Day Hiking Essentials

If you’re unsure how much food to bring I wrote an article on how much food to bring on a 1-2 day hike, it covers how to calculate your calorie requirements on a hike which could be useful. 

Clothing

As I mentioned in the beginning of this article you need to check the forecast of where you’re hiking, not where you live. Use that to decide which clothing is ideal for your hike. 

Footwear

Improper footwear can literally break a day hike. It’s not fun at all, if you’re out in the middle of no where and sprain an ankle. Not for you, nor your friends since they now have to help you limp back.

If you plan on hiking regularly I highly recommend you spend a little money on some good high quality hiking shoes. Go to a good store that has high quality gear, but also highly educated staff that can guide you. Often they will have fake inclines so that you can try and walk up and down.

Besides comfort and water resistance you also want to ensure that you’re protecting your angles. You also do not want your nails to dig into the front of your shoes when you’re walking down very steep inclines, unless of course you like to lose your nails, because that is what’ll happen. Nails takes about 6 months to grow back.

The only exception to that, is if you’re a trail runner, then you can certainly use your trail running shoes if they are proper trail running shoes and not just runners you use for trails. Hiking in normal runners can be done, but it is at a risk. It’s just up to you if you want to take that risk or not. I suspect the people that did, that then strained their ankle, no longer takes that risk.

Cold Weather

It’s critical to wear the right clothes during a cold weather hike, especially if you add rain to it. Wear multiple layers. I would recommend a base layer that is sweat proof. You don’t want that first layer getting drenched in sweat. Then you can wear another layer if it's really cold that keeps you warm and then finally an outer layer that keeps the wind and potential rain out. The mid layer can be skipped if it's not too cold, but I would recommend you always have the inner layer and the outer layer.

A good hat is great to keep you warm as well since you can lose a lot of heat through the top of your head and lastly some good gloves is key also. 

Warm Weather

Choose light colors as they reflect the suns rays rather than absorb them like black colors would. Wear lose loose-fitted clothes. It's important not to wear clothing that are too tight if you need to climb up rocks. 

A good hat or cap is a good idea to limit your sun burn.

Gear & Optional Equipment

Besides what we’ve covered above here’s a few gear ideas that you can consider bringing:

• Small First Aid Kit.
• Sun block.
• Wet wipes / Baby wipes. These things are amazing. We used to use these as “a shower” in the military when on exercise. You can use them to wash your hands before you eat or if you end up having to relieve yourself you’ll be glad you have them.
• Bear spray if there’s bears in the area you’re hiking.
• Zip lock bags. I always put my electronics in them in case it starts to rain.
• Compass.
• Headlamp.
• Multi tool or a knife.
• A map of the area. An actual physical map on paper.
• GPS.
• Water filtration unit. A sawyer squeeze is a great little thing and it doesn’t weigh a thing. This is really not needed, but if you already have one for your day hikes why not bring it. They do not weigh much after all and you will be glad you have it if you run into trouble.
• Mylar Thermal blankets. 

Day Hike Check List

I’ve created a day hike check list that you can print and use: