With summer around the corner, we seriously cannot wait to hit the hiking trails. Every year, we plan some pretty fun hikes, and every year we see a ton of people that are on their first ever hike - which we absolutely LOVE to see.

But a lot of new adventurers are really out of their element - not really dressed for what they are doing, don’t have food or water with them, and haven’t even given the whole altitude thing - if they are in a higher elevation - a thought until it snuck up on them.

You definitely have to start somewhere, and we are so proud of these new adventurers for taking the chance and going for a hike and trying something totally new. We really wish we could give the new adventurers we come across an encouraging pep-talk, as well as some outdoor advice.

However, we hardly ever do - no one likes being told they look like a newbie and, to be honestly, not everyone wants a random person on a hiking trail saying hi, let alone giving them advice. As a side note, we will absolutely stop to check on people if they are visibly really struggling and the group they are with isn’t sure what to do.

Because of this, we’ve decided to put together some Beginners Guides on everything we wish someone had told us when we first started adventuring outdoors! These are from our own experiences and some from people we’ve come across.

As we write them, we will link them to our Beginner’s Guides Page, so be sure to check back often to see what’s new!

As an added bonus, check out our Free Pack List for day hiking! We have listed out everything we pack in our hiking pack and ranked them as either “must haves” or “nice to haves”.

Can’t wait to see you on the trails!

~Liz