1970s Backpacking Gear, when price mattered most

Cost was the most important thing for those new backpackers in the Earth Day generation.  I estimate though that this equipment and a week of food creeped up to 50 pounds and more as it got colder.

I got my tent from LL Bean:

My pack and sleeping bag from Ski Hut:

Many smaller items from REI:

My SVEA 123 stove from Moor and Mountain:

Some things came from EMS (most other catalogs were free though):

Most of the above catalog pics are from this library.

and the rest of my gear came from local places around Baltimore Maryland like Sunny's Surplus, Montgomery Ward and Boy Scout vendors.

Total gear, without food was 35 pounds.

Add two quarts of water at another 4 pounds.

Read more of this history in

Bristow, R. (2025).  The Real Appalachian Trail BC.  Appalachian Trail Museum.

All proceeds go to the Museum.

Appalachian Trail Meals, BC

 What did hikers eat on the Appalachian Trail, BC, that is Before Cell Phones?

In a time when dehydrated food was available, but costly and there were only a few freeze dried items, like coffee.  Here is my shopping list.

Most Breakfasts                                                                 Cost

Granola                                                                                  $0.79 pound prepared hot or cold

General Mills Breakfast Squares *                                  $0.85 for four

or Pop Tarts would work                                                        $0.39

Instant Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, Maypo                     $051-0.55 for 8/10

Instant Breakfast (sometimes)                                          $0.65 for a 6 pack

Powdered Milk quart (for cereal, and pudding)             $0.39

Freeze dried coffee                                                             $1.00 +/-

 

Lunches / Snacks

Peanut butter in glass Jar                                                   $1.33 28 oz

Crackers (saltines)                                                               $0.39-0.47

Honey                                                                                    $1.04 16 oz

Cheese                                                                                   $0.59 8oz

Beef jerky, Slim Jim                                                           $1.00

M&M                                                                                     $1.33 16 oz

Peanuts                                                                                  $0.63 12 oz

Raisins                                                                                   $0.71-0.77 15 oz

Pillsbury Space Food Sticks *                                          $1.00+/-

 

Dinners

Mac & cheese                                                                      $0.29 box

Cup-a-soup                                                                           $0.45-0.53 4 pack

Vegetable soup (Lipton)                                                     $0.53

Rice (instant)                                                                        $1.19 28 oz

Gravy                                                                                     $0.21

Lipton dinners *                                                                  $0.85

Instant pudding                                                                    2 for $0.33 or 0.39

Wyler’s drink (bug juice) *                                               $0.29

Tea after dinner    (McCormick, of course)                     cheap

 

The items marked with an asterisk* are no longer available. 

Read more of this history in

Bristow, R. (2025).  The Real Appalachian Trail BC.  Appalachian Trail Museum.

All proceeds go to the Museum.

Shelters in the White Mountain National Forest

  A document prepared for the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources is a 152 page report on Lean-tos and shelters in the Whites.  It has area maps and historic photos and it is a wealth of historic information.

Check it out at fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd649771.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0FNhd8rEcZ4JJJaijcFV5BfMqQoUjoLdBi-aU15yYe75VmMmt0XZqNcps

Here is a shot of Imp Shelter found between 1938 and 1980, where I camped in 1974.

Enjoy!

Backpacking Gear Cost (in early 70s) with DATA

This was my go-to book on camping gear.  Sure, I had been Boy Scout since 1967, so camping was in my blood.  But that was initially the car camping style where we would drive to a camp, haul tents and gear from the trunk and set up camp nearby.

Later I began to backpack, so we needed to carry everything on the back of our back.  So the camp might have looked like this:

Michaux State Forest and the Appalachian Trail. (early 70s?)

Here is my gear list from that period.

See the Vis-clamps on the tarp in the picture above?

Jug End, Massachusetts

 Arrived in Massachusetts on the 10 of June 1975.  Camped at Jug End Spring (super powerful).  Here are some 2021 pictures of the area.  It is now off the trail since the relocation takes it off the roads.

Oh yeah, no rain on this date, or yesterday!!  About 23-24 miles to Tyringham tomorrow.

Best Mileage Day so Far (5 April 1975)

 24.6 miles.

From Rausch Gap LT (pic below) to Susquehanna LT.

Arrived at LT at 7:05 PM and was very tired.

To date I had hiked 1750 miles of the AT.

That night I enjoyed a cup of Hot Chocolate before bed.

Trailwise Backpack (11 Oct 1974)

 On the 11th of October 1974, I took this photos of my Trailwise backpack before reaching Seth Warner LT.

I wrote in my journal that "I vowed to get up real earlier & haul-ass down to the road, hitch or walk to town to get my mail."

You might notice that Colin Fletcher was my idol for camping gear.

AMC Hut to Hut

 So, after Madison (caretaker) I stayed at Mizpah Spring.  From there it was 13.5 miles Zealand Falls and then on the 20th Sept I hiked to Garfield Ridge tent site and hung out with caretaker (Steve) and stayed dry in his large tent on platform for 3 nights.  On the night before I headed south, we summited Garfield for the sunset.

With snow falling around the fall equinox, despite hanging out at Garfield, I really needed to push south. Snow on Lafayette was part of the fun

Gentian Pond LT

 We were some of the first hikers to use this LT in NH.  The AMC trail crew was cleaning ups after building the shelter, just for us.  They left a bunch of fresh food to boot.  Life is good.

 

The next day, I hitched into Gorham and stayed at Stinson's for something like $3.15!

Damascus Virginia, the AT Town

 Well over 400 miles is under your belt when you leave Tennessee and enter Virginia. Stayed in a motel for $7.28 and got some Ice Cream in a Dairy Queen.  Yesterday, the fifth of July 1974 we took a break from the wet and rainy trail on this road.

In the town did the usual, hit the Post Office where I got my Gerry Lodgepole tent that had been forwarded from further north at my request.  And of course got my wash done and a good shower.  Here is a shot of the tent behind the motel.

The blue sleeping bag is mine, a Trailwise Slimline.

8th June 1974 Appalachian Trail

As you can see that I am giving a chronological history of my AT hike.  I don't plan on doing day by day, but these first couple of days were (and are) important to thru-hiker wannabees.

Today was a Saturday, not that  it mattered much.  In fact, Saturdays were only important on town days since you had to get to the Post Office before noon to pick up mail.

Slept in to 8:00 am and didn't start hiking until 10:30 am.  Saw several waterfalls and took a side trail (blue blazed) to somewhere as I "don't know where it went."

Hiked with Dean and Bill and a crew from Michigan with Sharon, Kay, Karen.

Total mileage was 9 miles on the AT.  Stayed at at a campsite north of Hawk Mtn. LT. 

That's me in the white on the right.

The trail used to cross Hawk Mountain (3619 ft), but was relocated around the summit in 1979.

 

The Appalachian Trail: Backcountry Shelters, Lean-Tos, and Huts

 I finally picked this title up and boy am I glad.

The Appalachian Trail: Backcountry Shelters, Lean-Tos, and Huts by Sarah Jones Decker is more than just a book of great photos.  It includes sectional maps of the Appalachian Trail and details on each of the lean-tos photographed.  Each section also has a separate section on trail related information, including privies!

Here is a shot of the cover and you can buy it from the ATC.

The one thing I noticed is most of the lean-tos are fairly new so only a few are still standing from my hike in the 1970s.

Blood Mountain, GA

Climbed this bad boy back in 1974.  From the USGS topo map of the period, here is what it looked like:

Had camped out near Woody Gap that morning, and if my memory serves me, got drinking water from a drip from rocks along the road.

NPS closes AT shelters on Appalachian Trail

"Effective immediately, the National Park Service is closing all overnight shelters (56 total) and privies (75 total) on land administered by the Appalachian National Scenic Trail Park Office in the states of VA (10 shelters, 12 privies), MD (1 shelter, 2 privies), PA (8 shelters, 6 privies), NJ (1 shelter, 1 privy), NY (5 shelters, 5 privies), CT (7 shelters, 16 privies), MA (1 shelter, 4 privies), and ME (22 shelters, 29 privies)." Source.

So I offer some pictures of these shelters (sometimes called a leanto), for your virtual enjoyment.  Starting with a PA shelter on a rainy morning.

Next we head south to NC, TN

This next one is closed since it is on NPS lands (Great Smoky MTN).

 Virginia?

This is the southern most shelter just north of Springer Mountain.

The following are in NH or ME.

Pretty sure this is in PA, south of Caledonia State Park.

This one is Stratton Pond, VT and our dog Katie.

Makes sense to close shelters since you cannot practice social distances when you are crammed together.