How long is a piece of string? Where are you walking from? Where are you walking to? What is the weather like? How much experience do you have? Are you alone or with others? There are so many variables it is a difficult question to give a single answer to, but we can get you started.
So why is it a difficult question? If I was going to walk off the beaten track on my own in the middle of winter, I will prepare completely differently to a walk round the local park with my family in summer. On the surface it’s easy to see the level of preparation required for each will be vastly different.
I’ve put together a series of articles to answer this question as best as possible, it isn’t going to be a shopping list of items to pack, that’s not just because I’m not sponsored, but because you can’t learn from a list. Plenty of website will tell you what to take, but not many will tell you the reasons or theory behind the choices to make, educating you in areas you may not be familiar or comfortable with and ultimately giving you the information so you decided what you need to take when walking on your own or in a small group.
There are core items I will always take, such as footwear, water and a bag. Even these basic walking items have variables, what are those variables I hear you ask? We will go into them more in each article but to give you an idea…
- Footwear – terrain, length of walk, weather conditions, ground conditions (two very different things!)
- Water – temperature, humidity, distance
- Bag (size dependant on) – amount of kit, length of walk (overnight with a bivvy or tent?), type of kit, terrain (does it need to be waterproof?), weather (eg spare clothing / waterproofs)
Then there are the mental things, knowledge, experience that you may or may not need depending on if you are doing a big hike with someone more experienced or you are going on a lunchtime lockdown walk in your local area.
To help understand the principles of packing let’s think of a simple scenario and outline how you would pack and prepare for the walk.
Scenario:
- Walking with a small group of people for the first post-lockdown rule of 6 walk
- It is sunny and the forecast is for good weather all day – no wind or rain
- The terrain is hill along a river in a dale
- The distance will be 5 miles and take just over 1.5 hours
I will look at what kit we need for this walk in our next article. I will discuss the options we should consider and weigh up the pros and cons versus risks.