Hiking
If you can walk, hiking is easy. Hiking is simply going for a walk, but doing so the wilderness. Its not really that much different than taking a walk anywhere else except that the surfaces you are walking on may be more uneven than the paved or flat surfaces you usually find in a city.
Introduction to hiking
In addition to walking you need to be prepared for whatever the weather conditions are when you go for a hike, and you need to be able to find your way back home again.
One of the best ways to get started is to start with short hikes first. That way if your muscles or your feet aren't used to hiking or if you find you are not properly dressed for the weather you won't suffer unnecessarily.
One of differences between hiking and walking around in town is that you need to become more aware of your circumstances and what you need in order to take care of your body. While you are hiking there generally won't be a car, bus, house, store, or any other shelter to duck into if you get too hot or too cold or too tired or too hungry. And depending on when and where you go there may not be anyone else around. If you miss judge something on a short hike, it won't take long before you can get back to warmth, shelter, food, water, and more familiar surroundings. If you want to do it the easy way, use short hikes to learn what you can expect before attempting to tackle longer hikes.
Learn about hiking by doing it at the time of year when the weather is the nicest. Remember you're going to be outside. Later after you have gained some experience and want more variety or challenge you can go out when the seasons are less friendly. Start out by hiking with others in a group. It is also a good idea at least at first to go with other people who have already been hiking and know what to expect and can help you out when you don't know what to do.
One of the most common mistakes made by the hiking novice is the wrong choice of footwear. Choosing the right footwear is very important. You should choose footwear that is designed to make your feet comfortable while walking not footwear whose sole purpose is to look good and get attention. The footwear needs to be comfortable and needs to have the kind of sole that won't have you slipping on any surfaces that aren't perfectly flat. Another common mistake is to buy brand new footwear and wear it for the first time on a hike. This is more of a problem with boots than it is with shoes. Give your feet a chance to get used to any new hiking footwear by wearing it for short periods around your home or for short walks in the park. Blisters are the most common result, and while not life threatening blisters certainly aren't fun. They can in fact be quite painful.
The clothes you wear are also important for comfortable hiking. Your clothing should also be chosen to help your body maintain a comfortable temperature while hiking - not too hot and not too cold.
Experience will be your best teacher. To gain experience start out with some short, easy, group hikes. Ask questions when something doesn't feel right or you don't know what to do. The experience you gain will help you make sense out of what others have to say, and pretty soon you will be able to decide for yourself what feels most comfortable to you while you are out walking in the wilderness.
Hiking ethics
When I go out into the wilderness for a hike, I do so in part because I want to get in touch with nature and experience the world in its natural state altered as little by man as possible. I find hiking the wilderness to be a peaceful, relaxing, and stress reducing experience most of the time even when it is challenging. I assume it is much the same for most other hikers.
Since there are so many of us and there is so little wilderness we must share. The world has been for the most part explored. There is not much virgin wilderness left. Even the frozen wastes of the arctic poles have been trodden upon. In this new millennium almost everywhere we will choose to go we won't be the first ones there. Others will have passed the same way before us, and still others will pass by after we have gone.
The key to behaving well in the wilderness is to behave in same way that you would wish those that came before you had behaved. If you have ever hiked into a beautiful area only to find that some thoughtless soul left all his trash behind, you know what a blight that can be on your own experience. Or if you have ever drank from contaminated water and gotten sick, you know how miserable that can make you feel. The basic rule is if you don't want someone to do it to you, don't do it yourself.
And even if we were not to think of anyone but ourselves, if we found a particularly beautiful place, we might want to come back again another time. To do thoughtless deeds could spoil a spot not only for others, but also for us.
If you have been hiking for long, you have probably heard the adage, "Take only pictures, leave only footprints." That's a good start, but hiking responsibly involves more than just that. It includes not building another fire ring and blackening more stones when one already exists. It means not digging trenches or building stone walls or cutting down plants or killing animals or in some other way altering the wilderness unless your very survival depends on it. It includes protecting water supplies by not placing your waste so close to them that they can become contaminated. The same goes for pack animals. If you are using pack animals you are responsible for their actions as well as your own. More than one campsite and water source has been ruined for use by others through the careless handling of pack stock.
Behaving well applies doubly so for group leaders. The members of your group are just as likely to learn your bad behavior as your good behavior. That behavior then, good or bad, propagates and multiples as some of your group go on to become group leaders on other hikes. Set an example such that if you were someone outside the group that had to coexist with your group in the wilderness you would have nothing to complain about.
It seems like some people feel that when they get out into the wilderness they can do whatever they please. It is as though the wilderness had no laws and it is only through external, artificial restraints that they have any respect for others. They act as self-centered and selfishly as they want because they feel now there is no one around to stop them. They don't care if they litter or desecrate. They're leaving. It's not their problem any more. And so it is that their true character is revealed. Why would anyone choose such a person to be his or her friend or companion? Certainly, you could not expect much from your friendship with such a one as this. Their truly self-centered nature has been revealed for you to see in their thoughtless deeds. Do you think you will be treated any better by them when it does not serve them to do so? Hiking, you see, reveals not only the secrets of the nature and of yourself, but also of those around you. False fronts generally don't last long in the backcountry.
Don't let your actions mark your character unfairly. Think about what you are doing and how it might impact others and their wilderness experience. Sometimes when our actions will negatively impact others it is not immediately obvious. For not only are there thoughtless deeds that leave a lasting mark on the wilderness, but there are also thoughtless deeds that spoil the wildness of the wilderness for a moment. They may seem innocent enough at the time because they seemingly leave no scars, but spoil things they can never the less. And if enough of us hiking in back country behave this way often enough, then none of us will have the chance to fully realize the experience we came to find.
For example if you are hiking with a group, work out a plan to stay to in touch with each other that doesn't require regularly yelling back and forth or blowing a whistle or making some other loud noise. Other people in the area may be interested in observing wildlife or simply being lulled to sleep for an afternoon nap by the sound of a stream or the whisper of the wind. You could easily spoil that afternoon for them. And don't assume just because you don't see anyone else that no one else is in the area. They may be just less obvious and possibly less obnoxious about their presence than you are.
Remember that if we all do our part to respect the rights of others to have a wonderful wilderness hiking experience our chances of having the hiking experiences we want are greater as well. Enjoy!