>>2424387Glad you're getting out there, buddy. I know when I started, dayhiking and car camping last year, I was at a loss for what to take. I hadn't owned a backpack since high school (graduated 2009), never experienced cold, windy, stormy weather (grew up in SoCal) besides day trips with my family into the lower Sierra. I started by buying pic related cabelas/bps daypack (based on a recommendation from an anon that used it as a fishing pack on a daypack thread here), loading up a few smart water bottles, a sandwich and snacks, and started hitting up the local regional/state parks and forests, then moved up to reserved space car camping (fucking out in the open, in plain view of 20 different families, neighbors on the other side of a tree yapping away about office politics). Finally started driving farther away from LA, up into the eastern Sierras (again, based on a recc from an anon on this board), and finally out of state. It's a slow process picking yourself up and getting out there (I have no friends), and I've made plenty of missteps (especially purchases like water bladders, waterproof boots, another unnecessary backpack), but I finally got out on a couple of overnight backpack trips—2 one-nighters and a two-nighter—and I'm itching to get out again. Happy and safe travels.
