One of the essential things to do before any outing is to plan the trip. This is point 1 of Leave No Trace: Plan Ahead and Prepare. This includes not only determining what you are going to hike, but taking into account what the conditions are likely to be and bringing the right gear. It also includes letting a trusted adult know your plans, when you expect to be back, and who to call if you are not back within a reasonable time of your expected end time. In short the planning will set expectations for your trip and be a safety net for you if things go wrong. One other thing to add concerns satellite devices. If you have one, turn on the tracking and give the link to your trusted adult. This has saved the rangers being called for me a couple times when the hikes have taken significantly longer than expected.
So, how do I go about trip planning?
Group Experience
The very first thing I think about is who is going, and what is the skill level of the group. What this does is allows me to search my mind for hikes that would be appropriate for the group. I can use my experience and past hikes in the areas to determine how difficult a hike will be, and then compare it to who I'm going with. Now I'm often hiking with others that are going for the challenges that I'm going for. Their skills and abilities are usually comparable or higher than mine. That means I can push to my limits in the plans. On the other end of things, I have hiked with people that are new to hiking, or live in flatlands and don't get into mountains often, if at all, and I have learned to expect their abilities to climb our mountains to be much less than they think they are, although they sometimes surprise me. This is especially true for trails in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and New England. Our trails are old, washed out, and mostly go straight up the mountain.
One trip I did in college really sticks with me for judging someone's abilities by their previous experiences. I was backpacking the high peaks and one of our group was from Alaska. She had plenty of experience in hiking in the mountains out there. She had difficulty hiking in the high peaks. Out west, the trails are newer, and as a result they tend to have things that make them easier to hike, specifically switchbacks. They also tend to be less eroded as they're newer and in most cases, better laid out. In the north east, our trails are old. Many of them are the results of surveying or an old design philosophy that hiking should be challenging, so they are straight up the mountain. Switchbacks are rare to find. All this leads to our trails being highly eroded and often small streams in wet weather. It also means our trails are steeper per mile, and all that combined takes a toll on you when hiking.
Group Skill/Ability Level
The next question, and it is related to their experience, is how much can they handle. This is the start of reducing hikes down to numbers. How long can they hike for in miles. What kind of elevation can they do over a day. It is also starting to think about specific trail conditions. Are there issues with exposure, scrambles, long slabs, or even low grade rock climbing/bouldering? If we're going for a challenge, there's usually not much we can do to manage any of this. There is a limited number of ways up a peak, and we have to just choose the one that works best. In the case of things like fire towers or many of the lower peaks, often there is only one way up and we have no choice. If we're just saying "I want to hike 10 miles and get a view somewhere in that", then there are many more options to consider.
If you're going for your 46, a short hike will be under 10 miles. A typical hike will be 10-15 for most peaks. Some peaks will be longer than that, depending on your route, what other peaks you're getting, and if you're going to spend the night in the backcountry. I do hike with those not going for a challenge though, so easier hikes are needed. That said, easier doesn't necessarily mean shorter. 2 of my go to hikes are 10+ miles, and yet they are what I would consider easy, and so far the people I've taken on them have been able to do them with little problem.
Once we figure out where we're going, I'll consult my mental map of the hikes and guidebooks to figure out what the trails are like. I will discuss the obvious things to be concerned about like the exposure and scrambles that we will face on the various routes. I like to try to discuss this with the group to figure out what we really want to do. Often though, I'm the trip leader putting it out there for others to join, so it boils down to what I want to do and to describe what we are going to face on the trip before people agree to go.
Determining the Difficulty
I now have a couple options for plans. If this is new to me, or something I've done many times, I still go through the same process. First, I will map the hikes out on a map. When I first started doing this, it was drawing it on a paper map and measuring with a string, or trusting the mile markers on the map and in the guide book, scrutinize the contour lines to see if they're close and steep or far apart and relatively flat. It is a lot easier now in you select your start point, end point, and additional points along the way to keep you on the trail you want, and everything is calculated for you. What I am looking for from the software is 3 things:
- Mileage.
- Elevation gain and loss.
- Slope, specifically maximum slope up and down along with duration of the slope.
I then ask myself if my group can handle those 3 things. Most new hikers focus on mileage. More experienced hikers may focus on the elevation gain/loss. I focus on slope more than anything else. Yes, the slope is related to the elevation gain, but elevation gain by itself can be misleading. A 10 mile hike with 1000 feet of elevation can be an easy hike if that 1000 feet is spread out over the whole 10 miles, it can be a moderate hike if it's all within 1 miles, and it can be a difficult hike if it's all within 1/2 a mile. How quickly you climb/descend the elevation makes a huge difference. Mileage is also important because some people will say they can't do more than X miles in a day, and I try to respect that.
To explain slope, it's rise over run. So, a 10% slope will rise 100 feet for every 1000 feet of distance (1000 * 0.1 = 100). Over a mile (5280 feet), you're rising roughly 530 feet/mile at 10%. 15% (790 feet/mile) is usually the maximum slope allowed for a road. Anything over 20% (1000 feet/mile) I consider to be steep, and for the mountains in the north east, that's the typical slope encountered for most climbs. There are places that are steeper though. My experience has shown me that 30+% slopes are usually rock scrambles, stairs, or ladders. There are places with near vertical slope that are considered hiking trails. The longer we're over 20% on the hike, the more difficult I consider the hike to be.
Finding Alternative Routes
I now have a few different destinations and routes planned out. I'll now start looking at the routes and considering contingencies of what we can do if we find this hike is not an appropriate difficulty. How can I cut it short and still get some kind of viewpoint in? What can I add to the hike to make it longer or more difficult? The other thing I am looking for concerns safety. If something happens and we need to cut the hike short, are there other ways back? If we the worst happens and we need to be rescued, how long are we going to be waiting for help, and can they get in to us quicker than our hike in? This all requires looking at the map and making notes of trails, mileage, hazards mentioned in guide books, etc.
Group Consensus
Once I have all these ideas together, it's time to talk with the other hikers. I will go through each hike. If I have the guide book, I'll read the entries to them I will give them the options of things we can add on, and explain how we can cut things short. I will give my honest opinion on how steep the trail looks to be, and if I have been on the trail before, what it is like from my experience. We will discuss the options and come up with a plan that works for us, and a backup plan or two. The backup plans are important in the height of the hiking season. The parking area we want to start from may require a permit that we may not be able to get. The trailhead parking may be full with no nearby legal parking. Something else could happen like a rescue in progress and the trail is closed. There are many reasons why a backup plan may be needed. But we agree on what hike we want to do, and the backup plans.
Turnaround Time
One thing I haven't talked about yet is the turnaround time. This is something that could make the difference between spending an unplanned night in the woods vs leaving at a reasonable hour. The basic idea is that you should be at the furthest point of your hike at an early enough time that your hike out will end on time. The simplest way to figure this out is take your start time and desired end time. The end time may be a set time because you have to be somewhere, or it could be sunset/dark. Calculate how many hours there are between the two times and divide by 2. Add that back to your start time and that is when you should turn around.
As an example, we're starting at 8 AM and sunset is 7 PM. We have 11 hours to hike in the light. Dividing by 2 we have 5.5 hours to get to our furthest or halfway point. That means at 1:30 PM we turn around and head out.
The most important thing about turnaround times is to follow them! If you don't, you set yourself up for things you may not be prepared for. Even if the goal of the hike, e.g. the peak of the mountain, is only a couple hundred feet away, you turn around. It sucks, but it means that you were either too aggressive in what you were trying to do, you need to hike with more daylight, or you need to up your skills to be comfortable with hiking trails in the dark so you can push your start and end times out.
I have a more detailed article on turnaround times if you want to delve further into how to calculate it based on your hiking style.
We Have a Plan, Now What?
We now know what we are going to do. We now go over what will be required on the hike. At minimum the 10 essentials on every person. We will discuss how much water will be needed, and how we're going to purify water if we need more, if it's even going to be available (I would say most hikes don't have much water available once you start climbing). What other specialized gear may be needed. For winter hiking that's things like microspikes, snowshoes, crampons, and ice axes. For summer hiking we're more likely to focus on rain gear, bug spray, and sunblock all of which are part of the 10 essentials.
If someone is new to hiking or backpacking, this is when you schedule a time to get together to go over their packs. Literally empty it and go through every single piece of gear that they have packed. If it's not one of the 10 essentials, or something that is in the other necessary gear for the trip, ask what its purpose is and if they really need it. Sometimes you'll agree it should come, other times when you just ask this question they'll say, no I really don't. As every experienced hiker knows, the heavier the pack the harder the climb. Especially when you are looking at backpacking trips, you start to get into weights that really hamper the hike. The rule of thumb I learned growing up is your pack should be no more than 25-33% of your weight. That is not that much weight when you are new to backpacking and don't have all the specialized ultralight gear that an AT through hiker has. Sometimes the comfort is not worth the weight, sometimes it is.
The Build Up to the Hike
We now wait until the day of the hike comes. Someone should keep an eye on any official notices for the area we plan to hike, and look out for things that may impact our hike. Starting about a week before the hike, I start looking at weather. Initially I'll look at the normal weather sites like weather undergroud, accuweather, weather channel. I'll then get to the more specialized sites like mountain forecast and mountain point forecast (NOAA). All these sites have free versions that will show you anywhere from a couple days to 10 days of forecast. The Mountain Point Forecast is the most limited of the sites in that it only shows the weather for select peaks, and only for 2 days, but it will be the most detailed forecast for the top of the peaks and what you see listed on Marcy will be similar to what you find on Algonquin or Big Slide.
I am not only looking for weather the day of the hike, but I am looking to see what's happening the week before. Weather events like rain or snow along with temperature can have a big impact on your planned hike. If you're going to be hiking across a big stream/brook/river and not have a bridge available, you're not going to want to do that the first couple says after a rain storm. If you're counting on the river to be frozen, you don't want to trust it will be after a week of 40 degree weather. In winter, multiple shifts between freeze and thaw will increase the avalanche risk, so avoiding steep exposed slopes is advisable. I will also keep an eye on the hiking forums to see what others are saying about the conditions in near real time.
An Example: Winter Dix and Hough
This is a 46er challenge hike where I need to Dix and Hough. That is my goal, but I put it out to the hiking community that I'm going up and if anyone wants to join me, we can make an event of it. I was honest in my personal goal was to get those 2 peaks. When I mapped it out though, I saw that if I did those 2 or all 5 peaks in the range it would be essentially the same mileage (within a 1/2 mile and 500 feet of elevation). So, I put it out there that we can do the 2 or try for all 5. I had people say they're interested, so I set up the event.
I first am honest with my personal pace, and to expect the hike to be a slow to moderate pace. I planned it out with contingencies and explain them. The whole hike if we hit all 5 peaks would be 16 miles, 5500 feet. If we skip Macomb, it would be 14.3 miles, 4400 feet. If we just did Hough and back, that's 15.4 miles, 4900 feet. If we skip Hough and get just Dix, it's 13 miles and 3600 feet. I then put in general descriptions of what we're facing (steep slides going up Dix and down Grace, there's a really steep descent off of the Beckhorn, and a rock scramble going down/up South on the way to/from Macomb).
I then looked at the weather when it first became available. I don't trust it, but I get a general idea what we may be facing. The temps and amount of precipitation though is highly unreliable 10 days out. In this case we're getting about a half foot of snow the week before the hike. I also looked at the social media for trail reports. I was happy to see that most of the range has been broken out, and that they broke feet of snow. Of course, the route up Dix I am planning had no reports. So I now expect that we will be breaking significant snowfall for at least the last mile up Dix. This means it's going to be slow going.
Tuesday before the hike I'm checking the weather 2 or 3 times a day. I am looking to see how Mountain Forecast base temp compares to the other sites and adjust the temps accordingly. I am looking to see how much snow we're expected to get. Come Wednesday, I post a weather update and temper expectations that we may not get all 5, but I want to push to get Hough if possible. Friday, I put a final weather update with what the realistic expectations should be, and ask for people to commit by the time I wake up. Then, Saturday, I get the list of those to expect together, and check for last minute additions/cancellations, and head to the trailhead. I also leave detailed plans with all the options with a trusted adult, give them the link to the tracking site for my InReach, and the phone number of the rangers in the event I don't make it out on time.
The day of the hike, we met at the exit trailhead and agreed to go for a thru hike. We have hope. We carpool to the entrance trailhead and hike in. The first few miles to the base of the slide went well. We find out that there's only 1 other person on the trail before us and we're going to be breaking a couple inches of trail down low. We hit the slide and that took a long time as it was the steepest section, and the trail breaking got more and more difficult. We reach the top of Dix around 1:30 and head over to the Beckhorn to see what the trail to Hough looks like. It looked like nobody touched it in a month. I know that I'm about where my turnaround time should be and I am out of gas, so I tell the group I'm going to turn around here, but the rest of the group decides to go on. They have an InReach so they can let me know when they get out and if they need any kind of help with transport. I hike out and get to my car about 6, hiking the last hour or so by headlamp. My hiking companions found that the trail to Hough was not broken at all and it took them about 4 hours to break that 1 mile of trail. They decided to turn around and were back on Dix about 8 and were out and back at their cars about 1 AM. If I didn't obey my turn around time, I would have been out well past the time I wanted, and if I didn't keep my responsible adult updated about what was happening through the InReach device, I would have had the rangers called in.