We’ve all been there. You buy your first backpack and all of the gear you can think of, load it up and head out onto the trail. About ten minutes in you sit down for a break, wondering how on earth people do this on a regular basis. The problem? You’ve packed your backpack all …
Thru-Hiking
I can remember with complete clarity the first time I hiked 20 miles in one day. I remember because it was agony. I was not accustomed to walking this distance with weight on my back, and quite simply it ruined me. So, can you hike 20 miles a day? Yes, you can hike 20 miles …
Many of us enjoy hiking in the great outdoors, sometimes for days at a time. But could you imagine doing it for weeks and even months at a time, perhaps, for example, to walk the length of an entire country – almost three times? That is, if you can believe, what some people do. Thru-hiking …
If you spend enough time in the outdoors, chances are pretty high that you’ll hear about the Pacific Crest Trail. This 2,650 mile (4,264km) trail stretches from Mexico to Canada and crosses three states, vast deserts, and seemingly endless mountain peaks along the way. A thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (or PCT, for short) …
The Great Trail is formally known as The Trans Canada Trail. It is exactly 14,996 miles long as of 2018 and runs all the way from the Atlantic Ocean in St. Johns, Newfoundland, then west to the Pacific Ocean in Victoria, British Columbia. From there, hikers head north to the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyaktuk in …
Planning a thru-hike can be part of the excitement of the trip. Researching trails and vistas or reading stories from hikers past. When you’re considering hiking the Appalachian Trail end to end, you may be wondering how long it will take you. There are a lot of factors involved in overall hiking time, and it …
The world we live in today has long been crisscrossed on foot by trails walked on since well before the industrial revolution. Some of these trails even existed before the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Therefore, there are many hiking trails throughout the world that are extremely long, continuous, and thankfully are still …
Often considered the testpiece long-distance thru-hiking trail, the Pacific Crest Trail (or PCT, for short), is one of the most well-known thru-hikes in the world. Thanks in part to the popularity of the book, Wild, and it’s associated movie, the PCT is seeing more and more hikers each year. If you’re considering a thru-hike of …
For the majority of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) hikers find themselves firmly in black bear country. In the last 150 years, only one person has been killed by a bear in the PCT states of California, Oregon and Washington in the wild. So, you would be just as likely to die by falling over …
Staying dry on a rainy backpacking trip is a two-pronged struggle: first, you need to keep the rain from soaking you, and second, your rain gear needs to be breathable enough that you don’t end up protected from the rain but dripping in your own sweat as you hike. A favorite rain jacket for thru-hikers …