Hiking is one of my favorite past times and whenever I get a spare weekend or a little more time, I love nothing more than heading into nature with my buddy Sam Zherka to enjoy this beautiful world din which we live. In my view, hiking is the best way to get back in touch with nature and if you have never been then I would urge you to do so. If you take my advice then I have a few tips for you on planning a successful hiking trip and ensuring that you have all that you need to make it a great trip.
Route Planning
Once you have decided on your destination, it is time to plan the route, thankfully if you have not done this before, there are many well trodden paths which you can follow. Take a look online to see which routes are available and whether any of these tickle your fancy, you can do a mash up of a coupe of different routes of you like, whatever suits you and the things which you want to see during your trip. Whenever planning the timing of your hikes from A to B, try not to be too over ambitious, the idea of hiking is to enjoy the walk and not put yourself under pressure with a time challenge.
Equipment
If you are heading away for a weekend you need to think carefully about the equipment which you are going to need. There is a temptation to take too much stuff but be careful as the last thing that you need is to be lugging around a heavy back pack on your hike. Try to keep your equipment list simple, ensure you have a tent and sleeping bags, basic cooking equipment as well as food which is lightweight and offers sustenance, powdered foods are great for this. Regarding clothing, you should research well to see what kind of weather you can expect and pack accordingly, I would always recommend that you hike in shorts whether it is rain or shine, they are lightweight and very comfortable. Finally you must ensure that you have a solid pair of boots, you will be relying heavily on your feet and uncomfortable boots will ruin a trip.
Safety
Safety is paramount when you are hiking and you should take plenty of precautions when it comes to your route and how you go about your hike. Make sure that you are notifying people of where you plan to go and when you have arrived, if something were to happen during your hike, it will be much easier to alert people to the problem and your whereabouts if they are fully informed about your route and your timings. Hiking should be enjoyable but that is not to say that there is no danger, make sure that you spend some time on preparing for the worst case scenario to ensure that you stay safe out there.