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r/backpacking

r/backpacking is one of the largest safe-for-work communities on Reddit, ranked #157 on SubMouse with 5,529,249 subscribers and about 21 new posts a day.

Rank (SFW)#157
Subscribers5.5M
Posts per day21
Posts all time146.6K
Created—
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About r/backpacking

Community guide

r/backpacking (rank #157, about 5.5 million subscribers in the directory) collects trip reports and discussion that mods want tagged Wilderness or Travel, with a short paragraph describing the trip and original photos/videos. Catalogue description and related list were empty in our snapshot—so this draft relies on collected rules and activity, and flags that gap.

What the rules require

Tag Wilderness or Travel; describe the trip in a short paragraph; keep media OC; be helpful without heavy swearing; avoid blogspam/self-promo.

Versus camping and travel

Without a catalogue description, avoid over-claiming niche. Practically, camping (tent focus) and travel (destinations) are the usual neighbours; use those when your post is car-camp or city itinerary rather than a backpacking trip report.

Practical pointers

Write the trip paragraph; tag correctly; no self-promo blogs.

SubMouse Editorial

It sits just behind r/camping (#153) and ahead of r/biology (#159) in our ranking.

What sets r/backpacking apart

Compared with other large communities, r/backpacking leans heavily on text posts (70% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 34%).

Subscriber growth

Between Oct 29, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/backpacking grew from 5,527,852 to 5,529,249 subscribers (+1.4K, +0.03%). That is about 349 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (2 so far), so it gets longer every week.

Top posts on r/backpacking this week

This week’s highest-ranked posts, in Reddit’s own order (collected Nov 2, 2026).

  1. Tent crushed by tentu/jamesoward · Oct 27 · image
  2. A week in Olympic National Parku/liminalplane · Oct 30 · gallery
  3. Kakwa 55 fit checku/spookystreet · Oct 31 · gallery
  4. Bots have taken over here...u/Kananaskis_Country · Oct 28 · text post
  5. First Backpacking Trip! Some lessons learned, but overall great success!u/BriarRabbit · Oct 30 · gallery
  6. Switzerland. At the top of Mürren, a view of the Lauterbrunnen Valley.u/SuspiciousFondant424 · Oct 29 · gallery
  7. Some scenes from a four day backpacking trip in Washington's Central Cascadesu/dickpoop25 · Oct 26 · video
  8. 12 mile overnight loop, Georgetown, IL.u/Illini4Lyfe20 · Oct 27 · gallery
  9. First experience overnight backpacking.u/TBL34 · Oct 30 · gallery
  10. Trail Lakes Sawtooth Wilderness late Octoberu/3D_TOPO · Oct 26 · gallery

All-time top posts

The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/backpacking, from 2017 to 2026, ranked by Reddit.

  1. I hiked 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trailu/camerapicasso · Dec 7, 2024 · gallery
  2. Just pooped at 15,500’ while climbing the volcano Iztaccihuatl in Mexico after being constipated for 5 days. Feeling elevated.u/BrosidenOfTheBrocean · Feb 21, 2019 · 11,217 points · 299 comments · image
  3. It had to be saidu/colehoots · Dec 28, 2019 · 10,633 points · 703 comments · image
  4. Before & After traveling SE Asia for 2 months!u/mini_adventurer_ · Jan 22, 2019 · 10,445 points · 612 comments · image
  5. My wife (66) and I (67) hiked our 10'000th kilometer todayu/rchresta · May 18, 2025 · image
  6. Go to Norwayu/noahbradley · Aug 6, 2017 · 7,238 points · 234 comments · image
  7. On August 7th I finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. 2653 miles in 96 days!u/sixtyonescarsold · Aug 30, 2022 · 7,653 points · 459 comments · image
  8. Let it rain. Let it rain. Let it rain.u/BeatenPathCo · Feb 10, 2019 · 7,420 points · 166 comments · image
  9. An end to Public Lands (Western US)u/AngryDesignMonkey · Jun 17, 2025 · image
  10. Been to 62 countries, here are the ones I think are underratedu/boyuan-dong · Mar 26, 2026 · image

What r/backpacking talks about

Across 131 recent posts (Oct 24–Oct 31), the words that come up most are “trip”, “travel”, “pack”, “gear” and “solo”. Other frequent themes are europe, help, camping, asia, packing and long. Recurring phrases include “pack weight”, “sleeping bag”, “sleep system” and “copper spur”. By format, 70% are text posts, 17% are galleries and 9% are images.

  • trip 6
  • travel 6
  • pack 5
  • gear 5
  • solo 5
  • europe 5
  • help 5
  • camping 5
  • asia 4
  • packing 4
  • long 4
  • sinhala 4
  • winter 4
  • weight 3
  • sleeping 3
  • suggestions 3
  • experiences 3
  • loop 3

Popular post flairs: Travel (77), Wilderness (54).

Activity and best time to post

r/backpacking gets about 21 new posts a day. The public archive holds 146,577 posts and 1,147,574 comments in total, about 7.8 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Friday (26 posts) and the quietest was Saturday (15). Posting peaks around 15:00 UTC and is lowest around 00:00 UTC.

00: 00001: 102: 503: 80304: 505: 506: 50607: 508: 609: 70910: 411: 612: 51213: 514: 615: 101516: 517: 718: 101819: 720: 721: 72122: 623: 3
Posts per hour of the day, UTC, Oct 24, 2026 – Oct 30, 2026
Text posts 70%Galleries 17%Images 9%Videos 3%

Rules of r/backpacking

The moderators of r/backpacking list 5 rules. In short:

  1. All posts tagged "Wilderness" or "Travel"
  2. Submissions must include a short paragraph describing your trip.
  3. Self Promotion and Blog(Spam)
  4. All photos and videos must be Original Content
  5. Be helpful. Don't use strong swear words.

How to join

Open reddit.com/r/backpacking and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.

Frequently asked questions

How many subscribers does r/backpacking have?

r/backpacking has 5,529,249 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #157 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 1,397 members between Oct 29, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.

How active is r/backpacking?

Very active: r/backpacking gets about 21 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 146,577 posts and 1,147,574 comments. In a sample of 131 recent posts we counted 120 different authors.

When is r/backpacking most active?

Based on post counts from Oct 24, 2026 to Oct 30, 2026, the busiest day was Friday and the quietest Saturday, and most posts arrive around 15:00 UTC, with the fewest around 00:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.

What is r/backpacking about?

r/backpacking is a large Reddit community. Recent post titles often mention trip, travel, pack, gear and solo. Most posts are text posts (70%).

Is r/backpacking safe for work?

Yes. Reddit does not mark r/backpacking as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.

How do I post on r/backpacking?

Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/backpacking accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos and galleries enabled. It has 5 posted rules, starting with: “All posts tagged "Wilderness" or "Travel"”; “Submissions must include a short paragraph describing your trip.”; “Self Promotion and Blog(Spam)”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.

Which communities are like r/backpacking?

Communities with similar topics include r/CampingandHiking (2.8M), r/solotravel (4.6M), r/travel (14.5M), r/keto (4M) and r/femalefashionadvice (5.8M).

Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 2, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/backpacking.

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