Ensure success on your big backpacking trips with smaller practice trips beforehand. Try different gear, strategies and skills in a low-risk environment.
Ensure success on your big backpacking trips with smaller practice trips beforehand. Try different gear, strategies and skills in a low-risk environment.
Before I attempted longer trips I did smaller shakedowns close to home on the Appalachian Trail to test my gear and my approach.
Do you have anything planned for the summer? If you’ve done a shakedown hike, how did it go?
I don’t usually do shakedown trips, though kind of. Usually my first hikes of the season are a sort of shakedown since they are shorter and less challenging as I get back into it after the long winter. By the time the bigger hikes come up, I am typically familiar with my gear changes. Though I still only do max 3 nights out for my “big” trips.
Sounds like a good system. Try anything differently lately, gear-wise or skill-wise?
I purchased a Flame III bag from Sea to Summit, and some ultralight dry bags and towel that are S2S ultra-sil and dry-lite knockoffs. I have to write up a post here about towels, I was doing some testing a week or two ago.