Reading a hiking trail for your skill level

The hubs and I just returned from our annual vacation aka hike-a-thon. This time, we went out on a limb to Switzerland to visit the Bernese Oberland. It was GORGEOUS!!!

Ricky on the Eiger Trail

As an event coordinator, it was a scary leap of faith to leave the planning to a tour company to book our hotels and plan our hikes. We were provided a rough topographic map and detailed description of our hike, but we quickly found out this was not enough to prepare us. Hence today's post is about how to read a hiking trail for YOU.

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We live in Georgia where what we call mountains are considered small hills to people who live in the Rockies. For example, Arabia Mountain is typically considered a moderate trail.
Distance one way: 1.29 miles
Approx. elevation gain:150 ft

The slightly longer Panther Creek Falls trail is classified as a difficult trail.
Distance one way: 4.71 miles
Approx. elevation gain: 600 ft

Compare these two hikes to a difficult trail out west like Mono Pass in Yosemite:
Distance one way: 3.7 miles
Approx. elevation gain: 900 feet

The average elevation gain of Panther Creek is 127ft per mile while Mono Pass clocks in at 243ft per mile. Both rated as 'difficult', but offering very different experiences.

Once hikes hit the level of difficult to strenuous, it's a crap shoot. Here's a great example two hikes rated as strenuous with very different feels:

	VS
Vernal Falls in Yosemite		Iceberg Lake in Glacier
Top of Vernal distance RT: 2.4 miles Elevation gain: 1000 ft		Iceberg Lake distance RT: 9.7 miles Elevation gain: 1275 feet

The average elevation gain for to Vernal Falls is 833ft per mile, a drastically different hike than the average elevation gain of 262ft per mile for Iceberg Lake.  What am I getting at here? My point is that you need to look beyond a hike's rating to determine if it's right for you.

Know Your Distance vs Elevation
I lead with those numbers so you understand my thoughts when I say this: hike ratings are meaningless. I don't consider walking 9 miles flat a strenuous hike. I can do distance all day. When you start to sprinkle in some elevation, you have my attention. But that's me! I've gotten moderate hike suggestions from people who causally mention a 2,000ft climb as a small challenge because that is their normal.

The hardest and most critical lesson in hiking is to learn your distance vs elevation max. No one can tell you but yourself. That baseline is critical for knowing what kind of hike you're about to get into.

Find the Elevation Profile

The most important piece of hiking information to me is now the elevation profile that illustrates how steep that climb is and how long it lasts. Topographic maps are another great option, if you have a good one and are skilled at reading it (I'm meh). See for yourself in these two examples from Jagat Jora Jaal.

Topographic map of Half Dome hike

Elevation profile of Half Dome hike

For our last vacation, we had the distance and elevation gain listed on all of our hikes if we didn't take any shortcuts, an okay topographic map, and the amount of time estimated for the hike. It's a start, but not the whole picture. Here's what I mean.  So one day we have great hike with a few small climbs spread out and the next day we're hiking straight up the side of a mountain face when I could have taken the train that's only 20 feet away. Be better than me; demand an elevation profile. 

Know Your Audience

If you can't find any information on a hike before tackling it (a rare event in the internet age), take a moment to reflect on who is providing you the information. Us Georgia folks are not use to mountains. Our trail ratings reflect that with almost any elevation gain on a trail earning it at least a moderate rating. I saw children running up mountains in Switzerland that I struggled to crawl up. Locals compare to what they know so its your job to scale a local's perspective to your experience. 

Trail Hydration - An expanding market

Living in Georgia, I know the importance of hydration. Double that on the trail. Triple that when you're backpacking. When I'm hiking, I love water. But as soon as I make camp, I'm desperate for a different beverage. Lucky for me, the market in instant drinks has exploded to my nearby Kroger.

Some like it HOT

I remember my fascination with the first instant coffee packs I saw years ago. We took them on our next backpacking trip and I never looked back. Now the market has expanded to have almost every variety of coffee-drink in small instant form.

Need to have cream and sugar in your coffee? Instead of stealing packets of sugar from your office, I like to bring a salt and pepper shake. This is my personal favorite from container store:

Of course, if you're not a fan of coffee, there are still plenty of options. I've been known to pack a hot chocolate packet and my husband enjoys tea. 

Ice Ice Baby

Prefer chiller beverages? I saw instant iced coffee the other day!

The market has also grown on flavoring your water. From Mio to Crystal Light (my personal favorite), you have plenty of options. Sport stores like REI and Dicks carry additional options in the form of fizzy tablets. Don't know which one to get? REI did an article about it.

Which drinks do you prefer?

Planning a Hiking Vacation: Family Edition

Last year's vacation was a first for us - we went on a hiking vacation with my family. Granted we're an older bunch with the youngest at 24 and we've vacationed with family before, but not like this. We never had to test our nerves together after miles of heat, blisters, and uphill and I was nervous. But I'm a planner at heart and I issued instructions as I tend to do with most things to help make it a better trip.

1) I was a drill sergeant about training
I brought up hiking training in every conversation. I would ask them how many miles they are walking each day, how many or how tall were the hills, and how winded they felt afterwards. I would make comparisons to landmarks they know ("Hiking up Highline trail will be like going up Kennesaw Mountain 3 times in a row.") so they could hopefully train more.  I started the training conversation before we even booked the flights. I didn't want anyone unprepared.

Trail signs are better with funny faces.

2) I assigned gear lists
I'm a list keeper. When we booked this trip, I sent them my copy of lists from previous hiking trips to show them the gear they would need. Good news is they didn't have to buy a lot more, but I knew before I sent the the lists what they were missing. I made sure everyone had their own pack and water. We addressed clothing to bring like jackets, convertible pants, HATS! For the love of god always hike with a hat! There was even a first-aid briefing so at least each pair of hikers had basic items for blister care.

We also discovered we are a family who loves puzzles.

3) I listened to their needs
After the first hike, I learned a lot. I hurried us on a 5 mile hike in mid-afternoon in the crowds and heat. We did not perform well. My husband's pace was too fast for the group, my mom liked to break at different points than me, and my sister wanted lots of photos. At the end of the hike we were exhausted in more than one way and it was just day one. I was worried the entire vacation was going to already be a bust.

So at dinner time, we talked it over. I asked how they felt on the hike and what they wanted to change. When we hiked as a family again on Day 3, we made lots of changes. I became line leader as my pace was the right balance. I made sure to stop at the bottom and top of hills, instead of just the top like I was use to.  We communicated more about stopping for photos or changing pace. It was a much better hike!


Hiking with family presents a new set of challenges, but it was rewarding to share the memories together after the trip. Don't get a few bumps prevent you from the same!

Gearing up for abroad - New Year, New Resolutions

At the start of last year, I swore I was going to blog again. Blog more! Blog often! But last year's miss is this year's opportunity. So with a new year, I'm trying to kick my butt into gear again. This time, I'll start with a hiking post about the challenges of going abroad.

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We love to make our vacations all about hiking. Spending seven days in a national park is easy planning. My car is my base camp, I only wear hiking clothes all trip, and I have access to laundry. For our trip to Japan, we wanted to make it all about food and only hike a few days. In lieu of suitcases, we used our multi-day packs. Translation: space was a rationed commodity.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized two facts:

• I did not want to carry Fuji hiking gear for more than the day I needed it
• I could not be the only person who wants to hike Fuji and doesn't have gear

The solution? Rent it! When I started looking at this route, I found there were online sites devoted to rental gear just for hiking Fuji. We could choose what we needed and have it sent to our hotel. I got us jackets (two layers), hiking boots, gloves, gators, hiking poles, and rain pants. You could have rented even more, if needed. We used our own base layers, socks,and headlights for the trip. 

Ricky sporting his rental jacket and gloves. So warm!

Our backpacks thanked us for the saved weight and space.  We were thankful to have gear made for the mountain. At home in Georgia, we have gear for rain and gear for cold but not gear for rain AND cold. From 6th to 8th station, the rain went from a sprinkle to a downpour. Visibility dropped drastically along with the temperature. The gear we rented was airtight. Not a drop got in and I never felt uncomfortably cold. 

We had two jackets - a fleece for warmth and an outer layer for rain.

Returning was just as easy. We threw everything in a pre-paid bag and dropped it off at a post office. Nothing to wash. No dirt in our bags. It was gone as magically as it had appeared.

After renting gators, I had to buy some when I got home!

The only difficult part was sizing. Americans tend to be larger than Japanese so we went with 'size O' on everything. Some items were on the tight side (pants), but it was better than nothing at all. 

So if your trip has you visiting a foreign country and hiking is only a part of your agenda, I highly encourage you looking at rental gear. The money spent was well worth the space saved!

Airplane Bento II

A year later, the airplane bento post remains my top hit. So when we went on vacation this summer, I knew I had to outdo myself. We had a 5 1/2 hour flight in the afternoon, so I "brought it" by increasing the size of the tupperwear container. I wanted to feature my favorite snacks and airplane purchases while adding some novel items in. It also helped that Target had a snack station where I could purchase smaller versions of tasty treats.

In this bento we have:

- 2 fun packs of peanut M&Ms
- Pretzel Crisps
- Pepperoni Stick
- Chocolate Chip Chewy Bar
- Individual Hummus
- Babel Cheese wheel

Backwoods Spaghetti

As we gear up for our summer trip, I've been practicing trail cooking at home. That way, we can try out the recipes before we're miles away from a kitchen. I try to do a full practice with the stove we have to make sure the recipe will work with our limited gear. Today I made spaghetti!

I LOVED this meal! It was easy and delicious! For the noodles, I broke them in half to fit in a snack ziplock. For the sauce, I went with a tomato paste base. 

Tomato Sauce:

- 2 tablespoon of tomato paste

Buy a can and divide the paste into an ice tray.  Freeze it and have paste for a long time. I would then use one cube for this recipe

- 1 teaspoon garlic powder

- 1 teaspoon dried basil

- 1 teaspoon dried oregano

- 1 vegetable bouillon cube

- pinch of red pepper flakes

As with any recipe, play with your seasoning and seasoning amounts to fit your taste. I wanted a simple recipe so I did all "1" measurements. 

Our cooking tools are really simple when we're on the trail. From left to right we have our stove with snowpeak pot, an xmug to eat it in, noodles in the ziploc bag, sauce in the tupperware, and the lid/sauce pan.  I grabbed all of the tools and ingredients and proceed to my front porch to cook. I like to worry the neighbors. 

Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil. Then drop in your noodles, lower your pot to a simmer (if you can, otherwise just take the pot off the flame for a bit), and throw a lid on it. Remember, noodles like a lot of water to move around in.

My cat was suspicious of the gas stove sounds...

Be sure to stir and check on your noodles on occasion. My lid kept coming off so I had to leave uncovered towards the end.

Drain what you can without losing the noodles and keep 1 cup of extra pasta water in the your mug. That way, you can add in water as you need to your sauce. Drop in the whole set of sauce seasonings and stir. Add water as needed to reach your desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Trip Planning: National Parks

Our last two summer vacations were Yosemite and Yellowstone. They were both an incredible adventure. Not every girl can say she goes on the hike of a lifetime every year! This is year three of national park planning and I have learned some great tips for hikers planning a trip to popular national parks.

Book Early, Research Earlier

I suggest you start to plan six to nine months in advance, preferably a year if you have a large group or family. There is a high demand and limited availability for many activities and hotels at parks, so they book up fast.  True story - I called to get dinner reservations on a weekend at Yellowstone three months in advance. All they had was one spot at 9:00 p.m. I took it and adjusted our hike to start late the next day.
We typically book everything six to seven months in advance and it's still a scramble to get our vacation dates. My favorite resources for planning are friends, Moon travel books, Trip Advisor, and the national parks websites.

Lottos and Permits - Learn Them Early

To balance the high demand of areas and maintaining the natural resources, many hikes and campsites have permit limits or lottos in place. As you start to set your schedule, be sure to look out for the permits required and when you can get them. I'll set all of my calendar reminders early on so I don't forget to apply. 

Don't give up on permits either! We won Half Dome permits but saw it was going to rain the day of our hike (they typically don't allow you to ascend the cables in the rain) so we started to apply for daily permits. On day three, we got lucky again. I've read stories of other people meeting up with people at the trailheads to be a part of their group. Keep on applying and keep on trying. 

Ask Your Friends...and Strangers

Books and websites help, but your friends are even better. Ask your friends, your coworkers, and your starbucks barista if they have ever been to the park. My favorite questions to ask are:

What was your favorite part?

What was the most overrated thing you did?

What was the coolest thing you did that you didn't know about until you got there?
If you had one more day, what would you have done?

Without asking those questions, we would have overlooked spending time at the Grand Tetons. An intern's parents at my job enlightened us to spend at least two days there. We're glad we did!

A friend of ours told us that Beartooth Highway was worth the time for the scenic views and winding roads. We would have dismissed spending a day on the road by just reading guidebooks. Our friends were right.

Ready for hiking season!

Welcome back Fall! And by fall, I mean the temperature is under 90s most days for the high. With the fun of summer plans and lack of hiking weather, I've fallen behind in blogging but now I hope to be back full swing.

To start, I wanted to talk about cleaning your gear. The right habit is to clean your gear after every hike.   This allows you the opportunity to evaluate your gear as well for tears or punctures.

For those who are more of a dayhiker, like myself, here's my checklist of cleaning after a hike

• Turn my daypack inside out. There are always some crumbs in there somehow
• Empty any water out of the pack. I have totally forgotten to do this and gotten things wet by accident!
• Make a list or email yourself any supplies you need to restock. Did you use a bandaid or notice you forgot your knife? I email myself (sometimes on the car ride back) with these reminders so I can get supplies during the week
• Place gear back in my gear basket. I have a basket next to the packs where we put all the gear we take with us. Before every hike, I go through the basket to make sure everything important is in our packs. This is really helpful when you are switching between packs, but if I know my next few hikes are with the same pack I may skip this step. 
• Clean my hiking boots. There's a great article here on boot repair if you want more info. In short, I use a boot brush to clean the bottom and give the shoe the once over for any damage. 

But my gear has been abandoned for the past month or two and I've forgotten any mental reminders I have made, so this past weekend I took to airing everything out. This was a great chance to freshen things up and make a checklist of any repairs or additions I want to make while summer sales are still going on. Having a carport was an advantage here - I could hand everything up and not heat up in the sun.

For better articles on maintaing your gear, check out:

Section Hiker - Backpacking Gear Maintenance

Backpacker.com - Make Your Gear Last Longer

Airplane Bento

Something about being 30,000 feet in the air makes everything better. That's why I'm saying this is my best bento ever. No matter how much I ate in the airport, I always want to buy the in-plane snacks. They look so tasty! However, I hate spending $3.00 on a pack of M&Ms or $7.00 on a cheese tray that is hardly big enough for a child. So I've started to make my own airplane snacks that include the foods that I am tempted to buy.

In this bento we have:
- 2 fun packs of peanut M&Ms
- Pretzel Crisps
- Pepperoni
- Chocolate Chip Chewy Bar
- Red Pepper Hummus
- Laughing Cow Cheese
(Plastic knife not pictured)

This bento accompanied us to while flying from ATL to SLC.