My First Backpacking Experience

If you know me, or if you’ve just spent 5 minutes with me, you would know that I love the outdoors. I mean, I love hiking and camping, but I really love talking about hiking and camping. So much so that you might think that I have spent most of my life as a wilderness man. Sadly, the truth of the matter is that I never went camping or backpacking until I was in college. And even sadder is the fact that I didn’t go camping or backpacking again until many years later.

Still, after my first 3-day, 2-night backpacking trip, I was completely hooked. It was as if something awakened in me that I wasn’t ever able to shake.

Above is a photo of me on that fateful maiden voyage for multiple days into the wilderness. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. And yes, I do know how cool I looked in college.

I had been on some adventures in my life by this point, but I had never spent that much consecutive time in the woods. I can’t quite describe it, but something happens to you when you spend that much time outside; when you really have time to unplug, not look at a screen, without having to worry about most of the stresses of our modern lives. That coupled with having quality time with a group of really good friends is the perfect recipe for a life changing adventure. It’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

It only took that one 2-night trip to change my life. I know from that moment that I wanted to give opportunities to other young people to experience the same thing.

But backpacking and camping are very expensive hobbies. There were many years between my college camping days and being able to take my own adventures as an adult largely because it took me several years to slowly accumulate all the necessary gear.

Spending time in the great outdoors is a fairly simple way to affect fairly significant change in someone’s life. What makes it complicated is that not everyone has the opportunities or resources to do that. And that’s where the dream of Fernway Outdoors began.