Don't Make These Common Hiking Mistakes

hey guys we're out hiking all the time and we see people making the same common mistakes over and over again not making these same common mistakes can make for a much better hiking experience for you and even save your life we're here on the mountains to see Trail near Maggie Valley we're gonna go through those common mistakes with you and show you what to do and what not to do come along with us [Music] [Music] [Applause] number one boo even in the winter you in hiking you can build up a crazy thirst I'm so thirsty I forgot water guys really bad what are you doing without water will be liquidated so the most common mistake that we see on the trail is people not bringing water or not bringing enough water so when you're hiking you always want to bring some water in fact we even bring extra water to give to people that don't have water sometimes which we've done a number of times when hiking so that again it's a very common mistake people head out on the trail they realize it's lower than they thought they think they didn't need water or worse they bring soda or something that just makes them even more thirsty and then they're way out on the trail they're thirsty they're getting dehydrated and it can become a serious medical issue and in fact the number of Park Service people have been called out to trails to treat people that are dehydrated so always bring water bring more than you think you're gonna need and I also recommend bringing a little portable water filter that you can actually put into the creek it will filter the water and make it safe for you to drink and I've got a link for that down below if you guys are Justin getting that I always keep one or pack just in case we run out of water and don't have enough to you whoa almost slipped that leads me to come with mistake number two not having to compare our hiking boots or hiking shoes this is a mistake that we see a lot of people make we've actually seen people on the trail in flip-flops not a good option you want something that's going to be really good for your feet provide a lot of padding and support because the trails are rocky there's trees there's mud there's different kinds of various conditions and all of those are going to be really rough on your feet if you don't have the proper shoes on when hiking your feet of the most important part of your body and you want to protect them failure to do so can lead to long-term consequences that can even impact your ability to hike now with that said you don't have to have hiking boots or a really expensive pair of hiking boots a really nice pair of tennis shoes or just athletic shoes will work just fine just remember that your Footwear will get wet it will get muddy you're out in the woods wear something that you're not worried about getting dirty are you kidding me my $200 shoes are dirty socks are also in critically important so you want to wear nice padded socks something that's very comfortable and socks that stay dry one of the best things about a good pair of boots is not only will they protect your feet they're gonna keep you from falling and slipping most of the higher-end or nice hiking boots having a tea slip tread so that's gonna be really important when you're walking up a steep incline after it's been raining or if you need to do any Creek hopping here's a little pro tip just from a dad who has kids don't buy an expensive pair of hiking boots for your younger children they're gonna outgrow them too fast in your hand have spending $1,000 on pairs of hiking boots just buy them a good pair of athletic shoes they'll be fun number three so far too often we're out on the trail we see people dressed exactly like that and four small short outings where you just doing a little short hike I can with the family it's it's fine but if you're gonna do a much longer a hike or anything more serious expecially this summer when it's really humid and you'll be sweating a lot cotton is not your friend cotton holds moisture and moisture is also not your friend and the mountains weather can vary greatly if you could have wet clothing on that's gonna stick to you it's gonna make your body even colder and even in warm conditions that can lead to hypothermia which can be very dangerous and life-threatening so instead of cotton what you want to wear is high polyester blend clothing this is often called stage ride clothing I think that's Nikes brand name for it but there's other brand names for it you'll see it it'll say basically say moisture wicking or stay dry that's what you want to target this includes your pants your shirts and even your undergarments and I stress undergarments because if you're gonna be hiking for a long time especially in warm conditions you gotta worry about chafee me because if your undergarments get moist or wet from sweating that can really rub your skin raw and make for a very uncomfortable hike I mean that's a little weird topic to talk about but it's important hey joy how this is number four [Music] that night that that that there's a bear up there I don't see a bear oh there's the bear okay guys we probably want to slowly back away guys guys they left me so that is a perfect example of what you do not want to do when you encounter wildlife all right so when hiking it's inevitable that you're gonna run into wildlife you may see a bear you may see a snake you may see a coyote you may see wild boar you may see a squirrel that's generally what we see um but you're gonna see wildlife it's just inevitable of your liking one of the most important things to remember is the animals are far more afraid of you than you are of them so when hiking always keep your eyes on the trail look ahead listen out for sounds and just be aware again chances are you're probably not gonna see anything but you always want to keep your eyes open just in case you do so the first thing you want to do when you see a wild animal on the trail whether it be a bear or a coyote or anything but in particular bears because those are the ones that people tend to run into a little bit more is you want to stop immediately you don't want to keep walking you don't wanna walk towards it you want to stop you want to pay attention to the wildlife see if it's noticed you if it has you're too close you need to back up if it hasn't noticed you that's a good thing you just want to stay right there and keep an eye on it and wait for it to move off the trail which it will eventually once it does you can safely continue your hike if the wild animal it has changed its behavior is looking at you or has noticed you you want to walk away the way that you safely do that is by continuing to face the animal and slowly backing away until it goes about its business so if you are too close and the bear has noticed you maybe starting to make some aggressive movements a typical one for a bear is gonna be pawing at the ground or grunting if they're doing that you want to move away again back up slowly you can also make a lot of noise go bear go bear whoa eat Brennan they don't understand what you're saying but the point is to make a lot of noise that's gonna intimidate them a little bit and generally they're gonna run off we've seen three bears on the trail while we're hiking and all three as soon as they saw us took off matter of fact I couldn't get my camera out to take a picture I'm fast enough and that's generally how most bear encounters go okay snakes if you see a snake you want to at least stop and you want to back away and you want to leave it alone especially if you don't know whether it's venomous or not so you want to try to avoid those snakes if you see one on the trail just let it go about this business it will eventually cross and you can move on don't poke it don't prod it don't mess with it you're just risking getting bit numero Cinco the last common mistake that people make their working address in this video is failing to tell somebody where you're going hiking and when you'll be back and this has actually caused a couple of deaths in the national park it's critically important that you tell somebody that is not hiking with you where you were going to be and what time they can expect you back and then when you finish your hike it's important that you call them to let them know that you are safe and everything's fine failure to do this can result in you getting lost turned around and being stuck out in the woods for days until somebody finally calls for help dad are we lost no no we're not lost we're not lost at all okay yeah maybe we are lost I probably should have sold some anywhere we're going to be hiking and what time we be back so always make sure that you tell somebody where you're going to be and when you're going to be back it may just save your life alright guys that wraps up our most common hiking mistakes hope you guys enjoyed the video got some value out of it if you did give the video a like be sure to subscribe so you can get all of our future content and we'll see you next time

Channel: Blue Ridge Mountain Life

Views: 3,023

Rating: 4.9166665 out of 5

Keywords: Hiking, Blue Ridge Mountains, Maggie Valley NC, Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina, hiking mistakes, how to hike

Id: WH_vgIBMuHA

Length: 8min 56sec (536 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 08 2019