What is the easiest/hardest thing about hiking/camping?

[JohnStrider]

Hi guys,

Pretty straight forward question - what are the easiest and hardest things you find when you are hiking and camping? Doesn't matter if it's preparing for a hike or when you are out on the trail/at the camp site, i just need to get an idea from people who are actively participating in both.

It's for a research essay I'm doing as part of my course.

Thanks in advance, folks.

JS

[Moondog55]

Easiest is deciding to go
Hardest is having to go home
And that is a serious answer
Everything else is just budgeting and saving and planning

[DanShell]

Easiest is the need to get out there.
Hardest is wishing alcohol was lighter.....

[Lophophaps]

Some days I hit the wall, really struggling. Other days I zoom. Getting into camp just after it starts raining is not good. Over all, it's easy just being in the bush, appreciating nature, and putting perspective on what is called civilisation. While walking can be hard at times, these make the summits climbed and goals reached sweeter. OT slightly. There are three phases of a trip, planning, executing and recollection. I enjoy them all.

[Tortoise]

Harder:
Getting out of a cosy bag on an freezing, wet, windy morning to pack up, trying to keep everything as dry as possible.
Organising, deciding what to take for a particular trip. Sorting, cleaning, drying everything when I get home.

Easier:
Walking, and just 'being' once I have my home on my back once again.

[skibug]

Easiest is falling asleep on a good pad with a warm sleeping bag after a long day's walking.

Hardest is the decisions, like whether to continue when the weather's poor, or with worsening blisters, and so on. Also that feeling of insecurity when the next check point does not appear as expected.

Skibug.

[kitty]

Hardest: finding track transfers for the Bibbulmun track.
Easiest: just enjoying being out in the bush in nature.

[Mark F]

Easiest - deciding to stop for a rest at a good view point
Hardest - Getting going after a viewfilled rest on a long ascent.

[MickyB]

Hardest for me is getting the time to go bush. Lack of time can also mean lack of fitness which occasionally makes things a bit harder. The easiest is enjoying my time when I'm out there.

[GPSGuided]

Easiest: The desire to explore something new.
Hardest: Finding the time to get out there.

[taipan821]

The easiest thing: being outdoors, somewhere away from all the noise and lights
the hardest thing: getting away from the noise and lights

[puredingo]

Easiest: The first hour.

Hardest: The last hour.

[north-north-west]

Easiest: motivation to get out there.
Harder: deciding where to go.
Hardest: uphill, through thick scrub, over boulders, with a full pack. In the wet. But sometimes you just have to do it . . .

[quill]

The easiest is deciding to go.

Probably the hardest I've found is hygiene, especially on longer trips in the heat of the summer. I recently completed three weeks living mostly on the trail, and I found there is simply not enough room to take enough clothes to feel clean after a few days. Even socks and jocks which absolutely much be changed daily really add up, and when your 'shower' is a wet rag, and you must 'shower' several times per day, it catches up with you - and you reek.

The recent trip was my first extended trip and I learned a lot, but what I learned most was the Aussie heat makes bushwalking a little bit miserable. I also learned a towel draped over your back before adding the pack is worth its weight in towel.

I still had a fantastic time - many adventures shared by only myself, the trail and treetop onlookers (and sometime protagonists).

[lionel]

Fair dinkum John, don't waste your time asking other people about it or writing about it - get out there and do it!

Then the easy and the hard won't really matter. There is usually some hard stuff on any decent walk, and then there are the rewards that make it all worth the trouble.

[eggs]

Trying to be serious.

Easiest things
- enjoying hot soup and hot food in the evening. Also some chocolate.
- being elated at the top of the climb when extensive views open up
- relaxing when cosseted inside a warm sleeping bag with the head warmed with a beanie in a dry tent and a good air mattress.

Hardest things
- finding the route when the pad is poor and/or overgrown and there are no cairns.
- staying warm while hiking when the rain is driving and the wind chill is way up. [Leakage of water into the inner layers + heavy internal condensation]
- having lunch when the rain is driving and the wind chill is way up.
- finding a suitable tent site when in scrub or a slope or when the ground is so saturated water is oozing everywhere.
- getting up to tie down cords that have loosened on a wet and cold night.

[South_Aussie_Hiker]

Easiest thing
- being one with nature and leaving modern, hectic lifestyle behind - no phone/coverage

Hardest thing
- finding time to get out there for multi day trips - young kids, two working parents, annual leave bidding up to 18 months in advance

[nq111]

I find the hardest thing is getting out of bed on a cold, windy and sleeting night at 3am to go dig a cat hole. And it really can't wait so you only just make it

[vanNek]

Easiest:
Deciding to go, going

Hardest:
Time, money, gear, fitness & packing down & cleaning up

Absolute hardest:
Coming back to reality once I'm done


"No half measures......"

[Gadgetgeek]

Easiest: looking at new gear to buy!

Hardest, getting gear dried, cleaned and squared away without destroying the apartment, and inviting the wrath of my darling wife. The fact that I get to get out more than she does might have something to do with that....

Hardest-hardest, not buying new gear that I don't really need!

[walkerchris77]

Hardest would be number 2s at night when its raining.
Easiest the moment your body is toasty warm in your sleeping bag.

[coastie]

Hardest is putting on cold wet clothes on a cold wet day.
Easiest is just being out in the bush, enjoying the sights, sounds, serenity, and the feeling of achievement after a challenging walk.

[freemandale]

Easiest thing is deciding to go.
Hardest thing is booking out the time to go.
The rest is just logistics.
And other people.

Seriously, camping is not a problem but the hardest thing about hiking (and camping) is the availability of reliable and safe drinking water.
Water weighs! So if I need to carry water for drinking and cooking then it takes up weight and space! That restricts how long I might walk for.

[icefest]

Easiest: the last 500m downhill to camp.

Hardest:
Fighting uphill with crazy exposure through unexpected sleet.

[Tortoise]

Hardest:
Fighting uphill with crazy exposure through unexpected sleet.

Sounds like an interesting story there, icefest!

[icefest]

Grumble grumble, late December traverse of Mt Gould.

I told you the story sometime near Mt Anne.

[ofuros]

Easiest....making a walk to do list
Hardest...completing the walk to do list, it just keeps get longer !

[north-north-west]

Hardest:
Fighting uphill with crazy exposure through unexpected sleet.

Sounds like an interesting story there, icefest!

Replace the exposure with thick scrub, turn the sleet into snow . . .

[nq111]

Replace the exposure with thick scrub, turn the sleet into snow . . .

Dunno, I prefer snow to sleet, though generally prefer exposure to thick scrub...

[north-north-west]

It's OK, I was just remembering one of my less pleasant days out and about. Overall a great walk, but that particular day was sheer *&%$#! hell. It just kept getting worse.