Hiking Checklist : Important things to bring on a hike.
This simple Day Hiking Checklist will help you bring your important things when going for a hike in the woods. Of course, not everything is necessary, but pick and choose from the list, and ALWAYS bring water!
- Hiking checklist
- Navigation Equipment: Map, Compass, GPS Gadget
- Headlamp
- Water bottles – ALWAYS (possibly also a filter)
- Extra food – Apples (my favourite snack)
- Other snacks such as (gorp), or protein bars or granola bars for the walk
- First aid kit – things can go bad quickly in the wildnerness
- Map
- Sun Protection: Sunscreen /Sunhat
- Bug spray (possibly bug jacket)
- Whistle
- Firestarter/ magnifying glass
- Power backup (for phone, GPS etc)
- Knife and multi tool
- Thermal blanket/Rain layer
- Optional:
• Binoculars
• Camera
• Guide book with descriptions of plants/wildlife
• Dry socks in a ziploc bag
Emergency rain jacket might be good if the weather is unpredictable.
Also, a warm hat incase it gets cold, depending on the season.
Those are some things that can be very important to bring, depending on where you’re going for a hike and what the weather is like.
When going out for a hike, good clothes to wear include:
– light weight layers, such as quick dry pants (not jeans), that are breathable and allow you to move easily.
– A hat
– Sunglasses
– Sunscreen
– Good, worn in hiking shoes, boots, or comfortable running shoes depending on the terrain.
Hiking is one of my favourite pastimes when camping. It gets you out in the fresh outdoors, keeps you active, allows you to see some amazing views, and sometimes close to creatures in their natural habitat.
To gauge how long a hike will take, it depends on many things such as the difficulty of the hike. Up hill, with difficult terrain (lots of scrambling), will be much more strenuous and time consuming.
For gently rolling terrain (without many hills or difficulty, or with only a light day pack), at a pretty fast pace, is about 10-11+ minutes per kilometer (5km/hour or 2miles/hr). Take into account that this is a relatively fast pace, and most hikers will not keep up this pace.
So for a fast hiker, for a 10 km (6 mile) hike, give yourself 2-3 hours if there is no elevation gain.
A typical, moderate pace hiker would take around 15 minutes per kilometer (4km/ hour) for flatter hike.
So, at a moderate pace give yourself 3.5-4 hours for a 10 km (6 mile) hike.
A good idea is to try a 5 km hike to find out how fast you walk and take into account the terrain, elevation, temperature and how tired you get, cause if you’re not used to hiking, then you’ll be slower towards the end, and a few shorter more enjoyable hikes are better than one exhausting hike.
Some other pages that might interest you:
Camping Checklist– Comprehensive Camping Check List
Best Tasting Protein Bars – See what ones we LOVE!
Coming soon:
Wildlife: Neat wildlife you may see when in the woods.
Camping snacks: Easy snacking ideas for the fresh air.