No matter if you’re heading out for a quick overnighter or embarking on a multi-week expedition, the most fulfilling experiences await those who understand the art of planning a backpacking trip and getting ready for their adventure. Sure, adventures are unpredictable by definition. However, “careful planning” is the key to having a safer, and more enjoyable hiking trip.
Experienced hikers are well aware of the undeniable truth behind the adage, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Planning, in its essence, involves more than just gathering your gear and embarking on a journey without a predetermined route or objective. While this approach may be suitable for familiar territories, particularly when weather conditions can alter initial route plans, it can also be embraced in unexplored areas, especially for those who thrive on embracing the unpredictable.
A “reasonable backpacker” prefers to plan his hike. This entails considering and reviewing various aspects such as:
- Route selection and timing: Using a backpacking trip planner can be invaluable in determining the most suitable route and estimating the time needed to complete each section of the hike.
- Weather forecast: Relying solely on historical temperature data can lead to inaccurate predictions, so it’s essential to check the latest weather forecast for more reliable information.
- Water availability and sources: Assessing the availability of water along the route and identifying potential sources ensures you can stay properly hydrated during your journey.
- Terrain features, vegetation, and wildlife: Familiarizing yourself with the terrain, plant life, and wildlife in the area helps you anticipate any potential challenges or dangers you might encounter.
- Proper and tested equipment: Ensuring you have the right gear, including comfortable hiking footwear, clothing suitable for the weather conditions, and properly functioning equipment, is crucial for a safe and enjoyable backpacking trip.
- Potential hazards and attention to detail: Consider all potential hazards along the trail, including steep slopes, slippery surfaces, river crossings, or potential encounters with wildlife. Paying attention to even the smallest details can prevent an adventure from turning into a disaster.
There are three main questions you need to answer during the planning stage of your hiking adventure. They are the following:
- Who will be joining you?
- Where will you go?
- When will you go?
Answering these questions will allow you to fine-tune your gear and food selection, develop a realistic timeline, and anticipate potential problems.
How do I start planning a backpacking trip? What should my main considerations be? Do I need a permit to go backpacking? We’ll answer these and many other questions. We will also give you practical tips as well as a blueprint for planning your next hiking trip.
Let’s jump in.
Table of Contents
Evaluate your experience, skills, and knowledge. What are your goals?
Pick realistic goals, and save the ambitious projects for when you have the necessary experience and fitness level. Especially before doing a long hiking trip, it is wise to do a couple of shorter trips such as day hikes or two-day trips. These shorter trips serve as valuable opportunities to assess your overall fitness, evaluate the functionality of your hiking boots, test your gear (especially essential items like your rain jacket, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and shelter), and even consider the compatibility of your hiking partners if you have any. A big trip may quickly be cut short by a pair of ill-fitting boots or bad physical condition.
Many backpackers have the dream of conquering a long-distance trail in one continuous journey, which is an ambitious endeavor. While some set off with a vague route in mind and still manage to complete the entire trail, a significant number give up within the first few days or weeks, even with some planning. Failure can be attributed to various reasons such as heavy packs, sore feet, exhaustion, unexpected weather, rugged terrain, and trail conditions. For a long-distance hike, especially one lasting several weeks, detailed planning is highly recommended. It’s advisable to gradually progress by starting with shorter yet challenging trails. As you gain comfort and experience, you’ll acquire the necessary knowledge and determination to finish a long walk.
Preparing for a long trek involves managing logistics, selecting appropriate footwear and gear, and understanding the potential hazards of the chosen trail. This preparation phase can be quite demanding, often proving to be one of the most challenging aspects of the entire hiking experience. However, it is crucial to not only prepare for your trip but to do so effectively. It is essential to be realistic about how the requirements of your planned journey align with your physical capabilities.
The first step in planning ahead is choosing a trip that is appropriate for your skill level. Too often people get into trouble because they underestimate the challenge of their route or overestimate their individual capabilities. It’s important to note that men and women differ in various aspects, including perception and communication, which may contribute to differences in how they handle hardships. However, the capacity to overcome challenging situations is often closely tied to experience and, to some extent, certain biological traits and genetics.
Once you evaluate your experience, skills, and knowledge, it’s time to decide about the group size.
Group size. Solo or with others?
Hiking experiences can vary greatly depending on whether you choose to hike alone or with a group. The size of your group can also have a significant impact on various aspects of your journey. Additionally, carefully selecting the right partner or partners can greatly enhance the efficiency and enjoyment of your travel. We discussed the pros, cons, and dangers of backpacking solo in a separate article so we won’t expand on hiking alone here. We’ll focus on walking with others instead.
Hiking with a group involves certain considerations. Let’s begin with the most important one – your attitude toward others. Be cheerful, helpful, and mind the person behind you especially when grabbing branches. It’s really important to be someone you would want to hike with. Be courteous with others and not only with those from your group but also with the people you meet on the trail. Furthermore, set a pace that makes the other members of your group feel comfortable and always stay close to the group to keep it together.
If you decide to travel with a single partner, it’s a good idea to select a partner who’s a more experienced backpacker than you. This will help you become more proficient in route finding and avoid common mistakes. Partnering up is easy if your soul mate enjoys backpacking and has a similar to your level of fitness. But it gets more complicated if your physical preparation level isn’t similar or you have different goals.
Be critical and don’t make any compromises if something in your partner’s attitude or manners really irritates you. Try to discuss any problems and woes you might have and solve them in a timely manner. You need to sort out potential issues in advance and relinquish unrealistic expectations.
Select an area
You can do that with some help from the Internet, guidebooks, maps, magazine articles, outdoor websites, hiking blogs, trekking agencies, local outing clubs, and guides and outfitters. First, of course, you have to decide where you want to start and finish. Most people have their own preferences based on the nature of the terrain, great stories they’ve read or heard, even on some stunning pictures and photos.
Once you have chosen your partner(s) or decided to solo hike, pull out the guidebooks and pick a trail. In addition to trail descriptions, better guidebooks will include time estimates, elevation gain and loss, and warnings about less-obvious hazards. This way you’ll get some valuable preliminary information. If you are going into less-traveled areas, you may have to glean this information from Internet blogs or topographic maps. A Web search with Google is a good place to start. Once you’ve selected an area, you can obtain up-to-date information from the land managers, fellow hikers, Internet or state/local agencies and institutions.
Photo by Andrew Gosine
Obtain up-to-date information
Try to obtain information that could be of use when planning your hike. The information you’d need is primarily about several important things such as:
Weather and average temperatures
Part of your research should include prevailing weather patterns for your destination. As mentioned above, you can first examine historical temperature data and base your decisions on it. As your departure date gets closer, start following the weather on the Internet. Try to get the most reliable and comprehensive weather forecasts. Nowadays, forecasts can be extremely punctual especially for 4-5 days ahead (specialists reliably predict the weather up to seven days in advance, though keep in mind that this might not be relevant for the mountain weather) and getting caught unprepared is foolish.
Daylight
How many hours of daylight do you expect? If there will be night hiking, you’ll need lighting (a headlamp or a flashlight) and warmer clothes. On summer trips, there is enough daylight for up to 14-16 hours of hiking per day. This means that you need only a low-powered headlamp/flashlight for camp chores unless you decide to go on a night hike. Additionally, you don’t need warm clothing to have a good sleep. In contrast, you need a high-powered light for hiking after dark and warmer equipment for your winter hikes.
Sun exposure
Sunburn is easier to prevent than treat. Keep in mind that direct solar radiation can be very dangerous, especially between 10 am and 2 pm. The amount of sun exposure is a function of various factors such as cloud cover, vegetation, elevation, surface reflectivity, and the strength of the sun. These details can be obtained from different sources.
Terrain (including elevation gain and loss)
The terrain is among the most important factors when choosing proper footwear for your trip. For rough and rocky terrain (especially if you go uphill) you can play it safe and pick up hard-wearing hiking or backpacking boots. They offer better ankle support, more control, and stability in comparison with light low-cut shoes such as trail-running shoes or standard hiking shoes. However, they’re too heavy and need to be broken in before your hike; otherwise, they can ruin your trip. Additionally, trail-running shoes today are lightweight, more durable, and more reliable than before and provide enough comfort on most kinds of surfaces.
Your clothing also depends very much on the terrain you choose for your hiking trip. If trail quality, signage, and maintenance are poor, you should bring better navigational aids and more protective clothing. You can get familiar with your planned route by looking at pictures and reading descriptions of it.
Time estimates
If you don’t have experience with mountain trekking, you will be surprised that going uphill can take so much more time than hiking on even terrain. But it’s true as it is true that walking in snow is harder and more time-consuming than summer hiking. You need to take details like these into consideration when planning and estimating your timing. Having an idea of how much to lower your time and distance expectations is important, and – in case you’re wondering – your personal experience is a huge factor in determining this.
Hiking hazards
Do your research and make sure you know what kind of hazards you may encounter during your trip. Remember that preparing for a disaster does not mean that you can always avoid it; however, you’ll have a much better chance at dealing with almost any extreme situation you encounter on the trail. If you are a complete novice to the outdoors start with learning the essentials for beginning backpackers. The outdoors is not as dangerous as typically portrayed by sensationalist media stoking fear of the unknown. Nonetheless, people do get sick and injured out there, sometimes fatally. Natural hazards include unpredictable mountain weather, technical rock faces, rockfalls, crevasses, contaminated backcountry water sources, river crossings, flash floods, wildfires, and avalanches.
Vegetation
It can be among the last things most backpackers check out when planning their trip. However, don’t be fooled by that fact – it’s not the same to hike in an arid area with a few cactuses and crossing thick forests (with thorn bushes) or fields lush with grass. For information about vegetation density and types, check topo maps, analyze satellite imagery, find pictures and descriptions posted online.
Wildlife and insects
Use blogs and forums to find relevant information about wildlife and insects that can be a concern. The possible presence of dangerous animals (mice, raccoons, bears, snakes, etc.) affects how and whether you store and protect your food, where you cook and camp, where and when you walk (avoid night hiking in snake country), and whether you need to carry anything for self-defense (bear spray works well against all kinds of big animals). Relentless swarms of mosquitoes, black flies, and no-see-ums can completely ruin a trip. To maximize protection from them, you can use either long-lasting insect-repellent or insect-repellent for your clothing and gear. There are so many potentially dangerous animals for a hiker so you need to be well-informed in advance about the dangers related to wildlife on a particular hiking trail.
Remoteness
Depending on the location, you need to carry one or more of the following: a mobile phone in a shock and waterproof case, GPS, and personal locator beacon (PLB). If something unexpected happens or if something goes wrong you may need to self-rescue, await an assisted rescue, or apply medical treatment.
Water availability
On any walk, you need to know where water sources are and what the condition of the water is likely to be. Water supply is among the most important things you want to know about a region you’ll be hiking in. Having access to enough drinking water should be one of the major considerations in planning your hiking trip. There are some places where water sources are generally reliable and others where many water sources dry up during the arid summer months. Also, sometimes you don’t have access to clean drinking water in the wilderness. Then, having a portable water filter is essential to kill all pathogens to have clean water. Before relying on a water source marked on a map, consult someone who has personal familiarity with the landscape or check guidebooks and online trip reports for past observations.
Precipitation
Your footwear, clothing, shelter, the types of materials you use, and water availability will all be affected by the amount and frequency of precipitation you can expect during a trip. In prolonged rainy weather, lightweight trail-running shoes like the Altra Lone Peak 7 are preferable to heavier, waterproof boots like the SalomonQuest 4 GTX because 1) boots won’t protect your feet from getting wet and 2) running shoes are breathable and will get dry much faster than a pair of boots.
Sorting the obtained information – what’s useful and what’s irrelevant?
It doesn’t matter how much information you have. It’s important to have enough relevant information. The Internet can overwhelm you with a massive amount of information, so you will need to sort out what’s useful from what’s irrelevant. Many trekking websites are updated regularly and provide a ton of (both relevant and irrelevant) information for your hiking expedition. Filtering out irrelevant information is critical to helping your brain process the most important information out of everything presented to you. Your experience, as well as the ability to think critically, is the key to extract what matters from what’s irrelevant.
Be critical of everything you read or hear, try to find at least two different sources about a particular topic you have an interest in, and carefully evaluate the quality and consistency of the information you get. This will help you allow yourself to reflect thoughtfully, objectively, on the data.
Plan routes
We recommend beginners to stick to trails or established routes and limit the amount of off-trail hiking into the wilderness. They should also focus their efforts on easy to medium trails. Once they have enough experience, they can always do more difficult hikes. More experienced backpackers have more options regarding the difficulty of their backpacking trips. They should plan their route taking into account factors such as the weather and environmental conditions as well as their own preferences.
Photo by Matthew Henry
OK, how to plan your route? First, pinpoint your starting location. Look carefully at the map before you set off and identify some landmarks to keep track of your progress. Then, trace your planned route carefully making note of key features you will pass on the way. It is a good idea to hike with a map in an easily accessible pocket to consult it if necessary.
Nowadays, there are also plenty of excellent backpacking route planner apps that would aid you in planning your hike. Many of them are free to use. Let’s have a look at two of the most popular apps you can use to find your next trail and plan your route – AllTrails and Hiking Project.
AllTrails is an excellent app that can be of benefit to both those who don’t know where they want to go and those who know where they want to go but need more information about a particular trail. You can find solid information, maps, photos, and reviews with accurate details for destinations from around the world. If you’re lucky, you can even find great local trails and parks you’ve never known about. In addition, AllTrails offers useful filters for refined research to help you find your perfect trail.
The community of registered backpackers, trail runners, and mountain bikers exceeds 10 million. As you can imagine, there’s never a shortage of in-depth reviews. Hence, you have so much information about some trails that you could plan your journey down to the smallest detail. What’s even better – the app is easy to use and offers real-time tracking so that you don’t get lost when hiking in unfamiliar places.
Hiking Project is a fantastic free hike route planner app that’s full of valuable information, accurate data, and a great user interface. It has many features that are useful before, during, and after a backpacking trip. For example, you can download detailed trail maps that work offline (before you hit the trail), use the maps to navigate comfortably and record your trail (during your hike), and catalog and analyze the routes that you’ve done (after your trip).
A great way to find backpacking gems and save time, this invaluable hiking tool provides specific technical and cultural information about various trails (including descriptions, elevations, history, etc.), in the US and more than 100 countries from all over the world.
Though backpacking route planner apps provide insights into the different trails, locals can also be an invaluable source of up-to-date knowledge and information, especially in remote areas. They can give you advice or guidance for route planning. Their experience can be especially helpful when you’re looking for more information about particular local sections or obscure trails that aren’t popular or well-recommended. Moreover, they can help you with any transportation-related questions as well as with finding online guides about the area you will be heading to as well as with finding valuable local forums. Perusing these forums can help you find some hidden gems.
Main problems to solve for long hiking trips
Resupplying/logistics
You need to organize an effective supply of enough food for your entire hiking trip. Planning and successfully executing a strategy for resupply is a must for long-distance hikers. You should also know in advance where grocery stores and post offices are located on the trail. Additionally, there are companies that ship resupply packages to hikers on some of the most popular trails (valid for the US).
Permits
Many national parks throughout the world require permits. There are places where you need to apply for a permit long before your trip – especially if the place is popular among backpackers and the number of permits is restricted. Thus, it’s best to check whether permits are needed before making firm plans for an area.
Hiking footwear, clothing, and gear
Proper equipment is critical to navigating through and living comfortably in the outdoors. Many backcountry emergencies result from people being poorly equipped to meet conditions. You will need appropriate and comfortable hiking footwear that’s durable, fits well, provides excellent traction and control. Trail runners are fantastic for most 3-season hikes in various conditions and environments.
La Sportiva Ultra Raptor II are functional, reliable, and versatile trail-running shoes designed to perform well on off-road terrain. These lightweight trail runners provide fantastic grip and traction even on wet rocks and roots thanks to the FriXion White outsoles offering maximum protection and stability. Highly breathable, quick-drying, and comfortable, these all-terrain shoes are perfect for backpacking, thru-hiking, and long-distance mountain running.
See Men’s Ultra Raptor on Amazon See Women’s Ultra Raptor on Amazon
For higher temperatures, pick up a pair of lightweight and breathable hiking shoes or trail-running shoes. For lower temperatures and rough terrain, choose high-cut boots that provide ankle support and give you more control and stability. To learn more about the different types of boots, their features, and best use, see our article where we discuss how to choose the right footwear for backpacking.
As far as clothing is concerned, “layering” is essential, especially when hiking in the mountains. Pick up a pair of proper hiking shorts or trousers depending on the weather, your preferences, and last but not least – the presence or absence of mosquitos, black flies, and other insects. Pretty much the same is valid when choosing a shirt for hiking. In general, you should know what type of hiking clothing you might need.
Know your gear
It doesn’t help to have all the right gear in your backpack if you can’t operate it. Take time to learn how to use your equipment before you leave home. Avoid going out on long trips to isolated places with untried backpacking gear. If you are using old gear, pull it out of storage and check to make sure it is in good repair before leaving. Carry a repair kit to fix your gear if something breaks down.
Specific problems related to the trail you’ve chosen
Anything that can be of interest from natural hazards to dangerous wildlife and fierce bugs such as mosquitos, flies, and gnats. In general, you want to have as much information as possible prior to your expedition as this might help you avoid risky situations.
Hiking around the world
Hiking around the world (especially if you want to do some long-distance trekking) makes planning even more complicated because, in addition to applying for a permit, you should have a valid passport, go to the embassy and apply for a visa (if you decide to go hiking in Asia, for example), buy a plane ticket, take a couple of passport photos, arrange travel insurance, and be vaccinated against tropical diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, Trypanosoma, etc. (if you go to a tropical country).
You may also want to scan all the documents for your trip abroad (you may wish to put everything in PDF format because it’s universal, plus there are a lot of PDF reader programs) including your personal documents, visas, driver’s license, health insurance cards, passport photos, etc. Store them online as a safety precaution. This way, you’ll have easy access to all your documents. It’s essential in case something goes wrong and you lose an important document. Sure, scanned documents cannot replace your official documents, however, they might come in handy for getting a provisional identity document as well as for getting a permit.
Photo by Dan Gold
There’s a wide range of destinations and types of journeys for everyone who’s interested in backpacking around the world.
There’s usually some seasonality and it might be more convenient to visit a place popular for winter trekking, for example, off-season when there aren’t so much buzz and hiking enthusiasts around. This way you’ll avoid the huge crowds of tourists on the trail giving you a chance to focus on exploring the area at your own pace and enjoy your excursion in solitude. Of course, this means that you must be experienced in backpacking, camping, navigation, and first aid in case something goes wrong. Safety is one of the most important things on the trail and thus the ability to govern your actions accordingly and deal with problems and injuries is especially valuable.
Emergency planning
Emergency planning ensures that you are prepared for the unexpected, that people know where and when to look for you, and that your actions are rational and predictable in spite of the emotional trauma associated with any kind of emergency situation. A contingency plan should lessen the risks involved and increase the probability of being found in case of an emergency situation. Creating an emergency plan and leaving it with friends or family means a safer hiking trip for you, fewer headaches, and less unnecessary panic for your family and friends.
Carry a first aid kit in an outer container made of durable nylon to protect the contents. Among the essentials in your first aid kit, you should include some analgesics/antibiotics/anaphylaxis (Ibuprofen, Aspirin or Acetaminophen, Sting relief pad, etc.), bandages, antiseptic towelettes, blister care pads, gauze sponges, safety whistle, water-purifying tablets, extra shoelaces, fire starter, duct tape, multi-purpose tool. The exact content of your first aid kit depends on the features of the place you will be hiking in, the chronic diseases you have, and your previous experience.
Meal planning
Planning meals is an essential part of planning a backpacking trip. You need to eat (and drink enough fluids) regularly throughout your hike, especially when hiking at altitude. Having three solid meals a day with a snack or two in between is recommended. Food plays a large part in how much you enjoy the outdoors. You’ll need lightweight, non-perishable, high in calories foods that taste good. Exhaustion after a long day on the trail can make you think about skipping your dinner which isn’t good for your health and fitness; however, knowing that you have some tasty food in your pack can make you change your mind. A warm and delicious dinner can not only make you feel better but also boost your morale.
A 90 kg person burns around 550 calories per hour of hiking (this number usually varies between 450 and 650 depending on factors like the terrain, weather conditions, the density of the air, your fitness level, your individual basal metabolism, etc.). Thus, you’ll need a lot of energy on the trail. So when planning your meals, look for foods rich in carbs, fats, and sugar – such kinds of foods will provide you enough energy for a long hiking day.
Some people bring their favorite high-carbohydrate foods such as dried fruits, chocolate, granola bars, pop tarts, snickers, energy bars, energy gels, etc., while others prefer eating fatty foods like nuts, jerky, cheese, chips, olive oil, almond or peanut butter as well as any other kind of nut butter available. Eating healthy during long hiking trips is much less important than eating regularly so the choice of foods is not really that important – as long as you take enough calories everything will be all right.
There are numerous examples of people having a pack full of all the “right stuff” and not eating it. Frankly, doing this is much worse than eating junk food on the trail. It can actually be a huge motivation for moving forward to your final destination.
Planning and packing your backpack
When packing your hiking backpackbefore hitting the trail, the little things can add up to make a big difference later. If you start out with a good organization system, life in the backcountry will be simpler and more pleasant. Plan carefully the contents of your pack considering the duration of your trip, the expected weather and temperatures, the features of the terrain, the potential dangers on the trail, and your specific needs.
Do the packing the day(s) before the hike when you are not in a rush. Lots of beginners try to pack in the morning of the hike and as a result forget some important things like a flashlight, toilet paper, raincoat, fire starter, etc. It can be daunting to pack for your first wilderness adventure and you don’t want to exacerbate things further by doing it in a rush.
Make detailed lists with all the backpacking gear you’ll need. Also, note what you do and do not use so that on future trips you can fine-tune the packing. Eliminate redundancy when pack planning. When deciding what to cut, think twice about eliminating insulation and food. Fleece or a sweater doesn’t weigh a lot and won’t slow you down significantly but can be very useful on the trail.
It helps to have things you will need during the day near the top of your pack. Keep things like spare clothes and food there for easy access without having to unpack other gear. Carry snacks in hip belt pockets and have your water bottle located so you can reach it without removing your pack. You can check out our posts about packing for a day hike and packing for a multi-day hike. There, you’ll find some further recommendations on packing as well as lists with basic and extra stuff essential for hiking.
Conclusion
Planning a hike, whether it’s a weekend getaway or an extended summer adventure, requires time and effort. It’s easy to get lost in a whirlwind of lists, logistics, maps, and meal plans. Detailed planning is crucial for any hike, particularly for long-distance journeys that span weeks or even months. However, the planning process can sometimes feel overwhelming, even more so than the actual hiking itself. It’s important to keep in mind that gathering information takes time, and there may always be gaps that you can’t completely avoid. However, don’t let this discourage you. Once you take that first step into the wilderness, all the organization and planning fade into the background. Then it’s just you and nature.
Backpacking, like any other activity, tends to yield better results when participants are prepared and have a general idea of what to expect. So be ready to face the challenges that may arise, maintain a flexible mindset, and make the most out of any circ*mstances encountered along the way. And most importantly – enjoy your hiking adventure!
Do you have a successful strategy you follow? How much time do you spend on planning your hikes? Drop us a line in the comments section below.
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