Okay everyone! I have a topic on the blog that I am really excited about. Summer opens the door to one of my favorite things; hiking in the great outdoors! I have written several other posts describing what it is like to be out on the trail but this time I am going to give you a details on all the work that goes into it before hand. It is intended to show you how I plan our backwoods hiking trips. When I first started hiking I had no idea how to go about planning a hike… case in point read my post about it here. There is nothing quite like the feeling of walking away from a campsite and knowing that everything you need for survival is on your back. After you do it once you will want to do it again and again.
Before I go too far I have a rant for you - be forewarned. Overnight hiking trails in Southern Ontario SUCK! You basically have three options 1. Algonquin Park, the Bruce Trail, and the Ganaraska hiking trail. If you know of any others let me know!
It appears that the Ontario Government does not value hiking trails. In Ontario most of the hiking trails are on private property - props to the people who are willing to allow complete strangers to walk on the beautiful trails on their property. Unfortunately most of them do not permit overnight camping - and to be perfectly honest I don’t blame them there as are a lot of idiots out there. These idiots are the reason that many land owners withdraw their permission and now trails have increasing portions where you are walking along the side of a road instead of being able to take in the beauty of nature. End of rant.
So first how do I pick my trails.
That depends on three things.
1. How many days am I going to be hiking for.
2. Am I going to be doing a loop or hiking in and then half way through hike back or will I be hiking from point A to point B and be shuttled in between.
3. How much of a workout do the people that I am hiking with want?
Most often I am a weekend warrior. I love hiking but I simply do not have enough vacation days from work to spend long time periods on the trail. (How awesome would it be if I did!) This limits how far I can drive to the actually get to the trail, how many kilometers I will be hiking on the trail and what goes into my backpack.
The trip that I am planning right now is a week long! What a luxury! This opens up many different trail options. We have decided to head to Pennsylvania and hike the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail. Seventy miles in five days - words don't describe how excited I am about this! For anyone out there who has not hiked before this speed might be a little fast for you. On my first overnight hike I did maybe 12 kilometers a day - if that. Take it slow and enjoy the first time you hike. I know that the first time I was hiking by the end of the hike I wasn't sure if I wanted to hike again ever. I was in a lot of pain and frustrated - because I made almost every newbie hiking mistake in the book. As this hike is going to be longer I try to plan a schedule a recoup day into the plan as I know that I will be tiered and not really wanting to jump right back into the real world after being in the wilderness.
Onto point two the big question is do you make a loop on the trail or hike from point A to B? If you hike from point A to B you will need to arrange a shuttle to either reunite you with your car at the end of the hike, or take you from your car and drop you off at the beginning of the trail. I suggest you do the latter. It takes the pressure off of you from having to get to the end of a trail by a certain time.
Last but certainly not least - take into account your fitness levels. Look at the elevation profile of the portion of the trail you will be hiking or even better learn how to interpret the topographical lines on the trail map. Be honest with yourself. Read other people’s blogs about their experiences on the particular trail that you hope to travel on.
If there is something that I forget to mention or you want more details let me know! I am not an expert by any means but I am slowly getting more miles under my feet. There is more to come. Next I will be getting into the nitty gritty about planning my food.
P.S. Sorry if there are too many exclamation marks this post... I may be just a little excited about this topic.