Some Beginner Hiking Mistakes and important Expert Tips to Fix Them

We all have that one friend who just doesn't like hiking, and chances are that they don't like it because they made one of these five beginner hiking mistakes on one of their first backpacking trips. You probably already know that to avoid blisters you should break in your hiking boots, wear Merino wool socks, and tape your feet as soon as you start to feel any hot spots. But even though you follow all of this advice, you still get blisters. Why is that? I found from my own personal experience three other factors that are equally important.

I. Avoiding the Blister Trap: Beyond the Basics

High-Quality Socks are Key

The three most important factors for blister prevention are getting good quality Merino wool socks, getting shoes that fit you perfectly, and also lacing your shoes properly. I've tried a lot of different Merino wool hiking socks, cheap ones and expensive ones, and I still haven't found a single pair of cheap Merino wool socks that don't cause blisters. The only ones that have worked for me are the ones made by Darn Tough, Smartwool, or Silverlight. I would recommend even for beginners to invest in a pair of good quality Merino wool socks because you'll be saying goodbye to blisters.

The Importance of the Perfect Fit

Another equally important thing is finding hiking footwear that fits your feet perfectly. When you first put them on, you shouldn't feel like you need to break them in. This is much more important than actually breaking in your hiking shoes because you'll pretty much be facing an uphill battle if they don't fit you from the start. The toe box should be wide, and your toes shouldn't dig into it. The heel area should be nicely padded all around so that you don't get any bruises, and it shouldn't be moving up and down when you walk.

Advanced Lacing for Toe and Heel Security

The last reason why you still might be getting blisters is because you're lacing your shoes the normal way. Instead, you should be lacing them using a technique that gives much more room in the toe area, which reduces blister formation around your toes while still keeping the heel area nice and tight. Start by untying your laces all the way, except for the last loop. Then, skip the next loop, and on the third one, do a surgeon's knot, which is essentially a regular knot with one additional turn. This will essentially keep this area nice and loose while keeping the rest of the shoe tight. Continue tying the rest of the shoe normally, and finally, in the last one, do another surgeon's knot before finally tightening the shoe. Doing another surgeon's knot in the end helps with keeping the heel area nice and tight.

II. Layering for Autumn, Winter, and Spring

When hiking in autumn, winter, or spring, layering is super difficult to get right. Wear too much and you'll start sweating, losing energy, and getting tired. Wear too little and you'll just get cold and have a miserable experience. Essentially, you need to be layering in three layers: the base layer, the mid-layer, and the outer shell.

The Base, Mid, and Outer Shell

• **The base layer** is there to wick all the sweat away from your body and move it towards the outer layers, which will keep you dry and warm. If you have the budget, you can get a Merino wool base layer, but it honestly isn't a must because you can also use synthetic polypropylene base layers, which work very similarly except they start to smell bad much quicker.
• **The mid-layer** is there to keep you warm and this is usually achieved with down jackets or with fleeces. If you're on a budget, then you can definitely get a synthetic fleece, which will keep you almost as warm as a down jacket.
• **The outer shell** is there to protect you from wind and rain, and this is usually done with rain jackets and rain pants.

When to Wear Your Layers

Another really important thing to nail just right is when to wear each of the layers. A good phrase to remember here is 'be bold, start cold.' The main idea here is that you should feel a bit cold when you're just starting hiking, because as you work up your sweat, you will become much warmer. This will keep you from sweating and becoming cold later on. When hiking, always wear the base layer, but remove the mid-layer or the outer shell depending on how cold it is. When you stop, instantly put on all of the remaining layers back on to keep your warmth.

III. Cold Weather Camping and Sleeping Gear

Understanding Sleeping Bag Ratings

On different sleeping bags, you'll usually find two or three temperatures written on them, which is Comfort, Risk, and Survival. You need to look at the highest of these three numbers to find out what temperatures the sleeping bag is actually good to use for. For example, on a sleeping bag with 0 and -5°C written on it, I would pretty much never use it below 0°C because I know that it would be pretty cold sleeping in this sleeping bag.

Budget Solutions for Cold Sleep

If your sleeping bag is slightly too cold for the temperature you want to be sleeping in, you don't need to buy a new and expensive sleeping bag. What you can do is invest in a sleeping bag liner, which goes inside the sleeping bag and adds a few degrees to it so that you can sleep in colder temperatures. Another really budget option is to combine two colder sleeping bags, putting one inside the other. I did this for a very long time when I was hiking in winters because I didn't have the money to buy an expensive and warm sleeping bag.

Insulation from the Ground Up

Another really important thing for camping in winter is getting a sleeping pad that is warm enough, otherwise there won't be enough insulation from the cold ground. The problem with this is that warm inflatable sleeping pads usually cost a lot. So if you're on a budget, what you can do is bring another foam mat and put it underneath the inflatable sleeping pads. Just remember to put the reflective side facing towards you to keep your body heat from escaping and reflecting it back to you. Another thing that you can do if you're on a very strict budget is to use an emergency blanket. Just put it underneath the inflatable sleeping pad, and it will reflect the warmth from your body back to you, which will increase your temperature during the night. The good thing about these is that they're very small, lightweight, and they cost pretty much nothing.

Warming Up Before Bed

Also remember that your sleeping bag works kind of like a thermos. If you put something cold in it, you'll warm up very slowly. So if you're really cold, do some push-ups, stand-ups, and run around the tent just before going to sleep, and this will make you become warmer much quicker.

IV. Gear Selection and Weight Reduction

Footwear Choice: Boots vs. Trail Runners

One of the first things that a lot of beginners spend their money on is a pair of good hiking boots. But for summer hiking, I would ideally recommend you to get hiking shoes or trail running shoes. The reasoning is simple: they're much lighter. Placing extra weight on your feet is bad because this means that you will need to carry it with every step that you take. It will wear you down much faster, which means that in the end, you won't be able to hike for as long as you'd like or for as long as you should. For summer hiking, you don't really need a waterproof hiking boot because you'll just sweat, and that will wet your feet much quicker and much more than a bit of rain would. So avoid buying hiking boots for summer hiking and buy a pair of hiking shoes instead.

Smarter Packing for Water and Food

Another mistake that I see a lot of beginner hikers do is that they bring too much food and too much water. Water weighs a lot, and you can quickly and cheaply reduce your pack weight. Instead of protecting your backpack from the outside with a rain cover, use a regular trash bag to protect all of your most important items from becoming wet. It's much lighter, and it's also 100% waterproof. If you'll be building a fire, realistically you don't really need to bring a saw or an axe. You could just break the smaller branches with your hands or burn larger logs in the middle in the fire itself.

Packaged Goods and Calorie Density

You also don't really need to bring a whole entire bottle of olive oil. Instead, you can repackage it into Ziploc bags because they're lighter and you don't need to bring the full bag. You should also avoid bringing canned goods if possible because they do contain a lot of needless water inside of them. Some calorie-dense foods that you could bring on your hike that don't weigh a lot could be pasta, couscous, oatmeal, rice, nuts, dried fruit, or peanut butter.

V. Additional Resources and Community

If you did any other mistakes as a beginner, please write them down in the comments because it might help other people who are just starting out. If you want to support this channel, also check out my website Trail goals.com. Together with my wife, we make posters of various through-hiking trails from North America, Europe, and other parts of the world. Some of them include the Rim-to-Rim, the PCT, the Camino de Santiago, and over a hundred other different hiking trails from all across the world. If you've finished a through-hike that you're proud of or you know a friend who wants to do a through-hike, then this poster will be a great gift to keep your eyes on the goal. Use the code **Oscar hikes** to get 10% off, and when buying two or more posters, you'll also get free shipping.