I started hiking shortly after being diagnosed. My friends were getting into outdoorsy things, and I didn’t want to be left out, so I decided to join in on the fun. Little did I know that would be the start to lots of future outdoor adventures! As for packing, I’ve gone through an evolution of what to pack. Shortly after DX, I was all about juice boxes. I since learned that’s a pretty bad idea, since they tend to fall apart after carrying them for a few days. The past few years I’ve been relying on soda. While I know that liquid sugar is a heavy thing to carry backpacking, I tend not to bring nearly as much water as a result of sipping on soda while hiking. I have a 1 ounce water filter straw that I carry just in case I need extra water, since most places I hike have plenty of reliable streams to refill my half liter water pouch. Just for reference, for a weekend hike I would usually take 1.5L soda and 0.5L water, the water of course being refilled a few times a day.
Lately I’ve been coming back to glucose tabs. I don’t really like treating lows with them, but they are just so much more compact and lighter than soda. I feel like I need to drink more water when eating them, so maybe the weight savings isn’t all that great, but it does mean I can bring more sugar than before with less weight still. I usually carry about 3-4 clif bars per day that I’m going to be out. I probably won’t go through them all, but of course we pack more than we need just in case. As for supplies pump/cgm supplies, I might bring 1 change if I’m out for a weekend hike. I haven’t done anything longer than 2 nights out since DX (kind of makes me sad) but my general “away from home” packing is double what I expect to use.
I’m a very light packer when it comes to backpacking, since I was a big fan of “ultralight” backpacking a few years ago. My pack for most any trip outside now is an 1800 cubic inch (30 liters), where the standard 2-3 day packs I see people using are 40-50L. Multipurpose gear, and super condense and light gear makes that possible. I can elaborate if anyone’s interested… but I’ll spare the post for now. For day hikes, I use my favorite tiny bag, the REI Flash which is just 17 liters and holds everything I’d need for being outside without going overnight.
I found a picture that I took of the gear I used for a 4 week trip to Madagascar. It includes a tent, sleeping bag, pad, etc, and a lot more junk that all fit in a 40L pack. You can see the section of diabetic gear.
The second picture is a comparison of the packs brought with some friends camping in the Catskills of NY. My bag is the red one. My friend was using the bag I bought to Madagascar, if that looks familiar.
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