This is a part of this blog I wanted to have done a long time ago but other things just kept having higher priority. As a result, I don't even have time to edit the things I wrote, let alone complete the portions I never started. So this is still very raw. But there is some good information in here and I am hoping some people find it useful.

There are a lot of things a hiker can do to make things more comfortable when hiking distances they may have never hiked before. The tips listed below can make all the difference in the world. They can be the difference between hiking a long ways in agony or doing the exact same hike in a way that doesn't feel much worse than your average hike. We first noticed people doing this type of hiking in Montana. Loop trails that we thought needed to be done backpacking three days were being done in a single day. We are talking about 20 to 30 miles per day in somewhat rugged terrain and over two or three tall passes. While it is true that people backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail get to the point of hiking this distance over the course of a month or so, your average day hiker cannot because they are not hiking every single day with nothing else to do. So how do these day hikers turn in mileages like this? Some of it is conditioning. They hike a lot and some also cross train in a very specific way. But conditioning alone usually isn't enough. That's where strategies like we have listed below come in. You don't need to do all of them because almost every strategy listed will produce noticeable improvement in your hiking. But it is also true that the more of these strategies you master, the more you will surprise yourself by what you are able to do. Still, you can't get there all at once because these techniques need to become second nature to you to have their maximum effect. So work on a few at a time and add in more only when you are certain that the techniques already learned are pretty much in place for good.

We can't even begin to tell you how amazing it is to be able to cover this amount of ground on a day hike and the be able to go out the next day and do another amazing hike. As you'll see, you are absolutely not rushing when you hike this way. If anything, you are more relaxed, comfortable, and observant. You will be able to enjoy the whole hiking experience even more than you always do while not paying a heavy price. For many, distance hiking changes everything and raises their passion to whole new level.

All information copyright (c) Bill Smith 2013

Friday, March 29, 2013

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.
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