Hot answers tagged hiking
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 ...
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 ...
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
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
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 ...
10
You can get some trail gaiters. (This REI link gives a good overview of different types of gaiters, their components, and materials they can be made from.) They're basically little sleeve-like things that have a strap to go around the bottom of your hiking boot, and they come up to mid-calf usually. Because they overlap with both your boot and your pants, ...
10
I'm not sure you can generalize US Hiking trails, since there will be vast variability in popularity, usage, land area, population density etc. (Just as you mentioned is the case in popular vs. remote areas of Europe).
Yes, there are some areas that require reservations, but most don't. In fact, I feel comfortable saying MOST federal public land in the ...
10
Gym training, especially body building, weight training, and strength training do not translate well to hiking, so don't count on that to carry you and get you through.
If you are new to hiking/backpacking, I would advise the following for "first hikes":
Not more than five miles
Not more than one night
Test hike with your planned shoe/sock combo
Eat like ...
10
Yes! This is a rewarding and awesome experience. I have three children that I take hiking all the time. My youngest is almost a month old and he hasn't been out yet, but will as soon as he has a bit of neck control. I was also raised going on many hikes in my father's pack.
I have the old pack that I was carried in and let me tell you, they have made leaps ...
9
Here are a few things I look for:
Bars that don't melt when they're warm. Anything with chocolate will become gooey in the summer
Bars that don't freeze easily when its cold. I've found that Powerbars just become little frozen bricks anytime its below freezing.
I like bars with all natural ingredients. Not for abstract health reasons, but just that bars ...
9
I'm not sure why pants don't receive the same attention but the layers are available.
You can easily find base, insulating, and shell layers.
Olin's answer gives some good reasons layering pants may not seem as common. In reply:
(2) There are full-side-zip pants for mountaineers (crampons) and wide-opening pants for skiers/boarders and regular boots.
...
9
You ask: "Don't these offset the dangers mentioned above? To me it seems like the threat of getting caught in a summer afternoon lightning storm and forced to get down the mountain quickly is about as dangerous as the threats a person runs into in the winter."
You're right. There are risks in all seasons when you're going hiking or climbing up in the ...
8
Each person is unique and may need one feature over another. But here is my take on the features in a rough order of importance:
Warranty: If you plan on heavy usage, make sure it has a lifetime warranty and a manufacturer that backs it up. Many will find a way to replace it in the field.
Weight: If you're backpacking, saving weight is important.
...
8
It sounds like the problem that you're getting is that your ankles are swelling up too much. This could easily be caused by wearing boots that are laced too tightly. It could also be caused by other factors. It can be comforting to have a very snug fit when you're doing technical scrambling, but that's not always practical for long amounts of time. If ...
8
I never understood the appeal of trekking poles until I started carrying 80+ lbs packs down into the bottom of the Grand Canyon for a living. Now, I wish I had started using them sooner. Perhaps my knees would be in better shape.
Trekking poles, used properly, can take countless TONS of cumulative weight off your knees and lower back by shifting that weight ...
8
It depends a lot on what exactly you mean by "around there". While there are no real mountains in the immediate area around Prague, you can find a number of great places to hike there. If you a willing to go a bit further, you can find some nice mountains, too. Also, I am not sure if by two day hike you mean a backpacking trip with sleeping outdoors, or if ...
8
Start by day hikes where you can frequently exit. For example, find a day hike where after 2 hours, one has the option either to cut it short to a 2½ hour hike in total, or to extend it to 4 hours, and after 4 hours, one has again the option to cut it to 4½ hours, or to make it 6 hours.
If you've done this for several days and find out that 6 hour day hikes ...
7
Despite the convention, "cotton kills," in the desert those same properties (slow drying, water retention) are useful for keeping you cool by slowing down the near instant evaporation experienced at such high heat and low humidity. Your goal is to make that moisture work as long for you as possible.
Since "water is 24.5 times more conductive than air," ...
7
This doesn't directly answer your question and might not be to your liking, but it's what I do.
Basically, I don't bother trying to keep it cold. However, I do add flavoring. I find that flavoring helps a great deal in making it feel a lot more OK to drink warm liquid. Think of it sortof like tea if that helps. Actually I don't add the flavoring for ...
7
I have lots of leeches in my (otherwise) lovely swimming hole which is in a creek just as it leaves a lake. I read up on possible leech deterrents and now I rub my exposed skin with just about any kind of skin cream and they all seem to work. Waterproof sunblock is my current favorite but I've also used Off (Eucalytus) and even ordinary moisturizer. I ...
7
Here's one data point, also based on the Grand Canyon.
I'm a 40 year old male, of average fitness and slightly overweight (5'10", 215 lbs.), and ascending the Grand Canyon (4320', ~1300 m) took me almost exactly one day. By contrast, the descent took me 3 hours. (The rule of thumb at the Grand Canyon is that every hour down takes two hours up.)
Later ...
7
Hydrostatic rating on a tent is the highest column of water a material can withstand for up to one minute before the water starts to penetrate (assuming good seams, no damage etc)
The ratings translate as follows (have seen these quoted in a couple of places, this is from campingcrazy.com)
1000mm or less is considered shower resistant and will soak up ...
7
I've carried them out, and I've burned them in the nightly fires we were having anyway. This was canoe-camping rather than hiking, so weight was less of an issue - but a weeklong trip accumulating diapers from two toddlers: smell was a problem. We used a dedicated bag for them, and kept it well away from everything else at campsites. Bags within bags within ...
6
Hard walled cases. For my camera at first I would stuff it into a sock and wrap the remainder of that sock and another sock around the camera and call it good, then I saw a hard molded camera case in a store and threw it around a little bit in the store. After people stopped looking at me like I was crazy, I decided to buy and test it. I have dropped the ...
6
A compass is "accurate" in both hemispheres in that it should still point to magnetic north.
But the problem is that when you're in the southern hemisphere, the magnetic north pole is sort of 'under your feet' so the compass needs to be one that's specially 'balanced' for the Southern hemisphere to ensure the needle moves smoothly and responds fast.
You ...
6
You can get a lot of the way towards understanding which ground has a good likelihood of being marshy from full use of Ordnance Survey (or equivalent) maps, and looking at the type of rock in the area you will be hiking.
Good quality maps give a lot of detail around topography, so you can look at slopes and heights near watercourses etc. If you are on a ...
6
There's a number of options for dealing with such an issue, each can be appropriate depending on the situation in hand.
The wonders of paracord can come to the rescue if you have some on hand (and if not, why not!) It's usually a bit thicker than shoelaces but can squeeze through the holes and do the job surprisingly well. Depending on the length of the ...
6
First, I always have at least one shoe lace in my first aid kit (I know, not the most usual place, but I never forget it and it only needs a very small space).
Also some piece of washing line (e.g. for drying clothes) can be used.
If you don't have one of those, you can cut the other shoe lace and use half of it to lace your shoes every other hole. It will ...
6
There are relatively well known steps to dealing with this out in the wilds. One online resource with pictures is at Backpacker Magazine.
The basic steps (that are detailed there) are:
Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation (which you should do with any sprain, wherever you are)
Bandage reasonably tightly - not so tight that you cut off circulation, but ...
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