Looking for a no-frills backpacking packing list for 2-5 days? Here is everything you need for a 2-5 day backpacking trip keeping it as light as possible without breaking the bank!

Why this blog? Hi there! My name is Maddy and I’ve been working as an outdoor wilderness guide and writer since 2018! All of this gear is tested and true, and this exact setup has been tested multiple times. This is my recommended semi-ultralight setup that works everywhere from the desert, to cold weather backpacking in Northern Minnesota.

Note: this blog uses affiliate links. That means if you choose to make a purchase, I make a small kickback at no additional cost to you. 

Packing List for 2-5 Day Backpacking Trip:

The key with backpacking is to bring everything you need, and nothing you don’t! Weight adds up quickly, and odds are you won’t even use that hairbrush, deodorant, or life-straw. My favorite part of backpacking is really fully realizing exactly how little I need to live & thrive. 

Sleep System for 2-5 Days of Backpacking

• Nemo Disco Sleeping Bag (if shoulder season UL Enlightened Equipment 0 degree quilt)
• Nemo Tensor Sleeping Pad (changed over from Big Agnes bc this one is equally comfortable comparably priced and packs down much smaller
• Waterproof Sea to Summit Compression sack for Sleeping Bag
• Big Agnes Fly Creek 2 UL + footprint Tent
• Headlamp

Kitchen Gear 1-2 People, 3-5 Day Backpacking Trip:

• MSR camp stove
• Sea to Summit Collapsable Dish-wear
• 2 Smartwater water bottles empty (even a Nalgene can add weight. Definitely leave your metal Stanley at home, that adds lots of weight!)
• Sawyer Squeeze water filter (alt: iodine tablets)
• Spork (long enough to reach bottom of dehydrated meals while keeping your hand clean ideally)
• Tin mug if coffee drinker
• If with a group and making meals from scratch, Nalgene bowl to eat from. If not, straight from the bag
• Urssack for bear proofing (Talk to your ranger if in a park that requires a bear box; sometimes an Urssack is allowed instead.)

Food:

Getting enough food as you’re backpacking is really important. DO NOT just pack ramen and oatmeal to eat for days straight. You will be uncomfortable, and it can even be dangerous. 

In general, budget one breakfast, one lunch, one snack, one dinner, and one dessert for a day. Personally, depending on the trip, I will either purchase pe-packed meals in advance, or dehydrate my own meals in advance. 

If you will be backpacking longer than a few days or long distances (greater than 15 miles a day), I recommend coming up with a nutrition plan. I am not a nutritionist, but here are a few resources that are a good place to start:

• Ultralight Backpacking Meal Plan
• Backpacker’s Nutrition Guide

Personally, I’ve found for me that two oatmeal packets with peanut butter works for breakfast, followed by mid-morning Cliff Bar, followed by a PB&J M&M tortilla wrap for lunch. For dinner, I’ll have a dehydrated camp meal, often lentils and rice, pasta, or beans and rice, wrapped in a tortilla. Usually I’ll have a dessert handy if I’m still hungry! Sometimes I’ll go through a second Cliff Bar at some point in the day.

Pack more food than you think, and pick meals you know you will like. Those dehydrated meals at REI are not a fun thing to mess around with on a backpacking trip. Anything you don’t like and can’t finish you’ll have to pack out, and it will be much heavier now that it’s rehydrated. If you like pasta, just get pasta. 

Electronics for 2-5 days of Backpacking

• One external battery pack for phone (I usually bring a pretty beefy battery like this one!)
• Garmin InReach
• Canon Rebel SL3 (the most accident-proof budget-friendly camera out there; I have licensed photos to big magazines and tourism boards from this camera) + SD card + spare battery
• Cell phone

Clothes for 2-5 Days of Backpacking, three seasons:

• Down Puffy jacket
• 2-3 pairs of Darn Tough Socks (1 pair worn; 3 pairs total if cold climate hiking, 2 pairs total if warm enough I expect to wear sandals for portion of time)
• 4 pairs of underwear 
• 1 pair of quick dry shorts
• One pair of long underwear (or just leggings that already have holes in them), sometimes worn, sometimes packed
• Hiking pants (any of these depending on temperature), worn not packed
• 1 long sleeve wool baselayers top to wear, one to pack. I like Smartwool, it’s consistently had the most longevity of any baselayer I own. Some people just bring one baselayers; I sweat a lot and know that I get cold sitting in my wet baselayer at camp so I’ll usually bring a spare and sleep on top of the sweat wet one to dry it out by morning.
• One fleece pullover, thin (check out local Superior Fleece, MN)
• Hiking Boot (worn). I’ve had my Oboz Bridger Mid’s for three years now and put over 1200 miles on them, still in great shape.
• Hiking Sandals for camp (alt: crocs)
• Thin wool gloves. Almost never regret packing these
• Raincoat & Rain pants
• Raincover for Pack
• Compression Sack for clothes

Backpacking Bag Options for 2-5 day backpacking trips:

• For lightweight trips, I use the Granite Gear Perimeter 35L
• I’ve also used the Osprey Renn 50 and will use the Osprey Aura 65 for trips longer than one week with no resupply options. To be honest though, I really prefer the Granite Gear barebones setup and find it to be more comfortable than all of the features on the Osprey Bags. If you’re new to backpacking and have a lot of luxury items you want to bring (ie, you don’t care what I say, you will be bringing deodorant and a camp chair), go for the Osprey Aura. However if you’re looking to keep it to bare essentials, look into some of the smaller GG packs.

MISC things to pack for 2-5 day backpacking trip:

• First Aid Kit 
• Emergency Bivvy (Keep in a pocket accessible without removing your backpack. If you fall and break something and cannot easily move, this will make it easier to last a night. I have only ever used my emergency bivvys when helping strangers, but it has never not been worth bringing on the off chance I can help someone in trouble. 
• Maps
• Compass
• Signalling Mirror
• Trekking Poles
• UL repair kit (tent split covered in duct tape and noso patch or two)
• Pillow (meh, often I do not bring)
• Hand sani, toothbrush, sunglasses
• Binoculars (if room only)
• Sunscreen (small tube or tin)
• Kula Cloth

For a detailed guide to managing your period while on trail, read this article!

First Aid Kit Notes for Backpackers:

You can purchase a first aid kit from REI prepackaged, but I like to build out my own for my own specific backpacking needs. I blister easily, and for me preventative blister care is super important. 

This looks like cutting my toenails before trips, duct taping or KT taping over the parts of my feet that blister before I start hiking, and the second I start to feel a hotspot, I take off my hiking boot and use Glacial Gel patches and KT Tape to cover the spot before it becomes a blister. 

It is far better to stop hiking and tend to your blisters early than to try and patch up an open wound. For me, I know that on long downhill sections I blister on my pinky toe and the outer edge of my foot, so I slap some duct tape on the usual spots before hiking so it doesn’t rub. On uphills, I blister at my heels, so I do the same. 

The most common backpacking injuries tend to be blisters, dehydration, and burns from camp stoves. I come prepared for this by having a burn kit, rehydration packs, and practicing preventative First Aid by staying hydrated, preventing blisters, and being conscious of boiling water and camp stoves (ie, don’t let someone pour freshly boiled water into your coffee cup while you’re holding it!!)

THINGS I DO NOT BRING BACKPACKING:

• Soap! There is no such thing as truly eco friendly soap. Use the dirt to cut the grease and rinse, you’ll be fine.
• Pillow! My puffy jacket works just as well as a pillow as most of the lightweight camp pillows
• Pack towel! I just never use it
• Deodorant. I find caking layers of deodorant on myself while backpacking to actually be way more gross than just doing it once before hitting the trail, then not again until I’m done and showering.
• Extra down blanket. Your sleeping bag can unzip neatly into a blanket! There is no reason to bring both a sleeping bag and a down blanket. 
• Hairbrush. A French braid and finger combing got me through 70 days of sea kayak camping. After that, no way am I carrying that weight.
• The containers things came in. I don’t bring the bag my tent came in— I stuff it loose into my pack to save weight. I don’t bring a container for my utensils, or extra packaging, or any extra snitch or stuff sacks beyond the compression sacks listed above. Every single extra thing that you bring adds weight, and every nonessential thing becomes something you’re likely to leave behind.
• A camp chair. There are lovely rocks and logs all around me. It just isn’t worth the extra weight.

THNIGS I SOMETIMES BRING BACKPACKING:

• A small day pack. I brought one of these when backpacking Havasupai and base-camping
• Trekking Poles. The older I get, the more I use these. That said, if I’m flying to get to a backpacking destination, I pretty much never bring them.
• Sleeping Bag Liner. SO! A sleeping bag liner. Personally, I almost never feel like they actually add any warmth, no more than a hot Nalgene would. That said, they can do a lot for the longevity of your sleeping bag, keeping a down bag clean from the oils on your skin. In general, I ditch the liner unless I am bringing a bigger pack. 
• Wet wipes. This really depends on my mood. If I’m on my period backpacking, I almost always bring them. Really improves my quality of life. 
• Trowel: if where I am backpacking I have access to pit toilets, I usually don’t bring this (a small shovel for digging catholes
• WAG bag: If I’m backpacking somewhere like the desert or high alpine, you pack out all waste including human waste. For this, you poop into a WAG bag and pack it out. I like to use the same container the waste came in (aka those little ziplock dehydrated meal bags). Sound gross? Just pick a different place to backpack.
• Map & Compass: I far prefer to navigate by paper map and compass than by electronic app! That said, realistically many popular backpacking trails do not require a map and compass. Be aware of what you personally need to navigate in the area you’re travelling.
• Permits! Many backpacking trails require permits! Be sure to check in advance to see if the trail you’re planning on hiking requires a permit. 

Tips for packing your backpacking bag:

Everyone has a different way to pack a backpacking way that works for them, and the only “right” way to pack a backpacking bag is the way that works for you!! That said, there are some things to keep in mind when packing your backpacking bag:

1. You want things you might need while hiking on top! This means rain gear, snacks, lunch, a layer for if you get cold, first aid, emergency signalling, water, and sunscreen, should all be pretty accessible without having to unpack your entire bag.
2. You want most of the weight to sit on your hips, not tug at your shoulders. I like to mess with my pack until it stands almost completely around my hips and my shoulder straps are basically just there to prevent it from sliding out.
3. You probably want the bulk of the weight centered around the small of your back. For me, this just means throwing my tent stakes and poles as close to my back as possible, as well as a small pile of cliff bars.

Basically, I pack everything I don’t need until the night at the bottom of my pack, everything I need while hiking at the top, and do my best to fill in as much as possible near my lower back.

Looking for more practical and beginner-friendly outdoor advice!? Check out…

• How to sea kayak camp for beginners!
• A complete guide to Minnesota’s BWCA
• The best backpacking routes in the Midwest

free resources like this one are made possible by paying subscribers of the Hello Stranger Newsletter. Join the newsletter today to connect with thousands of like-minded adventurers and get gritty and honest adventure stories delivered right to your inbox (aka read my diary).

love reading about how and what to pack for a short backpacking trip? share this article on social media!