Tips for First Time Thru Hikers

Oh look! Another list of thru hiker tips! I spent hours scouring the internet for these types of lists prior to starting my hike. Hopefully my little list of thru hiker tips includes a few that you haven’t already read elsewhere.

1. Keep the pace slower than you want to in the beginning. Lots of thru hikers get hurt by pushing themselves too hard before their bodies are ready.
2. Don’t spend too much time making a plan, and keep any plans you do make flexible. The weather/injuries/any number of unpredictable things will change your plans for you.
3. Sleep with your electronics and spare batteries when the temperature drops. And if it gets below freezing, put your water filter in a Ziploc bag and sleep with it, too.
4. Variety is the spice of the resupply box. If you’re going to send yourself resupply boxes, don’t include the same food in consecutive boxes. Pop Tarts get old reeeeeal fast.
5. If you’re missing veggies on the trail, pack out a bagged pre-made salad for your first lunch or dinner back out after a town stop. (Snap, if you ever happen to see this, thanks for the idea!)
6. Your Kindle/iPad/device that you think you’ll have time to use will probably be one of the first items that you send home.
7. Remember to stop and enjoy the scenery.
8. Show gratitude to trail angels. We’re not entitled to anything that they do for us. They support us on our crazy adventure out of the kindness of their hearts, and the least we can do is acknowledge how much we appreciate them.
9. Your shoe and sock setup is the most important piece of gear to thoroughly test out before your hike. You’re not going anywhere if you don’t have functioning feet.
10. Your feet may change size throughout your hike (mine went up a full size by my 3rd pair of shoes), so instead of buying all of your shoes ahead of time, no matter how amazing that sale is, buy them as you go.
11. Don’t leave home without Leukotape. And if you feel a hot spot starting to develop, stop and tape it ASAP! Better yet, tape blister prone areas before start hiking.
12. People love to hype things up, like how scary or difficult a section is. Take this hype with a grain of salt.
13. You’ll probably receive a lot of unsolicited advice or criticism from people who think they know more than you about the thing that you’re doing. Nod and keep doing your thing (as long as you’ve bothered to prepare for the thing).
14. Document your journey. Take more pictures. Write more journal entries or blog posts. It’ll be really nice to be able to take a trip down memory lane and relive your hike once you’re off trail.
15. Hiking will suck sometimes. But, in my opinion, the awesome is absolutely, positively, 100% worth the suck.