How to Plan a Hike

Video Transcript

"Hi I’m Chris Van Londen and on behalf of Expert Village I’ll be talking about planning your hike. I like to bring along a book on the trail that I’m going to be going on. Many books are available that will cover the trail that you’re interested in. they give you a lot of important information, such as sources of water, type of terrain you’re going to be going across, the distance of the trail that you’re hiking on. Also it’s great to have a more detailed map if you can get it. This particular map is of the Three Sisters in the northern and the eastern cascades, it gives much more details about the terrain that you’ll be traveling through, lakes, forest, lava beds, those types of detailed features that you’re going to get on a map like this. It’s important to know the terrain that you’re going to hike on and the way you know is by studying before you go on your hike. Look at the guide book; look at the map if necessary. Check out the terrain, if you’re not sure stop at your local forest service office and they’ll probably have information about the particular hike you want to go on. Know the weather, see what’s happening with the weather today or the day that you’re going to hike, is it going to be very hot, if it is start early in the morning. On hot days I like to go early, you don’t want to be caught in the heat, if thunder clouds are building up, that’s an important consideration. "