The Outdoor Adventurer

Introduction

I am sure that many people have thought to themselves: Hiking is not for me or maybe that it is too hard or requires skills they don’t have! I can say definitively that none of these three things are true. Hiking is a great sport that is doable for everyone, it is just a matter of picking a hike that is right for you, and knowing some basic information to make sure your first hike (and the ones that come after!) go smoothly.  

I cover a variety of topics here, which may seem a bit intimidating if you haven’t spent much time outside but once you get out there you will realize that there is not much too it! 

1. Introduction
2. Planning
3. Gear
4. safety
5. Trail Edict
6. Transportation

Planning

Planning if definitely the most important step to make sure your first hike goes well. Having a good plan in place is important so you know where you are going, and what you will need to bring/wear. Until you are experienced it is best to plan your hike the day before you go because last minute planning and packing always results in you forgetting something important, or skipping important steps. 

Step 1: Pick a hike!

 This could honestly be a whole blog post all by itself as there is a variety of things to consider: length of the drive, quality of the road, hike length, steepness, cell service etc. but for your first time we are going to keep things simple. First you are going to need a list of hikes to choose from, my favorite way is to look through a guide book, this is ideal because someone has already on through and completed all the hikes in the book and broken them down in to a number of categories to make it easy to pick the best one for you! I recommend The Mountaineers, they have hundreds of books for regions all over the US and even some for countries world wide. They are not the only option, there are many other good guide books which you can use, look for something that is geared towards beginners or day hiking. Some other good resources are online ones such as alltrails.com. this is easily the best online database of hikes for North America and the whole world, they have an easy to use website and app. The last thing to make sure you look at before you pick a hike is to go online and look for reviews of the hike, the more recent the better, this will give you information about trail conditions such as tree blocking access or mosquitos. When picking a hike for your first time you need to consider several things: What kind of shape you are in, are you hiking alone, how much time do you have and what month is it. Regardless of the kind of shape you are in if its your first time I recommend picking something easier then you think you are capable of, if walking 1 mile is difficult then start with a hike that is only half a mile and pick a hike with less then 100-200 feet of elevation gain. If you are hiking with family or friends make sure you consider their fitness as well. I also recommend planning about 1 hour of hiking per mile, at least until you know your pace, so for a 2 mile hike allow at least 2 hours, in other words don’t start a 2 mile hike if the sun goes down in an hour! Finally, if you are hiking in the winter make sure you find a hike that wont be covered by snow (this is something to look for in reviews/trail reports), also most guide books will include this information.  

Step 2: Maps/navigation

Now that you have selected the perfect trail, you need to make sure that you know where your going! There are two main things to consider, how do I get to the trail head? And How to I make sure I stay on trail? When it comes to the driving directions, generally you can just use Google maps, most websites and guidebooks will have an address and/or coordinates that you can copy into google maps, as well as driving directions. Once you are at the trailhead, it can get a little more tricky, often you will not have cell reception so it is important that you have a way to access your map, so you should either print it or have a photo/screenshot on your phone (and plenty of battery life!). The other option is to get a GPS tracking app, I would recommend Gaia GPS, it is free. Another option is the All Trails app they offer a service called All Trails Pro where you can pay a monthly fee to give you access to tons of features, but the key one is the ability to download maps of your hike and use their GPS tracking to make sure you stay on course.  

Step 3: Weather

This step is probably the simplest, but it is also the most important as well as easily overlooked. YOU ALWAYS NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE WEATHER!! Make sure that you find an hourly forecast for where you are going (the weather in your city might not be the same weather where you are heading), looking at the daily forecast is not good enough. It is also important to remember that if you are going up into the mountains conditions can be very unpredictable and the forecasts for the mountains are not completely accurate. The more you hike the better you will get at reading the forecast and comparing the kinds of conditions you like to hike in. You can hike in almost all weather (just watch out for extremes like high wind, heavy rain, thunderstorms etc.), for example, I prefer cool overcast days, I get to stay cool while I hike and there are fewer people clogging up the trail! For you first time out I recommend a nice sunny day.  

Planning is one of the most important parts of hiking and will be come second nature the more you do it! There is a lot more info to give but I’ll save that for future posts, that said I have one final tip: popular trails will probably be your best bet for your first time out, if everyone there is doing the same trail the the chances of getting lost will be almost zero, and you might even make some friends along the way!  

Gear

For first time hikers you don’t need to worry too much about what gear you have, as long as conditions are good and you have a backpack, water, shoes, first aid kit you good to go. Gear is one of those topics where I could go on for many pages about all the different options you can pick from. Since your hiking for the first time I suggest making the best of what you have around the house. For backpacks, you want something light weight and ideally allows air flow on your back, but the primary thing is that you have space for an warm jacket and/or rain jacket, water bottle, first aid kit, lunch/snacks and any other small things you might want. For a water bottle, you want to carry at least 32 oz of water per person on your hike, this is two averaged sized water bottles or one normal sized Nalgene bottle.  

Foot wear is the next most important thing, technically you can hike in anything but if the trail is going to steep or require stepping around roots/rocks you should really consider a trail shoe with ankle support. A full boot is not necessary, you just want to find a shoe with good rubber (ideally, not foam) tread and can tie as far up your ankle as possible. When it comes to socks it is best to buy a some light weight hiking socks but if that’s not an option for you, what is most important is that your feet are not sliding around in your socks while you walk, this can lead to blisters which will ruin your hike really fast. If you are not used to walking long distances then it is going to take some time to get the soles of your feet used to hiking, so you may develop blisters if you attempt to hike to many miles. Avoiding blisters is key to enjoying your day, so another tip is to make sure you tie your shoes as tight as you can to keep your feet from moving, just make sure not to cut off your circulation. Your socks should also be tall enough to cover your ankles, this is nice just to protect your ankles from either the inside of your boot (if you are using them) or from any plants you might brush against, it will also keep dirt from getting in your socks. 

 Like all of these topics, I could go on for pages about clothes but I’ll try to keep it simple. Firstly, clothing will be almost entirely dependent on weather, I am going to assume that you will not be hiking in extream conditions (e.g. extreme wind, snow, rain, or high heat). Everyone has slightly different preferences when it comes to clothing but one point that everyone agrees on is that cotton should be avoided. This is because once cotton gets wet it will no longer keep you warm and it will not dry, check the tags on your clothes and pick ones that are wool or something synthetic. Pants or shorts is up to you, but unless you own a pair of hiking pants shorts will probably make more sense. As far as shirts go, really any synthetic short-sleeve tee shirt will suffice and honestly if you know the weather will be really nice and hot you can get away with a thin cotton one. A light weight jacket is a must, you will either wear this while you hike or it will be easy to take off and stow in your backpack if you get hot. I always recommend carrying an extra warm jacket just in case unexpected cold weather rolls in or you get stuck out over night due to an emergency. Finally, if there is any chance of rain you must have a rain coat, you don’t have to wear it but make sure its in your pack. If you are planning on going for a hike in the rain then you could also pick up a pair of rain pants so you stay completely dry. You can buy some really light weight packable rain gear, that is perfect to keep in the bottom of your pack. 

Finally, if you are at all thinking about getting in to hiking I highly recommend picking up a pair of trekking poles. If you are on a trail that even a little bit steep they are amazing for transferring some of the weight off your legs and to your upper body (this is great if you have bad knees). There is a small learning curve to using them and some people prefer to not be holding anything while they walk, and some people prefer to only use one. I got used to them fairly quickly, you just have to remember to put the trekking pole opposite the foot you are stepping forward with. Its not something you need for your first time but something you should try out if you get a chance, you can always find two sticks to get a feel for what it would be like. 

Safety

The amount of safety precautions that you will need to take will really depend on the hike that you are going on. That said, there are still a few things that you should always make sure to have. These are things that you will just need to get into the habit of keeping in your hiking backpack that way you will never get caught without it. Also, it is important to consider that it might not be you who needs the safety gear, there is always to possibility that another hiker will need your help! So, now on to what you need to keep with you. 

1. First-aid kit 

This is definitely a requirement. What you should look for when buying one is something that has band aids of many sizes, gauze, athletic tape and antiseptic wipes at the very minimum and moleskin can be nice if you get blisters. Most first aid kits will come with all of that and it is easy to find kits made specifically for hikers. Like this one here! 

3. Extra water, food, clothing, bear spray  

Every tine you go out hiking there is always a chance that things will not go as expected. In fact significant percentage of my hikes things have not gone according to plan, sometimes I get back in the dark, forget my lunch, the wind is blowing harder then expected. For all of these situations it’s good to keep some essentials in the bottom of your pack. At the bare minimum plan on an extra water bottle and/or water filter, energy bars or other nutrient dense food, emergency mid layer and a raincoat, if applicable.  

4. Wild animals 

Over all this is not much of an issue but there is always the chance you will have an encounter. Depending on where to live what you need to watch out for will change significantly. For example, if you live in Arizona you will probably be more concerned about snakes and should defiantly carry a snake bite kit. Or if you live in the mountains of Montana your main concern will be grizzly bears, in which case you must carry bear spray and hang your food at night. Refer to this article here for more information on staying safe from wildlife.  

5. Other 

Lastly there are a variety of other great tools and safely devices that you could bring with you such as: Sat phone, GPS device, emergency shelter etc.. but this is something I will get in to in a future article.  

Trail edict 

If there was one thing that I could get everybody to understand about hiking and spending time in the outdoors in general it would be that it is a shared space. The amazing thing about trails is that they are there purely for the enjoyment of people, no one is trying to make a profit. So, when you are out on the trails its important to remember that for the system to work everyone needs to work together to make it enjoyable. I put together a short list of things to make sure your trail edict is on point. 

Tip 1

The uphill hikers get right of way. Most trails are narrow so there is only room for single file, this means that the convention is for the people heading downhill to step to the right and let the uphill hikers pass. Also if you are on a roll climbing a hill there is nothing worse then having to pull to the side every few minutes to let people pass. Unfortunately, despite this being the convention there are many people who are new to hiking and have been educated so this rule gets broken very often. 

Tip 2

This one is similar to the Tip 1, if someone is coming up behind you please, PLEASE step to the side and let them pass, it is just polite. Also, if you are the one coming up from behind and the people in front of you have not seen you just POLITLY let them know you are there. 

Tip 3

This one is very important; it is vital that you stay on the main trail! Trails are built on to landscapes that are not continuously maintained so it is important to keep the hillside intact. When the trails were constructed people put a lot of thought it to the stability of the hillside and how water will rundown it, so when people cut corners this compromises the integrity of the slope and create more erosion and work for the trail maintenance workers. If this was not a good enough reason, then you should also consider all the plants you are harming every time you step off the trail or cut a corner.  

Getting to the Trail

For most people the easiest way to access trailheads will be to take your personal car but before hoping in your car and driving to your hike there are a few things you should think about. Trailheads can get very crowed because the parking lots tend to be small. So, if you are close consider walking or biking but if that is not an option try to find a way to carpool there, especially if you are meeting up with friends. Some trailheads will also have some public transport/shuttle busses that will take you to different trailheads, but they will also only run so late in the day and if you miss your bus home you will in for quite a walk home.