Let's Talk About Hiking Gear -- Or Lack Thereof


I am here to tell you that we are the most woefully unequipped people, when it comes to any sort of hiking gear. Let this be an inspiration -- if you are just doing day hikes (we have not delved into overnight camping at this point), there is very little you need. 

Right now, our list consists of the following:

- Water and snacks
- Small backpacks 
- Sturdy shoes and socks 
- A sweatshirt/extra layer on cool days
- A few Bandaids and some Advil
- A pair of hiking poles that Dan likes to use for support

I am pretty ignorant when it comes to hiking accessories, especially when it applies to clothing. I have even been known to hike in jeans. This is hiking taboo, I know, but if it's an old comfortable pair of jeans and the kind of hike that involves sliding down rocks, they're not so bad. We have no hiking boots right now, so sneakers it is. If the "real" hikers on the trail are snickering at us, so be it. I am not going to wait until I have everything perfect to start moving. 

That being said, there is something to be said for safety. Having improper footwear can be a recipe for disaster. There are some things you can't be flippant about -- like not having enough water. If you are climbing any semblance of a mountain there is a good chance you could have an abrupt change in weather. Layers are important. Even in my limited lifetime hiking experience, I've experienced two storms that came out of nowhere that both involved thunder, and one had sleet thrown in as well. 

In the near-future I'd like to put together some kind of minimal first aid kit for day hikes. I know I can have the tendency to go overboard so I'm trying to keep it simple but I do think it's important. Over the course of just a month I fell once on my knee and bloodied it, Chloe scraped herself up, and I also twisted my ankle several times (an ongoing issue for me). 

We actually had hiking poles on hand from a gift we'd gotten for someone else and then decided the person we'd gotten them for wouldn't care for them. So they sat in our closet for about two years until Dan dug them out. I do believe I could benefit from them but for right now I find them to be cumbersome. That may change. 

At some point I'd like to get some hiking pants and hiking boots, something beyond my leggings and not so expensive sneakers.

I don't want to even THINK about everything we'd need to try to overnight hike. One thing at a time. 

So the bottom line is that we have hiked, at this writing, seven sections of the New England Trail now and we look like total novices. But we are learning, we are doing our best to be safe, and slowly we will get more hiking appropriate items. And so can you! 

Have some tips about what to bring/wear hiking? Share them in the comments! You can also find more info here: Best Gear, Equipment for Beginner Hikers 2021 | The Strategist (nymag.com).






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New England Trail Hike #3: CT Section 18, Bloomfield-Simsbury-East Granby

Image
Another weekend, another hike! We decided to start from a familiar spot not far from home. CT Trail Section 18 begins at Penwood State Forest and offers a number of trails, some of which we'd hiked before. Our foible of the day came after trusting our GPS. This time both of them were wrong. Since we'd been to Penwood before, we KNEW that when the GPS announced we'd "reached our destination," we were not in the right place. We were on a side road marked with a sign that read "Private Property." Still, we kept going, because maybe this was a back way we weren't aware of, or something like that? We saw more No Trespassing signs and then the clincher, a last sign that boldly asserted: "Turn Around. GPS Incorrect." At that point we'd reached a house far set back down this road and had to turn around in a driveway where a man with a dog were glaring at us. Apparently we weren't the only ones who had done this.  So after trusting our memor
Read more

New England Trail Hike #6: CT Section 17 (Part 1!)

Image
The next weekend the kids were with the grandparents and we were hiking on our own in part to celebrate our anniversary. It turned out to be a good thing we were kid-less, because we'd been eyeing CT section 17 for awhile but knew none of us (but the kids especially) were ready to do a total of 10.3 miles in a day. There's a reason this blog is called The Amateur Hiker. Dan and I DID think we could split up those 10 miles over a couple of days, so we decided to hike this trail in two parts over a Saturday and a Sunday. The total of this trail runs from the towns of Farmington through Avon, West Hartford, Bloomfield and Simsbury. Near the middle of that the trail cross Route 44, and that's where we began our hike (on the north side of Rt. 44).  We parked near the West Hartford Reservoir, and the first part of the trail is very flat and pleasant and walks along the reservoir for a while. This is a very popular area and there were people all over the place. In fact, most of t
Read more

New England Trail Hike #7: CT Section 17 (Part 2!)

Image
 The next day was the second of two perfect autumn New England days, and we set out early to tackle this longer section (for us) of the trail. We headed to the southern end of the section, Farmington, to hike approx. 5 1/2 miles north and end at the same parking area on Rt. 44 in West Hartford where we'd begun our hike the day before.  This trail improbably begins in the most atypical of places -- right off a very high trafficked area, just across the street from the monolith collection of facilities that is UConn Health Center. At first glance you'd never think this area had a trail hiding behind the trees, and I'm guessing this was probably something added with the creation of the New England Trail.  I'm not going to lie, I wasn't all that impressed with the first part of this section, as it was mainly a road walk past really nice homes. This was great for getting a glance at rolling green lawns and gated mini-mansions, but it didn't feel much like a hike. It
Read more