Backpacking for Dummies

Backpack

Ever clicked on a link in your search results only to find that the target page had nothing to do with the topic? Yeah, me too - and it really turns my crank. Some of the pages are spun garbage full of SEO terms and some are just glitches in the search. And then there are the dumbass freelancers, like Rosie Young (RosieYoung27, to be exact), who plies her trade, such as it is, for DailyTwoCents, where she posts articles with useful-sounding names like "5 Backpacking Essentials."¹ 

Even a rank beginner in the backpacking biz is probably thinking that these so-called essentials are items like quality boots, a camp stove, a sleeping bag, freeze-dried food and maybe water purification tablets - right? Well, according to Rosie, the five are - wait for it - a headlamp, an eye mask, a pillowcase, "travel sickness tablets," and a micro down jacket (whatever that is).

Rosie then informs us that,  "Packing a bag for a big backpacking trip can be daunting, although generally forgetting something is not the end of the world as you can buy most things while you are away." Apparently Rosie is confused about what "backpacking " means, 'cause on my backpacking trips I don't remember finding camping stores at the bottom of the Grand Canyon or the top of a mountain somewhere. I do like her rationale for the pillowcase, though: "Instead of shelling out for packing cubes to keep your bag organised, keep your clean clothes inside a pillowcase."

Backpackers carry clean clothes? Really? Unless the millennial generation has completely redefined the term "backpacking" to mean something like dragging a rollaboard behind you on trains, planes and buses (which, frankly, wouldn't much surprise me); Rosie is just another Dumbass of the Day giving advice on topics she knows nothing about.

¹ This website is now defunct, and the post wasn't archived by the Wayback machine at archive.org. No loss, though.

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