When I first started reading books about thru-hiking and learning about the Pacific Crest Trail I realized how common it was for people to hike 20 miles in a day. As a beginner to multi-day backpacking, I wondered how many miles I’d be able to hike in a day. I think I over-estimated this number…
It wasn’t until I first started backpacking that I did any sort of camping. The outdoor life was unfamiliar to me until I was 33. I had no idea that a sleeping bag alone wasn’t able to keep me warm at night in the wilderness. When someone suggested that I buy a sleeping pad in…
While I’m not a beginner hiker I am a fairly new backpacker—In that most of my hikes have been done on a single day. I’m preparing for a 42-mile backpacking trip to Michigan and find myself wondering what a good number of miles would be to hike each day. I’ve done some research and in…
When I wanted to start backpacking I had a hard time finding trails that were specifically meant for multi-day backpacking hikes. A lot of the trails I’d find in popular apps were geared towards your average person looking for a short hike in the woods. I was looking for trails near me that would be…
Is it weird to hike alone? That’s what I asked myself before my first solo backpacking trip. At first, I didn’t think much of it. I wanted to go on a backpacking trip but didn’t have any friends that were into backpacking. In reality, I guess I didn’t have very many friends at all—just a…