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

[Scott Williams]

And just keep your eye out for them trail zombies.  OOOO, I didn't really
mean to say that.  Put the eye back in!

Shroomer

On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 9:17 AM, Nathan Miller <erccmacfitheal at yahoo.com>wrote:

> > -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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Pct-L mailing list
> Pct-L at backcountry.net
> To unsubcribe, or change options visit:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
>
> List Archives:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
>