5 Easy Items to Forget on your Hiking Holiday
It may seem stressfull and scary to think you’ve forgotten that one key item that you really need on your hiking trail. After reading this blog, hopefully this will be a thing of the past!
Day hikes are generally more straightforward to plan. You will mostly only require good clothing for the weather on the day, food, water and a map or trail app. This may vary on the length and difficulty of your day hike, but typically, the consequences of forgetting one item are less for day hikes. This post will focus on long distance hikes.
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A source of ignition is vital if you plan cooking food at camp. These can come in two forms:
Lighter
Cheap, small and effective, lighters provide a great method of heating water / food. However, with only one lighter, you leave yourself vulnerable if it breaks or runs out. Consider bringing two lighters for backup.
One lighter is allowed per person on a flight in most countries, however double check before flying. Note, lighters are ONLY allowed in hand luggage, not in the hold.
Lighters can be bought in most corner shops or supermarkets.
Strike Lighter
Experience worry free ignition with strik lighters. Durable with unlimited uses, strike lighters provide a great alernative to traditional lighters. See MSRs striker lighter here.
Expect to pay around £20 for the single purchase.
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There is no worse feeling that needing to relieve yourself in the wild but not being able to due to lack of toilet paper.
You absoloutely do not need to bring the whole toilet roll on a weeks long hike. Toilet roll can be quite bulky, I took around half a roll for 7 days in Mont Blanc. Remember, this is more for emergencies or wildcamping; I found myself rarely using my roll, but it’s good to know it’s there!
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No matter how good your shoes are, blisters are an inevitable part of long distance hiking, so dont ‘hope for the best’, but ‘plan for the inevitable’.
Blister plasters can be bought in your local pharmacy; I always pack more than expected. They take minimal space; you can easily fit 4 to 5 packs worth in one pack’s case to ave space and weight.
To correctly apply blister plasters, clean and dry the blister area, then apply the plaster firmly, ensuring it's free of wrinkles, ideally before the hike to prevent friction-induced blisters or immediately after if one has formed to protect and aid healing.
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Getting a quality nights sleep is essential to maximise your days. This incldes having an adequate sleeping bag, sleeping pad and tent, but also I love to use earplugs as well.
Earplugs quiten morning birds in the early early hours of the day and also quiten noise of other campers / sleepers.
Having stayed in refuges, listening to a stranger snore next to me was not the highlight of my trip.
Earplugs are small, cheap (can be bought at your pharmacy or hardware store) and greatly effective. Bring two pairs for a long trip.
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Cash is king.
That’s all you need to know. In the mountains or deep countryside, do not expect refuges and local stores to accept card.
Dependig on your trail, the availability of ATMs may vary. Check out my hiking trail guides for more on the specific trails.
A great source of information is through Facebook groups of hiking trails. People are really willing to share their experiences, a simple question on cash my solve all your queries for the trail.
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SD cards for the videographers out there!
Filming in 4K, 30Mbps typically uses 250MB per minute. If you plan on filming extensively, multiple SD are essential!
Check the compatibility of your device, the type of SD or micro SD card may vary.
My packing checklist
Check out my packing list for a full list of what I bring on my hiking trips.
