Lightweight Backpacking Games
Although a few electronic video games can make good backpacking
games, you do have to carry extra batteries just in case, adding
to the weight in your pack. Board games sometimes have light
versions, like the cloth chess board and light plastic pieces
that I occasionally carry. But being an utralight backpacker,
I prefer the games that don't add a single ounce to the pack.
Here are some examples of those.
Backpacking Games That Use Natural Items
Some games that can be set up quickly using the natural elements
available in any wilderness area. The simplest might be the game
Tic-Tac-Toe, since all you have to do is scratch two lines in
the sand and two crossing those and you have your ready. A stick
can be use to make the marks, and if done in sand the marks are
easily erased in preparation for the next match.
Find a large enough flat area with dirt or sand that can be
smoothed out, and there are other games that can be played with
sticks for writing. For example, make a grid of lines roughly
ten by ten, and then in the boxes created write the first letter
of your name, after which your opponent does the same. The object
is to get five of your initials in row, and it's not easy once
you both have some experience.
Backpacking games do not need to be mental games. They can
also be simple tests of coordination and throwing ability. For
example, create a circle or square two feet across, and toss
pine cones at it from a distance to see who can get the first
one to land inside the target, or who can get the most out of
twenty to stay. No pine cones? Use rocks, pieces of wood, sea
shells or tent pegs.
Winter can mean snowball fights, but if you prefer not to
get wet and cold, you can also have a competition that involves
hitting a tree or other target (a rock?). Building snow shelters
as a competition can be fun as well, and it will help you train
for survival too.
No Materials At All
My favorite backpacking games don't require carrying pieces
or gathering natural materials either. I'm referring to purely
mental games that will balance the physical exercise of hiking
with some mental exercise. There is the game where you say a
word and then your opponent has to say one that starts with the
second letter of the one you used, for example. Then you do the
same with the second letter of his word, and so on, until one
of you fails to find a word within fifteen seconds, making the
other the winner.
A good mental exercise that will train you in the right
frame of mind to deal with wilderness emergencies is to find
use for things. Choose any item in the wilderness around you,
and then imagine survival uses for it. If it's a log, for example,
see how many ways you can each think of to use it in a survival
scenario. Play this as a competition or a collaborative effort
- either way it is entertaining and educational.
Still other backpacking games that develop your wilderness
skills include ones like guessing how long it will take you to
get to some point on the trail, or identifying as many plants
as you can while you are hiking, and recalling which are edible
or useful in some other way. With games like these there is nothing
to carry, nothing to gather, and they can be played anywhere.
Mountain Hiking
Home | Lightweight Backpacking Games |
