by Larry Wiggins

Created on: March 03, 2009   Last Updated: March 08, 2009

Backpacking is an activity built upon self-dependence. Everything that is needed for the trip is carried on your back. Your comfort and even your safety depend on your trip planning, physical conditioning and you camping skills. It is difficult to imagine how such an independent activity would have a system of values where all backpackers are responsible to each other, an ethic.

However, ethics are important part of backpacking and apply in several aspects of the backpacking experience. These ethics are summarized in three areas: a respect for the wilderness, a respect for other backpackers and an obligation to evangelize these principles to others.

There is no higher responsibility than the backpacker's responsibility towards the wilderness. We go into the wilderness to enjoy its beauty, to view wildlife and experience solitude. Therefore, it is also our responsibility to maintain the wilderness so that it remains unspoiled for future trips by both our self and others. This ethic is codified in the "Leave No Trace" and "Low Impact Camping" principles. Backpackers should study these principles and implement them on their trips. Small items in these principles are important in preserving the outdoors: pick up trash, even if it is not yours; respect laws and property rights in the backpacking areas; be very careful with fire, to name a few. These and other principles protect the wilderness for all to enjoy.

Respect for other backpackers helps create an environment for enjoying the wilderness. This ethic covers areas such as respecting the privacy of other campers, respecting the property of everyone in the wilderness, providing assistance as needed for both friends and others encountered on the trails and extending common courtesies on the trails. These items help us feel safe and relaxed on our outings. Disregard for this ethic would prevent many hikers from venturing into the wilderness.

The ethic to teach others about backpacking and the wilderness is not an obvious obligation. There are two reasons that this obligation exists. First, we do not innately know the skills required for a successful and comfortable backpacking trip. Someone must teach us those skills. A good teacher will emphasize these backpacking ethics. If the new hiker begins by following these ethics, this way of backpacking will be the only way that he knows. Reading a book about backpacking may teach these principles but these lessons are usually most effectively taught by an experienced hiker modeling them.

The second reason for the obligation to teach others is to repay the people who have invested their time instructing us. Many of these teachers did not receive monetary pay for passing on their knowledge to us. They taught for the satisfaction of seeing people grow in the back country. There are obvious skills that we learn in camp craft but there are also leadership lessons taught in this outdoor classroom. Planning a trip, assigning responsibilities and working with group members are important leadership skills. These lessons develop leaders not only in the wilderness but the students also take the lessons back to the rest of their lives. Passing on these skills to others may be our only method of showing our teachers how valuable we found their efforts.

Ethics is something we seldom think of when we backpack. However, experienced backpackers observe rules and perform actions that demonstrate their adherence to a set of ethics. This adherence is part of what calls us into the back country time after time. We know that the wilderness will be preserved, we feel safe and we know that there are both lessons to learn and other lessons to share with others.

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