New to hiking and camping

[gamergonehiking]

The title says it all really. My girlfriend and I are both fit, healthy people but we spend a lot of time indoors. We gym frequently and have a level of fitness, but we're really looking to get ourdoors more and do some hiking.

We're based in Dubbo, NSW and I believe we have a lot of options as to where to go, but we really want to get our experience up and do some overnight hiking. Ideally we're looking to get to the point where we can hike several hours, set up a camp, and hike out the next day. We don't have a vehicle capable of anything other than road travelling so we'd probably hike to a camp spot, set up, and hike out the next day.

So, I guess what I am asking is, what are our unknown unknowns? My girlfriend has never camped outside of a caravan, I've camped plenty of times when I was younger but I was never responsible for ensuring everything was safe and everyone was fed. Should we start with small single-day hikes first? What are some good nice-to-have items? Any things to look out for?

[wayno]

water - know whats available on the track and if it will need treating, work out how much you will need to carry to get you through for the weather conditions..
avoid walking in excessive heat especially on very hilly tracks...
watch the forecast and take appropriate clothes, sleeping gear and tent.
search the forum on questions you're thinking of asking first, theres loads of information in here already.
dont be afraid to turn back if you think you are getting too far out of your depth.

[perfectlydark]

Particulaly first hike, if it feels a bit much, setup camp somewhere you feel.comfortable with, rather than push on for the planned site. It will be easier out the next day

[gamergonehiking]

Great advise guys! What about books to be read? Also, I'll be hiking with a tent, is there a recommended model of tent that is lightweight to hike with but still decent?

[wayno]

you need to search the forums, the choice of tents is endless, things have come a long way since basic pup tents... you pay for what you get, decent lightweight tents can cost

[nitro]

I would start with single day hikes first for sure. Get an idea of how much distance you can cover and how much water you will both need. Plus single day hiking requires much less gear.

My first priority item for single day, or multi-day hikes is good comfortable footwear. For single day hikes you don't need a great deal of specialty items. Just a day pack for water, snacks, track maps/notes, sun block, phone etc.

[wayno]

I would start with single day hikes first for sure. Get an idea of how much distance you can cover and how much water you will both need. Plus single day hiking requires much less gear.

My first priority item for single day, or multi-day hikes is good comfortable footwear. For single day hikes you don't need a great deal of specialty items. Just a day pack for water, snacks, track maps/notes, sun block, phone etc.

now you tell me, you mean i've been carrying all that heavy paraphernalia around for nothing after all these decades?

[gamergonehiking]

now you tell me, you mean i've been carrying all that heavy parachenalia around for nothing after all these decades?

Haha! Great advice guys. Thanks.

I've been doing a lot of reading of the forums and you're right that lightweight stuff really costs, starting to feel like I am going to send myself broke just setting ourselves up. Having said that, I know it will all be worth it in the end.

Tell me, are there any websites that list hiking tracks/trails by locations or make it easy to find exactly where I might want to go? I've done some googling, but I seem to hit a lot of dead-ends, particularly when trying to find stuff that is a reasonable distance from where I am.

[wayno]

some of the really lightweight stuff can cost, but often its not saving that much weight, if you just drop down the money scale to more middle of the road gear you'll save money and may find you're not carrying that much weight, its about what works for you, price versus weight... plus the ultralight stuff is more likely to be fragile and needs more care and even then is less likely to last as long as heavier weight gear, theres a whole range of gear from super ultra light weight , to ultra lightweight, to lightweight, medium weight through to the heavier gear.... so do compare the weight on gear you're looking at, for expensive gear you often save buying overseas but you need to really try on footwear to be sure of the fit.
double check the sizing on anything you're buying overseas, you can use mail forwarding companies to get around export embargoes on some brands
OH AND DONT EVER BELIEVE ANYTHING SOMEONE TELLS YOU IN AN OUTDOORS SHOP.
theres too many staff who dont have the knowledge or are just trying to make more money out of you, and unless you know for certain someone knows what they are talking about it's safer to assume that they don't certain staff at kathmandu are about the least likely to know what they are talking about of any retail stores... always get a second or third opinion....

[nitro]

I would start with single day hikes first for sure. Get an idea of how much distance you can cover and how much water you will both need. Plus single day hiking requires much less gear.

My first priority item for single day, or multi-day hikes is good comfortable footwear. For single day hikes you don't need a great deal of specialty items. Just a day pack for water, snacks, track maps/notes, sun block, phone etc.

now you tell me, you mean i've been carrying all that heavy paraphernalia around for nothing after all these decades?

It is character building wayno, plus calfs, quads, and glutes too mate

[neilmny]

I would start with single day hikes first for sure. Get an idea of how much distance you can cover and how much water you will both need. Plus single day hiking requires much less gear.

My first priority item for single day, or multi-day hikes is good comfortable footwear. For single day hikes you don't need a great deal of specialty items. Just a day pack for water, snacks, track maps/notes, sun block, phone etc.

Very good advice.

Might be something in here http://www.wildwalks.com/

[Jaala]

Maybe your best option is to find a campsite to use as a base with some surrounding daywalks, that way you can spend a few days exploring without reaching your limits. But, some people are fine diving right in to overnights or multi day hikes. Having said that, some people get themselves into trouble. Spending some time slow going and getting to know the area is safest.

[wayno]

+1 Jaala.
local knowledge is invaluable... i've done more than a few trips where i was over my head because i dived into an area with minimal knowledge about what was there.. I wouldnt recommend it to someone starting out bushwalking

[Lophophaps]

The above posts have good advice. Most if not all of us here started on easier trips and slowly acquired skills. It will not happen overnight. If you are convinced that you and bushwalking are a match, spend what's necessary to buy quality gear. One reason my pack is o heavy is that it refuses to, er, pack it in. The pack is 30 years old. I'm on my third head torch in 30-35 years.

I worked out the cost of gear for weekends away: $4/day.

Learn how to navigate, and this does not mean with a GPS. Start with track walking, and later you may be confident enough to venture off tracks. Maybe find a bushwalking club or people who want to bush. You may be able to be a guest on a walk with a club from, say, Sydney, that does a walk in your area.

Keep asking questions. There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. Learn from the mistakes of others and your own.

Last edited by Lophophaps on Tue 11 Feb, 2014 8:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Grabeach]

How far are you prepared to drive? There's a Central West Bushwalking Club http://www.centralwestbushwalking.org.au/ that may be a good place to start.

[Hallu]

now you tell me, you mean i've been carrying all that heavy parachenalia around for nothing after all these decades?

Haha! Great advice guys. Thanks.

I've been doing a lot of reading of the forums and you're right that lightweight stuff really costs, starting to feel like I am going to send myself broke just setting ourselves up. Having said that, I know it will all be worth it in the end.

Tell me, are there any websites that list hiking tracks/trails by locations or make it easy to find exactly where I might want to go? I've done some googling, but I seem to hit a lot of dead-ends, particularly when trying to find stuff that is a reasonable distance from where I am.

Nope, if you want to explore Australia you need to buy the books. You could go by with some websites and blogs, but for easy/medium walks they rarely bother giving the full details, so all that's left are detailed hard off track routes that you'd wanna avoid.

You're gonna need both walking books and guide books/atlas. You've got the classics : John Chapman's books ( http://www.john.chapman.name/pub.html , the best but also the ones with a very drastic selection, great to begin with, not so great to explore less known areas), Take A Walk books ( http://www.takeawalk.com.au/ , more austere but full of hidden gems) and Glenn Tempest's books ( https://osp.com.au/?s=Glenn+Tempest&sub ... submit.y=9 , similar to Chapman but with a different selection).
For guidebooks, I always use the Atlas & Guide series by Hema ( http://www.exploroz.com/Shop/Books/Trav ... fault.aspx ). The ones for Tasmania, the Pilbara region, or the Kimberley are great.

I've sold all the ones I had recently before leaving Australia, they went like that. They're very popular, quite expensive bought new, but worth it. From all those you'll be able to dream and plan your trips. I used to be a gamer too, and my obsessive gamer behaviour pushed me to study maps and find spots that I thought no standard tourist would go to. It became a habbit, a compulsion, and it really helped me find some great spots (or sometimes an awful piece of road).

[Onestepmore]

More gamers converting to bushwalking. I'd have thought the two were quite the opposite

I've played WoW as a badass UD shadowpriest for almost eight years (had a break the past six months, and just reactivated my account) Played on US realm pretty hardcore for a while, used to get up at 3 am to raid with my east Coast guild. I did this with two kids and a full time job. Maybe it's the obsessive side that likes researching, and detail (and beating people and pixels, lol) that transposes itself to bushwalking.

If you want to start out with car camping and day walks and your partner likes a bit of comfort, I'd suggest to have a look at a book called 'Camping in Style' by Aussie couple Angela Armstrong and Stephen Rado (I am sure i recommended this is another recent post)
Then you can work up to the privations of walking in with a backpack, then get obsessed and intrigued by going lightweight, or, shock horror, get obsessed with muckng around with hammocks!
It's a fun journey!

[Jaala]

More gamers converting to bushwalking. I'd have thought the two were quite the opposite

I've played WoW as a badass UD shadowpriest for almost eight years (had a break the past six months, and just reactivated my account) Played on US realm pretty hardcore for a while, used to get up at 3 am to raid with my east Coast guild. I did this with two kids and a full time job. Maybe it's the obsessive side that likes researching, and detail (and beating people and pixels, lol) that transposes itself to bushwalking.

If you want to start out with car camping and day walks and your partner likes a bit of comfort, I'd suggest to have a look at a book called 'Camping in Style' by Aussie couple Angela Armstrong and Stephen Rado (I am sure i recommended this is another recent post)
Then you can work up to the privations of walking in with a backpack, then get obsessed and intrigued by going lightweight, or, shock horror, get obsessed with muckng around with hammocks!
It's a fun journey!

Undead mage / undead dk here Blackrock and Caelestrasz US. Nice work managing with two kids... I haven't played since I had my boy. Miss it so much.

[Haematocrit]

For the Horde!!!

[Jaala]

For the Horde!!!

For the Horde!

[davidmorr]

The title says it all really. My girlfriend and I are both fit, healthy people but we spend a lot of time indoors. We gym frequently and have a level of fitness, but we're really looking to get ourdoors more and do some hiking.

We're based in Dubbo, NSW and I believe we have a lot of options as to where to go, but we really want to get our experience up and do some overnight hiking. Ideally we're looking to get to the point where we can hike several hours, set up a camp, and hike out the next day. We don't have a vehicle capable of anything other than road travelling so we'd probably hike to a camp spot, set up, and hike out the next day.

So, I guess what I am asking is, what are our unknown unknowns? My girlfriend has never camped outside of a caravan, I've camped plenty of times when I was younger but I was never responsible for ensuring everything was safe and everyone was fed. Should we start with small single-day hikes first? What are some good nice-to-have items? Any things to look out for?

My first question would be have you been bushwalking at all, even if just half or full day walks?

Even that requires a fair bit of knowledge and skill. To say nothing of saffety issues like first aid. Only after you are quite experienced at bushwalking should you contemplate going out overnight, especially as a group of two. The recommended minimum for a group is four: one injured, one to stay with the injured person, and two to go for help. That applies for day trips and much more so for overnight trips.

(And yes you will get lots of people here saying they walk alone. They are experienced and know the risk they are taking. Well, I hope so.)

[gamergonehiking]

Hey mate!

I'm not inexperienced no. Grew up camping, fishing and hunting. I still frequently go out on hunting trips for a few hours / overnight and I have decent fitness.

My questions are more related to where to go, what to take, what things I should look out for, that kind of thing.

[davidmorr]

Hey mate!

I'm not inexperienced no. Grew up camping, fishing and hunting. I still frequently go out on hunting trips for a few hours / overnight and I have decent fitness.

Then you should have said that…...

[gamergonehiking]

Sorry. Yes, I've grown up and always been involved in outdoor activities. Just limited experience in finding hiking locations, and that kind of thing.

[perfectlydark]

Hey mate!

I'm not inexperienced no. Grew up camping, fishing and hunting. I still frequently go out on hunting trips for a few hours / overnight and I have decent fitness.

Then you should have said that…...

He basically did... not sure why the hostility...

[wayno]

well you're sensible enough to ask for advice, so you have some common sense at least and thats a good start, and you can use your common sense in the bush as well
if i waited for three other people wanting to do the trips i did i'd almost never get into the bush.
just dont take unecessary risks in small groups, use your common sense about when you ight be over stepping your boundaries too far.. just gradually build up the trips your doing and just learn from experience as well as research.

[gamergonehiking]

For the Horde!!!

For the Horde!

Can't believe I only just saw this... Tauren Druid checking in!

[Onestepmore]

Lol, I played a drood too. Was a boomy for ages (when they were the bomb in Wrath ), then got conned into healing for my monk tank meat shield friend in MoP. She looked great as a sexy Draenei goat when I defected to Ally for a year in Cata, now she's back to her udderly awesome cow self. I must play her again. Snugglebare

[gamergonehiking]

As for a specific recommendation; can anyone recommend a good quality, lost cost hiking boot? Ideally I want something that isn't very weighty and is waterproof also.

[nq111]

Lol, I played a drood too. Was a boomy for ages (when they were the bomb in Wrath ), then got conned into healing for my monk tank meat shield friend in MoP. She looked great as a sexy Draenei goat when I defected to Ally for a year in Cata, now she's back to her udderly awesome cow self. I must play her again. Snugglebare

Can someone put this into English for us simpletons please?