Posted on by Heath McConnell

Planning A Day Hike for Beginners

Hey Guys, today I am going to answer the question of “How do I plan a day hike?” and show you how easy it is.

There has been many times someone that knows me has come up to me and said that they want to go on a hike, but do not know the first thing about what to do. I decided to offer a few basic steps that you can go through to help you go on a day hike. Lets look at the list first and then break it down a lot more than I did in the video.

  1. How much total time Do I have?
  2. How far do I want to hike?
  3. How difficult do I want the hike to be?
  4. Do I want to see anything in particular?
  5. What do I bring?

1. How much total time do I have?

First we need to determine how much time we have from home and back. The time we have will determine all the other questions. Here are three scenarios:

  • 1 hour) For me, If I only have one hour, then I probably will have to just take a walk around my neighborhood. I would not make it anywhere in that time frame, and if I did, I would not have any time to hike. But I can get four miles in in that time on the street.
  • 3-4 hours) Now we are getting somewhere. In this time frame, I can travel to the local trail system in the woods and hike about two hours, regardless of miles. However, for me, on that trail system, I usually cover roughly six miles in two hours. Another alternate hike in this time frame could be driving to the river path system in the city. It is a paved path system on both sides of the river and I know I can get four miles hiked in an hour. If I add round-trip drive time of one hour, that is three total hours.
  • 6-8 hour) In this range I have a lot of options. I could drive through the woods about an hour and fourty-five minutes to a trailhead that has three awesome waterfalls. The hike would take about two hours, include about two miles of hiking and is a relatively easy hike.
Upper Kentucky Falls Photo
Upper Kentucky Falls

2. How far do I want to hike?

As you can see from the above scenarios, the time I had available determined the length of the hike I had available. If I had one hour total time, deciding to hike six miles is out of the question. There are, however, times when I can choose how far I want to hike. For an example, lets say I want to hike ten miles. I could travel thirty minutes to the local trail system, hike about ten miles in under three hours and drive back home thirty minutes. With this option, ten miles in just under three hours, plus an hour of driving there and back equals four hours. Make sense?

3. How difficult do I want the hike to be.

With this option, you would need to search for a hike based on skill level. To do this, you will need to have either advanced mapping and route planning skills or will need to rely on guide books and apps (see my All Trails app guide). With the All Trails app you can search by difficult level and then choose the closest trail. You will have less options for where you can go in a specific time frame with this option.

4. Do I want to see anything in particular?

Do you want to see wildlife? Waterfalls? a lake? a creek? With this option, You choose what you want to see and the miles and time will more than likely be determined for you. Lets say I want to see those big furry white mountain goats. Well…I will have to travel very far away. I will have to hike some pretty treacherous terrain. I will also have to hike pretty far. When I lived in Colorado, I did this. I drove way up into the mountains about an hour one way. I then hiked about fifteen miles out and back. The elevation gain was colossal considering I climbed a fourteen hundred foot peak in the process. I did see lots of those mountain goats though. The downside was I got a blister on my heal the size of the full moon. Ouch!

5. What do I bring?

This is probably the question I am asked most. I have covered what I bring in the following video. I also list the contents below.

EQUIPMENT LIST:

Image of Everyday Carry organizer
Everyday Carry Organizer (EDC)

Well, this concludes this post. If you found this information helpful, please let me know. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments. You can stay informed of my posts and more by joining my e-list. Adventure awaits!