Wouldn’t it be great if you could look in a guidebook and find out how easy or difficult a particular hike would be? Unfortunately there is no commonly used system for rating trail difficulty. Lots of other outdoor sports, like rock climbing and whitewater paddling, have systems for rating the difficulty of a climbing pitch or a whitewater river. These systems are very useful for matching your skill level with the difficulty of the trip.

There are so many factors that can slow down or speed up a hiker that rating the difficulty of a trail is extremely subjective. Take the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania: In the southern part of the state, it is on a fairly flat ridge with good trails, then it moves northward and you enter the dreaded “rock zone,” where the trail requires constant rock-hopping for miles that slows down hikers significantly. I look at the following factors and rely on my own hiking experience as a gauge.

Daily mileage

Daily elevation changes—how many feet/meters you go up or down over the course of the day

Steepness of ascent or descent

Trail conditions (smooth, rocky, switchbacks, off trail, etc.)

Amount of weight the person is carrying, as a percentage of their body weight. (See “The Backpack,”.)

If you are over 8,000 feet (2,438 meters), consider the effect of reduced oxygen and acclimatization on hiking pace. (See “Altitude Illnesses,”.)

PLANNING A ROUTE

GUIDEBOOKS

I like to start with guidebooks when planning a trip. Since the maps that you would typically take on a trip are pretty specific (and buying lots of maps can get expensive), it’s best to focus on the general area that you are interested in first, and a good guidebook is indispensable. Most guidebooks will give you an overview of the area and some basic maps, so you can get an idea of where to go. A good guidebook will also have specific trails and trips described in detail with mileages, elevation changes, campsites, places to visit, etc. Since guidebooks are so regionally specific, there are lots of different publishers, and finding guidebooks outside your local area can be difficult. Whenever I travel I make it a habit to stop at local bookstores or outdoor shops to see what local-area guidebooks and maps they have. Here are a few of the larger publishers and sources of information you might check out:

Bradt Travel Guides (www.bradt-travelguides.com)

Cicerone (www.cicerone.co.uk)

HarperCollins (www.collins.co.uk)

Maps International (www.mapsinternational.co.uk)

The Ramblers Association (www.ramblers.org.uk)

Rough Guides (www.roughguides.com)

Once you’ve located a specific area, get some maps and start working out the details of your trip. (See “Maps and Map Reading,”.)

See “Estimating Travel Times” to determine how long each day’s hike will take. For each day, establish a Time Control Plan that includes your hiking time along with other factors to calculate your total travel time for the day. During the day, monitor your Time Control Plan; you may have to modify the trip if you are not able to keep to your planned schedule.

Use the Trip Logistics Plan (page) to help document your route and to give to your emergency contact person.

As you plan your route, develop a daily evacuation plan and document it on your Trip Logistics Plan. For each day of the trip, know, in general, where you would go to get help in case of an emergency. Obviously, this information will change all the time, but you should know the area well enough to find nearby roads or towns or other resources in case of a problem.

TRAVEL LOGISTICS

Where is your starting point? Where is your ending point? What type of road or other access is there to the trail?

Is everyone traveling together to get to the trailhead or going separately?

Is this a loop route, or an in-and-out route back to your original starting point (A to A), or a one-way route (A to B)? If A to B, do you need to get back to A to get to your car? Can you do your own shuttle? Or do you need to be picked up at B? Are there taxis or public transportation available?

Once you are out on your trip, keep an accurate daily trip log about where you went, what you saw, how long it took, and so on. This will be a great help in planning your next trip.

TRICKS OF THE TRAIL

Timing is Everything There are a lot of environmental factors that can impact your trip route. For example, in mountainous regions like the Rockies, afternoon thunderstorms are very common in the summer. If you are going to travel on exposed ridges or summits, you want to plan your day to leave very early and be back down off exposed areas by the early afternoon. Another mountain issue is snowmelt. The stream crossings in parts of the Alps, Iceland and Norway are legendary. During the summer, as the temperature rises during the day, there is greater snow and ice melt. What can be an easy low-water crossing in the early morning can become a dangerous or impassable current by the afternoon.

CHOOSING CAMPSITES

Trip planning is often done from campsite to campsite. You need to make sure that at the end of the day, you will have a place to set up your tent or tarpaulin that isn’t in the middle of a bog or perched on a steep rockslide. A lot of campsite selection can be done using guidebooks and maps. Select a site that allows your group to set up a good Leave No Trace campsite. (See “Leave No Trace Hiking and Camping.”) Unfortunately, sometimes you don’t have the information you need to determine a good campsite in advance, and you’ll have to locate a spot as you hike. More than once, I’ve looked at the map contours and thought, “That looks flat; there must be a good campsite there,” only to discover thick underbrush with no open spaces. Here are some general guidelines for campsite selection:

Water Availability Preferably you want a site near a water source; otherwise, you may need to carry in enough water for dinner, breakfast the next day, and possibly the next day’s hike. Is the water source reliable at all times of year? Is it drinkable or must it be treated?

Campsite Space You want a site that provides enough open space for sleeping, cooking, and washing. (These areas do not have to be right next to each other.) In locations like bear country, it is best if you have a campsite with enough space to keep these areas separate (see page).

Campsite Location If you don’t know of a specific campsite, start looking for campsites early in the day. It’s better to stop at a good campsite earlier on and make up the mileage the next day, rather than continue hiking, only to find nothing there—which means either backtracking or continuing to hike on, which could be difficult or even dangerous if it’s getting dark.

Private Land Be sensitive about hiking on private land. In some cases hiking through is permitted but overnight camping is not. If conditions (bad weather, an injured group member) require it, you may decide you need to. If so, recognize that you may be breaking the law and must live with the consequences. Most people are understanding about emergency situations.

Restricted Areas Don’t camp in a restricted area (unless a group member’s safety is at stake). The area is restricted for a reason. If you choose to camp in a restricted area, recognize that you may be subject to tickets, fines, or even arrest. Explain your situation to rangers or other officials and ask for their assistance. Get them involved as allies in helping you in a difficult situation rather than as law-enforcement officials prosecuting you for an offense. In most cases involving safety (like an injury), rangers and wilderness managers are very understanding. They may still require you to move but may be helpful in finding another location.

ESTIMATING TRAVEL TIMES

As part of planning your route you want to figure out how long it’s going to take you each day. Getting a truly accurate estimate of travel times for your trip is difficult since there are so many factors: your physical condition, condition of the trail, elevation gain/loss, amount of weight you are carrying, rest stops, how much you want to stop and enjoy nature, etc. Guidebooks can be a real help here, since some give estimates of how many hours are required for the hike.

Here is a general formula for estimating travel time for backpacking trips. Use this only as an estimate: On a day hike with less gear or if you are going ultralight, you will move faster than with a heavy pack; a packed dirt trail will be faster than sand dunes or powder snow. In a group, people with different physical abilities or of different ages may move faster or slower, changing the pace of the entire group. This gets back to our earlier discussion about physical condition levels. If you have a broad range of physical condition levels, it may be hard to find a pace that everyone is comfortable/satisfied with. Talk about this before the trip and arrive at a decision that the whole group can live with. As a rule of thumb, the larger the group, the more slowly it moves (there are more stops for pack adjustments, bathroom breaks, etc.).

General Travel Time Guidelines

An average person’s hiking speed on generally flat terrain is 30 minutes per mile (1.6 kilometers), so 1 hour equals 2 miles (3.2 kilometers). If you know that your hiking speed is faster or slower than this, adjust the formula.

Add 1 hour for each 1,000 feet (305 meters) of ascent.

Plan about 5 minutes of rest for each hour of hiking. The more people you have, the more rest stops, bathroom breaks, and equipment adjustments there will be, so adjust accordingly.

Calculating Miles per Hour

Divide the number of miles to be hiked by 2. Calculate the total feet of ascent, divide it by 1,000, and multiply that number by 1 hour. Add up all the hours to find the total hiking hours for the day.

(miles traveled ÷ 2 mph) + (elevation gained ÷ 1,000) + (miles traveled × 5 minutes) = travel time

Example: A group hikes 8 miles (12.8 kilometers) in Rocky Mountain National Park. The day includes a total ascent of 2,000 feet (610 meters). The estimated time to hike this route would be:

8 miles ÷ 2 miles per hour = 4 hours + (2,000 ÷ 1,000) × 1 hour [ascent]

4 hours + 2 hours = 6 hours + (6 × 5 minutes for rest breaks) = 6 hours 30 minutes

Calculating Kilometers per Hour

Using the same example, divide the number of kilometers to be hiked by 1.6. Calculate the total meters of ascent, divide it by 305, and multiply that number by 1 hour. Add up all the hours to find the total hiking hours for the day. Using the same example from above, the estimated time to hike this route would be:

12.8 kilometers ÷ 1.6 kilometers per hour = 4 hours + (610 ÷ 305) × 1 hour [ascent]

4 hours + 2 hours = 6 hours + (6 × 5 minutes for rest breaks) = 6 hours 30 minutes

These calculations will give you basic transit time. This doesn’t include longer stops for meals, stops for scenic views and photos, etc. You will need to add time in for these things each day based on information from maps and guidebooks or personal experience with the area. Once you are hiking, check your actual time against the time you calculated for your route. By keeping a daily Trip Log (page) with information on hiking times, trail conditions, rest breaks, etc., you can refine your estimates. Use your actual travel time to revise your estimates for the next day of your trip. If there is a significant discrepancy, you may need to revise your route plan.

TIME CONTROL PLAN

A Time Control Plan is just that: a plan for controlling your time on the trail each day. Creating a daily Time Control Plan will help you get to your planned destination on time and reduce the potential for accidents. (See “Safety and Emergency Procedures.”)

Here’s an imaginary example. You are planning a summer day hike to the top of an 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) peak in the Pyrenees or Alps in late July. There won’t be any snow on the trails at that time. The hike starts at 2,700 feet (820 meters). It’s 6.25 miles to the summit (10 kilometers). You know that afternoon thunderstorms may occur, and you need to be off the exposed ridgelines of the peak by early afternoon. You calculate that it will take you 5 hours to reach the summit including rest breaks. It will then take you 2 hours to get back to the treeline at 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). You decide to start hiking at 5:00 A.M. Your plan has you arriving at the summit at 10:30 A.M. You plan for 30 minutes for lunch on the summit, with a departure time of 11:30 A.M. to start heading back (an extra 30 minutes of buffer time). This gets you back to treeline at 1:30 P.M. – within your window of safety for afternoon storms. As you can see, this is just a one-day hike and there were lots of time-control parameters.

The following table will help you plan each day. Start with what time you will get up, and then fill in times for each day’s activities. Remember all of the factors discussed earlier to help determine your route, such as participant age, experience, and physical condition, as well as trail conditions, pack weight, and weather. Add up all the times and then subtract that from the hours of daylight.

If your result is a negative number, you’re likely to end up arriving after dark. Look at the route and see if hiking in the dark would put you on a difficult section of the trail. If that presents a problem, go back to the drawing board and make some changes—cut down the mileage, decide if you can hike faster, or get up earlier.

TIME REQUIRED

+____minutes How long will it take you to break camp? +____minutes Are there any special places you want to explore? +____minutes Based on your estimated travel time, how long will your group take to hike the distance? +____minutes Are there any hindrances to travel, such as river crossings or bushwhacks, that will add additional time? +____minutes How much time is needed for rest breaks and meals? +____minutes How long it will take to set up a proper Leave No Trace camp? =____hours ____minutes Add all of the above for your total time. −____hours ____minutes Subtract the number of hours of daylight. ____hours ____minutes Total Planned Travel Time—if this is a negative number, you don’t have enough hours of daylight, so think about replanning.

LONG-DISTANCE TRIPS

Planning a long-distance trip is a whole different ballgame from a few days or a week. Once you get into multiweek or multimonth trips, you can’t carry all of your food on your back, so you have to start thinking about resupply. There are far too many things to cover about long-distance backpacking in the space provided here, but these general guidelines will get you started, and the Bibliography includes references for long-distance hiking.

RESUPPLY ISSUES

Are there resupply locations within a reasonable hike from the trail at the intervals you need? Hike out, buy food, and hike back in.

Can someone meet you along the trail for resupply?

Can you mail items to yourself care of General Delivery? This works for nonperishable food items. Pack food for the period between post offices and mail it to yourself. You’ll need to know where the post offices are and plan how you’ll get to them from the trail. For trails like the Appalachian Trail, all of this information is well documented for through-hikers.

Do you develop some sort of meal rotation so you don’t have to eat the same mac & cheese dinner every night and also don’t have to plan a ridiculous number of meals? Don’t plan too much—many through-hikers find that their tastes change as they go through the trip.

What other items besides food will you need to replenish (fuel, batteries, etc.)? Many hikers handle some of these needs through a “bump box” or “drift box.” They mail things ahead of themselves to the next General Delivery site and can pick up items they need temporarily, like toenail clippers and a razor, then send them on again and not have to carry them.

How you answer these questions is going to have a big impact on both your route and food planning. It might be 5 days between your resupply one week and 8 days the next.

GOING ULTRALIGHT

Many of us go to the wilderness for a sense of freedom. We leave civilization behind and feel this great connection with the outdoors. It’s funny how we also tend to bring everything but the kitchen sink with us in order to feel “comfortable” in the outdoors. All that weight has an impact on hiking speed, your joints, how much mileage you can cover, what you can see, and just the pure pleasure of hiking. Think about those great day hikes you’ve been on with lightweight boots and a small daypack on your back; you just eat up the miles. Then you come back to the same place for a multiday trip and you’ve got 50+ pounds (22+ kilograms) on your back. Where you were flying before, you’re now just trudging along. But there is an alternative. Ultralight backpacking is as close to flying on the trail as you can get, and throughout the book I’ll give you tips on how to incorporate ultralight practices in your backpacking trips. Watch for the feather logo and the GOING ULTRALIGHT heading to help you plan your lightweight getaway.

Ultralight backpacking evolved from long-distance through-hikers on trails like the Appalachian Trail (AT) and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). When you’re hiking every day for six months you really come to understand what it means to carry extra weight, and these hikers quickly learn just what they need and what they don’t need on the trail. If you should be lucky enough to speak to people who have completed one of these trails, they will tell you about all the stuff they shipped home along the way because they just weren’t using it.

I’ve always been an “overpacker,” bringing stuff I think that maybe I might need or just want to have. I end up huffing and puffing with a huge pack, and a good 20 percent of it never gets used. During my first trip to New Zealand I had to cut way back on what I took with me, and that changed my perspective dramatically. If you know the area and the conditions you are going to encounter, and if you know your own body (what you need to keep warm, dry, and comfortable), you don’t have to carry tons of gear. There’s been a revolution in the availability of ultralight clothing, sleeping bags, packs, stoves, and shelters, so you can now go out and be comfortable without breaking your back. The person who is perhaps best known for leading this revolution is Ray Jardine, whose book Beyond Backpacking is a classic text for anyone who is serious about the ultralight approach. Ray is a visionary who accomplished his goals of dramatically reducing equipment weight through his own ingenuity. He went from a 75-pound (34 kilogram) pack on his first PCT through-hike to under 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms).

Trained as an engineer, Ray has always been an inventor, so sewing his own clothing, packs, and shelters wasn’t anything new. Most of us aren’t visionaries and don’t have time to sew our own gear. Thankfully, major equipment manufacturers have recognized the demand for ultralight gear and now produce a wide range of products, including clothing, packs, shelters, and sleeping bags. The very lightest gear can be too fragile for commercial production, so the cutting edge of this type of design is often done by hard-core ultralight techies. Check out some of the resources in the Bibliography.

When you are planning a route, you make a set of assumptions on miles per day based on the 2 miles per hour formula (3.2 kilometers). That’s an average hiking speed for an average person carrying an average weight pack. As you drop equipment weight, your daily hiking mileage is going to increase. Experienced ultralight hikers routinely cover 25 to 30 miles per day (40–48 kilometers). So keep this in mind if you are planning a trip with ultralight gear. One caveat: just taking lighter gear doesn’t mean you can hike long distances. Through-hikers have either trained or build up to those mileages. Of course, just because you can hike farther doesn’t mean you have to. You may head to the same place as you would with a heavier pack and have more time for exploring side hikes along the way, a long stop for nature photography and journaling at lunch, etc. If you are planning a trip with friends and some have ultralight gear and others heavier gear, you’ll need to talk about the goals for the trip and how you will manage different hiking paces and timelines.

One important thing to understand about the ultralight approach is that it is both a philosophy and a continuum. The philosophy is to take only what you need and need only what you take. The continuum is your personal choices and strategies. You might reduce weight with clothing, sleeping bag, and backpack choices and still decide to take a tent because it’s black fly season, and for your enjoyment of the outdoors (or so you don’t go insane) you’d like to be in a tent. Someone else might be comfortable with a lighter weight tarpaulin and a mosquito headnet. Here are the principles my friend Bill “Tigerpaw” Plonk suggests based on his ultralight through-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

Take only what you need.

Take the lightest gear that will do the job.

Use gear with multiple functions.

Reassess regularly and discard whatever you haven’t used.

There isn’t one “right” lightweight approach (and don’t let purists try to convince you otherwise), but I can guarantee you, once you start to shed pounds, you’ll never go back.

CHAPTER 2

Equipment

EQUIPMENT ASSESSMENT

Personal Equipment

Group Equipment

The Essentials

CLOTHING

Regulating Your Body Temperature

The Layering Principle

The Clothing Layers

Clothing Techniques

BOOTS

What Kind of Boots

Fitting Boots

Breaking in Boots

Boot Care

THE BACKPACK

Pack Size

Sizing a Pack

Packing Your Pack

General Packing Suggestions

SLEEPING EQUIPMENT

Sleeping Bags

Sleeping Pads

SHELTER

General Shelter Tips

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