The 10 Snailwalking rules – #1- 5

For those of us who weren’t venture scouts, here’s the wisdom of Woodgate as irritatingly shared over the shoulder during this weekends first training hike.

Rule 1: When walking on a road with no traffic, always walk into oncoming traffic, Every good scout knows this one.

Rule 2: Bring some water, Khilan, you dipstick. The ubiquitous vending machine has not, thank god, yet penetrated the majority of hiking trails out there. Carry 1/2 a litre per hour, I always have minimum of 1L of mineral water, 1L of Aquarius / pocari sweat for an easy days hike. If it is hot or a tough hike, you can easily do double this per day. Fluid should be accounting for a large portion of your backpack weight at the start of the hike.

Rule 3: Bring some food. Energy snack bars, bananas, onigiri, pot noodles (assuming you’ve got hot water / camping stove) , chocolate, all good. Getting your wife to pack it all for you the night before is preferred, but not essential.

Rule 4: Carry spare t-shirts, even for a day-hike. Changing into a dry t-shirt at the top of the mountain is always a winner. Reza’s suggestion here – put it in a ziploc bag to ensure it stays dry. The best t-shirts to wear are the dry-fit type (normally given away when you do fun-runs, corp challenges, 10k’s etc…) – they are light, comfortable and moisture should evaporate quicker.

Rule 5: Don’t wear jeans. Denim is the absolute worst material to wear when it gets wet – heavy, never dries out, chafes like hell. You need the lightest material you can find. Shorts are actually a bit of a winner for day-hiking as we head into spring – wet legs dry very quickly and good for keeping cool. But bring a light pair of trousers for when you stop / hike overnight as you will get chilly.

Rules #6 – #10 coming soon!