Persephone
The Vulture Queen
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2014
- Messages
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Camping
Since players were introduced to Viridian Forest in 1996, wilderness travel has held a place in the pokémon franchise. However, it is a part that canon has been unwilling to explore in much detail. This has left open a variety of interpretations as to how trainers would really get around. This is a guide to portraying camping, backpacking and hiking with a degree of realism.
Degrees of Camping
So you’ve got a trainer and you want to send them through nature, huh? Turns out, there are a lot of different ways you can handle that. On one extreme, maybe your trainer never really goes through wilderness areas at all. In most of the world today there are roads or rails leading between major settlements. It’s possible that your character can just zip between settlements the mechanical way and then, if they must go into nature to find battle slaves friends, they can do it for a few hours at a time, or for one night at most. These will be referred to as Day Hikes and Overnight Camping for the remainder of the lesson.
Let’s say they don’t want to do that. Instead, they want to hike through the wilderness between cities carrying their stuff with them. Or maybe they just want to go through one particularly cool trail through a park. There are compelling reasons why someone would want to do this. In pre-modern eras, it might be a necessity. The same goes for some poorer areas or those with terrible terrain or public transit. Maybe a state of emergency shut down the public transit. Or, more mundanely, maybe the character wants to maximize their time between cities to experience nature, find new pokémon or allow for more training time between challenges. This will be referred to as backpacking.
As a final note, shows such as Man vs. Wild have popularized the idea of people getting parachuted into the middle of nowhere with no gear, hunting their own food, building their own shelters and drinking their own urine while trying to find civilization. In camping terms, we call this A Bad Idea. But let’s say that your character winds up in those situations anyway. I’ll address it a little bit in this lesson under the title of Wilderness Survival.
Day Hikes
If the character is only going to be out in nature for a few hours, tops, before retreating to a hotel room, home or Pokémon Center for the night, the required gear and planning is understandably much less than that of proper camping. Bug spray and sunscreen, weather and environment dependent, are the primary considerations. Water should also be brought in somewhat larger quantities than you think you’ll need, in case the character wants to stop and look at the scenery for longer than anticipated or the hike just winds up kicking their butt. Comfortable clothing that’s suitable for the weather, closed toed shoes and maybe some non-perishable food for a quick snack or lunch break are also possible considerations.
Day hikes are probably the best way of approaching a world that’s heavily urbanized or where even the parks are well developed. In the United States, most national parks have built day hike trails to most of their main features. Some of these are not all easy walks from the bus stop or parking lot to the feature, but a reasonably fit person can do them in a few hours. If the character is quiet, they’re likely to see at least some wildlife. However, it’ll probably mostly be made up of the most common species from an area because they’re, well, common. Sometimes there are exceptions (I’ve seen moose before when I was being very quiet), but those are still exceptions that prove the rule. The main purpose of these things is to look at fixed scenery or get a little exercise.
Overnight Camping
While there is some overlap between this and backpacking, the primary distinction I will be using is the primitiveness of the campsites. Some state and national park campsites in the United States have ready access to water and electricity in pre-made, easily accessible and densely packed campsites. There will often be ranger supervision and possibly a general store nearby. This allows the campsite to be a launching pad for day trips throughout the area as well as sleeping outdoors with a degree of comfort.
The rental of these sites is usually rather cheap. I recently stayed at a state park for $15/night and I frequently stay at these places rather than hotels when I’m traveling to save some money.
Unlike day trips, these do require some specialized gear. The most obvious is a tent. Basic tents are made up of a ground cloth, a tent, a rain fly, poles and stakes. The ground cloth is a plastic sheet put down first. It keeps the worst of dirt and mud from getting into the tent. Tents are usually complex cloths with holes, pockets or small rods for connecting with metal poles. These form a sort of skeleton keeping the tent up. Stakes are then used to connect the tent to the ground, keeping it from blowing away. In theory. I’ve had tents blow away before in bad storms, especially if they’re on hills, even with stakes in the ground. Your character will lose a bunch of stakes. It just happens. The rain fly is the final addition. It’s essentially a tarp that gets spread out over the tent to create an entry area and a dry space outside of the tent for holding stuff. It also blocks out most rain and some light. As a word of caution, if the rain is bad enough it’ll just run over the rain tarp and flood the bottom of the tent, anyway.
I don’t use tents on overnight campouts anymore, except for in temperatures cold enough to require them (more on that later). Instead, I use my hammock. Hammocks are set up with either some basic knots or just wrapping some cords around a tree enough times until it forms something that looks like a knot. They require trees or poles about eight feet (~2.5 meters) apart from each other. Camping hammocks are usually made of very thin but durable cloth. Additionally, insect nets can be hung around a hammock from a string slightly above it. These zip up and keep out most bugs. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them. Rain tarps can also be used with some stakes, although high winds combined with rain can make them all but useless when the water comes in from the sides.
Quick Amazon searches are showing about 20 USD ($) for a decent enough two person tent. Stakes and a ground cloth would add a little bit more. Hammocks frequently cost a fair bit more than basic tents. A quick search is giving me about $80 for a basic set of a hammock, straps, a bug net and a rain fly. I have been informed that camping gear can be found for much lower prices outside of the United States, though, so take this with a grain of salt and maybe do your own digging.
As a final note, tents are quite heavy. Hammocks aren’t. If trainers, especially young or not-very-fit ones have to carry it to and from the site, they might want to use either a hammock or a backpacking tent (see below).
Other day camping gear amounts to basic toiletries, food, a camp stove if they want to cook and don’t want to use a fire for it, changes of clothes, books and whatever else they want to bring. I’ve seen families in state parks set up really elaborate campsites for a weekend or a week-long stay while I’m next to them with a single hammock set up.
Fire has a certain appeal on camping trips, especially for preteens and teenagers. Most parks with well established campsites will have a fire ring that’s either lined with a metal cylinder or a circle of rocks. Basic fires are constructed with a lot of tinder (small, easily flammable material), some kindling (sticks about the thickness of your finger), and a few larger logs. The most basic setup for a fire involves putting a pile of tinder at the center, a pyramid of interlocking kindling above and around it and the logs forming their own structure above that. An opening should be left to light the tinder with matches or a lighter. At this point, the tinder will burn, which will take the kindling and then the fuel.
That is the very idealistic guide to starting a fire. Chances are your characters will fail more often than they succeed, usually from not having enough tinder. Wind or damp conditions can also hinder things. I use lighter fluid, charcoal and caution for firestarting on overnight trips. On the opposite end of the spectrum, fire by friction exists. It is quite difficult and requires training, good equipment, substantial upper arm strength and a fair bit of weight. These are all things young teenagers (especially those using overnight camping and day trips as their wilderness exposure) are likely to have in short supply.
The main purpose of fires, in practice, is for warmth and light. They do make for some really wonderful social opportunities and they can extend the day which, in the absence of fire, tends to begin at sunrise and end at sundown due to a lack of things to do at night. They can be used for cooking some things like hot dogs and marshmallows. I’ve found this to be mostly a novelty thing myself and, over the course of about 150 nights camping in junior high and high school, I used fires for cooking maybe four times. Dutch ovens are very heavy pots that can be put over charcoal to cook stews, deserts and warm up or cook meat (when coolers are available to store it). I have used those regularly, as well as wrapping food in foil and cooking it over charcoal. Actual fire? Too unpredictable and hot to really use.
Birds and small mammals have gotten quite close to my hammock on overnight trips. If sloppy families frequently camp there, sometimes larger animals like deer or racoons will approach at night (or in the day) in the hopes of scavenging. Some national parks have had problems with bears doing this.
Backpacking
And now we finally get to the thing your character is probably doing going by most of the journey fics I’ve read: backpacking across the land. The key elements of backpacking are the character moving relatively long distances carrying most or all of their gear with them and camping in fairly rugged, if at all marked, sites. The first thing this obviously requires is a backpack to carry the gear with. These are very large packs with straps around the hips and waist. The weight of the pack should rest on the hips, with the other straps existing just to keep it from moving around too much. Theoretically, you’re only supposed to carry about a quarter of your weight. I carried about 40% on rough terrain when I was 14 and, judging by my talks with other people, exceeding the weight requirement seems to be pretty common. A decent pack can be purchased for about sixty dollars in the states (again, it might be cheaper elsewhere). This is an area I would recommend going for quality whenever possible, as a bad pack could make potentially months of travel terrible and a good one is quite long-lived.
The next most important item are hiking boots. And, to be honest, I toyed with putting this first. Boots should be durable, waterproof and, most importantly, broken in. I’ve seen people who haven’t hiked before in their boots try and break them in on the trail. One week later and they had a brutal set of blisters covering almost their entire foot. Comfortable, well-fitting and broken in hiking boots are absolutely essential. Tennis shoes or normal running shoes just aren’t built for long walks on rugged terrain.
Almost everything used on backpacking trips is like the day packing gear, but lighter weight. Every single item brought on a backpacking trip needs to be justifiable, because at the end of an uphill walk your character will really be wishing they brought less. Good, lightweight backpacking tents can be bought from around $65 up. Camp stoves for backpacking are tiny little propane tanks that can be carried easily in one hand with a small burner on top. The main food cooked on backpacking trips are dehydrated powders that can be mixed with water to create what’s ostensibly food. I hate those things for a few reasons. First of all, they taste terrible. Even the good mixes are bad. Second, they don’t really save weight because water is heavy. And the water you get in the backcountry can be… not terribly high quality. Bad food is also doubly bad because anything you don’t eat must be taken out with you as there are not dedicated trash receptacles in the sites. Food that doesn’t need cooked includes dried fruits and vegetables, canned meat, crackers, trail mix (nuts, raisins, etc.), and granola bars.
I’ve seen wildly varying estimates on how far someone can hike in a given day. It all really comes down to the terrain, weather and your character’s age/fitness. In montane, high elevation terrain with rough, poorly made or maintained trails, I think a moderately fit 14 or 15 year old could go up to ten miles in a day before they absolutely had to stop. Or six miles comfortably. This hiking is best done in the morning, starting just before or after sunrise, to minimize the temperature. Sweat is dehydrating and that can be literally fatal.
It is very important to drink water on the trail, especially in dry climates where sweat might evaporate before characters even really notice it. Unfortunately, water is very heavy. This makes it impractical to carry out everything that will be needed. Provided there are natural sources of fresh water, this can be worked around. There are two methods of doing so: sterilization and filtration. Sterilization involves dropping a pill into some water. It’ll kill everything harmful in it, making it possible to drink it. That does nothing to remove objects in the water or improve the color. Filtration requires more expensive gear that needs replaced from time to time, but very squeamish people might still want it.
Of course, pokémon complicate all of this. On one hand, maybe a gurdurr or mudsdale could do the bulk of the work when carrying gear around. On the other, you need to bring out food to feed it. This is easy enough if the pokémon in question is photosynethic. It’s harder if they’re a herbivore and much harder if they’re a carnivore. Allowing your large herbivore to graze might start to take a toll on the environment and could be banned. Same goes for allowing predators to indiscriminately hunt the local wildlife. Another change is that in real world backpacking, food often needs to be suspended in the air to prevent bears and cats from getting to it. In a pokémon world, this is utterly pointless given the number of ways that wild pokémon could get around a little string. But, a trainer’s own pokémon could stay awake to defend it.
If campsites aren’t pre-made, they need to be created. The best sites are flat areas a ways away from the trail. Don’t light fires at these sites unless it’s absolutely necessary. If it is, remove everything flammable and build a firebreak of stones around it. Keep the fire small and thoroughly extinguish it by dousing it in water and letting it sit for a while to make sure nothing survived. Then scatter the remnants and try to make it look like you were never there.
In these worlds, the relevant governing bodies may have set up waystations for showers and purchasing additional supplies. I’ve found showers to be pointless on the trail since I instantly got dirty again, but to each their own. If a character can’t regularly restock and is traveling long enough they can’t bring all their gear, that gets into wilderness survival.
I’ve seen black bears, deer and elk near trails while backpacking. All wild species will just kind of be doing their thing because now you are firmly in their home, and not a human space carved out into nature. I’ve heard mountain lions, but not seen them in the wild. Because wild mountain lions are only seen by corpses. Relatedly, never leave the tent alone and unprotected at night when there are large predators about!
Wilderness Survival
I must reiterate that this is not recommended in real life. The logistics are too difficult, and even experts sometimes need to be airlifted to safety. The priorities in these situations are acquiring food, water and shelter. Water is particularly difficult as even perfectly clear stream water can contain viruses. And getting sick in these situations can be fatal. If a character doesn’t know if wild plants are edible or not, their best bet is hunting. Which is really difficult without tools and a crapshoot even with traps or fishing gear. Shelter can take the form of large wooden structures, which take a while to build and aren’t usually rain proof, or caves. Caves have the downside of not being buildable; you just have to be lucky enough to find some unoccupied real estate. Pokémon could potentially help with these problems by creating water, signaling fires or hunting for your food. But they would also need to eat and their wounds probably couldn’t be easily cured in the absolute middle of nowhere.
If you want to write a wilderness survival type story, I’d recommend doing your own research. I’m not terribly knowledgeable beyond the basic fact that it shouldn’t be voluntarily done.
Inclement Weather
Thunderstorms can be problematic in nature, since if you’re camped in a field then your metal-poled tent is probably the biggest thing around it. That makes it a target for lightning. Additionally, heavy rain could force you out of your tent and on to high ground. Which makes you even more of a target for lightning. Put the tent near a tree that isn’t the biggest tree nearby, when possible. When day camping, maybe just call it off if the weather looks too awful.
Extreme cold 0F/-10C can be camped in. It’s just really, really awful. Even 32F/0C temperatures aren’t pleasant. The key in these situations is to where layers and ditch the top ones when you get too hot. Once again, sweat is dehydrating and it can be hard to keep liquid water around when the temperature is below freezing. Don’t sleep in a hammock at these temperatures. Use a good tent, a very thick cold weather specific sleeping bag marketed for use at temperatures well below what you expect to experience, sleep in a sweater and keep your clothes for the next morning in the bag. That prevents the unpleasant experience of being near naked in the cold and then changing into cold clothing. Snow is also an insulator, meaning that digging the tent down into the snow or, if you wind up without a tent, sleeping beneath the snow is not the worst idea.
I and several other people keep empty bottles near my sleeping bag at night so I don’t have to leave. When recently filled, the bottles are also very warm. Other people find this gross or just a way to get urine all over their stuff. Do what you will. If you are going to keep the bottle in the tent, do not make my mistake of only having water-filled bottles. Those require drinking the entire bottle’s contents before they can be used, which defeats the point.
If you’re in a desert climate with no available water sources anywhere in the wild, backpacking could be difficult.
If there’s a hurricane, maybe don’t go camping.
Since players were introduced to Viridian Forest in 1996, wilderness travel has held a place in the pokémon franchise. However, it is a part that canon has been unwilling to explore in much detail. This has left open a variety of interpretations as to how trainers would really get around. This is a guide to portraying camping, backpacking and hiking with a degree of realism.
Degrees of Camping
So you’ve got a trainer and you want to send them through nature, huh? Turns out, there are a lot of different ways you can handle that. On one extreme, maybe your trainer never really goes through wilderness areas at all. In most of the world today there are roads or rails leading between major settlements. It’s possible that your character can just zip between settlements the mechanical way and then, if they must go into nature to find battle slaves friends, they can do it for a few hours at a time, or for one night at most. These will be referred to as Day Hikes and Overnight Camping for the remainder of the lesson.
Let’s say they don’t want to do that. Instead, they want to hike through the wilderness between cities carrying their stuff with them. Or maybe they just want to go through one particularly cool trail through a park. There are compelling reasons why someone would want to do this. In pre-modern eras, it might be a necessity. The same goes for some poorer areas or those with terrible terrain or public transit. Maybe a state of emergency shut down the public transit. Or, more mundanely, maybe the character wants to maximize their time between cities to experience nature, find new pokémon or allow for more training time between challenges. This will be referred to as backpacking.
As a final note, shows such as Man vs. Wild have popularized the idea of people getting parachuted into the middle of nowhere with no gear, hunting their own food, building their own shelters and drinking their own urine while trying to find civilization. In camping terms, we call this A Bad Idea. But let’s say that your character winds up in those situations anyway. I’ll address it a little bit in this lesson under the title of Wilderness Survival.
Day Hikes
If the character is only going to be out in nature for a few hours, tops, before retreating to a hotel room, home or Pokémon Center for the night, the required gear and planning is understandably much less than that of proper camping. Bug spray and sunscreen, weather and environment dependent, are the primary considerations. Water should also be brought in somewhat larger quantities than you think you’ll need, in case the character wants to stop and look at the scenery for longer than anticipated or the hike just winds up kicking their butt. Comfortable clothing that’s suitable for the weather, closed toed shoes and maybe some non-perishable food for a quick snack or lunch break are also possible considerations.
Day hikes are probably the best way of approaching a world that’s heavily urbanized or where even the parks are well developed. In the United States, most national parks have built day hike trails to most of their main features. Some of these are not all easy walks from the bus stop or parking lot to the feature, but a reasonably fit person can do them in a few hours. If the character is quiet, they’re likely to see at least some wildlife. However, it’ll probably mostly be made up of the most common species from an area because they’re, well, common. Sometimes there are exceptions (I’ve seen moose before when I was being very quiet), but those are still exceptions that prove the rule. The main purpose of these things is to look at fixed scenery or get a little exercise.
Overnight Camping
While there is some overlap between this and backpacking, the primary distinction I will be using is the primitiveness of the campsites. Some state and national park campsites in the United States have ready access to water and electricity in pre-made, easily accessible and densely packed campsites. There will often be ranger supervision and possibly a general store nearby. This allows the campsite to be a launching pad for day trips throughout the area as well as sleeping outdoors with a degree of comfort.
The rental of these sites is usually rather cheap. I recently stayed at a state park for $15/night and I frequently stay at these places rather than hotels when I’m traveling to save some money.
Unlike day trips, these do require some specialized gear. The most obvious is a tent. Basic tents are made up of a ground cloth, a tent, a rain fly, poles and stakes. The ground cloth is a plastic sheet put down first. It keeps the worst of dirt and mud from getting into the tent. Tents are usually complex cloths with holes, pockets or small rods for connecting with metal poles. These form a sort of skeleton keeping the tent up. Stakes are then used to connect the tent to the ground, keeping it from blowing away. In theory. I’ve had tents blow away before in bad storms, especially if they’re on hills, even with stakes in the ground. Your character will lose a bunch of stakes. It just happens. The rain fly is the final addition. It’s essentially a tarp that gets spread out over the tent to create an entry area and a dry space outside of the tent for holding stuff. It also blocks out most rain and some light. As a word of caution, if the rain is bad enough it’ll just run over the rain tarp and flood the bottom of the tent, anyway.
I don’t use tents on overnight campouts anymore, except for in temperatures cold enough to require them (more on that later). Instead, I use my hammock. Hammocks are set up with either some basic knots or just wrapping some cords around a tree enough times until it forms something that looks like a knot. They require trees or poles about eight feet (~2.5 meters) apart from each other. Camping hammocks are usually made of very thin but durable cloth. Additionally, insect nets can be hung around a hammock from a string slightly above it. These zip up and keep out most bugs. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them. Rain tarps can also be used with some stakes, although high winds combined with rain can make them all but useless when the water comes in from the sides.
Quick Amazon searches are showing about 20 USD ($) for a decent enough two person tent. Stakes and a ground cloth would add a little bit more. Hammocks frequently cost a fair bit more than basic tents. A quick search is giving me about $80 for a basic set of a hammock, straps, a bug net and a rain fly. I have been informed that camping gear can be found for much lower prices outside of the United States, though, so take this with a grain of salt and maybe do your own digging.
As a final note, tents are quite heavy. Hammocks aren’t. If trainers, especially young or not-very-fit ones have to carry it to and from the site, they might want to use either a hammock or a backpacking tent (see below).
Other day camping gear amounts to basic toiletries, food, a camp stove if they want to cook and don’t want to use a fire for it, changes of clothes, books and whatever else they want to bring. I’ve seen families in state parks set up really elaborate campsites for a weekend or a week-long stay while I’m next to them with a single hammock set up.
Fire has a certain appeal on camping trips, especially for preteens and teenagers. Most parks with well established campsites will have a fire ring that’s either lined with a metal cylinder or a circle of rocks. Basic fires are constructed with a lot of tinder (small, easily flammable material), some kindling (sticks about the thickness of your finger), and a few larger logs. The most basic setup for a fire involves putting a pile of tinder at the center, a pyramid of interlocking kindling above and around it and the logs forming their own structure above that. An opening should be left to light the tinder with matches or a lighter. At this point, the tinder will burn, which will take the kindling and then the fuel.
That is the very idealistic guide to starting a fire. Chances are your characters will fail more often than they succeed, usually from not having enough tinder. Wind or damp conditions can also hinder things. I use lighter fluid, charcoal and caution for firestarting on overnight trips. On the opposite end of the spectrum, fire by friction exists. It is quite difficult and requires training, good equipment, substantial upper arm strength and a fair bit of weight. These are all things young teenagers (especially those using overnight camping and day trips as their wilderness exposure) are likely to have in short supply.
The main purpose of fires, in practice, is for warmth and light. They do make for some really wonderful social opportunities and they can extend the day which, in the absence of fire, tends to begin at sunrise and end at sundown due to a lack of things to do at night. They can be used for cooking some things like hot dogs and marshmallows. I’ve found this to be mostly a novelty thing myself and, over the course of about 150 nights camping in junior high and high school, I used fires for cooking maybe four times. Dutch ovens are very heavy pots that can be put over charcoal to cook stews, deserts and warm up or cook meat (when coolers are available to store it). I have used those regularly, as well as wrapping food in foil and cooking it over charcoal. Actual fire? Too unpredictable and hot to really use.
Birds and small mammals have gotten quite close to my hammock on overnight trips. If sloppy families frequently camp there, sometimes larger animals like deer or racoons will approach at night (or in the day) in the hopes of scavenging. Some national parks have had problems with bears doing this.
Backpacking
And now we finally get to the thing your character is probably doing going by most of the journey fics I’ve read: backpacking across the land. The key elements of backpacking are the character moving relatively long distances carrying most or all of their gear with them and camping in fairly rugged, if at all marked, sites. The first thing this obviously requires is a backpack to carry the gear with. These are very large packs with straps around the hips and waist. The weight of the pack should rest on the hips, with the other straps existing just to keep it from moving around too much. Theoretically, you’re only supposed to carry about a quarter of your weight. I carried about 40% on rough terrain when I was 14 and, judging by my talks with other people, exceeding the weight requirement seems to be pretty common. A decent pack can be purchased for about sixty dollars in the states (again, it might be cheaper elsewhere). This is an area I would recommend going for quality whenever possible, as a bad pack could make potentially months of travel terrible and a good one is quite long-lived.
The next most important item are hiking boots. And, to be honest, I toyed with putting this first. Boots should be durable, waterproof and, most importantly, broken in. I’ve seen people who haven’t hiked before in their boots try and break them in on the trail. One week later and they had a brutal set of blisters covering almost their entire foot. Comfortable, well-fitting and broken in hiking boots are absolutely essential. Tennis shoes or normal running shoes just aren’t built for long walks on rugged terrain.
Almost everything used on backpacking trips is like the day packing gear, but lighter weight. Every single item brought on a backpacking trip needs to be justifiable, because at the end of an uphill walk your character will really be wishing they brought less. Good, lightweight backpacking tents can be bought from around $65 up. Camp stoves for backpacking are tiny little propane tanks that can be carried easily in one hand with a small burner on top. The main food cooked on backpacking trips are dehydrated powders that can be mixed with water to create what’s ostensibly food. I hate those things for a few reasons. First of all, they taste terrible. Even the good mixes are bad. Second, they don’t really save weight because water is heavy. And the water you get in the backcountry can be… not terribly high quality. Bad food is also doubly bad because anything you don’t eat must be taken out with you as there are not dedicated trash receptacles in the sites. Food that doesn’t need cooked includes dried fruits and vegetables, canned meat, crackers, trail mix (nuts, raisins, etc.), and granola bars.
I’ve seen wildly varying estimates on how far someone can hike in a given day. It all really comes down to the terrain, weather and your character’s age/fitness. In montane, high elevation terrain with rough, poorly made or maintained trails, I think a moderately fit 14 or 15 year old could go up to ten miles in a day before they absolutely had to stop. Or six miles comfortably. This hiking is best done in the morning, starting just before or after sunrise, to minimize the temperature. Sweat is dehydrating and that can be literally fatal.
It is very important to drink water on the trail, especially in dry climates where sweat might evaporate before characters even really notice it. Unfortunately, water is very heavy. This makes it impractical to carry out everything that will be needed. Provided there are natural sources of fresh water, this can be worked around. There are two methods of doing so: sterilization and filtration. Sterilization involves dropping a pill into some water. It’ll kill everything harmful in it, making it possible to drink it. That does nothing to remove objects in the water or improve the color. Filtration requires more expensive gear that needs replaced from time to time, but very squeamish people might still want it.
Of course, pokémon complicate all of this. On one hand, maybe a gurdurr or mudsdale could do the bulk of the work when carrying gear around. On the other, you need to bring out food to feed it. This is easy enough if the pokémon in question is photosynethic. It’s harder if they’re a herbivore and much harder if they’re a carnivore. Allowing your large herbivore to graze might start to take a toll on the environment and could be banned. Same goes for allowing predators to indiscriminately hunt the local wildlife. Another change is that in real world backpacking, food often needs to be suspended in the air to prevent bears and cats from getting to it. In a pokémon world, this is utterly pointless given the number of ways that wild pokémon could get around a little string. But, a trainer’s own pokémon could stay awake to defend it.
If campsites aren’t pre-made, they need to be created. The best sites are flat areas a ways away from the trail. Don’t light fires at these sites unless it’s absolutely necessary. If it is, remove everything flammable and build a firebreak of stones around it. Keep the fire small and thoroughly extinguish it by dousing it in water and letting it sit for a while to make sure nothing survived. Then scatter the remnants and try to make it look like you were never there.
In these worlds, the relevant governing bodies may have set up waystations for showers and purchasing additional supplies. I’ve found showers to be pointless on the trail since I instantly got dirty again, but to each their own. If a character can’t regularly restock and is traveling long enough they can’t bring all their gear, that gets into wilderness survival.
I’ve seen black bears, deer and elk near trails while backpacking. All wild species will just kind of be doing their thing because now you are firmly in their home, and not a human space carved out into nature. I’ve heard mountain lions, but not seen them in the wild. Because wild mountain lions are only seen by corpses. Relatedly, never leave the tent alone and unprotected at night when there are large predators about!
Wilderness Survival
I must reiterate that this is not recommended in real life. The logistics are too difficult, and even experts sometimes need to be airlifted to safety. The priorities in these situations are acquiring food, water and shelter. Water is particularly difficult as even perfectly clear stream water can contain viruses. And getting sick in these situations can be fatal. If a character doesn’t know if wild plants are edible or not, their best bet is hunting. Which is really difficult without tools and a crapshoot even with traps or fishing gear. Shelter can take the form of large wooden structures, which take a while to build and aren’t usually rain proof, or caves. Caves have the downside of not being buildable; you just have to be lucky enough to find some unoccupied real estate. Pokémon could potentially help with these problems by creating water, signaling fires or hunting for your food. But they would also need to eat and their wounds probably couldn’t be easily cured in the absolute middle of nowhere.
If you want to write a wilderness survival type story, I’d recommend doing your own research. I’m not terribly knowledgeable beyond the basic fact that it shouldn’t be voluntarily done.
Inclement Weather
Thunderstorms can be problematic in nature, since if you’re camped in a field then your metal-poled tent is probably the biggest thing around it. That makes it a target for lightning. Additionally, heavy rain could force you out of your tent and on to high ground. Which makes you even more of a target for lightning. Put the tent near a tree that isn’t the biggest tree nearby, when possible. When day camping, maybe just call it off if the weather looks too awful.
Extreme cold 0F/-10C can be camped in. It’s just really, really awful. Even 32F/0C temperatures aren’t pleasant. The key in these situations is to where layers and ditch the top ones when you get too hot. Once again, sweat is dehydrating and it can be hard to keep liquid water around when the temperature is below freezing. Don’t sleep in a hammock at these temperatures. Use a good tent, a very thick cold weather specific sleeping bag marketed for use at temperatures well below what you expect to experience, sleep in a sweater and keep your clothes for the next morning in the bag. That prevents the unpleasant experience of being near naked in the cold and then changing into cold clothing. Snow is also an insulator, meaning that digging the tent down into the snow or, if you wind up without a tent, sleeping beneath the snow is not the worst idea.
I and several other people keep empty bottles near my sleeping bag at night so I don’t have to leave. When recently filled, the bottles are also very warm. Other people find this gross or just a way to get urine all over their stuff. Do what you will. If you are going to keep the bottle in the tent, do not make my mistake of only having water-filled bottles. Those require drinking the entire bottle’s contents before they can be used, which defeats the point.
If you’re in a desert climate with no available water sources anywhere in the wild, backpacking could be difficult.
If there’s a hurricane, maybe don’t go camping.
