Thinking of hiking through the Pacific Crest? What about the Appalachian trail? Well you had better be ready. Backpacking requires a huge amount of endurance and strength. It might seem easy to carry your backpack for a few feet, but when you start racking up the miles, it gets pretty hard. Trust me, I have hiked beyond 50 miles per day before, did a 44 mile race on 3 technical peaks over 12,000 feet, and did 100 miles in 4 days. I have backpacked all over the country in many conditions from 14,000 foot mountains to the horse trails in my backyard. Rest assured that these tips is all you'll need to be the best backpacker possible. If you follow my simple steps, you'll be able to achieve your goal no matter how extravagant it is. So here is what you need to do:
Get everything ready. You need to have all your gear together, whether it is a 12 pound backpack and a water bottle or a 75 pound backpack for a gigantic thru-hike. I believe you should always practice like you play. Bring your backpack with you on a couple training hikes and pack it just like you will on the big day.
Be prepared. Taking some mock up backpacking trips will help you know whether you will need things like tissues, or sun screen. A mock up will also tell you if you can leave them at home to save some weight. It will help you realize just how much an extra pound or two might be, but the consequences aren't as high when you are just training.
Bring something extra. To enhance your training, fill a few extra Nalgenes and add them in your pack. Each bottle full of water is about two pounds, so you are adding lots of weight. However, if halfway through your work out, you decide it is too heavy, you can just dump it out. When I was training for my 44 mile race, I used to train with a 35 pound pack for 6-8 hours at once, even though I knew on the day of the race I'd only be carrying about 9 pounds. Doing this gave me the confidence and strength to hike longer and feel better through the whole race.
Ensure you have the right pack. The difference between a fitting backpack and one that is not totally fitting becomes insurmountably important when you get out on a hike and start accumulating the miles. When you are training, you can find out just how good your pack feels on your back. This will help you know if you have the right type and fit of backpack. Even more, you should make sure your pack is the perfect size, you don't want to use a 90 liter bag for 2 days, but you don't want to carry a 20 liter bag for 10 days either. Packing up your items, and actually using the supplies will help you know what size of backpack you need, or what you should leave behind.
Learn to do things while you hike. Training can be time consuming. While I would never suggest gabbing on the phone or bringing friends with you to chat while you are actually in the wilderness, it might be a good idea to make conditioning hikes a little more productive. Making your practicing social can make it enjoyable and helps your friends want to go with you on an actual expedition some time in the future too.
Record your workouts. Believe it or not, writing down your workouts is an ancient tradition. Even ancient Greek Olympians wrote down their training. Seeing your progress and keeping track of how you are doing will keep you fixed on your goal. Besides, it is always fun to be able to figure out that you have traveled 70 miles per week for the last 2 years and brag to your friends.
Begin with something small. I wouldn't advise taking on some super epic adventure race as your first time backpacking. That just doesn't make much sense and it is guaranteed to not be fun. You want your hike to feel like you can accomplish it, and like you're having fun doing it. You do not want to feel like you're just barely surviving. It is fine to just go out for a few miles in order to make sure you are beginning at your level. After that, you can work your way up in miles.
Find your style. I love backpacking alone, but my friends can't stand it. You should know what you like, so it continues to be interesting. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, you will not keep doing it.
This article was written by Brian Tecklenburg. He loves to not only hike, but also camp, climb and so much more. He trusts and highly recommends shopping www.moosejaw.com for all your backpacking gear and clothing.
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