When to turn back

Be real

Misery ridge only half a mile

Rain

Cold weather

Hot weather

Hiking after dark

Early start

Recognize and respond to adverse trail conditions

Slick surfaces Steps Snow and ice Trail edges

Insoles and orthodics

Emergency situations

A healthy respect for mother nature Expect the unexpected Checklists When most accidents happen Dehydration

Duct tape (blister prevention & treatment)

Duct tape has many uses on the trail and it is a good idea to keep some bright colored duct tape handy when you hike. Here we are focused on using it for foot comfort. The place to start for blister prevention is your socks and shoes. But on long hikes that might not be enough. Even with the best gear, blisters can happen if you hike far enough. The best thing you can do is take steps to prevent the blisters. There are some expensive products out there, but duct tape is usually enough. Figure out where you are most prone to develop a blister in the shoes you are wearing. Then cover those areas with duct tape before you start hiking. The tape will stick better if you clean the area first with an alcohol swab. It will also be more likely to stay on if you have no sharp corners. Use some scissors to cut the tape circular or oval. Then carefully put on your socks as shoes. If you do it right, the tape will stay on all day and you won't rub a blister because your socks will slide easily over the duct tape. Before a blister develops, you will notice a "hot spot" if you are paying attention. Stop hiking immediately if you feel a hot spot and apply some duct tape. Some people wait too long thinking that you can hike a mile or so with a hot spot and not get a blister. The truth is many hikers have thought they had a hot spot, took of their shoe immediately, only to find that they had a blister instead. You may not have the luxury of waiting and that is why we advise acting sooner rather than later. What if you still get a blister. The duct tape will work for that as well. Just cover the blister and keep going. The only difference with this strategy is you'll want the tape to fall off naturally in the bath or shower. If you just pull it off, you could make the blister worse. Also, some blisters are worse than others. We always carry special blister treatments with us for the bad blisters. They stick better and longer than duct tape and they are sterile which helps prevent infection. Knowing when to used duct tape and when to use the blister treatment can be tricky. When in doubt, always go with the blister treatment. Should you pop the blister? Last time I checked, no one seems to know. My feeling is that you should just let nature run its course. I think there is a reason for the fluid and, when you pop the blister, the fluid goes away. That said, the fluid is often a big part of the pain you feel. I have had to pop a blister or two because the pain was slowing me down too much. Its a choice you sometimes have to make. Do you want to get off the trail after dark or do you want to pop the blister? If you do pop the blister, most people will tell you that the best way is with a sterile pin. You want the hole to be as small as possible to let the blister drain and still be covered with the loose skin. This helps prevent infection. Once, I was able to drain the blister through a small hole and the hole somehow closed on its own. Fluid eventually filled the blister again. Kind of the best of both worlds on that one.

Water and food

Nuun

The best clothing

Hiking down long, steep grades

Rest breaks

Training for distance hiking

The easiest way to train for distance hiking is to just hike like you normally do at shorter distances. As you have seen, there is a whole different style of hiking that you develop for distance hiking.  Being able to switch easily between the two styles is a big key.  The problem is that you already know how to hike normally.  You don't have to think about it because it comes naturally to you.  But your distance hiking style may be a little or a lot awkward for you.  You will need to change that through practice until that style also becomes second nature for you.

While the easiest way to train may be to just hike normally, that doesn't mean it is the best way.  There are a lot of other things you can do to enhance the experience.  Probably the first thing you should think about is strengthening yourself in any area where there are vulnerabilities.  If you have a bad knee, then you need to give that area of your body special attention.  That's pretty obvious.  But what if you are one of the luck ones who doesn't have anything like that to deal with.  There is still one or two areas that you can focus on.  What is the first area that starts hurting when you go on a long hike?  While that may not be a medical issue, it is your most vulnerable area.  It may even be an injury that is just waiting to happen.  The key thing is that if you deal with it now, you will be able to hike more comfortably on the whole.  You will know that you have solved that issue when a new area of your body starts hurting first on a long hike.  You can then work on this new most vulnerable area.  No matter how many such areas you address, there will always be an area that is most vulnerable.  So how many of these areas do you focus on before it is time two stop?  In many cases, the answer seems to be two.  But the number is really different for everyone.  The truth is, you will probably just know when continuing with more areas is no longer helping much.  Pay attention and trust your gut on this one.

What you go to next depends on who you are.  Some people are not aerobically fit and need to work on that first.  There are many ways to do that.  Just doing what some people call "power hiking" is a good way.  Hike like you normally do, but just speed things up and do what you can to exaggerate you muscle usage.  Your heart rate should go up quickly.  It is good to have a simple, accurate way to measure heart rate.  These days you can get a watch with a good heart rate monitor for less than $30.  Figure out where your training heart rate should be and train at that level for however long you doctor recommends.  If you do that regularly, you will see your aerobic fitness improve pretty fast.

But for people who hike regularly, aerobic fitness is not a big enough issue to focus on to that degree.  It will probably help everyone to "power hike" now and then, but you really don't need to make it your main focus.  Think about strengthening muscles you use a lot while hiking.  One thing I do sometimes is hike in boots because I normally hike in trail running shoes that are much lighter. It is a good way to train because you really notice the difference when you go back to your lighter shoes.  Back in the days when backpacking was popular, they used to say that one pound on your feet was equivalent to five pounds on your back.  The issue is that important.  So this is a good place to start.  But if you normally hike in boots, what do you do?  I'm not a big fan of ankle weights but that may be because my knees have problems that are aggravated by them.  I would think that a heavier boot would probably work better than ankle weights if, for no other reason, because it is closer to what you are doing when you are wearing your regular boots.

Another thing I see people doing a lot is wearing a weight vest.  I have never done that, but I am considering it.  The advantage is that the weights surround your body and are close to it.  Some people are strong believers in just wearing a heavy pack.  That can be a good way to go, but most packs are just not comfortable no matter how well they are fitted and made.  Putting extra weight in them only exaggerates the problem.  To me a pack is a necessary evil and making it unusually heavy is a form of self-imposed torture.  Not the best way to train, at least not for me.  In another tip, we will deal with the pack issue.  So, although I have not tried it yet, I do like the idea of using a weight vest.

Cross training is another thing to consider.  It is a subject that is really big and individual.  What is the best form of cross training for you?  I am not qualified to answer that.  Plus I don't even know you.  If you find the right expert, they will be able to help assess your situation and advise you.  That is something I would really recommend if you get to the point where you think you are ready to start cross training.  No sense in just picking a different exercise you like when you could get five times the benefit out of something an expert might recommend.

All of that said, there are some obvious things to think about when it comes to cross training.  If you pay attention to how little your knees bend when hiking, it should be obvious that squats and/or leg presses could make a big difference because you are strengthening your legs over a longer range of motion.  It is no accident that common advice for hikers in training is to climb stairs as much as possible.  Doing that will make a big difference.  But there are exercises that produce the same results faster and you might want to go in that direction.

Another good area to focus on is your core or torso, especially your abs.  Why?  Because most people are not strong in this area and, if that is you, doing so will produce big results when hiking.
There are an amazing number of ways that people can use to strengthen their core muscles.  Some are gimmicks, but most will help at least some.  This is another area where you can benefit from the help of a professional mainly because there is so much confusing and misleading information out there.

Finally, if you use trekking poles, you can benefit a lot by strengthening your arms.  The estimates of how much trekking poles can help varies greatly, but all estimates are substantial.  If you strengthen your arms in a way that helps you better use your poles, you will be exceeding even the highest estimates in no time.  For distance hiking, that could easily be one of the most important things you can do because you are constantly using your lower body much less.  As a result, you can hike much further before you start hurting.

Trekking poles

Carol has been using trekking poles for years.  I first started using them at Smith Rock State Park where the downhill is steep and a little treacherous.  The difference with and without the poles is amazing.  It is so much easier going downhill that it is worth carrying them on the rest of the hike even if you aren't using them.  Where else do poles help?  Stream crossings come to mind.  You can easily get across a pretty gnarly stream if you have poles.  They also help going up steep trails, especially when there are a lot of steps.  There are a lot of special circumstances you will come across while hiking where you are glad you have poles.

But here's the thing.  If you use poles most of the time like Carol does, you will find they give you a great advantage while distance hiking no matter what the trail is like.  Carol could not hike as far as she does at Pilot Butte without those poles because they help your feet, knees, back, hips, leg muscles, etc.  But that will not be true if, like me, you only use the poles on occasion.  The reason is that the muscles in your arms, wrists, shoulders, and upper back have to be in shape to use the poles for a long period of time.  For me, I will get an advantage on a hike that is six miles or less.  After that, it becomes a disadvantage because my upper body isn't in good enough shape.  So I usually have one or two poles in my pack on long hikes for the times when they really help out bigtime.  Those are the times when I use them.  Do I have a good reason for not using them all the time?  The only reason is that I like having the camera ready as often as possible for wildlife photos.  The poles get in the way a bit and so I choose to use them sparingly.

Trekking poles give you a better overall workout while distributing the work you do across your entire body.  That is why they can be so beneficial when hiking long distances.  Without them, your feet will start hurting sooner and all of the muscles and joints in your lower body will give out faster.

Beyond that, you will be hiking safer as well.  Even on the Pilot Butte trails, it is so easy to fall and, if you do, the chances of injury are kind of high.  Plus those chances of injury increase with age.  If a 20 year old falls on the trail, there is a pretty good chance that only his pride will be hurt.  But pretty much every decade after that, the chance of injury increases quite a bit.  And even a sprained ankle can set you back a lot or even cause other problems.  Carol got injured once years ago when she was using a single hiking stick.  It happened to be on a long one way trail back to the campground (we had shuttled cars to get to the trailhead).  What started out as a nice, calm, sunny day changed rapidly to a major windstorm with gusts over 70 mph.  She was blown off the trail with one of those gusts and hurt her knee.  If she had a pair of trekking poles, that probably wouldn't have happened.  So, even though the injury ended up not being bad, it slowed her down that day.  She had ten miles to go after the injury and we got off the trail at about 11:00 pm.  It was a good thing there were three of us because we were hiking after dark for three hours in grizzly country on a windy night when it is difficult hearing things moving around.  It would have been a lot more dangerous had there just been two of us.  Had it just been one person, they would have had to give serious consideration to waiting until morning to hike out.

Avoid paved surfaces

I supposed if you walked on pavement all day, it wouldn't be too bad if you were wearing a good pair of running shoes. But I still think you are better off on a dirt trail. The dirt is softer, and your feet slide a bit, making it easier on your feet. You may be thinking, "Why are we even discussing this? I don't know of many paved trails that are long enough for distance hiking." Setting Pilot Butte aside for a minute, the issue does indeed come up now and then. The best example I know of is a little short to be called distance hiking, but it illustrates the point so well that I have to use it. In Silver Falls State Park there is an extremely popular loop trail that is about seven miles long. Over half a million people walk some portion of that trail every year.  As you get close to the end of the loop, you cross over a paved bike trail about half a mile from the end of the loop. After 6.5 miles on a dirt trail, that paved trail looks very inviting. Lots of people take it and most of them pay a high price. Why? The human foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and tendons. That's just one foot! All of these things are getting tired and sore, but they are used to hiking on the dirt trail. Start pounding the pavement with them and you will know soon enough how bad the idea was to take the bike trail. At Silver Falls, you can sit at the end of the loop trail and you can easily tell who opted for the pavement. I've had people come back and report that their feet were sore for a week or more after only half a mile of hiking on the pavement. Like I said, this issue does come up occasionally. Sometimes your trail will empty out on a road that is somewhat close to your starting point. Believe me, after 20 miles on the trail, the last thing you want to do is walk even 100 yards on a road. You will feel the pain almost immediately and it will just keep getting worse the further you go. Pilot Butte is obviously a very unusual situation for distance hiking. There are no long trails, so you have to repeat trails over and over to cover any distance. There is also pavement that can be hard to avoid. If you are going to the top a couple of times, the pavement won't be much of a problem. If you are going up top 10 times, you definitely will be better off staying off the pavement as much as possible. The only place where you might HAVE TO walk on pavement is the top and, even there, a lot of pavement can be avoided. But it is just so easy to get onto pavement that it will serve you well if you pay attention to this issue. You will be better off hiking slower behind someone than you will be passing people on pavement if you are trying for a lot of miles.

Switch gears in your head at the end

For many, the end of the hike is the worst.  What you are thinking makes a big difference.  If you are toughing it out, it will be tough.  A good mental strategy changes that.  Many people have a rule for the end of the hike:  

Always walk off like you own the place.  

You can collapse in your home but don't even think about letting others see you sweat.  Put on your biggest smile, wave to the crowd, thank everyone for coming out to Your Butte, etc.  Mainly, enjoy the last part of your hike because you earned it! 

Do the Camel Walk

Here is a tip for all of you shooting for a long distance on Saturday: Do the Camel Walk on Friday.

The Camel Walk is my pet name for the modified rest step people develop for walking long distances.  If you get a picture in your head of a camel walking across the sand in a desert, you may get a sense of what I am talking about.  Think about the slow, even pace.  Think about the fluidity of the movement.  Then think about walking long distances in harsh conditions.  No surprise that camels are able to do the "Camel Walk" without a second thought.

But humans are different.  They are often in a hurry and they seldom give thought to how they are expending their energy.  Still, if you have ever bitten off a little more than you could chew on a hike, you already know how to do the Camel Walk because it is very similar to how you walk when you are tired.  The logic is simple.  When you get tired, your body makes adjustments so that you can get to your destination even though you are worn out.  You start walking slower, your feet aren't coming off the ground as much, you've lost the "spring" in your step and your calf muscles aren't working as hard, etc.  The Camel Walk is a way of walking that is very similar to that.  The main difference is that you aren't tired when you start and, because you are fresh, you can add a fluidity to your movements that isn't possible when you are tired.

Everyone's Camel Walk will be slightly different and it will change as you hike on different terrains.  But it still comes down to walking like you are tired, well before you get tired, with a certain grace or fluidity.  The Camel Walk is an amazing thing.  It can even be somewhat spiritual.  There is an old John Denver lyric that I play in my head to help me shift into this style of hiking: "seeking grace with every step he takes."  I play that song in my head and I shift into the Camel Walk immediately.  You may need at trick like that because making the shift doesn't come naturally.  You are inclined to hike the way you always hike.  Changing that takes some practice and maybe a trick or two.

I described it that way first because the Camel walk is best taught as a concept as opposed to specific instructions of what to do and not do.  Still, there are some elements that can be described.  For example, you'll find that your feet remain almost parallel to the ground and that your feet are coming off the ground as little as possible.  It isn't really possible, but ideally your feet are hitting the ground across the entire bottom surface (i.e. flat footed).  Then, when you pick your feet up, you are raising the entire bottom surface of you foot off the ground at the same time.  This spreads your weight across your entire foot and minimizes the use of your calf muscles which can be the first muscles to get worn out.  In addition, it reduces the impact on your feet and joints.  Also, your pace slows down without even having to think about walking slower.  As a result, your feet don't become sore as fast and your stamina increases a lot.

If you have never done the Camel Walk, you will find that you can easily double the distance you think you can hike and, as a bonus, you will be able to recover a lot faster because you have not worn out any major muscle groups.  Just remember the the Camel Walk is more than just walking flat footed.  As you start paying attention, you will be able to describe your Camel Walk in great detail.  The problem is that all of that detail will not be of much help to anyone else.  They need to find their own Camel Walk and come up with their own description.

Will the Camel Walk slow you down?  Not on a long hike.  In fact, you will probably feel like you are somehow hiking faster even though you know you are not.  The reason because, even though you are hiking slower, you are taking a lot less breaks and breaks are time killers when you are hiking.  Breaks also have a big downside: if you stop for more than a few minutes while hiking the typical way, your muscles start tightening up and getting sore while you are resting.  The rest may help you recharge your batteries, but it doesn't help your muscles very much and, eventually, the rests become a big reason why you find yourself in a lot of pain.  When you do the Camel Walk right, you won't hardly need to rest and, at the same time, you will be enjoying your surroundings more.  You will be covering the same amount of distance over time that you normally cover, but it will seem as if you are hiking faster because the hike is so much more enjoyable.

So here's the deal.  The time to practice your Camel Walk isn't on Saturday.  One or two days before SMB is almost perfect.  You will end your hike on those days feeling better and you will be more rested come Saturday.  More important, you will be able to do the Camel Walk on Saturday without a lot of thought.  It may not yet be second nature, but it will definitely help you walk further with less downside.

Pace is the key

There are very few people who have a natural ability to hike at the best pace for distance hiking.  Almost everyone hikes too fast and many hike way too fast.  If you are hiking at the right pace, you will not feel the need for rest breaks.  In fact, what you will find is that you can rest a bit here and there while hiking.  You do this be noticing when your reach a particularly easy part of the trail and then intentionally slowing down while also trying to move muscles and joints that haven't been moving much or are tensed up.  So you might move your arms around more because they have either not been moving much or they have been moving, but in the same exact way for quite a while.  Same is true for neck and shoulder muscles.  Even your fingers, wrists and hands may need some attention.  If you are wearing a day pack, you can take it off and then use it in various ways to twist your torso and even stretch some muscles that would be hard to stretch otherwise.  Just carrying the pack low in one hand and then the other is a great stretch for arms, shoulder, and neck while also giving your tight back a break.  But most people are not thinking about these things when they get to the easier sections of trail. They may be relieved that the trail has become easier, but they are not taking advantage of that situation and, most likely they are speeding up rather than slowing down.  Another thing you can do is move your legs differently.  You might try high stepping for a while just to move some muscles in your legs, butt, and groin that may be tensing up due to the constant limited movement.  You will probably be surprised by what to feel in those muscles when you do this.  You thought the muscles you were using most were the main problem and so that is where your attention was focused.  But when you start moving the other muscles, you'll realize that ignoring what is happening with them isn't helping either.

Is there a time when you should hike a normal or even quickened pace?  You bet.  But it isn't while distance hiking.  Hike the normal way when you are hiking shorter distances and that will be great training for the longer distances.  The two styles of hiking complement each other.  You need to be able to hike both ways to get the most out of your hiking experiences.  But if you are like most, you already are skilled at the style of hiking that you use on the shorter hikes.  It is the distance hiking style you will need to practice until you get to the point where you can switch into it as needed.

Training pace is also an important issue.  Optimally, when you are training, you are hiking by yourself.  There is almost no way to hike with another person and get a good workout.  Even if they let you lead, there will still be subtle effects on how you are hiking and you will also not be paying enough attention to what is happening with your body.  You will also miss opportunities on the trail that you can use to strengthen certain muscles or build endurance.  That said, if it is a really short hike, you can sometimes hike with someone who is faster than you and try to keep up.  You don't want to do this every day, but it can be very helpful every now and then.

When hiking long distances in groups, you may have a built in advantage.  Hike at the pace of the slowest hiker and you will immediately be able to hike longer distances.  But the slowest hiker has a problem because the people behind that person will always affect that hiker.  This is the biggest reason why the "slowest hiker" technique doesn't always work well for the others.  For example, if that person ends up taking a lot of long breaks, everyone will suffer both in terms of physical pain and time.  It can be a difficult problem to solve.  One of the best things that can be done to avoid problems is to let the slow hiker know that you truly want them to hike at a pace that works for them.  It helps them and it helps everyone who is following.  If the slowest hiker can't figure out how to do it, give them some tips and lest them hike alone for a while.  Then, when they figure out how to hike the best pace for them, put them back in the lead and things will be much better.

Aim High

When hiking, shoot for a distance that would be amazing if you hit it. This is easy to do in the SMB because you are hiking laps.  Say you usually hike 4 miles, but you think 10 is possibe. Try for 10 and chances are good that you will hit 6 before you know it.  Many people have already had this

Match your gear to your hike

There are quite a few hikers who believe that it is best to always carry pretty much the same thing when they are hiking.  By doing so, they are always prepared, able to predict with great accuracy how far they can comfortably hike, and they can easily see the improvements they are making as they hike more and more.  There really is something to be said in favor of this type of hiking, but it is no way to hike if you are trying for longer distances.  

By contrast, the distance hiker changes things almost every time they hike to take advantages of such things as weather, trail conditions, water availability, and so on.  The SMB event is a great example.  No need to carry a lot of water because bottled water is only a mile