With all the rush of adrenaline and chills going down your backbone as you will be going on a hike with your friends for the first time, you definitely need a checklist to know what to bring on a short hike.
Since this is your first hike, you definitely don’t have an idea about all the essential things that you will need to pack up.
Well, don’t sweat out. This write-up is all about assisting you and making sure that you don’t leave behind any hiking must-haves.
Hiking Essentials for Beginners That You Need to Know
We have a hiking packing list of essential items written down below that you will need to keep with you for going on a hike. You never know which one is going to come in handy for emergency purposes.
What to Bring on a Short Hike?
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Backpack
Normal backpacks won’t do the job. You do need the ones that have been made for hiking specifically. As there is a lot of things that you need to fit in.
Hiking backpacks are made in such a way so that you can carry it in a comfortable manner because you have to do a lot of walking on the trials while it is on your back.
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Proper Clothing According to the Weather
Knowing what to wear to hike is crucial. Of course, you won’t be hiking on a rainy day when the road is filled with muddy puddles.
Since winter or early autumn is appropriate for such activities you will need to choose your clothes accordingly. The clothing must make you feel comfortable.
On the other hand, you might feel like going to a rainforest for a hike. If so, your clothing should be chosen according to that.
The whole point is, to decide the clothing that you need to wear, you must gather information regarding the weather that is going on in that individual place.
Because even if everything might seem fine inside the town, things might be different in the hike location.
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Appropriate Footwear
You will go through a lot of hurdles when you go on hiking. And for conquering all the hurdles there is a necessity of wearing special shoes or boots that have been made for hiking purposes.
As normal shoes cannot take on the pressure that they might face on roads. To give your feet proper care, make sure that you wear socks, and cut the nails of your toes. Because we don’t want to see blisters on our feet after reaching home.
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Plenty of Food and Water
Hiking will involve all your muscles exercising and using up a lot of energy. For refueling yourself there is a necessity of taking with you enough energetic food.
You don’t want to get distracted because of hearing growls of your stomach. Be a good friend as well and carry enough food for your whole group as well.
Just in case someone ran out of snacks he or she can get help from you.
We know the importance of water. And this whole time during hiking you will feel thirsty because of water being used up for respiration to happen in your body efficiently.
You will get easily dehydrated because of the heat in the surroundings as well. Hence, there is a requirement that you stay hydrated.
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Navigation Tools
You will have to return to your residence in the end after getting enough experience of the adventurous hike.
Hence, there is a requirement that you have all the navigation tools like the map and the compass.
You might not have a network for switching on google map. Your cell phone will be useless at that time.
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First-Aid Box
No pain, no gain. We all know that. While you go for a hike and take the pleasure of looking at a lot of views, you might hurt yourself even though you will be careful.
Hence, there is a requirement of carrying the first aid box and stopping any kind of bleeding or cleaning any scratches so that it does not catch an infection.
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Carry a Power Bank
You might need help if any kind of misfortune strikes. And if during that time the battery of your phone is dead, the feeling of helplessness is surely unbearable. Hence, make sure that your group carries at least one power bank along.
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Carry a Garbage Bag
Taking care of the environment is also your duty. You need to make sure that you don’t make the hiking place a mess by throwing away the packet of your snack or the peels of the banana, carelessly.
Hence, to store all the waste you need a garbage bag. And try to pick up any other waste that you see to help the environment to be better.
What to Do Before Going on a Hike
Simply knowing what to bring hiking is not enough. You need to know regarding some essential things that need to be done before going on a hike. And we have listed down these facts below.
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Doing Proper Research
Since you are reading this guide you are definitely a beginner who is taking baby steps towards becoming a pro hiker.
So, you can definitely not take on the harsh conditions of difficult hiking places. You will need to begin from an easier level and move on to conquering the harder ones.
Don’t do the mistake of randomly picking up any place that seems thrilling to you by just looking at the Instagram pictures.
Read and research some informative blogs to know whether hiking in that place is within your capability or not.
Once you develop your experience you can move on to going for a greater trip.
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Do all the Calculations about the Time
You need to know have the proper estimation regarding the time that will require the whole hiking journey. This is to ensure that you have enough time in your hands considering when you need to get back to work or how many days you got off.
That is because hiking with the tendency of getting back to your home as quickly as possible will not let you enjoy your time and will cause accidents as well.
Hence, make sure that you do all the calculations and include the time that it will take for reaching the place.
After all the calculations have been done just add some extra 3 hours to that so that you can keep in mind that the timing can vary according to the circumstances.
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Make Sure that You are Familiar with Using Your Gear
Just when you reach the hiking destination you cannot waste your time trying to figure out how to make the gear work.
This will cause your whole group to be in a risky situation. You need to learn how to use your gear beforehand.
And also make sure that it works efficiently so that you can find out your GPS in the hiking destination anytime when required.
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Inform Your closed Ones Where You are Heading To
Yes, you will be maintaining safety at all times while hiking but you need to have a backup plan in case you cannot contact.
Hence, for that make sure that you inform your family or some close friends where you are going and how much time it will take you to return depending on the calculations that you have done.
This will make sure that they will know where to look out for you in case it gets late.
Wrapping Up!
To sum up, after reaching the end of the entire guide you surely feel confident enough since you know everything about what to bring on a short hike.
You can stay assured that by simply looking at the checklist you will be completely ready for going on a hike.
And with the things that we have listed regarding what you need to do before going on a hike, you can stay assured regarding your safety being maintained at all times.
So, don’t wait anymore and take your step towards enjoying the beauty of this world!