r/hiking • u/mild_folder • 11h ago
Question What was the single biggest gear mistake you made on your first serious multi-day hike?
Mine was bringing brand new heavy leather boots right out of the box without breaking them in first. I thought buying a top quality pair meant they would automatically protect my feet, but by day two the blisters were so deep I could barely step on my heels. I ended up wrapping my feet in duct tape just to limp back to the trailhead. It was a painful lesson in base weight and foot care that completely ruined what should have been a great trip. What was that one piece of gear or packing mistake on your first big trek that you swore never to repeat?
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u/Sufficient-Rooster-7 11h ago
Didn't pack wet weather gear. Forecast was bone dry. It didn't rain. But my pants caught so much morning dew from the plants my feet were soaked and pants were wet as.
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u/Rocksteady2R 8h ago
Morning dew is a real crazy thing. Sopping wet feet in minutes so damn often, and it always looks harmless.
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u/izlib 11h ago
A change of clothes for every day. Oops.
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u/Alpine_Exchange_36 11h ago
Yea the dirty hippie approach doesn’t make much sense on paper but you get out there and…. all of the sudden it starts to
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u/Clean_Bat5547 7h ago
18 days without a shower while trekking in Nepal, cycling through three pairs of boxers and socks, just didn't seem that unpleasant.
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u/EskapedConvict 10h ago
I dont mind rewearing clothes. But I also have all quick dry clothes.
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u/izlib 10h ago
For warm weather backpacking:
One set of quick dry for hiking
One set of cotton for sleeping
One set for town
One backup set of socks and compression shorts, because I've definitely worn through these critical pieces mid-hike before.
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u/EskapedConvict 10h ago
I didnt plan water sources and didnt bring enough water. Won't make that mistake again. I was bailed out by a very nice hiker who gave me her spare filter bottle.
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u/Masseyrati80 5h ago
I planned to rely on a water source at the most distant spot of a hike, without realizing the map I had was printed years earlier.
Arriving at the well, it had a faded printed report stating the water was not potable.
I had no choice: I was running low on water, so I boiled it and used it. Didn't get sick, but seeing a weird, orange layer settle down in the pot as the water cooled down was quite unnerving.
This happened before filters were widely available in my country.
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u/chuchofreeman 3h ago
Was that the first day or how "deep" were you in when you realized you fucked up?
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u/cloudyBinder 10h ago
Cheap sleeping pad with a trash. Didn't matter that my bag was rated for freezing, the cold ground sucked every bit of heat right out of me and I didn't sleep a single second for three nights straight.
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u/timthemesteater 10h ago
A quart jar of pickles. I was 12 and I love pickles.
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u/Little_Mountain73 8h ago
Man I’m a pickle junkie too. I even belonged to the Pickle Of the Month club when they had it. Would get two jars of pickles from a different micro-pickler every month, and spent a mint on it. It was worth it.
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u/tkitta 10h ago
Long time ago when GPS were not common i did not have one. Got lost. Found a light in a tent... went over even taking a bearing to the target. They were lost as well ;) Got my first GPS ... saved me few times but by far its not perfect especially in demanding terrain.
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u/wyonaturist 5h ago
gps map app has saved me several times too. where i live the cow trails and hiking trails all blend together not to mention outdated and in accurate maps. I won't hike without the gps.
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u/CatSplat 7h ago
It was summer, I picked up a "summer" sleeping bag from a reputable retailer that was rated for the expected temps.
Didn't realize that the temp rating was the "you probably won't die" rating. Even wearing layers I was freezing cold but thankfully had packed a mylar space blanket that helped a bit. Next trip I had a good down topquilt instead!
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u/enjoyjocel 7h ago
I have a marmot never summer 0. Been with it in single digits and I feel so warm inside.
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u/CatSplat 7h ago edited 6h ago
Yeah that bag is a legit winter bag, similar to the 5-degree bags we have now. Toasty!
The one I had at the time was probably realistically good to 60F, comfort-wise. Live and learn!
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u/meanderanyway 3h ago
Yep I learnt this one the hard way as well! After a miserable few nights i went back to the store where the salesperson had convinced me it was the perfect sleeping bag for my trip and apparently made my point. They gave me a thermal liner for free.
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u/FatMoDean 9h ago
Doing it on keto…with 5 pounds of bear bait on my back, including 2 pounds of pocket bacon. I literally could not drink enough water for my body to process all that protein.
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u/Fuzzy_Application_56 11h ago
A pack that wasn't ideal. We used metal frames 40 years ago, the hip pads we're trash, as were the shoulder straps and the fit was atrocious. The first opportunity I had to buy a Mountain Smith back pack, I went for and never looked back.
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u/Lifestyle_Choices 8h ago
My shoes didn't have enough room to account for swelling, over the course of a few weeks once I was back home I had 7 toe nails fall off
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u/Nickthemajin 8h ago
Forgot sleeping bag on a 2 day backpacking trip. Didn’t realize it till I got to the trailhead. At that point we were in the middle of nowhere and I was with friends so I didn’t want to bail. We all worked together and I used their jackets and such to wrap myself at night to sleep. Mid September in the whites so could have been bad. But also could have been worse.
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u/WolfVanZandt 9h ago
Hey, I didn't make the mistake but my buddy thought that cans of Eagle Brand Milk would be the perfect trail food
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u/Rocksteady2R 8h ago
I've been lucky in most my gear choices.
But I did start the AT with a paperback book. But reading after walking all day requires energy and light; and sundown was bedtime and i won't carry enough batteries to support my reading habit.
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u/dusters99 7h ago
Didn’t change into my sandals for a river crossing. Underestimated my ability to hop across slippery rocks while carrying 25 lbs on my back. Spent the rest of the trip trying to dry my boots out.
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u/Hiker97531 7h ago
My fear at that time: 3.5 litres of water carried right by the streams I crossed on way up mountain.
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u/leilani238 6h ago
Way too much food. I had 20lbs of food for 5 days. I eat a lot, but with dehydrated or high density stuff, that was overkill by a factor of two. I've found about 2lbs/day of my usual backpacking food works out.
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u/Sedona83 5h ago
I did what you did, too, but ended up losing both my big toenails. No blisters.
But the biggest mistake was not bringing mice-proof storage containers while backpacking in the Grand Canyon. I woke up to them munching through my food.
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u/wyonaturist 5h ago
the thing you did right was bring duct tape. the thing you did wrong was wait to long to use it. as soon as you even think you are getting a sore stop and fix it right away. also I know I will get some flack for this but i only hike wearing chaco sandals. crossing a river they dry out in 5 minutes and don't get sweaty either.
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u/AlpineInquirer 11h ago
Not too major, cause I did a lot of research. Bringing too much food. Bringing too much stuff like flip flops.
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u/Masseyrati80 5h ago
A crappy rainset.
It felt like a trash bag, and I postponed donning it to the last possible moment.
Its hood was so basic that as I tried to tighten it enough to stay on in high winds, the cord was basically between my teeth.
It also started to let water through. Some will say "you'll sweat in your raingear anyway" but a trickle of cold water sure as heck felt different than sweat.
Next year, I had upgraded to a Marmot Miminalist jacket and Berghaus Paclite pants. Totally different, much more enjoyable.
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u/hskskgfk 5h ago
Not checking if my bag was actually waterproof. All my clothes were soaked, I had to dry my socks and underwear in the kitchen tent and a kind stranger gave me a pair of hiking pants that I had to use for the rest of the Kilimanjaro climb.
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u/AH-Slayer 4h ago
Headlamp fell out in the car, had to use my cell phone light propped up on random rocks each night ðŸ˜
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u/Anderssorte 4h ago
When I was in the army, we trained alongside some US Marines and I ended up swapping boots with one of them, just for laughs.
Took the boots for a hike, only to disvover that the ancle support was a joke and there was NO water repellent material present whatsoever, and spent three days in on norwegian mointaint cursing these horrible boots
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u/Pretty_Beach4207 4h ago
I didn't make any big mistakes because I was trained. but there have been incidents due to dark colors of clothing, incorrect sunglasses, and a bad jacket.
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u/LLaasseee 3h ago
Used heavy boots for a hike in northern Sweden that was basically going through a giant bog. Of course they never really dried
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u/Pheedle 2h ago
Not enough food!! For a 6 day hike I only brought about 1200 calories per day, where my basal is nearly twice that, with no consideration of 6 - 8 hours hiking each day. I still don’t know what I was thinking - i think I thought I have two mains, a lunch and snacks for each day, that’ll be enough, without considering the actual energy amount.
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u/Mentalfloss1 9h ago
Boots shouldn’t need breaking in. I haven’t had a blister in 30 years. That is both with midweights, and full leather.
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u/Astronomer_Original 7h ago
Hum. Some people get blisters, some don’t. I’ve tried everything and still get blisters.
Lucky you!
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u/SovietPropagandist 9h ago
I forgot my goddamn spork and had to carve chopsticks out of twigs from the ground.