[pct-l] First time multi-day hiking.

[Nathan Miller]

> -Any tips for first time multi-day hikers like myself?

My first overnight hike was back in Jr. High.  A fairly large (20-ish, if I recall) group of us hiked down to the Stanislaus River, swam, fished, hung out, camped that night, and then hiked back up the next day.  Up until that point, my only overnight or multi-day camping had been at Boy Scout campgrounds.  The following summer, I went on a 3-day hike with my church youth group.  I found that the two trips were remarkably similar.  Years later, when I did 4- and 5-day trips, I realized that there's really not much difference between an overnighter and a week-long hike.
If you've done any overnighters before, it'll be fairly straightforward translating that to you proposed section-hiking.  The main differences will be that you'll probably carry more socks, you'll definitely carry more food and probably more water and you may be covering more distance each day, depending on what your previous daily mileage has been and what your expected mileage will be.  This last I've found to be the major difference between my former hikes and my current section-hiking.  In high school, I think our longest days were somewhere in the 7-10 mile range, with most being 5-7 miles.  We'd get up, lolly-gag a LOT, maybe be on the trail by 10.00 or so, get to the next spot by, oh, 15.00 or 16.00 and lolly-gag some more.  It was pretty lazy hiking, all things considered.  I now find myself getting up as soon as it's light (sometimes before sunrise depending on how much distance I need to cover or what time of year it is [A friend of mine and I
 got up at 05.00 twice last fall hiking near the Sisters so we could hike in the moonlight.]), hiking almost non-stop all day (one factor behind my trail name) and then making camp somewhere before it's dark (although I've hiked past dark a few times).
If you haven't done any overnighters before, find someone who has and go with them.  If you have, then you can think of a multi-day hike as merely a series of back-to-back overnighters.  Otherwise, look at it as a series of long day-hikes during which you camp out instead of returning home.  There will only be a few additions to your day-hiking gear:  bag; shelter; H2O treatment; extra food; more socks.

-Nate the Trail Zombie
Newberg, OR