Hot answers tagged hiking
28
Hiking blisters are from friction. When things shift, your sock is more likely to stay with your boot than your foot as the two fabrics (or leather and fabric) will catch each other. This leaves the sock moving against your foot, which causes friction. When you wear two socks, specifically a smooth liner and a wool hiking sock, the outer sock moves ...
25
I would say the answer is somewhat subjective, and in order to make a fair assessment you will need to invest some time. Carrying a 30-pound pack up and down hills with a week's worth of food and gear produces different stresses on your feet and joints than a water bottle and rain jacket. The fit may seem less perfect if the material between your toes starts ...
23
Dehydration is key. Water weighs a LOT.
Breakfast -- Any variation on oatmeal. You can make your own or buy prepackaged meals.
Lunch -- Peanut butter on hard tack. (did i mention water?)
Dinner -- Any dehydrated meal will do. I've used both Mountain House and Backpackers pantry.
Snacks -- I prefer Clif bars and Justin Nut Butter for a good ...
23
I actually had a site bookmarked for this very reason that provided some good, sound advice. I've always heard that a cougar (mountain lion) generally doesn't let you see it unless its considering attacking.
100 yards away or more that is unattentive to you
Avoid rapid movements, running, loud, excited talk.
Stay in groups; keep children with adults.
...
19
Your legs aren't as sensitive to temperture extremes. Right now it's winter here and I'm walking around outside with a regular shirt, a wool sweater, and a wind breaker on my torso. Inside I take off the windbreaker an sweater. However, inside or outside, I'm wearing the same single-layer pants and it's not a problem. My legs don't feel hot inside or ...
18
Okay - I found that both my Langmuir (Mountaincraft and Leadership) and my Mountaineers (Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills) have pretty good advice about lightning. I would advise anyone planning on heading out into the hills to read both of these excellent books - Langmuir is the book for British Mountain Leader Training, and the Mountaineers covers ...
17
Hammocks are cold. The weight of your body compresses the clothes or sleeping bag, and air circulates underneath you, as opposed to a tent where you usually have a pad and the ground for insulation.
It seems like it would be tough to stay dry in the rain in a hammock. It's nice to have a tent to get into in the rain in between hiking/playing and sleeping if ...
17
The answer is very dependent on the prevailing weather conditions where you are active, and what your budget is
Synthetic
Advantages:
Lower overall price.
Maintains thermal properties when wet.
Does not reduce loft in high-humidity/ sweaty sleeping conditions.
Easier to clean.
Disadvantages:
The loft does not last as long as down (3-5yrs vs 8-10yrs)
...
16
Blisters usually form when your socks get sweaty and things start to rub around.
When I first bought my pair of boots, the man in the store told me to wear them around the house for an hour every night for a week or two before my trip. This gives you a chance to break in the leather slowly over time, while keeping your feet blister-free.
Obviously, this ...
14
I led extended backpacking trips in Grand Canyon country for several years, and we required everyone carry at MINIMUM a gallon (almost 4 litre) per person per day -- which adds up. (Though rarely did we plan trips that did not have dependable water sources within a day's walk, meaning we would start and end the day with bellies full of water.)
Different ...
14
Shin splints (tibial stress syndrome) can be cause by tendons, muscles, or stress fractures. It's an "overuse" injury, with multiple causes, so there's not a single treatment. Some things that might help:
Step softly. If you pound your feet when you hike, it can aggravate shin splints.
Ease up on running a week or two before hiking. Running causes shin ...
14
There are 3 ways I've found of finding a leak in an air mattress:
Soapy Water - It may not be likely, but perhaps you have some camp soap or something similar that you can use to make a soapy mixture that will bubble near the leak.
Submerged - I know you said not near a large body of water, but even if you have just a small stream you may be able to dam up ...
13
You could use Naismith's rule which goes as follows:
Allow 1 hour for every 3 miles (5 km) forward, plus 1 hour for every 2000 feet (600 metres) of ascent.
A lot of hikers in the UK use this as a guide of course bear in mind terrain and altitude! and of course this is not appropriate at higher altitudes.
Some sites recommend corrections to the above:
...
13
Sound like a human, so TALK
Wear a bright orange vest, and other bright (not white) clothing
Try not to hike deer routes in the peak times (6am to 9am and 6pm to
9pm)
Similar to the one above, stay on trail.
Generally large game are the seasons of highest concern (deer
mostly)
Your local DNR (Department of Natural Resources) website (example) will have ...
13
To be honest I was dubious about getting something that I thought was gimmicky, but my son’s Scout troop was selling custom Buffs to raise group funds so I ended up buying one.
A Buff is just a tube of lightweight, stretchy material.
I’ve found them useful in three particular situations:
They are thin, so can be worn like a hat under a bicycle helmet for ...
13
The rule is 3 liters per person per day. You may get away with 2 liters if it's not too hot and you stay moderate. Keep into account that your "normal day" intake is skewed by the contribute brought from food. If you eat food with less water in it, which is likely during a hike, your need for actual water is higher than the one you experience in your daily ...
13
There's a reason desert cultures almost all wear coverings from head to toe.
Three main things to consider:
Protection from the sun's harmful rays.
Air flow for convection cooling
Moisture retention (you heard that right) for evaporative cooling.
Despite the convention, "cotton kills," in the desert those same properties (slow drying, water retention) ...
12
One of the things I've heard that wildland firefighters like to do (they often wear large, all leather boots, like these: Danner Flashpoint II) is put on the boots, stand in the bathtub with water and let the water soak through the boots with your feet on, and then wear them around the house for a few hours. It seems to work - as it softens the boots and ...
12
Rice.
If you have fresh (or purified) water, an amazingly small amount of rice would suffice for 14 days. I've trekked the Cordillera Real for 12 days, and rice was the only reasonable option in terms of weight. A small set of spices - especially salt and pepper - dramatically improve its taste.
If you don't want to eat the same food for 14 days, take ...
12
It would say it varies to a high degree since the source of the meat and the cut of the meat will be the primary factors in determining how many bacteria (and which type) will be on the surface of the meat. I wouldn't want to trust hamburger or mass market ground meat for even a few hours not refrigerated - so any meats that are mechanically tenderized or ...
12
I think the Audubon Field Guides smartphone apps are fantastic. At least, they are a great improvement over the printed guides -- more species, more photos, lengthier descriptions, and smaller than the book.
The apps help make identification relatively easy because you can search for trees in your region and leaf shape, for example, and get a smaller set of ...
11
Hiking in the desert? As much as you can carry! I tend to prefer packing more water than less, and especially in a desert area where if something goes wrong, your access to resupply is very limited.
You can lose up to two quarts (almost 2 litre) of water per hour hiking in the desert in middle of the day, but you can only absorb around one quart (almost one ...
11
I can offer my favorite hiking food rotinue, but I usually just had it for 4-5 days max, between resupplies.
Quaker Oatmeal for breakfast (usually two packets with the powdered milk, add cold water to each packet)
3-4 snacks during the day (2 sneakers snickers, 2 m&ms, sometimes other variants. Sometimes Cliff bars/Oatmeal snacks instead)
A big ...
11
Don't use cotton socks for hiking.
When your feet sweat, the socks become wet, and take forever to dry out. Good socks remove the bacteria and moisture that thrive in the environment created by sweating feet and help to prevent blisters. Cotton retains moisture, thus cotton socks will not do the job properly.
Rather, buy non-itching ("merino") wool, ...
11
You always look at places where water could accumulate (here are some not so obvious choices):
Extra green vegetation like sycamore tree is good indicator of water source. You can utilize the plants transpiration via plastic bag or bottle. And just leave it out in the sun. With big enough plastic bag over bush you can collect quite a bit of water.
Bellow ...
11
In dry climates you can take advantage of evaporative cooling - especially on a bike. In hot and humid places you are stuck with insulation and pre-cooled water and/or ice.
Have you experimented to see if a cloth wrapper around your bottles is enough to cool things when damp? Of course, you're not going to get highly chilled water, but it can be ...
11
The most important thing is to know what is being hunted so you can know how the hunters should be approaching their prey. It's best to talk to several hunters to find out from them where they will be concentrating, but it's hard to control for any random person with their own ideas about how they will be approaching their hunting. The vast majority of ...
11
There are a lot of unspecified variables involved here... type of socks, fit of the shoe/boot, type of shoe, conditions you are hiking in, etc.
But in general, double-socking may offer the following which may help prevent blisters:
reduced friction - assuming one sock is a thin slick liner sock which tends to stick to your foot while the outer sock ...
11
I like being out alone. Generally you have more time for introspection, for getting calm and enjoying what’s around you and inside of you.
Of course there’s times when you have to deal with yourself and your fears when you’re out alone. Even after many nights that I have spent outside alone, I’m still a bit nervous when the sun sets. (I guess it’s an old ...
11
You don't have to go on a solo trip to experience a little solitude. For example, you can go with a group, and when you're planning the trip, plan for a day during which you will go off on a solo hike, while the others stay at camp and fish or read or the like. Or perhaps it's a day where they all go off on a hike and you loiter around the camp alone. This ...
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