Are you ever afraid?

My hands are so cold I cannot shift my gears; I can barely pull my brake levers. I haven’t felt my toes in hours. I am hungry. I am thirsty; my water bottles froze overnight. I slept poorly; my vision is starting to tunnel. I have a headache. What if I get a flat? Or my chain breaks? I am warm enough if I am moving, but what if I need to stop? Is this mountain lion country? Is there rain or snow in those dark clouds?

“Are you ever afraid?” my dad asked me after one of my solo winter trips. It was a winter tour that had some unsettled weather, long nights under the tarp tent, and absolute solitude. What is there to be afraid of? The cold? Getting lost? Getting stuck? A mechanical? Not finding water? Not being strong enough, physically and mentally fit enough? Injury? Wild animals or unfriendly characters? These are all real fears. These are fears that keep people from getting out there. Even if these notions- worst-case scenarios, the what-ifs- cross my mind, my response is to check in with myself. How am I right now? Are my most basic needs being met? Yes, great, nothing to be afraid of.

I gave a talk at the Wildwood Open Land Foundation’s Howling Micro Rally on packing for bikepacking. I mentioned the phrase “packing your fears”. This resonated with KP Pawley of Zero Declination, a Hudson Bay camper dealer and solar power installer for overlanding vehicles. He is always coaching his customers on not packing their fears but on a different scale: not overloading your truck camper, but similarly not overloading your mind to go on an adventure.

KP is critical of the camper that has all the tactical BS hanging from it, “It’s a camper. You’re sleeping and cooking in it, not invading a country for oil.” Duplicate systems for what-if and you-never-know situations will eventually make a vehicle less capable. He boils it down to education and familiarity with your equipment and environment. The failure comes from buying more gear meant to fill in the gaps of education and experience. KP keeps it light based on his years of experience of traveling and living in his truck.

KP emphasizes training and education with his customers as well as his online and IRL communities. He stays calm, does the work, and demonstrates how to have easy solutions to tough situations. I have been fortunate enough to travel with KP, but you can learn from him through Zero Declination’s socials, his shop in Reno, or at upcoming events like the TAMBA Tahoe Festival, the Pacific Northwest Overland Expo in Redmond, OR, The Big Thing in Bozeman, MT, the Tahoe Adventure Van Expo at Palisades, CA, and the Backcountry Offroad Expo in Reno. Follow Zero Declination for future events.

Warren Doyle is credited with the first warning against “packing the sum of all your fears.” Don’t pack your fears has become the battle cry of the ultralight backpackers. Doyle is a father of the ultralight community with the most thru-hikes and section hikes of the Appalachian Trail. He has created an institute around these endeavors and a crafty 1 page book for your success. He is realistic in that you must be willing to step out of your comfort zone to enjoy the freedom of going light. Just as he values not being told what to do, he claims he will never tell you what to do. But as an educator, he will give you the information to make the only choice he would make. I say this in jest because I think he “silently” tells you what to do if you are willing to listen.

“I am scared of what I cannot control”

Reading this in an article published on The Trek by Andrew Komorowski takes the mantra of the ultralight community and puts it out there for everyone. Control is a big issue. For those of us in the adventure travel community, we understand that control is overrated. Andrew explains this; he can control when he eats, hikes, and sleeps. The rest is out of his control. Over his 5-month through hike, he will be uncomfortable. He won’t pack his fears, because they are already with him.

The weather, mechanicals, and your physical and emotional well-being can feel totally out of control. But how you respond to them is in your control. It is so easy to keep moving forward, blindly being driven by some invisible schedule. Stop. Take the time to assess. Fulfill the solution. Then move on. One simple example is cold hands. I need to remind myself to stop, take off my gloves, put them inside my jacket, warm my fingers in my armpits. And don’t stop until they are comfortably warm. Then resume the trip.

When the rain begins to fall, at what point do you stop to put on your rain gear? My friend Galen Watson, an ultralight through hiker and bikepacker, told me he doesn’t hike in a rainstorm. He seeks shelter in his bivy until the rain passes. He doesn’t feel the pressure to keep moving forward at all costs. So for Watson, there is no fear of inclement weather, no need to pack another layer of waterproof kit. He doesn’t experience the frustration with, or added expense of, or weight penalty and pack space of “water-proof” breathable gear that gets you wet from the inside out. He has an alternative plan that he has 100% confidence in.

If you want to go further in your adventures, carry less. In “An Ultralight Bikepacking Gear List for Cold Weather: Light, Comfy, and Cozy (Pick 3)”, Logan Watts gives the advice, “If at one point in the trip you’re not wearing everything you packed, you brought too much.” Others give the advice that there should always be one piece of clothing in reserve. In the group situation, that last piece of kit might be for someone else in the group. On a very cold winter ride, my riding partner was really suffering. We were climbing and descending icy jeep roads in canyons that were in shadow all day. Even though he was wearing a reasonable kit for winter cycling, once I gave him my Houdini (the crazy light and compact shell from Patagonia) he was comfortable.

From the Backpacking Light Podcast, “pack skills and knowledge, not gear”. So we are always studying, learning, and refining. Have a process. Have pre-packing lists based on what you expect from the trip. What are the expectations, mileage, elevation, terrain, water resources, weather, skill level of the group? What are your fears? Evaluate the list: what are you leaving behind? (extra socks) What items are questionable, but you are taking them? (cleansing wipes) Or leaving them behind? (camp chair) Then, just as important, have the post-trip reflection. How did your list stack up? (eye drops might have been nice) I like to ask others, what did they wish they left behind? What did they wish they brought? I keep these lists in small field notebooks. Looking back, always bring more chocolate.

“Packing Your Fears, are you ever afraid?” was originally posted on substack.com/@bikepackingnv, June 1, 2026, by Kurstin Graham

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