Hiking
From Trail-Finder -- Dedicated to getting you outside
Contents |
Overview
Hiking is one of the easiest outdoor activities to start, and can be done by nearly anyone, almost anywhere. All you need is a bit of wilderness. Once you find that, you can hike an hour, an afternoon, a day, a weekend, a week, or even a whole summer! Most people start off with day hiking. Lots of people never do more than that, which is ok. There's a huge number of trails out there perfectly suited to day hiking. If you start to push the limits of day hiking, no problem, just add a bit more gear and start backpacking, too.
Getting Started
If you can walk an hour, you can probably hike an hour. If you can't quite walk for an hour, that's ok, too. Just hike two hours, instead, and take breaks along the way.
The only skill you need to get started with hiking is bare minimum map reading skills, and a lot of trails don't even need that. Your initial gear can be nothing more an old pair of comfortable shoes and a water bottle. Drive to the trail, park your car, and go for a walk. That's it. As you get more and more advanced, your distance will increase, and your gear will naturally increase with it.
Gear
Basic Gear
No matter what type of hiking you're doing, your basic gear requirements all start with:
- Water bottle: Without water, you dehydrate and die. Be sure to carry plenty.
- Boots: For a well-maintained, relatively level trail, nearly any shoe will do. Soon, though, you'll need one or more pairs of boots.
- Pack: These come in a variety of forms, but they all serve the same purpose. BIG pockets.
As distance increases, you quickly add:
Intermediate Gear
Once you're hiking more than a few hours, maybe sooner, you probably want to look into adding:
More Gear
There's really no end of the gear you can buy. Some of items, like a snake bite kit, is really a requirement in some places. Other gear, like binoculars or cameras, are luxuries. There's no limit to how much gear you can carry, but there is a limit to the amount of weight you can carry.
Locations
When most people think about hiking, they think about huge national parks. There's great hiking in most national parks all over the world. There's also surprisingly good hiking in lots of other, smaller parks. With a little looking, you can probably find something nearby. If you don't know anything, ask at your local outfitter or sporting goods store.
More Information
Start with the day hiking section. Everything you find there you will need whether you're hiking two hours or two months.
If you want to stay in backcountry overnight, then you also need to read the backpacking section.
