and a bottle of water, so you will need to carry spare clothes and a tent. But there is an easy way to ensure you  are packing light for your hiking adventure without leaving anything important behind. Read on to learn how to pack lightly for your hiking adventures in France.

Make a list when packing light for hiking adventures

What you must do is pack everything that you really need and leave behind anything you don’t. To ensure that you don’t forget anything important, the first step is to brainstorm. On a piece of paper, write down five titles:

• Equipment
• Clothes
• Vital items
• Toiletries
• Food

After this, think about the hiking adventures you plan to enjoy in France. If you’re going to hike across the historic battlefields of the Western Front or the D-Day Beaches, you’ll probably stay in hostels or hotels along the route and won’t need much equipment. However, if you plan to brave the TMB, you’ll need camping and cooking equipment to use along the trail.

Walk through the hikes in your mind and imagine what you’re going to use. Read reviews left behind by previous hikers on sites such as AllTrails. Write down anything that you think is important under one of your 5 titles. The titles are simply there to help you focus your thoughts as you’re compiling your lists.

Equipment

The first thing you’ll need is a backpack. For leisurely day-hikes in the Verdon Gorge, you only need a small and simple backpack for your water bottle, food, and essentials. But for the 382-mile Grande Traversée des Alpes, you’ll need a sturdy external-frame backpack with attachment D-rings for all your camping and cooking equipment and plenty of space inside for your clothes, food, and water.

List any camping and cooking equipment you need. Also consider helpful items for your hiking adventure, such as hiking poles, a compass, a map, a GPS unit, and bug spray. Don’t forget a camera to record all your amazing experiences.

Something many hikers forget is to test their equipment before they set off. Sometimes equipment is faulty. Sometimes the batteries are dead. And sometimes you simply don’t know how to use it. You’ll find yourself very hungry at the end of your first day of the Grande Traversée when you discover that you’ve brought along the wrong canister of gas for your propane cooker and can’t heat the food you packed.    

Clothes

For short distance hikes, check the weather forecast. You may need a rain jacket and outdoor pants . If the weather is fine, you may only need the clothes you’re wearing when you set off. For mountain hikes, you’ll need layers that you can add and strip away to deal with different climates as you ascend and descend slopes. For longer remote hikes, you’ll need plenty of socks and underwear.

In sunny areas, or for hiking and snowshoeing through snow, you’ll need sunglasses. Protect your neck from the sun with a sunhat and consider light, long-sleeved hiking shirts.

Vital items

For some people, there are items they must take on a hike for important reasons. For example, anyone who suffers from a medical condition must ensure they pack their medication. If you have an allergy, an EpiPen is essential. If you plan to hire any equipment or purchase anything during your hiking adventure, bank cards and your driver’s license will be necessary. If you’re from outside of the EU, an International Driver’s Permit (IDP) will be required.

Toiletries

Don’t forget such simple things as your toothbrush and toothpaste. Sunscreen will be important in the snow or the sunshine. If you’re a hundred miles from the nearest store, you’ll be thankful you remembered to pack feminine hygiene products. And if you’re traveling with kids, baby wipes and diapers are essential.

Food & drinks

On long hikes or sunny days, it’s vital to stay hydrated. Take bottled water or purification tablets. For longer hikes such as the Grande Traversée, you’ll need to carry dried foods that take up as little space as possible in your backpack and can be rapidly rehydrated and cooked. If you’re hiking with children, you should take along some healthy snacks.

A simple pro tip for long-distance hiking is to repackage dried food in 1-meal plastic labeled bags. The original packaging is often overly bulky and adds weight. As long as you already know how to cook the product, you don’t need a fancy box squashed inside your bag.

Organize your items

When you have written your list, run through it and remove anything you can live without. The lighter your backpack, the easier and more enjoyable your hike.

Following this, you should gather everything that’s essential for your hiking adventure and spread it out on a flat surface. This will enable you to picture exactly how you’re going to fit all those items inside your backpack. Then empty your backpack of any clutter left over from previous hiking adventures.

Packing Light for Hiking Adventures

During the packing process, cross each item off your list as you pack it. This will ensure you don’t miss anything and also prevent you from duplicating any item. You should pack in the following order…

Packing Light with Heavy items

Heavy items can crush other items and also can make your backpack unbalanced. Pack them first at the bottom of your pack and make sure you distribute their weight as evenly as possible. Some things will be too bulky to fit inside, such as your tent and bedroll. These should be left out until last.

Emergency items

Any items that you might need urgently, such as a First Aid Kit or an EpiPen, should be packed on top or in a side pocket. This will enable you to reach them quickly in an emergency.

Frequently used items

Similarly, items you will need to use often should be packed in an easily accessed place. However, prioritize the emergency items over frequent use items.

Some frequently used items and emergency items can be carried outside of your backpack. For example, compasses can often be hung around your neck on a lanyard and your EpiPen could be carried in your jacket pocket.

Least important items

If your bag is already looking full, consider leaving behind some of the less important items. If you must take them, pack them last after all the more essential items have been safely stored away.

Exterior items

The bulky things you couldn’t pack earlier may now be attached to the D-rings on the exterior of your backpack. Ensure that they are well balanced so that your backpack is comfortable to carry.

Enjoy your hiking adventure in France!

Your backpack is now packed, and you’re ready to go. Many areas of France, such as the French Alps and the Verdon Gorge, are considered among the world’s most beautiful natural areas. As long as you are carrying everything you need, and your backpack isn’t too heavy, you’ll have the adventure of your life.

Has packing light for hiking adventures inspired your next travel adventure? Or, maybe you are an armchair traveler….. I highly suggest Suzy Kelly’s Best Foot Forward: A 500 Mile Walk Through Hidden France . Her other books are delightful also! In addition, this offbeat travelogue was another I really enjoyed, Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of St James.

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