You know why you haven’t taken up backpacking?
Because you think you have to hike with 40 pounds on your back with every footstep you take.
Well, you don’t. If every backpack trip we took involved lugging a full pack for days on end, we wouldn’t backpack, either.
I used to tell my Intro to Backpacking students that to get the most out of backpacking, to become proficient and competent, you need to take three trips a year. Not necessarily big trips, though one should be at least four days. And a quick overnight just to get away is fine, too. Go any fewer than three times and backpacking could become more of an ordeal: even with a packing list, packing can take twice as long as you fret over each item wondering when you last used it and whether it’s still in good shape. There’s more pressure on trip planning: you only backpack once a year, it better be a good one. And what if the weather goes south? Is that it for the year.
It was raining. I felt like hiking. So I did.
It wasn’t a long hike. But it was just enough. Just knowing the rain couldn’t stop me was enough. It couldn’t stop me, because I was prepared.
Hiking in the rain can be a delight — if you’re prepared. The following tips for hiking in the rain were taken from our GetHiking! Hiking in the Rain tip sheet. For the entire 3-page guide visit our website and enter code RAINTIPS at checkout to get the guide for free through this weekend (March 30).
Saturday looks rainy, but Sunday looks hiking perfect, with cloudless skies and temperatures in the 50s. Cool weather coupled with the first weekend of spring and our desire to spend more time on the trail seems like a good time for a longer hike. And by “longer” for this time of year we mean in the 4- to 7-mile range. Nothing too strenuous, but just enough to push yourself, to get you building your hiking legs for peak hiking season.
Editor’s note: Every year at this time, upon the dawn of Daylight Saving Time (it’s this Sunday, btw; remember to Spring forward), we celebrate the return of afterwork light with a tabulation of tips on how to celebrate this late-day sunlight. Most of these we’ve run before, a few are new. All, hopefully, will help you rev up your outdoor experiences.
Now is about the time we start taking notice of how our goals for the new year are going. We’ve got a month under our belt, we have a general idea of whether a goal is going to stick or not. And a month is enough time to tell whether a goal will stick. A goal such as hiking two new trails a month, which is one of my goals for 2024 — the one goal, alas, that looks like it will stick.
