The Great Adventure Begins

Hiking. Ever tried it? Maybe you have visions of dusty trails on steep slopes. Or, possibly you think it's an experience filled with just insect bites, blisters and sore legs. Sounds pretty unpleasant, doesn't it?

Well, hiking can involve those things. But, with the proper techniques, equipment and guidance you can enjoy all the many positives that are inherent in hiking: fresh air, beautiful scenery, healthy exercise, soul-refreshing solitude and joyous companionship. You can also avoid those unpleasant things listed earlier.

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Basic Training For Beginning Hikers

Once you've achieved some basic fitness as preparations for a good hike, there are a few other things that will help you get completely ready. General fitness is great, but there are specialized activities that are appropriate to hiking, another specialized form of exercise.

Walking barefoot around the house and yard is not a bad idea. It's not essential, but it helps toughen up the soles of your feet. Even with hiking boots and good socks it never hurts to have something a little tougher under them than baby soft skin.

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More Hiking Techniques for the Beginner

Hiking over ordinary terrain requires being able to keep up a steady pace for several hours, with short rest breaks (10 min or so) in between once per hour. But creeks, steep or slippery slopes and hikes at high altitudes can make that almost impossible. In short, your technique has to be tailored to the actual conditions.

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Dealing With Blisters

Ouch! You've been on the trail for a few hours and you're on your way back. Unfortunately, you still have a few miles to go and you just noticed you've got blisters. That turns a pleasant hike back into torture.

Blisters are caused by friction between your skin and your sock, and hence from the wall of your hiking boot. Even the best socks and boots will still allow some slippage of your foot inside. That leaves open the possibility of painful friction.

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Selecting Socks

You wouldn't naturally think so, but selecting socks is even harder than buying boots. There are so many good models and manufacturers of good boots. If you find ones that are sturdy and fit well, you'll probably be pleased. But, socks? That's tough.

Socks are socks, right? Not when it comes to hiking, no. Sports socks are not hiking socks. You don't want to wear the same socks you use to play tennis or soccer when you set out on a long hike.

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Etiquette on the Trail

People who live in urban environments sometimes seem to forget why they came to a wilderness area to hike: peace and quiet, and great scenery. To enjoy that themselves, and to allow others to, hikers generally adopt a few common sense guidelines.

'Pack it in, pack it out' is a long-standing rule among fair-minded hikers. In order to leave the area much as you found it, for the sake of others and your own future enjoyment, you should not leave what you brought. That includes water bottles, trash and other items.

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Exercises For Beginning Hikers

One of the first things someone new to hiking should do is get in shape. That's especially true if you've been sitting on the couch for the last few months or more. Hiking most obviously uses the leg muscles, but virtually every muscle group is involved. Also, it requires very good cardiovascular and lung capacity to complement muscular stamina.

Here are a few simple exercises to help you build all those for tackling those hills and streams.

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Getting Started

Hiking sounds like, to use a very old phrase, a cakewalk - something easy. You lace up some boots, slip on some shorts and a shirt and you're on your way. What could be easier?

Certainly, some hikes are that easy. And they should be. Not every hike has to be a three-day outing in the peaks of Colorado. Not every journey involves navigating through forests, across rivers and over mountain passes. Sometimes you just want some fresh air and a little exercise.

But once you expand your horizons, what do you do?

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Getting Lost and Getting Out of It

Getting lost is among the top potential problems for beginning hikers.

It's easy to step into the forest a few yards and lose your bearings. You may step a few more yards in the direction you think you came and get still farther away from your trail. Or, you may misread a map and wind up on a trail very different from the one you had planned.

Either way, you're lost because you don't know where you are, or how to get where you want to go. Here are a few bits of advice about how to avoid that fate, and what to do in the event you find yourself in it anyway.

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Introduction to Using a Compass

The old-fashioned practice of using a compass is rapidly giving way to GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation. But, compasses are still often cheaper and it's a good idea for hikers to be familiar with how to use one.

Thousands of years ago humans first observed that a certain kind of metal floating on a leaf in a pond would always orient itself to point in a particular direction. It was only a few centuries ago that it was discovered that the Earth's magnetic field is responsible. The Earth is somewhat like a very large bar magnet.

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Introduction to Using Maps

Even experienced hikers will rely on maps or GPS units to navigate along trails and through wilderness areas. In fact, it's the MORE experienced hikers who tend to do this and the beginners who think they can just wing it.

Amateurs will often reason that they can stick to well-traveled trails and avoid the hard work needed to learn how to use maps. As the saying goes, 'Good luck with that. Let me know how that works out for you.'

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Navigation Using GPS Devices

GPS is an acronym standing for Global Positioning System. Though there are lots of components, the essential parts are a series of satellites and the units people carry. Three satellites are used to locate your position across the Earth's surface and another can be used with them to calculate your altitude in a process called triangulation.

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Navigation By The Stars and Sun

There are times while hiking when it's a good idea to be able to fall back on traditional navigation techniques.

Modern maps, compasses and especially GPS units are great. But you can lose your maps, break your compass and run low on batteries. Also, GPS units don't always work - sometimes the signal gets blocked by, of all things, trees. Well, there tend to be a lot of trees around in hiking areas. As the Boy Scouts say, be prepared.

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Navigation

Helpful tips to help you find your way on the trails.

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First Aid Buying Tips

Millions of hikers travel along wilderness trails every year, enjoying the experience without injury. Unfortunately, accidents can happen. A little knowledge can help ease the panic and reduce the seriousness of most of them.

First, a little preparation.

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Basic Safety Tips for Hikers

Hiking isn't typically dangerous. Much more often it's a great pleasure, even an adventure. But you're outside, sometimes far from 'civilization' and you can get injured or worse. It pays to heed some common sense safety tips.

Tip #1 - Do not travel alone

Like any rule, there are exceptions. If you're just going for a stroll in a nearby, well-traveled area you're as safe there as anywhere. But if you travel through heavily forested areas, with steep canyons and winding trails, you can easily get lost. And, of course, there are lots of gradations in between. Use your judgment.

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Buying Boots

One of the best investments a hiker can ever make is in the selection of good boots. From the negative side, nothing (short of a catastrophic accident) can make a hike go bad as easily as a bad pair of boots. On the positive side, good boots give you the support, comfort and traction you need to conquer any hike.

A long hike puts enormous stress on your feet and ankles. That stress is transmitted upward to the legs and has an effect on your back and entire body. It isn't just a matter of whether you get a blister. You need a solid base.

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Basic First Aid

Basic First Aid

Three of the more valuable skills hikers can learn are CPR (Cardio-pulminary Resuscitation), executing the Heimlich maneuver and dealing with fractures. Not only are those three responses to serious issues but, after cuts and sprains, choking and bone breaks are among the more likely problems. Keep in mind, though, that 'more likely than other problems' doesn't mean 'likely' - the odds are still low.

CPR

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Backpack Buying Tips

There are so many choices available for backpacks today that before looking at the details it can be helpful to get a general view.

First determine how much you intend to carry. That will most likely be determined by how long you intend to hike and in what conditions. An overnight trip in an area with a snack bar or restaurant calls for one strategy. A weeklong journey far from civilization is another thing entirely.

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Backpacks 101

There are as many backpacks on the market today as there are trails to use them on. They come in all sizes and colors, in a range of materials and with enough add-on extras to satisfy the most demanding gadget freak. But let's just review some of the basics, in order to clear a path through the blizzard.

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