Last weekend I headed into the mountains for my first short backpacking trip of the year. A friend of mine suggested we head out to get a hike in on Saturday, on the way to camp, and another on the way back to the cars on Sunday. As we were in the mountains, it also was  great opportunity to practice some night navigation so we had that penciled in too.

The weather had turned last week and spring had definitely sprung. The temperature was on the up and it was to be pleasantly mild. Although a bit cloudy, the sun was expected to break for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday.

There was to be rain but it was only to be on through the night so all in all, it looked like a reasonable weekend for spending a night in the mountains, with some room for a couple of nice hikes on either side.

I haven't camped since late October last year, so all my backpacking gear was packed away in the cupboards for the winter so I had to get all my gear out Saturday morning. I am not really a winter camper so I camp mainly from spring to autumn. With that in mind, it's always good to be getting the backpacking gear out as it means the days are getting longer and warmer, which is always great.

As it turned out, a cousin of his also joined us so there were three of us out for the night. Saturday was fine, cloudy but no rain and visibility was reasonable. We had a nice hike in and made camp, it had been a while since I'd had camp food! My warmed up packet food is always my food of choice and it's a winner when I'm in the hills! Zero hassle to prepare which is right up my street!

So, all in all we had a nice couple of days and we made it back to the cars all good on Sunday, which turned out to be a really nice and sunny day. I thought I would share this in a post, as I actually got a little caught out with something at the weekend, so thought I'd add it in for others. What did I get caught out with? Well, that was, quite simply, not being used to camping for four to five months.

When we planned the hike, my friend said, we'd hike about 6 miles into the mountains to a good spot to pitch our tents. The spot looked good on the map and I was happy to run with it. I've also camped in that area several times before so if that spot didn't work out, I had a back-up spot about 2 miles away where I have camped a couple of times before, so not the end of the world if it wasn't suitable when we got there.

So all good … or so I thought. My friend has been out camping several times already this year so he has adjusted back into it. I haven't lol 🙂 When looking at a 6 mile hike into the camp spot on the map, I didn't think it would be a problem, six miles is not a big hike for me. However, I hadn't really factored in the 12/13 kg backpack I would be carrying!

Normally, this is not a big deal, but I haven't camped since October remember. So my body wasn't recently familiar with hauling a 13 kg backpack for three miles, never mind six! Again, no big deal, I was just a bit tired when we got to camp.

We headed out for a four mile night hike on top of that and then hit the hay Saturday night. As expected, the rain and the wind got up during the night, and as it was my first night sleeping on my awesome air mattress in five months. While it is normally very comfortable, I hadn't slept on it in five months and with the wind and the rain, it made for a pretty restless nights sleep I can tell you.

We got up Sunday morning and headed for another six mile hike on the way back to the cars on Sunday. A fine sunny day and a great hike. All in all, a great weekend was had, but boy was I tired when I got back to the car! After a two hour drive home, I was a happy camper when I got back to my house and could collapse on my couch!

Conclusion

So, the moral of the story is? Well, if you haven't been out backpacking since last Summer or Autumn, it might be a good idea to start with a smaller trip first time out just to get your body back into backpacking mode. Heading out for six miles with a heavy pack after not being out in five months may not be the best way to get your backpacking trips started in the year.

I still had a great weekend and it was great to get out for the first camp of the year. However, I was a happy man when my head finally hit the pillow in my warm bed on Sunday night lol 🙂 I slept like a baby I can tell you!

Tomorrow morning I'm heading to California for the start of a two week trip. I land in Los Angeles and from there plan to make my way over to Sequoia via Santa Barbara. I am spending one night in Three Rivers, then on to Lone Pine to eventually head down through Death Valley to Las Vegas before finally heading back to L.A. to return home.

I am really looking forward to the trip. I've never been hiking in California, Nevada or Utah before and there are so many wonderful places to go hiking, it's hard to make some final calls on what to do, I'll have to leave some stuff out. Just not possible to do everything in two weeks. I am really looking forward to the different types of landscape and so on, it will be awesome!

I of course want to do some of the classic sites if possible, the Giant Forest while staying at Three Rivers and the Grand Canyon while staying in Las Vegas for example. I also want to visit the gateway to Mt. Whitney when staying in Lone Pine.

I had toyed with the idea of trying to arrange to do Whitney but at this time of year, there's a fair bit of snow so it would be a much more drawn out and complex affair. I decided to leave it for another time. I'm still hoping to get in for some of the lower areas of the Sierra Nevada though or in and around Inyo National Forest.

While in Las Vegas I want to take a day trip or two to Zion National Park in Utah as well. Would love to do the Narrows hike, pictured above, but there might be too much run off this time of year, I will see. Angels Landing is another hike I am very keen to take a look at in Zion as well. I would be tempted to head to Bryce Canyon for a day or two as well but that might be pushing things a bit 🙂

Overall, I'm just really looking forward to it. I'll of course take in some of the city sites too of course. Not having been to L.A. before, I'll have to take a trip to Venice Beach, Santa Monica and some other well known and loved sites and tours. Similarly, while in Las Vegas, I'll just have to catch a good show and of course try my luck at a table or two. Not that I'm much of a gambler I hasten to add, but it should be a bit of fun!

Conclusion

So yeh, just a very short post this week. Not a lot very informative in it, I'm just buzzed to be heading on the trip and I'm SO looking forward to the hiking trips.

I haven't had time to really scope out the detail of every hike as yet but I have a broad idea of what I want to do. I do want to leave some room for spontaneity too though of course. If I come across something cool while I'm there, a nice hike in a smaller national park or that type of thing, I'll consider it for sure.

I've only started packing so I need to clock off and get organized. I'll no doubt be writing up some posts in the coming weeks about all the beautiful hikes I've done while on my trip. I'll be doing a lot of the famous ones but that's cool, no harm to add my personal experience about it. I will also link to any resources I find that are useful for you if you're planning a similar trip anytime soon.

All in all, this boy is excited and looking forward to the two weeks ahead 🙂

So, we're a few days into 2016 and with the champagne drank and some sore heads, no doubt, nursed back to health again, it's that time of year where things tend to get that bit quieter.

January is always a good time to take a step back and reflect, both on the year previous and what you might want to do or achieve in the year ahead. I did a post recently on making a hiking bucket list and so now is a good time to get that out and have a review of it. If you haven't made one, it's a great time to take a half hour and do it.

Looking down your list, you can see what grabs you, and what trips might be doable in the year ahead given any resource and time limitations that you may need to adhere to.

I was thinking about this myself the last few days and on a hike on Saturday, lot's of hiking friends were starting to do the same. Thinking about what trips to plan, what challenges to take on and that kind of thing. Lot's of great stuff was coming up, Kilimanjaro and Mt Toubkal to name just two.

It's definitely a great time to do it, it is just that bit quieter in January and I find I usually have more spare moments available before the frenetic pace of the year kicks in.

Myself, I have a trip to California planned in March / April. I haven't confirmed exactly what hikes I want to take on from my list, but I have a wide range to choose from as there are quite a few in that part of the world that I'd like to do. I won't get to them all on one trip, that's for sure.

Mt Whitney looks appealing but I'll need to do a bit more research on that first, check the weather at that height at that time of the year and that type of thing. Failing that, I'd still love to get one or two of the big parks in. The Half Dome in Yosemite would also be high on my list, but so is the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon … to name just a few lol 🙂 You see what I mean, once you get started, there are any number of amazing hikes to consider!

Conclusion

It's just a short post today, it's the first week in January so I'm being lazy, still feeling the pressure from all that Turkey and Christmas Cake lol 🙂 I'm only kidding about that of course but I do feel lazy, it always takes me a while to kick back into the normal rhythm in the New Year after Christmas!

So, in summary, January is an ideal time to have a think about the year ahead and what you may want to do in it, both in general and in terms of planning hiking trips abroad and / or hiking challenges.

You don't need to get the exact details 100% confirmed but a rough map across the year, a few inquiries into feasibility, checking on interest from friends, etc. All that sort of thing will help get a reasonable idea as to what items you may be able to tick off your hiking bucket list, and if you don't have one, it's a great time to create one.

I'll conclude by wishing you a Happy New Year as well as safe and happy hiking in 2016!

Wow, it's hard to believe another year has gone by and it's Christmas time again! I have to say I am proud of myself this year, I got all my gifts sorted out well in time so I have been very organized. with 3 days to go to the big day, I can kick back and relax, no last minute panic to get gifts this year, Happy Days 🙂

If you are still pondering what to get your nearest and dearest for Christmas, taking a look through the wonderful world of hiking gear is worth a look. If you have to buy a gift for a hiker, well it goes without saying that a hiking gear gift will go down well.

However, even for those folks in your life who aren't avid hikers, hiking gear is still a great area to look through for some excellent gift ideas.

For example, maybe your Mum isn't a hiker but she likes to take the dog out for a long walk every day. Even though she isn't in the hills, it's inevitable the nastier elements like rain and so on will play their part on her travels so what better than a nice new hiking rain jacket for just such occasions.

Similarly, your Dad might not be much of a mountaineer but he might love to get out fishing. A good pair of hiking boots will always come in handy walking to and from his favorite fishing spots.

Now, hiking boots and rain jackets aren't on the cheaper side of hiking gear but there are plenty of other smaller items you can aim for. How about a good hiking hat? Practical and useful just about anywhere. Similarly, a good pair of hiking socks will always come in useful and they won't break the Christmas budget either!

If your husband is a gadget man and likes the thought of the great outdoors, there are a whole range of excellent gadget ideas you could get for him, from GPS devices to a Swiss army knife, the list of cool hiking gadgets is endless so plenty to choose from in that category too.

Conclusion

If you're running behind this year, you haven't had a chance to get gifts as yet, and you have no idea what to get your loved ones, check out hiking gear for great Christmas gift ideas. The wonderful world of hiking, in general, has loads of great things to offer.

There are all manner of really cool things you can get and they're all immensely practical. Even for day to day use, most hiking gear (the stuff you wear) is really versatile and functional.

It's probably a bit late to order specific products online for home delivery now but you can still head to your local outdoor store to look around and pick something up. Failing that, don't rule out the option to buy a gift voucher online and give that to your loved one so they can use it to choose something for themselves in the January sales! Another good option for sure.

I'm keeping it brief this week as I have to pack up. I am heading to Germany for the holidays so need to get organized and yes, I do plan to try and get some hiking in while I'm there 🙂 The weather seems to be freakishly mild in much of Western Europe and parts of the US at the minute but I expect it will turn at some point, it always does 😉

I hope you a very Merry Christmas wherever you are and Santa is good to you. Enjoy the festivities!

Well, it's that time of year again and Christmas is upon us. As we wrap up the year and reflect on all that was in it, we also start to give an eye to the year ahead and what goals we may want to achieve, or things we may want to do, etc.

At the end of every year I generally do spend a bit of time taking stock across the board. I'll do a finance review and think about what I'm saving, investing, etc. I'll think about what projects I'd like to do for work and around the house in the year ahead. I'll also spend a bit of time looking at any goals I have, spend a bit of time thinking about what I achieved in the last year and what I would like to aim for next.

Overall, it's the full gambit and, of course, there is always some hiking stuff in there as far as goals go! These usually come from my overall bucket list which is always up for potential editing as things chop and change.

Now I should say a bucket list isn't really the same as a goals list but they can crossover. I don't want to get into the differences in great detail, I'm sure most of you know them already, but suffice it to say that some goals can be on your bucket list.

For example, I may have a goal to learn how to speak Spanish as it's good for my business, but I wouldn't necessarily put it on my bucket list. It may be something I want to achieve but it doesn't excite me in terms of experience and so on.

However, utilizing that Spanish for my trip to hike the Inca Trail is another story. My trip to the Inca Trail may be a goal I want to make happen this year but it also happens to be in my top ten on my bucket list.

So What's a Bucket List?

Most folks will know straight off the bat what a bucket list is but for those who don't, it's a list of all the things you want to do before you leave the great blue planet and move on to whatever may or may not come next, also known as dying 🙂

Now, if you're new to this, you may be a little freaked out when you first think about it as by doing this exercise, you do need to, at some level, contemplate your own death. Maybe not exactly a fun thing to reflect on but a fact none the less.

Although it may sound a bit odd, I can assure you it isn't a morbid exercise at all, quite the opposite. If you haven't already, it can be a lot of fun to make a bucket list for EVERYTHING you want to do and, if you're into hiking, there is no end of potential hiking trips and adventures you can add to that list.

How to do it?

Well, this is the real easy bit 🙂 As mentioned above, I highly recommend you do this across the board for every area of your life. Start with some basic questions and reflect on them. Where do you want to go? What do you want to see?

Maybe Safari in Africa? Moonlight skinny dipping off the Amalfi coast? Drink rice wine with the locals in a village in Vietnam? Drive a Porsche? Fly a Helicopter? Visit Graceland? Watch a sunrise on the Sahara ( I've done that one, was sweet 🙂 )Hike the Appalachian Trail?

Remember though, it doesn't always have to be something exotic or crazy, it can be something as simple as that trip to visit your old college buddies that you haven't seen in years. You get the idea, on and on till you get a good list together.

Now, I highly recommend that you do your best to leave your logical brain aside for this exercise. Forget that you don't have the money right now, forget about all the potential barriers to everything you'd ever want to do. Leave all that to the side and just make your list. Go all out and have some fun, no limits!

You can make the list as big or small as you want to. I recommend aiming for 100 things! Now, believe it or not, that can be a lot harder to do than you might think. If 100 is too many, pick a number you're comfortable with. You'll get a feel for it once you start.

When you have your first list, say 100 things. Go back over it and think about which ones really grab you. This will happen with little effort as you'll just know the ones that really speak to you. when you've done that, I recommend ordering them from the top thing you want to do, to the one you're least passionate about.

COOL! Now you have a bucket list! But what on earth has this got to do with hiking?

Well, my bucket list is peppered with lot's of wilderness adventures and hikes from all over the globe. From climbing Mount Whitney in North America, to visiting Machu Picchu in Peru via the Inca Trail. From taking in some of the Great Wall of China, to sipping camp coffee after a nights camping in Patagonia. In fact, if you love getting out on the trail, I highly recommend creating a hiking specific bucket list.

Imagine you can go hiking anywhere in the world! Where would you go first? What are the places that get you excited? Do you want to take a few months out and hike the PCT on your own? When you start to think of all the places you want to go hiking in and the multitude of adventures you can have, it get's very busy pretty quickly as there are just so many amazing possibilities on this beautiful planet 🙂

Conclusion

So, that's it for today. This was just a bit of fun that popped into my head as we approach the end of the year, however you can do it any time.

As I mention above, if you haven't done this exercise, I highly recommend you do it for every aspect of your life. If you're reading this though, you're probably a hiker of some kind so I highly recommend making a hiking bucket list to intersperse with you're overall one.

This exercise is actually a lot of fun. Try and relax and let the left brain take a break. Think about what you'd love to do, experience or see before you die and let it flow baby 🙂 When you start thinking about hiking adventures, I promise you, once you get started, you will find it hard to stop!

If you're stuck for some ideas for your hiking bucket list, check out 40 of the best hikes and trails on the planet, plenty of food for thought there to get you started 😉

Whether you are just starting out hiking or if you have been hiking for some time, it is critical to ensure that you have the right hiking gear to meet all your hiking needs to ensure you have not only a comfortable but, more importantly, a safe hike. Now, I say that a lot across this site but today I thought, for fun, I'd share a personal story to help illustrate this.

One key part of your kit is of course your hiking boots and this short tale relates to an experience I had many, many moons ago where I totally had the wrong footwear!.

Once Upon a Time …

I remember when I was a kid, maybe nine or ten years old and my brother took me out on what was probably one of my first hiking trips with him and his new girlfriend.

It was winter and bitterly cold outside and he told me to wear my leather hiking boots. I told him I would but sneakily put my running shoes on instead. If I recall correctly, I had just got a new pair of running shoes and thought they were the coolest thing on the planet, way cooler that an old pair of black leather hiking boots!

So, we got to the car park and started to walk up the mountain. There was snow and ice everywhere. My brother didn’t notice what I was wearing at the beginning as he was too busy trying to impress his new lady. However I soon noticed, and in pretty quick time I might add, that my idea to wear my running shoes was not only flawed but a very bad idea indeed.

My shoes and feet started to get very wet and very, very, cold. Whether it was just denial, pride of not wanting to accept I was wrong or I simply didn’t want to say anything in case I got into trouble, as I hadn’t brought my hiking boots, I soldiered on up the mountain through the snow. All the time ignoring the ice cubes forming at the bottom of my legs!

Time ticked on and within a relatively short time, said ice cubes were now where my feet used to be.

Suddenly, and even though this is a long time ago I still remember it like yesterday, I felt burning pain in my feet. My running shoes were drenched through and my feet were ice cold numb and stinging like crazy. This was the initial onset of frostbite, not a good thing. I simply couldn’t cover it, pretend or whatever I was trying to do any longer and started balling my eyes out!

My brother immediately came over to me asking what was wrong. When he realized what I was actually wearing he was totally freaked out. He was a medical student at the time and when he looked at my feet he was definitely concerned.

He knew he had to get the running shoes off my feet and get me back down to the car as soon as possible. However, we had a problem. We’d already walked an hour up the mountain and as my feet were now ice cubes and my only shoes were ice cold and soaked through, I had nothing to wear back down the mountain!

Time to Improvise!

So, time for some improvisation. The shoes and socks were removed and my feet dried with various items of clothing. They were then wrapped in hats, scarves, gloves and any other available dry warm clothing my brother and his girlfriend could spare.

He had some hot soup in a flask and I started sipping on it. Oh man, I’ll never forget how my mum’s homemade vegetable soup tasted that day, was like wine from the Gods! That had the double effect of both warming and cheering me up and I gradually started to feel my feet come back to life.

Feeling human again and with the immediate crisis situation averted, the next thing was to get me back down the mountain in the only shoes available. Again, my brother improvised and created some kind of temporary sock with bits of clothing and then wrapped the sock in airtight plastic bags.

This was needed as while I wouldn’t be putting the socks on again, I had little choice with the running shoes, they would have to go back on until I got back down the mountain.

The improvised socks worked pretty well and were more than enough to get me to safety. I thought my brother would be mad but as I remember he was just relieved. I think he was just genuinely grateful that something potentially very bad was avoided.

Conclusion

So, why the long winded tale above? Well, simply put, this is a real life personal example, albeit an extreme one, to help illustrate the importance of wearing the correct hiking gear when heading out on your treks and adventures.

Whether it’s ensuring you have adequate waterproof hiking boots or hiking shoes, similar to my story above, or a suitable waterproof hiking jacket, always take the time to consider what kind of environments you will be hiking in, the demands of those environments and whether your kit meets those demands.

To experienced hikers, this might be stating the obvious but to people just starting out hiking, simple mistakes can be costly to your enjoyment, health and possibly, in extreme circumstances, even your life.

There is nothing quite like first-hand experience to indelibly put something in your mind forever, and this experience certainly did that for me. Remember, always be sure you have the right gear when going out hiking.

Never make assumptions about the weather, terrain, etc. A little bit of preparation in advance will save a whole lot of hassle and pain down the road, and will also help ensure your hiking experience is as positive and enjoyable a one as possible.

Just last week a hiking friend of mine sent out an email to a group of us who hike together regularly. The mail was to do with a challenge hike that is coming up in January. I won’t go into the major details but it starts at 1 a.m., yes 1 a.m., and goes for 53 km’s / 33 miles (approximately).

Now, the reason it starts at 1 a.m. is that it represents an historic event that happened in 1592 when a chap, a rebel fighter, escaped from prison and tried to make his way to his home in the mountains.

The prison was in the City Hall and so the challenge starts in the city center at City Hall with about 30 km’s (approx 18.5 miles) hiking on roads before doing 23 km’s (approx 14.5 miles) off road in the hills.

This is all fine but the question does become why would I want to do this? I do love to get out on the hills and I do like a challenge but starting at 1 a.m., in the Winter cold of January I might add, and hiking 30 km’s on the road before doing 23 km’s in the hills is an awful lot and certainly won’t be easy.

In a rush of blood last week, I said ‘yes, I’m in!’ But my enthusiasm has waned somewhat since lol 🙂 Now, I have done challenge hikes before and just two weeks back I took on a challenging hike of 35 km’s (approx 22 miles) with nearly 3 km’s (approx 2 miles) elevation.

I did it in about 11 hours, so I’m not a total stranger to taking on a challenge. However, I have never hiked more than 42 km’s in one day and that, I can only say, was bloody hard and my legs were sore for days after it.

As with most things of this kind, training is critical. That’s interestingly, within itself, part of the challenge for this particular one. It’s hard to replicate starting out hiking for 50 km’s plus at 1 a.m., I’m just not going to do that in a buildup, would mess up with my schedule far too much so that will be a special kind of difficulty on the day.

Also, with Winter fast approaching, the days are getting shorter and the weather getting crappier so it’s harder to get out for longer day hikes.

On the plus side, as 30 km’s of this hike is on roads, I reckon that hiking 35 km’s in mountains with 3 km’s elevation should be good prep in terms of distance and elevation so I'm, as of now, already in the ballpark. As mentioned, I couldn’t replicate the tiredness thing so will just have to see how that is on the day.

However, on the negative side in terms of the challenge, I am very possibly going on holiday for 3 weeks over Christmas and New Year. This hike is on January 16^th. So with that added into the mix, it makes it even harder, as I don’t know how much hiking I will be able to get in over the Christmas period in the build-up to it, as I will most likely be abroad with my girlfriend.

While she likes to go out for a hike, pushing beyond 10 km’s will only make her one thing, grumpy 🙂 So, getting any training in, in the immediate run-up could be hard.

Anyway, the main point that I have been reflecting on the last days, for me personally, is when does hiking of this kind no longer become enjoyable!? For example, this group of guys and gals who I do these much harder hikes with can go a lot faster than me.

Now, in relative terms to most hikers, I can go fast. These folks however, have an extra gear or two and can really turn on the after burners if they wish to. Also, I love to hike and enjoy the scenery, especially on my own. When you go at these kind of speeds, I just don’t think you can honestly enjoy that element of hiking as much as possible, well, that would be the case for me anyway.

In truth, I just don’t find that kind of hyper-speed enjoyable so I don’t try and keep up, and at some point most of them will break off in a faster pace. That’s all cool.

So, there is a fine line for me in terms of what is enjoyable. I love a challenge and pushing myself but I do wonder if getting up at 1 a.m. in the depths of Winter to trudge 53 km’s in probably crappy weather is really what I would class as enjoyable.

As mentioned above, in my enthusiasm I signed up but I haven’t yet paid the entrance fee which is pricey at 110 euro’s (About $125 US as of today’s exchange rate). So, I can still choose not to partake. I need to commit and send the money on to one of the guys before October 25^th so I have to decide in the next couple of days.

Conclusion

So that’s what’s on my mind this week. I’ll have to have a good think on it over the next day or so. I do like the challenge aspect of it but the being away on holiday over Christmas is, currently, leaning me towards not doing it. If I don’t have time to train in the run-up, it would probably make the whole thing pointless. I’ll continue to reflect before making a decision.

What do you think? Do you like hiking challenges of this kind? Or, do you think doing this kind of thing defeats the purpose of hiking i.e. you should be out in the daytime enjoying the views and environment in as much visibility as possible, enjoying a nice pace and not pushing yourself to extremes?

I would love to hear your thoughts!