I remember my first overnight hike back in 2015 for so many reason.
It was early February when I set off by myself for what would end up being a 54km hiking trip on the Walk Into History trail in Warburton, Melbourne.
54km for a first overnight hike seems crazy, right? I’m one of those people who likes to dive right in rather than just dip my toe in. Plus, I love a challenge.
The walk is positioned as a one-way trek starting in Warburton and finishing in Powelltown, but I somehow managed to turn it into a loop.
I’d spent a good week planning my gear and food, as well as picking up some last-minute items at the various outdoor stores in my local area.
I packed, re-packed, double-checked my food portions and did all sorts of stuff before I jumped in the car that Saturday at 6 am.
Needless to say, I was nervous as hell.
Before I left, I weighed my One Planet Ned backpack with all my gear inside and it came in at a whopping 13 kilos. To give you some idea of why I think that is a lot, I recently did a 10-day hike in New Zealand where my max weight was around 15 kilos.
In short, I simply had too much stuff with me for this trip. But I wasn’t about to let that get to me. I saw it as a good opportunity for me to hike with a reasonable weight on my back.
But I wasn’t about to let that get to me. I saw it as a good opportunity for me to hike with a reasonable weight on my back. This overnight hike, as were the many day and overnight hikes to come, were all in training for the 10-day hike in New Zealand.
Some of the unnecessary stuff I packed were items such as:
- a kitchen scrub brush and detergent so I could clean my dish properly (embarrassing, I know!)
- two hooded jumpers made from cotton (cotton is a big no-no in the hiking world)
- way too much food
- a multi-tool tomahawk from Anaconda that I didn’t use once
- two smallish cans of fuel for my burner
- a tube of Coles brand Pringles and a few other bits and pieces that probably didn’t really need to be there
Also, all my food was packaged, except for the Sakata Rice Crackers.
I didn’t have to worry about breakfast on the first morning, and couldn’t be bothered cooking the packet of Continental pasta for breakfast on that Sunday, so I saved it for lunch.
Lunch and dinner on the first day consisted of, again, Continental pasta with powdered milk.
I had snacks in between breakfast and lunch, and lunch and dinner and they consisted of two Snickers and 100 grams of Peanut M&Ms.
So, what did I learn on my first overnight hike?
Lots of things. But, mainly:
- It’s good to be prepared but sometimes you can be too prepared. I took too much for an overnight hike. My breakfasts and lunches are much smaller these days and I usually have a bigger dinner to make up for it. Snacks are now two Snickers or 50-100 grams of Peanut M&Ms.
- Before you head off, lay your gear out and be brutally honest about each item. Ask yourself: do I actually need that multi-use tomahawk for knocking the tent pegs into the ground (yes, that’s what I bought it for) or could I use my bare hands or a rock? It’s those decisions that will make life so much easier out on the trail because your pack won’t weigh as much.
- Make sure you have a filter or something similar to get extra water. At the time, I didn’t have my water bladder with my filtering system attached to it, so the water I had was the water I had. I was careful with it, but water is something you need regularly on a long hike and you should never go too long without it. Call that one a rookie error.
- Band-aids aren’t the best prevention for blisters. Even when you’re wearing hiking boots as comfortable as mine. You can’t completely avoid blisters, but you can prevent them. Elastoplast does have these cool blister pads that I keep in my first aid kit. I put them on the hot spots of my feet before every hike and it seems to work.
- 31-32kms per day was probably a bit of a stretch for me. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I have no regrets. But I would maybe have waited a little longer before I did an overnight hike of that length.
In short…
But in saying all of the above, it was such an experience and I loved every second of my first overnight hike. Fast forward 8 years to now and I still think about that trip and how heavy my backpack was.
The entire experience taught me so much about hiking and camping but most of all it taught me that your first overnight hike will be the best one you will ever do in the context of your understanding of hiking and camping.
After each hiking trip, and this will be especially important for those of you who are just getting into it, I like to review the gear I took with me and evaluate if I’ll ever need it again.
As long as you’re always learning, eventually, you will come to a point where you’ll be hiking as comfortably and as efficiently as possible.
