How to Have Great Food on Multi-Day Hikes
Packing food for a multi-day hike usually means eating a lot of crackers and peanut butter or spending a small fortune on dehydrated MREs. There are some great recipes, however, for backpackers who want a little more variety but don’t want to carry a lot of extra cooking equipment. The ingredients for these meals should be easy to find at your local grocery store. The recipes do not require a lot of extra preparation, but taste a lot like you would make for dinner if you weren’t camping. The key to good backpacking food is to find recipes that can mostly be made ahead of time and require very few steps to complete once you’re actually in camp.
Pancakes
In a plastic storage bag, combine 1 cup batter mix (such as Bisquick), 1 tbsp dry milk, and 1 tbsp sugar. Once you’re in camp, add 2/3 cup of water and 1 tbsp margarine to the bag. Seal the bag and squish repeatedly to get out the lumps. Poke a hole in the corner of the bag and squeeze batter onto a hot pan. Once bubbles form, flip the pancakes. This should make about six pancakes.
How to Choose the Right Trail Hiking Equipment
A hiking trip is generally a great outdoor activity, and it gets even better when the proper supplies and right type of clothing are taken along. This assumes that the trip is more than just for one day on an easy to navigate locale which does not require any special considerations. Of course this means proper planning and especially the right kinds of footwear, because a hiker’s feet will soon get worn out when the wrong type of shoes are worn on a long trail. A broken-in pair will be the best bet, but hiking boots are definitely the right choice here.
When headed to a more challenging area for a longer getaway, it is definitely likely that the choice of gear will have to change. Of course this means that the hiking boots have to be of a premier quality and not just a cheap pair picked up at the local department store. Sore arches and blisters have long been the bane of hikers everywhere who didn’t provide the proper protection for their feet. This is due to the rugged trails which don’t afford any level of comfort to hikers without a decent boot with at least a half high shaft. These types of boots are the bare minimum required on any extended trail, and the optimal choice would be a higher cut pair in order to provide protection for the ankles and arches because these two areas are prime candidates for injury. It is very important to be able to stay on the trail in the mountains, because often it is not very wide and footing can become a little treacherous in certain areas.
How to Choose a Hiking Backpack
Hiking is a thrilling pastime that people from all different walks of life can enjoy. Hiking is a great exercise which allows you to see and explore beautiful areas of this majestic earth we live on. However, the sport can be a bit dangerous for the inexperienced. Before anybody decides to take up hiking, they need to research the sport as well as the gear that accompanies the activity.
One major component of hiking is a backpack. A hiking backpack is an essential part of a hiker’s gear. It will hold all the things necessary for a hiker’s survival. Things like a sleeping bag, food rations, water, spare clothing and a first aid kit will need to fit in the backpack. A hiker will need to choose a backpack according to their needs, which may be different for each trip. Obviously, the longer a hiker plans on staying out, the more supplies he/she will need. Some hikers choose to carry only the bare necessities and can choose a smaller, lighter pack. For the hiker who wants to make sure all eventualities are covered a bigger, heavier pack will be necessary.
Hiking Sticks for Steep Terrain
Going hiking is one of the best activities one can participate in if one wants to get out and really experience the wilderness in its natural state, the way it must have been experienced hundreds of years ago before cars and trains and modern cities. Hiking is often cheap or free on government land, such as the Grand Canyon, and can be experienced by people of all ages and body types. However, some hiking can be rather challenging and aerobic. This is one of the draws of the sports, as it adds excitement and helps to keep one in shape, but sometimes a bit of assistance is needed or desired. Especially in steep terrain, a walking stick can be the perfect tool to help one through a long and challenging hike. There are many hiking sticks to choose from, from the industrial standards to the homemade designs. One should consider all the options and choose the best stick for their taste, weight, and height.
Some of the benefits of the hiking stick are well worth the time put into finding an appropriate stick. They can help to lessen the strain on the joints, such as the hips and knees, when fighting down a steep decent. This is sometimes harder on the body than going up, especially with very steep terrain, because so much effort is being put into fighting against the land and against gravity. Hiking sticks can also provide the feeling of having a third leg. This is very nice on uneven terrain, as one will sometimes want to be able to draw support from multiple points in order to stay up and going strong. Hiking sticks can help with unexpected animal life, clearing away spider webs that shroud the trail, fending off angry dogs or other wildlife — such as bobcats or coyotes — and probing the ground into holes and bushes that look as if they could hold snakes. If hiking on a desert mountain, such as the mountains in New Mexico or Arizona, finding the snakes before they are too close is quite desirable.
Hiking Safety Tips For Mud Season
In the spring months of the year, the accumulated precipitation begins to melt as the suns rays heat the earth, causing hiking trails to become fraught with excess moisture. This cumulative effect is commonly known to practitioners as the mud season. Due to the dangers possible with trails full of slippery mud, many parks close their trails to hikers for safety reasons. But there are some places that also stay open all year, and these are the ones that most hikers will opt to brave the elements and go on a long commune with nature.
But there are many dangers that should be prepared for since these are more than likely to occur during this season of changing terrain. A trailhead that is dry at first often turns to mud, then absolute slop the further up the trail that a hiker will climb. This can lead to potentially unsafe conditions, as traction is moderate at best, and the chances of a fall increase significantly. There is also the chance of falling rocks due to the freeze-thaw cycle that normally occurs during the colder months. Cracks are enlarged and the forces holding them are significantly weakened.