Show This To Your Friends + Family If You Are Planning A LONG-DISTANCE Backpacking Trip or THRU-HIKE

hey y'all dixie here recently i had somebody reach out and ask me if i had any sort of informational videos that hikers could show to their friends family or other people that will be their support system while they're out on a thru hike or another long distance backpacking trip up until today i didn't have anything like that but i've compiled some tips now and hopefully this is a video you can sit down and watch with people that will be your support team and it'll help answer some of their questions for those of y'all who have never seen this channel before and don't have a clue who i am my trail name is dixie and a trail name is just a nickname given to a hiker typically by fellow hackers out on trail and the hawking community can be a little difficult to understand it's its own nerdy culture like all sorts of other cultures but you're going to learn all sorts of stuff now that you've got somebody who is wanting to go out on a long distance backpacking trip or possibly a thru hike if you want to get ahead of the game a little bit and become more familiar with the lingo that your loved one will be using you can check out some of my hacker term videos and i'll put links to those in the video description anyway if you're wondering why i might be qualified to talk to you about what your hiker will be going through and what you can expect to experience from home it's because i've put my mom through several years of torture and suffering worrying about my safety and probably my mental health too when i first got started and collectively i've hiked close to ten thousand miles mostly through hiking long distance trails like the appalachian trail pacific crest trail and continental divide trail i know that it can be a bit overwhelming when a loved one springs the idea on you that they might want to be gone for multiple months at a time going to live in the woods and leave the modern comforts of home i mean who wants to leave a nice climate-controlled house to go sleep on the hard ground in the cold woods somewhere the truth is there are a lot of us crazy folks that want to do something like that i don't know if it's that we just have this desire to get back to our roots or we want to appreciate the world and the comforts that we have around us even more than we already do or maybe it's a more physical thing we want to get into better shape or we know spending time in the outdoors has proven to improve our mental health but i can almost promise you that if your loved one has told you this is something they want to do they've been marinating on it for a long time and while it might seem like something that's just suddenly sprung up to you oftentimes we sit and think about this sometimes up to years before we ever tell our loved ones because we're afraid of what their reaction will be so if you're wondering well where will they sleep or how will they eat where do they get water do they take showers your loved one can probably already answer a lot of these technical questions for you and if they can't yet because this is actually something that they've just decided they want to do then this channel is a good place to start because i've got all sorts of informational videos on these topics the bottom line is if your loved one has told you they want to do this it's almost coming from a place where they feel like they need to do this whether again that's for physical mental or spiritual reasons the trail is a great place to find clarity and to heal from things in our past so they're hoping that you're going to join them in being very supportive and encouraging for one of the most amazing things and also brutal things they'll ever experience in their entire life when i told my mom i was going to through hack the appalachian trail i'm sure she was like oh my god my daughter's gonna die because i had never even been on a backpacking trip at all when i took my first steps on my through hike of the appalachian trail and sure there are a lot of things that are considered dangers out there like wildlife the weather can be pretty horrible terrain and other humans but all in all there are ways to mitigate the dangers that you face out on trail and those are things that your hiker should definitely research and look into but backpacking is a relatively safe hobby all things considered the appalachian trail for example has millions of people who step foot to hike on it every year whether that's day hiking going on weekend trips or through hiking but because there's so many people out there your hiker will very rarely be alone unless they desire to be alone there are shelter areas along the way where people can gather together and camp and there are also typically water sources there but even if they choose to go off the beaten path and camp alone they're going to be seeing people day in and day out i can probably count on one hand the days that i spent on the appalachian trail where i didn't see another soul and it might only be like a day or two so just have some peace and knowing that there is safety in numbers and a lot of times when people get out and hike some of these more traffic trails like the appalachian trail or pacific crest trail you end up meeting other hackers out there and end up forming lifelong relationships with them and they become what hikers call trammily their trail family i encourage you if at all possible for you to accompany your hiker to the trail to drop them off when they start their trek that way you can see the hustle and the bustle and the excitement of other hikers who are also starting out on their long journey another thing that you should understand is although your hacker will see some amazing views and have some really exciting experiences and a lot of this journey will be fun it's not a vacation a lot of times people at home think that us hikers who go out for six months at a time are just escaping all reality and that it must be like a six-month lounging vacation while camping but that just really isn't the case at all while they are out in the wilderness day in and day out they are putting themselves through a very physical regimen of waking up every morning hiking literally all day long and then laying down on hard ground to sleep at night and then they repeat it and repeat it and repeat it until they finally get to this goal in the far distance but not only is it one of the most physical things i've ever put my body through but also the mind takes a beating it is something that you have to chip away at every day and be very determined to make it to the end and it helps so much to have a good support system at home to know that you're not only struggling physically but mentally emotionally etc it's not just a vacation so now that we've got the foundation laid out what are some of the actual things that you can do to help your hiker have the most enjoyable and rewarding experience that they can even though you're not out on trail with them first off you can start being a great support system before they ever leave to go on their trip you can ask them things like hey what pack did you end up getting for your trip or maybe do you mind showing me the gear that you've picked out to go on trail or tell me about what you're going to eat for your first section of trail these are all things that will show your hiker that you care about their experience and you want to see that they've actually prepared for this hike and i think seeing that they've got some of this actually under control pretty well and they have done their research will also help you feel better know that they will be increasingly more nervous as their start date is approaching a lot of times if you have a start date that's months or even a couple years out as it finally approaches it's like whoa this got here too fast i'm not actually ready you can start having second guesses about whether you're really ready or not but chances are your hiker is ready they're just getting cold feet so really encourage them as their date gets closer you know you are ready for this you can do this you know get out there and start and if you need to come home and regroup that's always an option make sure that your hiker knows that you believe in them when i left home my family started making bets on whether they thought i would make it or not or actually how long they thought that i would make it because a lot of them didn't think i would make it and while there is something to be said about uh being fueled by the naysayers it really does help to know that people at home believe in you and it's like okay well if my loved ones believe in me then really i should believe in me too and also you know take some interest in learning all you can about the backpacking community you're already off to a great start here but there are some other books and resources that you can read out there one of the ones that i definitely recommend if you want to go into more detail about what your hiker will be going through is hiking from home and this is a book by juliana chauncey if you want to check this book out i will put a link to it in the video description once your hacker sets out on trail it's definitely good to stay involved and interested something that i did for my mom that helped her feel like she was kind of part of the journey or to just have a visual of exactly where i was i got her a laminated trail map and i cut out a little sticky note that said i'm here and when i would talk to her on the phone i would say okay you can move the little sticky note to such and such place because i'm here now and that just really helped her see my progress and also to be familiar with the exact location i was at while i was on the appalachian trail i was using a guidebook to help me see what trail town was coming up next or exactly what mile i was at etc so i got my mom a copy of the guidebook also that way i could tell her hey turn to page 23 i'm right here right now or tonight if i had service at my campsite tonight i'm camping at mile 213.7 and so it was cool for her to be able to see that and to see the climbs that i had coming up the next day on the elevation profile nowadays a lot of people use the far out app formerly known as gut hook and so i've gotten that app for my mom too and purchased the trail track that i'm going to be out on again so she can follow along virtually with where i'm at on my hack and finally you can join facebook groups pretty much for all of these long distance trails there is a through hiking class of the current year so it's something that you can follow along and chat with other family members who have hikers out there or see what other hackers are saying while they're out on trail it's just a way to be part of the community now i want to talk a little bit about communication and safety i know that it can be a tough thing to have somebody in your life that you know you can pretty much pick up your cell phone and call their cell phone and reach them any time of day but out on hiking trails there isn't always service i will say that verizon does seem to be the best provider for everywhere that i've been hiking there were some areas where t-mobile might have had a little bit more service than verizon but all in all verizon does a pretty good job and there were a lot of days where i did have service on trail and could check in through text messaging but a hacker out on trail definitely wants to conserve their cell phone battery so chances are their phone will be in airplane mode most the time except maybe when they climb to a summit on a mountain they'll flip it off and just you know check if they have any service but some hikers really like to just check out get away from it all keep their phone in airplane mode maybe the whole stretch they're out on trail until they get to town to resupply it really depends on the trail you're on as far as how many days you'll go in between resupplies but every so often the hiker does have to get off trail get more food take a shower do laundry handle whatever the business they need to in town and then get back on the trail until the next stretch and most of the long distance backpacking trails that i've been on in the us the maximum amount of time that i would be in between one town to the next is about seven days but on trails like the appalachian trail for example it might be every three to five days that i'd be getting off trail to resupply but i think that it's certainly reasonable that a hiker could check in at least every seven days and this will depend again between you and your hiker to figure out what you all think is a reasonable amount of time for somebody to say hey i'm alive everything's cool love you bye now i'm somebody who likes to talk to my mom every day or at least every other day so for me when i would leave a town i would always say to my mom okay it's x miles till the next town stop i think it'll take me this amount of days but you know say i thought it would take me four days i would say okay i think it will take me four days it could end up being five because i might just want to take a day off to sit by a beautiful river in the middle of the woods but don't call emergency services until six days so i would kind of give her the rule of thumb this is the amount of days that i think it'll take me and don't call anyone looking for me until it's been two more days than that this seemed to work pretty well for us all the way through the appalachian trail and again most stretches of trail between resupplies i would find some sort of cell service where i could send a quick check-in message but when i got out on the pacific crest trail in 2017 i was in the sierra nevada when there was a whole lot of snow and snow melt going on and it was really a sketchy section of trail where every day i felt like i was kind of in danger and even though i tried to play it off to my mom she knew that i was kind of scared about that section of trail and if i told her hey it's gonna take me about five days to get through this section when i was at the end of day five i would stress and i'd be trying to push through some terrain that was pretty tough and i probably should have taken more time with to be as safe as possible because i didn't want her worrying and freaking out so i decided after that stretch of trail going forward i wanted to have some way to communicate with her regardless of where i was at on trail and that's when i looked into getting a garmin inreach a garmin inreach is a device that communicates through satellites so even if you're out in the middle of nowhere without any cell reception you are able to message back and forth with your loved ones now not everyone wants to be reachable all the time and they don't want the expectation of messaging back and forth while they're on trail it is a personal preference thing and the inreaches can be expensive but another good thing about them is they have an sos button so you can call for help if you need emergency services and that gave my mom peace of mind and also myself peace of mind knowing that i could do that a step down from the inreach would be something like a spot device where you can send pre-programmed messages you just push a button and it sends the messages to your contacts to let them know like just woke up i'm starting to hike or taking lunch or i'm at camp safe for the night and it also sends them your location and with a lot of these different devices you can actually track your location so it keeps a steady spot on you wherever you're at on trail at a bare minimum though for peace of mind for yourself and for your hiker if at all possible in the budget you might want to look into a personal locator beacon now this is not something where they can communicate with you but it is a device that they can push the sos button if they are in an emergency situation so again just a little peace of mind knowing that if they're in trouble they can call for professional help even if your hiker's like okay yes i will call you every town to let you know that i'm still breathing something to keep in mind is that when they get to town it's not all rnr time it's not like they get to just kick back and relax until they get back on trail when they get to town a lot of the stressful work kind of starts coming into play you've got to resupply your groceries go to a laundromat if the place that you're staying doesn't have a way for you to do laundry sometimes if you want to pick a package or mail something home you've got to go to the post office and while all of this doesn't really seem like something that's super tedious you don't have a car or transportation at your becking call so it is actually pretty tedious if all of these things aren't centrally located in one spot not to mention that you have to get from the trail to the town and from the town back to the trail so just be mindful of the time that they have in town when you're communicating with them and of course get your time in but also try to keep it short so that they can actually relax a little bit while they're in town it can also help if there is one main point of contact between the hacker and the support system back home so maybe mom can be the one that updates the rest of the family and lets everyone know how the hiker is doing so the hiker doesn't have to personally call everybody when they get to every town it can just be a little bit overwhelming something that i've seen a lot of people do that helps with this is create a facebook group for people who want to follow this hacker's journey and whether your loved one the hacker is the person who posts these updates or whether they tell mom or the other point of contact and that person does the updates either way the big group of people who are wanting to find out how everything's going are able to find out that information without the hiker having to repeat the message to everybody and one final note on safety something that really bothered my mom about me being out on trail was not the fact that there was going to be wildlife or bad weather or sketchy terrain or even other hackers her biggest issue was that i was going to have to hitchhike now i know it seems like you could possibly get a shuttle from the trail to town but there aren't shuttle services for every point of trail to town and anyway that can get really expensive and a lot of times these trail towns are not within a mile of the trail they're several miles away from the road crossing and so it seems like well you're already out there doing thousands of miles of hiking why not just walk to town and back but that's just really not feasible for getting everything done in the short window you have to accomplish your hack so nevertheless hitchhiking is a necessary part of through hiking but the thing that i think a lot of people back home don't realize is there is a strong hiking community around a lot of these long distance trails most of the people in the trail towns surrounding whatever trail your hiker is on know what's going on and know why there are people hitchhiking and they're actually excited to help the hikers coming through their town as i've already mentioned before most of the time your loved one will probably be around other hikers so they won't have to hitchhike alone and something that i typically do whether i'm hitchhiking alone or not but especially if i'm in a situation where i do have to hitchhike alone i snap a quick picture of the tag as i'm approaching the vehicle and then i text it to my mom and that way she knows the type of vehicle i'm getting into and the license plate number and she'll have some information of where i last was in case the worst happens and she doesn't hear from me and if i don't have service immediately at the trailhead then typically as we're heading into town i'll get service to send that to her although it's not likely to happen if there is an instance that you don't hear from your hiker in the amount of time that y'all agreed on check-ins then you should at least know the last location of your hiker when you spoke to them last the amount of days that they had expected to get to the next trail town you should of course have their name date of birth etc and it's good if you get your hiker to sometime at the beginning of the trail or maybe the day that they start have a picture of them with their gear on and a picture of all of their gear that way you've got what they actually look like out on trail and not you know dressed up at work in their business suit if they need to put out a missing person's poster and also you've got pictures of their gear so somebody spots that on trail and this can also be helpful when something doesn't go seriously wrong if you leave a piece of gear out on the trail then you can post in some of the facebook groups around the trail to hopefully locate that piece of gear while your hacker's out on trail they're certainly going to ride the emotional roller coaster one day you might talk to them and they're going to feel like they're on top of the world and this is the best thing they've ever done and then you might talk to them literally the next day and they'll have had some miserable weather and they might be crying or upset and they might even question whether they want to be out there anymore so expect to see all of the emotions and be supportive through those definitely encourage them to not quit on a bad day if they've been rained on for four days straight and they're in a grumpy mood and they're like i just want to come home encourage them to go to town dry out take a shower eat a good hot meal and think about it the next day because chances are once they've had time to calm down and to become comfortable again they'll be happy to get back out there and chip away at it some more a lot of hikers express that they like to get uplifting or encouraging text messages from their loved ones so even if you know your hacker's phone is on airplane mode and they're not going to respond just know that when they flip their phone off of airplane mode and they see those encouraging texts it really might be what they need in that moment one thing that i really appreciated about my mom when i was out on my longer hikes is pretty much any time i called her especially when i got a surprise bar of service and i was so excited because i hadn't talked to anyone from back home for a few days knowing that 99 of the time she was gonna be there for me and answer her phone meant the world to me so stay by those phones if at all possible and another thing that my mom did that was just awesome is she was always ready to handle logistics for me if i needed her to there were several times where i would message her through my inreach because i didn't have cell service and i would say hey can you check and see what time the barbecue restaurant in the next town closes because i think that if i really turn it on and like jog the rest of the day that i could get there in time to eat barbecue but you don't want to push yourself if you know you're just going to get there and it's going to be closed so little things like that my mom was always willing to help me out with and i really appreciated that and it meant more to me than she probably even knew now let's talk about care packages or resupply boxes your hiker may have things that they want to set aside for you to send them while they're out on trail they may need to swap out certain pieces of gear depending on the season some people have different rated sleeping bags or something like micro spikes might be needed in the beginning and at the end but not in the middle but they'll be able to tell you what they need they just hope that you'll be willing to send it to them but when you send that stuff or if you just want to do something to kind of lift their spirits you can always send a care package also but you want to make sure in the care packages that you don't send anything that's really bulky or really heavy for example i had a friend while i was on the appalachian trail that sent me three pounds of trail mix now everyone always thinks oh a hiker they must like trail mix but the truth is i was a couple hundred miles in and i was already absolutely sick of trail mix now she did send me three different kinds and it was stuff that i probably couldn't have gotten out there on trail but we pretty much have the weight of our packs down to a science and although three pounds doesn't seem like that much for somebody to carry from the grocery store to their car when you're putting it on your back and walking mile after mile with that weight it's just it's it's too much so you want to make sure that you try not to send anything first of all that they don't ask for especially if you see a cool piece of camping gear at the store and you're like oh they might like this little lantern thing if they wanted that piece of gear they would probably already have it so you want to make sure you ask about anything like that ahead of time but there are some little goodies that you could probably send them that they would appreciate there was one hacker that said her mom would send her the sunday comic strips she would save them up and then send them with a care package so that was something her daughter could enjoy there in town it reminded her of home and it was something that you know made her feel loved and like her mom cared about her and wanted to cheer her up so any stuff like that that's small that can be enjoyed in the moment and then you know either tossed or shared that would be a good idea and finally it never hurts to get a little cash in a care package i'm not sure that there's any hacker out there that wouldn't appreciate that because they can definitely use it for lodging purposes or food or to splurge on a really good meal in town and last but not least something that doesn't weigh anything at all but would always be appreciated is an offer to pay for a hostel or a hotel in the next town so if you really want to cheer somebody up that's a great way to do it and a good way to be really supportive and helpful even if your hiker is not somebody who seems like they'll want to keep in touch every day they might be surprised at how homesick they get while they're out there and maybe not this may not be a thing for some people but i know a lot of couples who end up missing their significant other they get homesick and they quit their hike and go home or even people who are really close with their parents could be the same thing some things that you can help do to mitigate that is face time you know most people make phone calls but being able to see somebody at least digitally face to face can definitely be helpful so taking the time to do that and keep in touch with your hiker can certainly help sending little reminders from home like i mentioned in care packages but again nothing heavy like a photo album you know maybe just aunt susie's peanut brittle and if at all possible maybe doing a meetup while you're out on trail having a loved one come visit you out on trail can definitely be exciting and is a great way to show your support meetups should definitely be something that is okayed by the hiker though and the reason i say this is having people from outside the trail come meet you on trail can actually be a pretty stressful thing especially if the person who's coming to meet you has a strict schedule and they are wanting to meet you at this certain location on this date as a hiker you're not driving you're walking so it can be very difficult to dial in an exact location on a certain date so as the person coming to visit make sure that you're as flexible as possible with this and if it doesn't land up at the exact location that you have the ability to compromise with that and just a note on hiking with your loved one if you're going to go out for a visit and you want to actually hike with the person it's easier to do it at the beginning of the hike than at the end because towards the end of the hike your loved one is going to be a heiken machine they're going to be probably doubling or possibly even tripling the miles they were able to do at the beginning so if you don't want to hold them back and you want to be able to keep up more easily then again it's better done towards the beginning of the hike when they're still breaking in their trail legs make sure if you go to visit your hiker on trail that y'all are on the same page as far as time that the hiker will spend off trail because it can be very disruptive to have your trail family around you and your moral support day in and day out and now somebody from outside trail life comes to visit you and they expect you to take three days off to go you know tour the local town or something so just understand and be flexible with your hiker as far as how much time they want to spend off trail i had some trail friends who had family come visit or come help out while we were on trail in one way or another but they made sure to do it not just for their individual hiker but actually for the group so it made it a fun thing and everybody still stuck together on the appalachian trail in hot springs north carolina my friend riga's mom came to visit and she rented this airbnb that we were all able to stay at together we took two or three zero days we were able to just relax go into town and swap out for new gear if we needed to do that she cooked for us and we just really all had a fun time together and she was super helpful so if you're willing to help out other hikers in any way those are always things that are appreciated another thing that you can do to help interact with the hiking community and to get extra brownie points with your hiker is to do trail magic for the hikers out on trail trail magic can be anything from giving rides or providing snacks but if you set up something like a little booth and cook hot dogs and hamburgers and have cold drinks for the hikers coming through then your hiker will think you're like the coolest person in the entire world and last but not least don't be disappointed if you come to visit your hiker and they decide to take a day off with you if they don't want to go hike at a nearby park or if they don't want to go camping riga's mom came to visit her a second time on trail and she was really excited to let riga know that she had made camping reservations for them at a local campsite and rigo was so appreciative that her mom came to visit but she was like no i wanted to stay in a room somewhere you know with air conditioning and a bathtub you know so just don't be surprised if your hiker's not really interested in spending time outdoors if you come visit so those are some ideas of how a support system can be truly helpful and encouraging to their hacker but hackers there are also some things that you can do for your support team first of all before you hit the trail talk to them about their concerns for you on trail actually listen to what they have to say and then maybe address those concerns with some facts that you can research online like actually what are the risks with wildlife out on the trail and how much crime is actually out on the trail don't just tell your support system oh don't worry about it i'll be fine you know actually give them some numbers and some things to look at so that they understand it's one of the safer places to be actually stick to what you say you will do in the way of communication so if you all agree on every five days if you'll agree on every seven days if you're going to tell them how long it should be between each stretch whatever you say you're going to do actually commit to that and keep that communication another thing that i tried to do for my support team was to send them postcards every now and then if i was in a town and i saw some postcards then i'd pick up a couple of them and send them to grandma or mom or just whoever to let them know how much i really appreciated their support and that way they felt like they got a little token from the place i was at so when you go to the post office you can pick up a roll of postcard stamps and they're easy to mail off from wherever you stay in town whether that's a hostel or a hotel most of those places are willing to take your outgoing mail as i mentioned before you can set up a facebook group where people can join and follow your progress and you can even share things like your inreach link if you do decide to get in reach so people can follow along with your location if you leave things for your support team to send you on trail make sure you organize it as well as possible and maybe go over some of the stuff with your point of contact before you leave so they can easily find the things to send you that way if you're messaging through a satellite device or texting they're already familiar with those things that you might need along the way and finally make sure to thank your support team and let them know how much they mean to you because a lot of people don't have support teams when they get out there and they're all on your own so having people who are cheering you on is truly a special thing well all right y'all that is all i have for you today for the people who are gonna have loved ones out on trail i hope this at least gives you a starting off point for what to expect while your hacker is out on trail if you have any questions about anything i talked about today you're not familiar with some of the terminology or you just want more information feel free to leave those questions in the comments below and if you are somebody who has through hiked in the past and you had a support team that did something that you really appreciated or maybe they did something that you wish they hadn't have done then you can put that in the comments below too because i think sharing this information between support team and hikers can really help people going forward in the future all right well thank you all so much for watching don't forget to subscribe before you go if you found today's video helpful and we will see you all next time

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 80,212

Keywords: travel, hiking, backpacking, hike, gear, adventure, fun, story, Appalachian, Trail, PCT, CDT, thru-hike, Auburn, Alabama, epic, climbing, canyon, national, nature, mountains, update, park, lake, trail, tents, camping, summer, University, Aubie, River, stream, Mountains, National, Scenic, Dixie, Camino

Id: iO7226Uc2Ec

Length: 35min 51sec (2151 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 13 2022