How to Prepare for a Hiking Trip

From choosing a destination and selecting gear to staying safe on the trails, here’s how to plan your next hiking trip

hiking friends standing on a ledge overlooking a valley

Getty Images

Cassandra Brooklyn,

AARP

En español

Published May 15, 2023

If you’re wondering whether now is the time to start planning a hike, consider the many benefits of getting out and trekking some trails. After all, hiking is fun, healthy and it’s often free. And unless you’re preparing to hike Mount Everest, you shouldn’t have to invest in too much new gear either.

Thanks to the pandemic, there’s been a renewed interest in the outdoors, including hiking, biking and camping. If you’re nervous about hiking by yourself, you can head for more popular trails or even join organized group hikes that may be offered in your area through REI, Meetup or Eventbrite.

Choosing the destination

For those who aren’t lucky enough to have a national park in their backyard, local city, county and state parks are an excellent place to start searching for potential hiking trails. National recreation areas and national forests often have tons of trails that also tend to be less crowded.

If you’re set on finding excellent hikes in national parks, consider what else you may appreciate about the parks aside from the hiking. If you’re looking for incredible fall foliage, you may want to head to Acadia National Park in Maine. If mountains are your goal, Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and Glacier National Park in Montana would be excellent choices.

Think about your overall goals of the trip, since great hiking could be part of a larger vacation that includes different activities. You also don’t necessarily need to choose between outdoorsy fun and urban adventures as many large cities are also near excellent trails. This way, you can visit museums and world-class restaurants one day and walk through forests and mountains the next. Las Vegas and Los Angeles are known for glitz and glam, but both have tremendous hiking opportunities within about an hour’s drive. Atlanta is only 90 minutes from the start of the Appalachian Trail.

As you plan, technology can guide you in choosing a trail and while hiking. Kirkland Shave, certified hiking guide, former Park Ranger and now the program creator and co-owner of British Columbia’s Mountain Trek Health Reset Retreat, explains that “our phones are excellent tools for on the trail, especially when they are in airplane mode.” He suggests apps like AllTrails or Gaia GPS that “let you download maps while online at home that still work with the phone’s GPS when off-grid or in airplane mode.”

Not only does AllTrails allow you to use the app offline, but it lets you search trails in your area and includes helpful information like distance, elevation and difficulty level, along with reviews and photos. These user comments give a good sense of how crowded (or uncrowded) the trail is and current mud or snow conditions. AllTrails also tags hikes to indicate whether it is wheelchair-friendly, dog-friendly (on a leash, of course!) and if it’s known for something special like wildflowers, waterfalls or birdwatching.

Gaia GPS is great for more advanced hikers who may want to pull segments from different trails and roads to plot their own route. Once you’re on your hike, several apps can enhance your experience, like Merlin, which identifies birds based on how they look or sound, and iNaturalist, which helps identify plants and animals you encounter.

When choosing and training for your hike, Bill King, a hiking leader and the executive director of the nature and environmental stewardship nonprofit Mariposa Trails, recommends knowing your limitations and avoiding overly exotic destinations. Choose “somewhere closer to where you live that has similar weather and terrain. Start hiking on short and easy hikes, becoming familiar with both the trail and your gear as you go.”

Training for your hike

If you’re attempting a hike significantly longer or steeper than you’re used to, start training beforehand. You could seek out similar trails near your home, but even if you can’t leave the city, it’s still possible to train for a long hike.

By getting in a few increasingly difficult urban walks each week, you can prepare on your own time and terrain. To train for elevation, I found steep hills where I live in New York City, and walked up and down flights of stairs in my building to begin building the muscles needed to tackle mountains.

Hiking safety and etiquette

The more strenuous and remote your hike, the more preparation and planning are required. For instance, if attempting a backcountry hike where it’s unlikely you’ll run into other hikers, you must bring everything you’ll need in an emergency.

If you’ll be hiking in bear country, bring bear spray and learn how to use it by speaking with staff at a nearby ranger station, park information center or outdoorsy store. Bears are usually harmless, but they can turn dangerous if they feel threatened. If hiking alone, consider clapping so bears will hear you coming, and thus are less likely to feel threatened. Shave also suggests speaking loud and low when around noisy waterways or dense forest without lines of sight, in order to give ample warning that you are approaching. Speak words like “hey bear” instead of making startling high-pitched “whoops,” he suggested.

Shave also stresses the importance of urinating “well away – at least 200 feet – from all trails and water sources.” If you need to poop, he suggests digging a hole at least 6 inches deep and covering it afterward.

Read any posted signs at the trailhead, as they might announce potential trail closures or warnings about high tick populations. Photograph posted maps or information you may want to refer to, and allow enough time to finish hiking well before dark. Fitness tracking apps like Strava, Hike Tracker or Running Walking Tracker Goals won’t replace a proper compass and map, but their GPS tracking features will allow you to record your route and follow your trail back should you get lost.

Packing

Your packing list will depend on the hike, and King suggests “dressing for the weather, not for fashion.” For instance, he says that if it’s a snowy hike, you may want to bring gaiters to go over your calves to keep snow (or mud) out of your boots and microspikes to wrap around them for additional foot traction. If your hike is long or temperatures are high, you may need to carry a water bladder, also known as a hydration reservoir for hands-free drinking, and electrolyte tablets with essential minerals.

Shave suggests packing:

Sufficient water – about 1 liter for every two hours of hiking.
Energy and nutrient-dense trail snacks that will fit nicely in your pack and afford ample energy.
Sunscreen and/or a hat, bandanna, long sleeves, etc., to protect skin from the sun.
A head lamp even when day hiking.
An “essentials” first aid kit and a knife.
Bug spray that can handle intense mosquito and tick infestations (particularly if you’re hiking at dusk or in a swampy area). After your hike, do a thorough tick check.
A filter, purification tablets, or equipment to boil water.

Leave No Trace

To keep trails clean and pristine and to ensure they stay in good condition for others to enjoy, it’s essential to follow Leave No Trace principles. Stay on trails to protect off-trail environments (and to prevent getting lost), don’t feed any animals, avoid crowded trailheads and carry out whatever you carried in. Stash any potential trash generated on the hike, like granola bar wrappers and banana peels, in a small plastic bag.

Video: Mom-Daughter Duo Hike 2,200 Miles to Fight Parkinson’s

%{postComment}%

Cassandra Brooklyn is a contributing writer who covers travel, caregiving, human-interest stories and the outdoors. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time and National Geographic, among other publications.