From keeping your phone charged to lowering your pack weight, these 10 backpacking hacks will make your life on the trail a lot easier.

Many hikers hope their treks will make them better at other sports. Instead, mine kept me from distance running for a year—a common side effect we don't discuss enough.

Whether you’re planning for your first thru-hike or any thru-hike after, there are a few pieces of thru-hiking gear that you need to buy months in advance. It can be frustrating to plan farther ahead, but if you do, you’ll be happy when you start your thru-hike. After 17 thru-hikes, I’ve run the gambit of planning from nothing but getting off the couch to massive spreadsheets. I compiled this list for you, so you don’t get screwed before your hike. Read on to yourself a lot of frustration.

This does include a Dolly Parton quote.

It's always interesting when you start a thru-hike with the gear you think you need, but here's what I actually ended up with. You can look at what I started with here . Each piece weighed separately via lighterpack . I also have a VERY long overview on the bottom. I apologize for not h

Hi! In case you didn’t know I will be hiking the PCT summer of 2022 (just a few months from the time this post is published)! ← Insert terrified-excited scream here. Since I am treating this as more of an active online pre-trail journaling log (that’s my complicated way of saying, list of sh*t that […]

Thru hiking versus backpacking: both involve multi-day hiking and nights under the stars, but how do they compare in terms of logistics and culture? Thru hiking is a long-distance subset of backpacking and this fun overview explains what makes through hiking a unique activity in its own right. Maybe it'll inspire you to try your own thru hike!

JMT day 2 photo recap! 🌞🥾🧡⛰️ To witness such beauty in a days time…still seems unreal. 13-14 miles today with an elevation & emotional rollercoaster. This campsite & lake is special to me, as it was somewhere I’d been 4 years ago- on my first ever backpacking trip! Headed up Mt Whitney!🤘🏼💪🏼👏🏻 heyyyyy now look at me, out here thru hiking! :) Living life out, one hard day of hiking at a time🫶🏼 #jmt #guitarlake #californi #mtwhitney #whitneyportal #thruhike #backpackers #thruhiking…

The Pacific Crest Trail is majestically beautiful. It roams through some of the most beautiful landscapes in the country. I get to live in this scenery everyday. It’s a dream. Right? Well not always. There is a lot more that goes into thru hiking than it may seem. Social media (my blog included) does a really good job at showing the positive, idealistic parts of thru hiking. Let me just tell you, it’s hard work. Just like you don’t always want to get out of bed and drive to work in the…

I remember asking my brother, a fellow thru-hiker, what gear to buy. His advice was “you have to experiment for yourself”. That was NOT the answer I wanted to hear.