6 Silly Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Thru-Hike: How to Prevent Common Thru-Hiking Mistakes
Elise at the northern terminus of the Continental Divide Trail.
For most people, a thru-hike is a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. It’s something you plan for extensively and put a lot of time, effort and money toward. That’s why it can be so devastating when something that, in hindsight, seems so preventable sends you home too soon. I’ve made many thru-hiking mistakes over the years and also seen others make many thru-hiking mistakes. In this blog, I wanted to distill some of the most easily preventable thru-hiking mistakes in an attempt to warn future thru-hikers and aid in their already extensive planning.
If you avoid these 6 silly thru-hiking mistakes, in my observed experience, you are far more likely to have a successful thru-hike. By silly, I mean preventable. I wanted to focus on thru-hiking mistakes that you can easily avoid with a little extra time and foresight.
These are not in order of importance, although I think the last one is particularly overlooked and VERY important.
Thru-hiking mistake #1: Not Training.
The first mistake I want to talk about that I see WAY too often is NOT TRAINING for thru-hikes. One of the most devastating and common reasons people have to get off trail is because of some sort of overuse injury that likely could have been prevented if they had trained more.
Some people don’t train at all and just take it super easy for the first month and while this CAN work on a trail that has a longer season like the Appalachian Trail, I definitely wouldn’t advise that approach. I’d at least want to have SOME conditioning before you start hiking with a heavy backpack if you want to make sure you don’t end up getting hurt. Plus, the ‘take it slow in the beginning’ method just doesn’t really work if you have a shorter time frame (like on the PCT or CDT).
This episode of Backpacker Radio with Dr.Morgan Brosnihan is an excellent resource to get you started.
So, if you want to make sure your thru-hike is successful, make sure you put some effort into training before you hit the trail on day 1.
Thru-Hiking Mistake #2: Not saving Enough Money
The next thru-hiking mistake I’ve seen way too often is folks not saving enough money for their multi-month backpacking trip. I get it in theory, once you buy your gear thru-hiking CAN be a relatively cheap activity, but it’s definitely NOT free, and I think can end up being more expensive than people anticipate.
Hotel stays and town food get REALLY tempting when you’ve had a 6 day stretch of brutal hiking and your whole trail family is going out to eat and staying in town, but if you didn’t budget for that you’ll either be left out or getting off trail early.
There’s also the possibility of gear breaking or just not working the way you wanted it to and it needs to be replaced, which can be super expensive.
Small towns can also have really expensive grocery stores and you have no choice but to spend $60 on a two day resupply (yes, this has happened to me before).
I’ve seen plenty of thru-hikers make their hikes work on a tight budget, but just keep in mind that it might not be as inexpensive as you think.
I have a blog that goes over exactly what I spent on the CDT if you’re interested, but keep in mind everybody spends a little differently on trail (just like in real life).
Also, you’ll likely want a little cushion to cover life expenses when you return home so keep those in mind too!
Thru-Hiking Mistake #3: Thinking You NEED a Partner
The next mistake I want to talk about is not always hike ending but it certainly leads to some uncomfortable moments and readjustment of expectations. And that’s either talking someone into going on a thru-hike with you who really doesn’t want to or committing to thru-hiking with someone and it just isn’t the right fit. Or, worst of all, never thru-hiking at all because you’re waiting for someone to go with you.
You may be best friends with someone in real life, but the stressors of backpacking and specifically thru-hiking can put more strain on a relationship than you might think.
I get why people want to start thru-hikes with another person, it makes it less intimidating and also might bring some comfort to your family, but it’s not always the best idea. This is coming from someone who did an entire thru-hike with a partner. We had a LOT of conversations beforehand to make sure we were ready for tough days on trail and tough decisions that may or may not come up. For example, we talked about what we would do if one of us got injured and the other didn’t, what we would expect from the other if one of us wanted to quit, etc. It also didn’t hurt that we had met thru-hiking and had about 1,000 miles of hiking experience together.
Relevant side note: if I had waited to hike the PCT until someone was willing to go with me I never would have met the partner I then hiked the CDT with.
I’m not saying DON’T hike with someone, just keep in mind that it might be more of a challenge than you initially anticipate and you might want to keep it a little more open ended if you do start the trail with somebody.
And definitely don’t let the idea of going alone stop you from going at all.
Thru-Hiking Mistake #4: Leaving for Your Thru-hike at the Wrong Time
This one may seem super obvious, but leaving for a thru-hike at the wrong time can really change the way your thru-hike plays out. What I mean by “wrong time” is the wrong season or leaving too late. For shorter hikes, you definitely want to research the right season for the trail you want to do. You might think June is a perfect summer month for a thru-hike, but if you want to do the Tahoe Rim Trail, there might be a LOT more snow than what you are ready for or WANT to deal with. Not saying it’s not possible, just that it might not be the most ideal experience. Similarly, leaving too late for a northbound thru-hike on one of the long distance trails can end up being a massive thru-hiking mistake. You might run into more fires due to hiking later in the season, and more snow up north before you make it to Canada (ask me how I know).
I left for my first ever thru-hike on May 9th. For my first thru and for the PCT, I now know this was probably too late. I wouldn’t change it now, but I definitely ended up having to alter my hike at the end due to snow.
Hiking to the northern terminus of the PCT in October.
Thru-Hiking Mistake #5: Wearing the Wrong Shoes/ Not testing Them Properly
This next thru-hiking mistake sort of loosely fits with not training, and that is wearing the wrong shoes or not testing them properly.
The wrong shoes can be a minor thing if you catch it and address it early enough. So don’t panic TOO much about this one, but it’s definitely worth putting in some groundwork (pun intended) before you leave.
Mostly, the wrong shoes can turn into a BIG mistake when you just try to power through pain they may be causing. The wrong shoes can lead to injuries, sometimes as bad as stress fractures, which could mean time off trail at best, and a trail ending injury at worst.
Sometimes turning shoes into the right shoes is simple as training with them and getting used to them BEFORE your thru-hike. If you go too hard too soon you might think they don’t work for you, but in reality if you let your body adjust slowly rather than starting out with 15 miles a day every day, the shoes might actually be fine.
It’s important to use the shoes in as similar of a situation to backpacking as you can. So ideally, you’d take them backpacking or on weighted hikes. Just walking around in them regularly is good, but might not be enough to see if they are the right shoe for your backpacking adventure.
Thru-Hiking Mistake #6: Not Preparing for the Mental Challenge of a Thru-hike
Finally, I think the thru-hiking mistake that is one of the MOST likely to ruin your thru-hike and honestly not talked about very often, is not mentally preparing for a thru-hike.
A thru-hike is a super exciting prospect and in your preparation it can be very easy to overlook the fact that some days are going to just be straight up miserable. If you’re anything like I was leaving for my first thru-hike, the thought of miserable days even made me excited, I was like, “give me the challenge!” so it’s really hard to anticipate how you are going to actually feel in those moments.
If you want to prevent yourself from quitting in those moments, it’s really important to do what you can to prepare for them mentally.
Zach Davis’s book Appalachian Trials or his book with Carly Moree, Pacific Crest Trials, are GREAT resources for this. I have worked for Zach quite a bit but he is not paying me to say this. I read Appalachian Trials before I hiked the CDT and I think it truly helped me a ton with my mental game. I unknowingly even implemented some of the tactics in the book before my PCT hike thanks to some blogs I read and I think those things are what really helped me be successful in both thru-hikes.
One of the things that stood out to me as really helpful is defining your, “why”. Basically, get really clear on WHY you want to do thru-hike. That way, on really tough days, you can revisit it because I can GUARANTEE you, there will be some really tough moments where all you can think about is WHY on earth you put yourself in this situation and having a clear answer to that question is the difference between quitting and making it all the way to Canada.
I hope the knowledge of these thru-hiking mistakes, and how to avoid them helps to carry you and your two eager feet all the way to the terminus of your choosing.