Article: Pack up: learn how to carry your camp beyond road's end.(Getting Started)(backpacking in Yosemite National Park)(related article: Gear guide)(related article: Where to learn)

"Karen's mean," my mom whispered to me. Karen Najarian is a wilderness guide affiliated with REI's Northern California Wilderness School. On this particular weekend, she would be leading my mother and me plus six others into Yosemite National Park wilderness for three days of backpacking instruction. But first we had to withstand her tough love.

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Not an hour after we met her, she had us lay out every item we were planning to bring so she could examine everything, eliminating our most prized possessions, like the extra fleece shirt I had intended to use as a pillow, and the cookies I had smugly packed to share with the group.

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