In today's episode i want to share with you 10 tips for beginner day hikers
if you are new here welcome my name is habiba and this is trekking pals
i have been hiking and backpacking for the past four years and there are a lot
of things that i learned throughout the way and i would like to share some of
them with you today so that you don't repeat the mistakes
i've made in the past and so that you have a
hustle free experience as a first time day
hiker so let's get started with tip number one
tip number one don't skip the registration box
a lot of times if you are hiking in a wilderness designated area
or a national forest you will notice that there are boxes or registration
boxes at the trailhead sometimes half a mile
in or couple of feet in you will see a
registration box a lot of times i see people just looking at it
and continuing with their height so make sure that you take time
to open that registration box if you do so you will notice that there is a book
a pen or a pencil for hikers and backpackers to register
by entering their information their name what time they are starting their hike
how many people in the party and when you finish your hike
what time did you check out sometimes if you are backpacking you would want to
specify how many days are you going to be on
that specific trail or on that specific wilderness area
this is very useful information very important for you
and for search and rescue should anything go wrong
that's going to give them some rough information about where you are
and help you if you are in trouble and that takes us to tip
number two and that is letting someone know
where you are going not a lot of trails have a registration box but sometimes
you won't get help until someone claims you or someone is asking about you
and for those of you who had watched the movie 172
hours the main character who got stuck in the canyon he started reflecting back
and he wished that he took the time to let someone know
where he was adventuring so make sure that you let someone know where you are
going could be a friend a family member or a
roommate let them know where you are going
even if it's just a short hike you are out there you are
exposed to the elements and you never know what can go wrong
let them know what route are you taking how long do you think this hike is going
to take you there is a feature on the mobile
application all trails that i've been experimenting with for the last few
weeks called lifeline this lifeline feature on all
trails allows you to choose one contact member and share with them
information about the time that you are starting your hike
which specific route you are taking and when do you think you're going to be
done hiking now sometimes if you are on a
hiking trail and you happen to have service
it's going to even share live updates with them
which can be very useful you're not going to rely only on using the lifeline
feature on this specific mobile application but this can
be an additional precaution measure that can
be taken tip number three is to check the weather only takes a
couple of seconds to do so it's very important every area of the
country is different with the different climates sometimes if
you are hiking in the mountains the weather tends to change
dramatically from sunny and bright outside to rainy
in some areas for example here in the desert of arizona
we do have a monsoon season where storms roll in very quickly and fast so
checking the weather is going to help you pack your gear accordingly
if it's going to rain you want to make sure that you have a rain jacket with
you for example or you do have a rain cover for your
backpack so make sure you check the weather
before you start hiking tip number four is to be aware of wildlife
in the area again every area of the country is different if you are hiking
in bear country for example you want to make sure that you are aware
you want to make sure that you are making enough noise on the trail
you want to make sure that you have the best prayer with you to protect yourself
should anything go wrong if you are hiking a new area
make sure that you talk to a ranger for example if you are in a national park
make sure you search online reviews talk to people
make sure that you understand what's going on in the desert for example there
are usually rattlesnakes in the hot and warm weather so you want to make sure
that you are staying aware and alert in some national forests there are
usually a lot of mountain lions you want to make sure that you are not hiking
alone in those areas for example so the point is just take some time to
search and read a little bit more about the wildlife in the area you are hiking
in and tip number five is to be independent
from others now when you are new to hiking and you're starting to hike
maybe you're not comfortable doing it by yourself in the beginning
and this is how i learned this is how you will learn this is how you acquire
more skills is to go out with people who are knowledgeable
who do have a lot of skill sets and who've been hiking and experimenting the
outdoors for a good amount of time but the one
mistake that i've done in the past is sometimes just driving to the
trailhead i know that i'm going with a bunch of people that i trust
and so i just get complacent and i get lazy i don't
even know sometimes what trail i'm going on
don't have a map i didn't do any research and that's a very bad idea
obviously it's not something that i'm doing right now but make sure to take
the time make sure that you are independent
search the trail get some information about the trail profile
make sure that you do have your own gear if you know for example that you are
doing an early sunrise hike or a late sunset hike
make sure that you do have your headlamp make sure that you do have
enough water enough food and all the essentials don't be dependent on anyone
even if you trust them and even if you know that they are knowledgeable
and tip number six is to be prepared in term of gear
now this is going to be a separate episode where i'm going to go into the
details but the point is make sure that you do
have enough gear like i said enough water enough food
enough layers and clothing first aid kit and all the necessary
things and we usually refer to them as the 10
essentials of hiking and that's going to be a separate
topic and tip number seven is to practice leave
no trace and for those of you who are not familiar with leave no trace
this is a set of seven outdoor ethics promoting conservation in the outdoors
and those seven principles are planning ahead and preparing
travel and camp on durable surfaces dispose of waste properly
leave what you find minimize campfire impacts
respect wildlife and be considerate of other visitors and i'm going to talk
about leave no trails in details in an upcoming video so stay tuned for
that and tip number eight is to have a good attitude now when
you're going to start hiking you're probably going to go with more
comfortable easy to moderate hikes but the more you do it the more you
realize that you want a bigger challenge and with a bigger
challenge come bigger physical demand and mental demand and
you will realize that hiking is not only about your
physical ability but mental ability as well sometimes things can get really
hard and it's not always roses and butterflies outside on the trail there
are days where it really sucks which i had an
interesting experience if you guys are curious to check it out
you can check the link up here but make sure that you try your best and go
into every hike with a positive good attitude
tell yourself that you can do it as long as you're not putting yourself in danger
because sometimes backing out is not a bad idea so make sure that you are
positive make sure that you are going in with a
good attitude and the next tip is to stay away from
cotton a majority of people from the hiking and backpacking community agree
that cotton in clothing whether it's for the
underwear or out wear is not a good idea and the reason is cotton absorbs
all the sweat when you are hiking and if you happen to take a break it's going to
make you really cold and chilly and that's not a good idea it's
also hard to dry so instead of wearing cotton clothing make sure that you are
going with a synthetic material maybe polyester in your athletic clothes
or merino wool and the next tip is to wear proper shoes
now when you are hiking your feet are your biggest asset so you want to make
sure that you are comfortable and discomfort comes
from wearing or choosing the right shoes this is a very large topic that we
can cover later on but just make sure that you are
comfortable in your shoes don't buy them today
and wear them the next day it's going to take time for you to realize and
understand what type of shoes work best for you
but just keep in mind that proper shoes is very crucial and the last tip in the
list here is hiking pose now when i started hiking
and backpacking i used to look at people on the trail and always wonder
why the heck is it necessary why do we even need hiking pose
to realize that if i want to keep hiking long term until i
am 70 or 80 if i live that long it's going to be very important because it
alleviates a lot of weight out of your knees and back especially if
you are carrying a heavy backpack so using hiking poles
is very important especially if you plan on hiking
for the long run so this is pretty much it for all i wanted to share with you
today if you did learn something new from this
video please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing to our channel
i'm habiba and alongside with my partner alex who create video content about
hiking backpacking and adventure traveling
thank you again for watching and we'll see you very soon
on a new adventure bye