Useful Accessories
A few clothing odds-and-ends can help make the trip more pleasant. To prevent snow and gravel from falling in the top of your boots, you can wear a pair of gaiters, fabric tubes that cover the upper portion of your boots and extend up your calves. A strap that goes under your instep prevents the gaiter from riding up. Most gaiters use Velcro or a zipper, sometimes combined with snaps, to make it easy to fasten the tube of fabric around your calf. Short gaiters reaching just above the ankle bone are sufficient to keep gravel out of your shoes. They also keep gritty trail dust out, which keeps your socks cleaner and reduces that hot burning sensation you can get when your feet have been in boots too long. Keeping the inside of your boots clean also prolongs the life of the boots’ liner. Try a pair of short gaiters on your next summer backpacking trip. You’ll be surprised at how much more comfortable your feet will feel. Longer gaiters reaching to just below your knee are essential in deep snow to keep snow out of your boots and to keep your pant legs dry. A few people wear knee-high gaiters in desert areas to protect their calves from thorny plants. I wear some form of gaiters on every trip year-round.

In high mountain areas, light gloves are a must even in summer. Early mornings, particularly, can be quite chilly on the fingers when handling stoves, pots and pans and camera gear. I like fleece gloves with a windproof and water-resistant Windstopper membrane sandwiched between the inner and outer layers of fleece. The Windstopper membrane, made by W.L. Gore, gives these gloves the best balance of warmth and dexterity in any lightweight glove I’ve found.

Although it may horrify some city folks to think about it, backpackers rarely bring a fresh change of clothes for each day of the trip. Socks are one exception; a fresh pair of cotton or synthetic briefs is another (although I usually wear my nylon shorts, which have a sewn-in brief, as underwear.) Cora brings an extra synthetic long underwear top, both for the pleasure of wearing a fresh-smelling garment part way into the trip, and for the option it gives her to doff a sweat-soaked shirt and put on a dry one when the wind starts to blow.

Like street clothing, outdoor garb comes with care instructions printed on a tag that's sewn to the garment. Fortunately, caring for the latest generation of outdoor clothing is usually simple. Gore-Tex, for example, can be machine-washed in warm water and dried on warm in an ordinary home dryer. As strange as it may sound, you can renew some types of water-repellent treatments on shell gear by careful ironing. Check your jacket's garment tag or hang tag for specifics. Most of the popular polyester fleeces and long-underwear fabrics can also be gently machine-washed and dried. Down- and synthetic-filled parkas should be hand-washed or washed in a large-capacity front-loading washing machine. See the sleeping-bag chapter for more details.

After reading over 5,000 words on the subject of backpacking attire, you could certainly be forgiven for agreeing with Thoreau's admonition to "beware of all enterprises that require new clothes." But take heart: if you're like me, you'll soon find that the new clothes you buy for backpacking are so practical, durable and comfortable that they quickly become the old clothes you wear all the time, whether you're in the wilderness or not.

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