How to Pack Your Hiking Backpack Like a Pro

The joys of living out of your backpack while hiking in nature are bountiful. They are perhaps only equal in number to the amount of discomforts you can encounter while backpacking if you don’t pack correctly. Pack too much and you may be uncomfortably overloaded. Pack too little and you’ll be cold or hungry (or both).

This article explains how to pack for backpacking, correctly, based on my own extremely dialed and obsessively packed kit. Your backpack isn't a gear wagon you can just toss stuff into willy nilly–there is strategy at play. But fear not, below I will breakdown both what to pack and how to pack so you can maximize the enjoyment of your next backpacking trip.

I have been backpacking for more than 20 years and have written dozens of articles on the topic for everyone from Outside Magazine to SPY. Here, I boil it all down, so you can benefit from my experience without learning the hard way.

Backpacking essentials for every hike - consider this your backpacking checklist

• Food: Freeze dried meals like the backpacking food options from Mountain House are great for dinner. I eat jerky, snickers bars, and trail mix all day long. For breakfast, it's protein oatmeal and instant coffee for me.
• Eating Utensils: Utensils are an easy piece of backpacking gear to overlook in a packing list but piping hot oatmeal sucks to eat with your hands so don’t forget utensils and a cup or bowl to eat out of. I personally love a metal spork, like the fancy titanium spork from Snow Peak, but when I was in my 20s I always grabbed plastic utensils from a fast food place on my way out to a backpacking trip. They are super lightweight, free, and usually come with a napkin that can be used as emergency TP.
• Water vessel(s): What water vessel you bring backpacking could be its own article, but like many ultralight backpackers and thru-hikers, I personally like using two Smartwater bottles because they are lightweight, low profile, and sit nicely in the side panels of my pack. Plus they work with screw-on mini water filters like from LifeStraw, Sawyer, and Platypus.
• Water Purification: Physical pumps like the MSR MiniWorks EX are a great piece of camping gear to mitigate your chances of getting giardia on a backpacking trip. If you are on a budget chemical ones work great as well. My go-to is the mini filter mentioned above—LifeStraw Solo.
• Backpacking Stove/Fuel: Canister stoves like the Jetboil Flash are great user friendly stove options for beginner backpackers because they boil water very quickly and are easy to use. The MSR pocket rocket is another well loved go-to.
• Sleeping Pad/Sleeping Bag: If you can’t sleep comfortably, it is unlikely you will enjoy backpacking. I would suggest splurging on a nice sleeping pad before any other pricey piece of gear—it makes a big difference in your overall comfort.
• Backpacking Tent: Some backpackers opt for a tarp only when backpacking to save weight and money but I would suggest sticking with a backpacking tent on your first trips. A good tent will help mitigate the chances of getting dangerously cold or wet or driven insane by mosquitos.
• Map and compass: Having a topographic map of the area that you are backpacking, a compass, and some skills as to how to use them is a piece of safety gear when backpacking.
• First aid kit: A premade aid kit from Adventure Medical Kits is an excellent option for your first backpacking trip because it cuts down on cost and removes the guesswork about what you need to bring for your aid kit.

How to Pack Your Backpack for a Hike

1. Balance weight for comfort (aka avoid being top heavy)

Balancing the weight in your backpack is arguably the crux of this entire article. Heavy gear should rest as close to your body, and specifically your hips, as possible. Packing heavy items like fuel and food at the back and bottom of your pack will help make the pack sit better on your body, will reducestrain on your shoulder strap, and help you remain as balanced as you can while you hike. Alternatively, if you place all of your heaviest gear at the top of your backpacking pack it will make you feel extremely cattywampus and can significantly increase your chances of falling if you are hiking on challenging terrain.

2. Lateral balancing is equally important, too

Lateral balance is essential to a comfortable backpacking experience, too. Besides being extremely annoying, an imbalanced pack can lead to injury. For example, if you place the heaviest gear on the right side of your pack this will cause you to lean to the right as you walk, which can tweak your back and strain your right leg and foot. Before you pack your backpack, I suggest you spread your gear out on an open surface (like your living room floor) and pair up items that are of similar weights so you can balance them in your pack from side to side. Pro Tip: Distribute your water between two bottles—one on each side of your pack—so they can balance each other out, and drink from each evenly while you walk.

3. Save space with packing cubes

Packing cubes are a great way to stay organized and help you find what you need in your pack quickly, they also add weight to your pack and can make balancing out your weight more challenging. I would suggest using packing cubes if knowing where everything is quickly is important to you and you aren’t worried about some extra weight because each packing cube adds a few ounces and they can add up. Pro Tip: Hyperlight Mountain Gear makes some really useful—and extremely lightweight—stuff sack and packign cube options, include one that doubles as a pillow.

4. Waterproofing your gear (with a trash bag)

One of my favorite backpacking hacks, which I learned from an outdoor educator two decades ago, is that you can turn any backpack into a waterproof backpack for about a dollar by using a trash compactor bag as a dry bag. Coupled with a rain jacket and some basic rain gear—you can handle some seriously wet conditions on your backpacking trip. You can line your backpack with a single trash compactor bag and pack all of your gear in there then roll up the top and you have yourself a waterproof bag liner. It is important that you use trash compactor bags rather than regular trash bags because they are considerably more puncture resistant and can handle the rigors of a backpacking trip much better for a small price increase.

5. Accessibility and organization tips

Getting your backpacking pack on and off can be a pain in the buns. It burns calories, can tire you out, puts wear and tear on your pack, and is just annoying—and even potentially dangerous if you’re way overpacked. One of my favorite personal backpacking tips is that I try to pack in such a way that I only have to take my pack off twice a day—once at a lunch break and once at my ending camp. To do this, I keep my water bottles, snacks, and a mini sunscreen bottle (and sometimes a small point and shoot camera) in hip and chest pockets that are easy to access while I have the backpack on my back. This allows me to snack, hydrate, and mitigate my chances to get bacon face while I walk without having to stop and put the backpack on the ground.

I also pack the things that I know I won’t need until I am at camp—like my backpacking tent, clothes and sleeping bag—in the toughest to reach spots. These also luckily often happen to be heavier items which then usually land at the base of the pack and closest to my body.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much weight should you carry in a backpack?

This is a highly personal question that depends on your body type, backpacking goals, and budget. Personally, I have ham hocks for legs, don't go on super long trail hikes, and like to be a pack animal and bring all of the heavy gear on camping trips. I bring luxuries like whiskey, select fresh veggies, and a thick sleeping pad and I am fine with having a load that is north of 40-lbs. A 2022 survey of PCT hikers said that their average load was a little over 16-lbs which is remarkably light and the result of eschewing most of the comforts of home in the name of a more comfortable walking experience. It is probably worthwhile to meet somewhere in the middle and shoot for 25-30 lbs as a beginner backpacker to try and balance the comfort and fast and light packing.

How do you pack food for backpacking?

I suggest looking at food in two main categories for packing: meals and snacks. Feel free to pack the meals as deep in your pack as you want but keep those snacks in handy easy to reach pockets so you can treat yourself to a moveable feast as you walk down the trail without having to take your pack off. I also suggest having a stuff sack that can fit all of your food so you can put it together and secure it with some cord on a high tree branch to keep animals from getting into it.

How do you prepare your backpack for rain?

I honestly can’t understate how rad a trash compactor bag is as a waterproofing hack. Instead of spending a ton of money on a waterproof pack, spending time treating your pack with water-repelling treatments, or buying an expensive pack cover, you can just shove everything in a compactor bag-liner and make it totally waterproof for around a dollar.

Should I pack with compression sacks?

Compression sacks are great for keeping a very organized pack and can create order in the chaos of a cavernous backpack but they do add weight to your overall kit. I personally only keep one compression sack that I use for my food because I don’t mind a mess pack and choose to add my weight with luxury items like wine.