When to go hiking
Hiking 101 for Beginners | Useful Knowledge
hey this is Jamie useful knowledge this
video is going to be for those of you
who've never been day hiking before but
you want to go on a day hike we're gonna
go over tips on what we think you need
to carry and then we're going to go over
some trail hiking tips to help keep you
safe stay tuned so everything you see
here is what we are gonna suggest that
you take with you on a day hike and this
video is going to be for those folks
that have never been day hiking we're
gonna call this hiking 101 okay to get
started what we suggest is to hike
somewhere that's easy to moderate so
find you a trail in your local area
that's easy to moderate to hike if you
can get a paper map of that trail and
get you a compass now I'm a realist I
understand that most people nowadays are
not going to do that they're gonna use
their phone the compass on their phone
and they're gonna actually have some
type of hiking out just a note you can
and will lose both cell service and GPS
signal when you're deep in the woods so
before you get to the trailhead download
a map of where you're gonna be hiking
onto your phone and check it regularly
so you'll have an idea of where you're
at just in case you do lose both of
those services okay once you determine
where you're gonna go and when you're
gonna go you need to let someone know
that can be a co-worker it can be a good
friend family members even conservation
officers that are local to the area what
you need to do is tell them where
exactly you plan on going and when
you're going to return and ask them to
call or text you at a certain time then
that way they can know if you're back or
not and plan to limit your hike to about
two to four miles round-trip for your
first time okay clothing we understand
this is your first day hike you do not
have to go out and purchase any new
clothing to go on a short day honey
what we suggest is some loose-fitting
comfortable clothing I do suggest some
long pants just to help with a bug so if
you've got some cargo pants or just some
loose fitting jeans now let's move on to
shoes so I wear hiking boots if you
don't have hiking boots you do not need
to go out and purchase hiking boots I
just some leather shoes something like
some tennis shoes that will be just fine
I do not suggest wearing running shoes
because they have no lateral support and
I've seen several folks on the trail
where they busted out their shoes as a
matter of fact I gave a lady some tape a
couple of years ago because she has
absolutely busted both for shoes out
ok next rain gear if you're gonna invest
anything invest in some good rain gear
do not get one of the dollar ponchos
from the dollar store because that's not
gonna help you much if you have a pop-up
thunderstorm so what I have is I have a
top and bottom I've actually used these
a lot in pop-up thunderstorms you don't
have to go purchase name-brand there's
some pretty decent stuff in some of the
box stores now if you're in a cooler
climate I suggest some layers so you
might want to carry just a an extra
shirt carry a beanie and some gloves
okay socks what I wear is wool socks the
reason I like wool socks is because
that's the original cool in the summer
warm in the winter type sock if you
don't have a pair of wool socks that's
ok just get you a pair of socks that are
comfortable in the shoes that you're
going to be wearing ok one of the most
important things I think that you should
purchase for a day hike is a pair of
hiking sticks and I got these I think
was off of Amazon for about 25 bucks and
I've had on for about three years and
they've absolutely been great you can
adjust them to whatever height you need
so what this does is it gives you four
points of balance instead of two if
you're just hiking and you don't have
hiking sticks you just have your feet
okay if you have this you have two more
points of balance so if you go on
somewhere that might be slick these are
gonna help you maintain your balance and
it's going to reduce Falls okay all this
stuff we're going to talk about you're
gonna need something to put it in so
there's a lot of day packs on the market
now this is about a $75 day pack and I
got this for my birthday a couple of
years ago you don't have to have
something like this there's actually a
lot of big-box store type day packs that
work just fine in a matter of fact I'm
going to show you
on that I've had for about 10 years
before I got this one and this thing's
been through everything ok one thing I
do suggest though when you're buying and
daypack no matter what you get buy one
that has a hydration pack in it that's
going to help you out over having the
tote bottles ok talking about hydration
packs this is a two and a half liter
know one thing I do suggest you do
before you start hiking is go ahead and
hydrate get you some water in you before
you get going then fill this up and it's
gonna last you for your day hike
especially if you're going only about a
a 2 to 4 mile round trip so if you don't
have a hydration pack that's ok just
carry you to 1 liter or 20 ounce water
bottles with you and make sure they're
full when you get going ok first day for
when you're day hiking most of your
issues when you're day hiking where you
need first aid are going to be cuts
scrapes splinters and blisters so what I
like to carry is some hand sanitizer
because you can clean the wound easy
because hand sanitizer is about 2/3
straight-up alcohol I'd like to use some
antibiotic cream once you get the wound
clean and you can use a band-aid at that
point I'd like to carry a larger
band-aid in case you get bigger wounds I
carry some pain medication that's just
ibuprofen and if you do get a splinter
you need some tweezers and a safety pin
to help get that splinter out
and don't forget chapstick you get out
of the woods and your lips get dry chap
sticks great to have trail food so what
I'm gonna suggest is you take something
that you like to eat I actually love
these bars and I like these kind bars as
well so that's what I like to carry but
if you don't like these find you
something that you would like to eat
when you take a break on the trail ok
insane repellent now I carry insect
repellent in my vehicle so I will spray
down before I actually start hiking and
then I will carry something like these
towelettes or actually this spray with
me in case I stay in the woods a little
bit longer than I expect
next is trail marking tape I suggest
that you carry a small roll of orange
trail marking tape with you and the
reason is you can use this to mark where
you leave the trail and
you go off the trail all you have to do
is tie a little bit of this up say every
20 or 30 feet so you can look this up
and verify it but most people get lost
because they leave the trail either to
go use the restroom or to look at
something cool that's off the trail say
a waterfall or something like that so
you can use this marking tape to
actually find your way back to the trail
and stay tuned we're going to
demonstrate how to use the trail marking
tape later in this video okay speaking
of leaving the trail and marking where
you go when you do leave the trail don't
forget your toilet paper now this toilet
paper doesn't have a roll in it you can
get these at most of your camping and
hiking sections in the big-box stores
next you need to carry some tape and not
just any tape I suggest that you carry
gorilla tape because it's a lot stronger
than duct tape now what I do is I'll
take the tape and a pen like you see on
the right and I'll wrap enough tape
around that pin to basically make what
you see on the left now folks ask me all
the time how much tape do you carry
well I carry enough that I can wrap
around the boot at least twice in case
you need to repair a boot or if you need
to repair a backpack strap you can wrap
that around several times just so you
can make it back to the trailhead just
to say it again only this is gonna go in
your day pack okay next we're going to
talk about in case you need to build a
fire while you're hiking some people
carry matches some people carry things
like a fire still what I like to do is I
go no-nonsense I carry two small
lighters just like shown here I like to
use the bright ones in case I drop them
I can easily find them in addition to
that I carry at least two of these fire
starters now this type of fire starter
here will last 10 to 12 minutes so you
can easily get a fire started with it
and you can get a fire starter cube like
this at your big-box stores in the
camping section ok flashlights now you
can carry a handheld flashlight if you
want to that's fine but what I suggest
is to go hands-free and use a headlamp
now this is a rechargeable headlamp so
what
do as I charge them up before I leave to
go on a day hike and then I actually
carry an extra battery with me just in
case I'm there after dark or even there
for a couple of days in case you get
lost okay one thing I'm going to suggest
is to carry a way to charge your cell
phone when you're hiking and the reason
is when you get in the backwoods your
phone's going to be searching for a
tower it's probably going to burn
battery down than what you're expecting
so Kerri you want these little pots this
one will charge the phone I think three
or four times and don't forget your
cable most people are going to say carry
an emergency sleeping bag with you but
what I'm going to suggest is to carry
that sleeping bag which is in this and
also carry you an emergency tent so you
can actually buy this pack off Amazon
for about nine bucks it's got an
emergency tent an emergency sleeping bag
and it also has the rope so that you can
actually type between some trees to make
that ten okay one thing that I really
suggest that you carry with you is a
whistle and the reason you want to carry
a whistle with you is because people can
hear this a long way off so if you get
lost and you can hear somebody looking
for you you can blow this whistle and
they can hear it
okay one thing I like to carry with me
just in case is a small mini water
filtration system I carry one that's got
the straw or it actually can screw on to
the end of a water bottle so if you did
carry a water bottle with you then make
sure this will screw on the end of it
and you can actually filter some water
from a source along the trail if you
need it to I suggest that you carry
about 25 feet of paracord now you can
get this paracord pretty much anywhere
there's camping equipment paracord
basically has endless uses some that
come to mind are bootlaces shoestrings
emergency lashings and emergency belt or
even a pet leash in case you carry your
pet okay I do suggest you carry some
type of knife it doesn't have to be a
survival knife just some type of cutting
tool in case you need to cut something
like the paracord or things like that
okay one thing I do like to carry and
this
kind of old-school but I love to carry a
stainless-steel canteen cup you can
actually stuff a lot of this stuff in a
canteen cup and if you needed to
actually boil some water you can pull it
in this canteen cup because this is
actually stainless steel you can set it
right next to the fire right in the fire
and it's got this little handle here so
you can pick it up easily so that's one
of the reasons I like to carry a
stainless steel canteen cup okay one
more thing that I forgot because I don't
wear glasses but if you wear glasses or
contacts carry you a spare pair
especially if you're hiking with
contacts because if you lose a contact
or you get your ice crash and you have
to take a contact out you can use your
spare pair of glasses and be able to
keep hiking safely
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and just a note everything you see here
is gonna weigh ten pounds or less
don't forget your pooper scooper in case
you do have to use the bathroom in the
woods ready to go
I can tip number one tell someone where
you're going when you're going and when
you expect to return if you're not local
to an area you can always call your
conservation officers in that area to
let them know you're going to be hiking
and when you expect to return I can tip
number two if you're going to use a
hiking app for your hike make sure you
download everything you need before you
get to the trailhead a lot of these
trail heads are remote and they may not
have cell signal also about your mobile
device your GPS will work if you don't
have cell signal but you can get deep in
the woods and absolutely not have GPS
signal this has happened to me several
times like we always say carry a map and
a compass hiking tip number three carry
you some hiking sticks now I got these
for about twenty five dollars online but
what this does for you it gives you two
extra points of balance for when the
trail is slick or when the trail is
steep I can tip number four if you come
across a fallen log like this in the
woods do not step over it like this the
reason is there could be a snake up
under there and they can strike you in
the leg what you want to do is you want
to step up on that log and then you want
to step off that's going to help you
clear that snake and this is some of the
training that we received in the
National Forest when I worked there in
high school
okay hiking tip number five if you
decide to leave the trail to go to the
restroom or there's a really cool
waterfall just down the hill you need to
mark where you left the trail you can do
it on your app if it's working what I do
recommend though as a backup is some
orange marking tape now what you can do
you can put you can actually put this on
trees about every say twenty feet as you
walk off the trail and then as you come
back you take them down okay so I got
off the trail to see this Creek that was
just over the hill and just as an
example I marked about every 20 feet so
you can actually see where I marked
we've got one there
and then on past it I've got one and
then you can see the other two and the
final one is actually out at the trail
now obviously you want to take these
down as you walk out if you absolutely
forget to these will biodegrade in about
a year but we really need to be nice and
take them down as we walk out
okay hiking tip number six if you do
feel like you're lost just take a deep
breath and just stop right where you're
at and get real still and just listen
that's all you got to do you can even
sit down and just listen a lot of times
if someone else is walking up the trail
and they're talking you can hear them
and you'll be able to get some bearings
off of just that
also listen for vehicles if you're close
enough to a road you may actually hear
vehicles going up and down the road so
if you can do this you might be able to
find your bearings just off the noises
around you so we hope you gained some
useful knowledge on how easy it is to
prepare for your first day hike have fun
hiking
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