morning routine

"What's the hurry? It depends on why you are hiking."

Well said and spot on. Celebrate diversity, says I. ;-)

I am definitely not a morning person and don't hit the trail early. But once I am up I do like to be on my way as quickly as possible. However, I still find that I takes 30-45 mins as I like to have everything nicely packed away in its right place, as this makes things more efficient during the day and when getting to camp that night. One change I have been trying is a no cook breakfast. I don't have a hot drink in the mornings and so I was just boiling water for porridge. On my last trip I just had my porridge cold and it was great. This means the stove can be packed away the night before and no waiting for water to boil.

Back in my mis-spent youth, my goal was to hit ten miles by ten o'clock in the morning.

–B.G.–

"What's the hurry?"

I really like to hike in the morning. I really dislike sitting around in camp. Also, maybe it is a female thing, but when I first wake up for about an hour I'm very warm. After that, my body temperature drops. So if I can get moving before that big body temp drop, I won't get cold.

When I'm not in a hurry I enjoy relaxing in camp at the end of the day rather than the beginning. It's warmer then, I can eat my dinner while the sun's going down, maybe watch the sunset. Even when hiking the PCT I preferred to always get an early start but I would stop at dinner time before it was dark to set up camp. I never hiked in the dark.

From waking up to start hiking it takes me about an hour.
But I also wonder: "What the hurry? – Why don't you just get up earlier?
This is one aspect that no one has mentioned yet. If you want to be fast in the morning in order to get the miles in, why don't you just get up earlier?
When I hike in winter and have to use every minute of daylight I just get up 1 hour before sunrise and do everything in the dark… This way I do not have to rush in the morning or waste precious daylight.
Christine

A lot of people don't hike in the winter.

Well, in summer the hurry is even less understandable because you have so much daylight. And most people will not hike 14 or 16 hours straight either…. And if you want to take advantage of the early morning cool time – just get up before sunrise.
Christine

When I'm going solo, I like waking up early and moving out of camp whenever the mood strikes me. For me, it's the ability to start moving that's important. In contrast, one of my hiking buddies loves taking her time in the mornings, but also has no other choice, because she goes to bed with her gear in complete disorder.

My morning routine is dependent on (a) my evening routine of organizing my gear and (b) my packing routine, which I've developed for myself over the years and can do quickly whenever I decide to break camp.

Bob,

I would so love to be on one of those hikes. I can see myself sitting outside, warm brew in my hands, just so I can watch the scurrying that takes place as you yell out Last Call!!!

I'm also a morning person. But I do on occasion like to sleep in a bit and let the sun chase me out of the bag. Just depends on the trip and the goals.

James Marco wrote:

"A lot of peoople don't hike in the winter"

James I think you mean to say 'I don't know a lot of people that hike in the winter'.

A great number of people do go backpacking and hike in the winter. Just because you don't or don't know many isn't indicative of anything other than your personal preference.

Try not to make sweeping overgeneralizations that you try to pass off as facts, you'll come off as obtuse.

I do about the same amount of backpacking in winter as summer

I see very few other backpackers out there in winter – maybe 10% or less

Partially, I think people just have a preconceived notion that you can't camp in the winter, but that's just a guess

Maybe 3/4s of the time the weather isn't so good but if you can be flexible, there are great camping opportunities

Well I backpack year round and see a reduction of hikers and backpackers of 40-60%. The weather, snow depth, terrain, day of the week, and trail section all affect the numbers.

Ironically I've never been out on a winter trip where I haven't run into someone at least a day hike. The same cannot be said for the summer. Weird huh?

I hate to point it out, but if you see a reduction of 40-60% in the number of hikers and backpackers out in winter, I would think that would support the statement "A lot of people don't hike in the winter." Maybe I'm just obtuse.

Andy Dufresne: How can you be so obtuse?
Warden Samuel Norton: What? What did you call me?
Andy Dufresne: Obtuse. Is it deliberate?

Less people hike and backpack in the winter. That's a fact. Sorry, Chad ; )

Other than that I'm not sure I have much to add to this thread other than to reiterate that I'm one of the people who takes pleasure in being efficient at backpacking. More pleasure than that derived from hanging around camp in the morning so I wake up pack my pack immediately and then either make breakfast as I pull down my bear bag if it's warm out or hike a bit and then make breakfast if it's cold.

ps – coffee is a necessity but doesn't necessarily need to be hot although it is preferred that way.

I actually have to confess that my mornings are slower with UL gear than traditional.

Some things that have caused this slowing down:

1) Using light backpack. It's slow to pack things when you have to squeeze them into small backpack and still maintain the good comfort against your back. Smaller number of gear does not help me as I actually did not have that many things with me when I was heavyweight. They were just heavy.

2) Using small sleeping pad. I have to empty and re-arrange my backpack to use it under my legs.

3) Using tarp. If the weather is cold, I have to convince me to get out of the sleeping bag as it is colder than inside a tent. In the tent you can make breakfast inside, then put all clothes on and pack all other things than a tent quite fast as the stove has heated the tent too.

4) Using lightweight alcohol burner or wood stove. They are just soooo slow compared to my XGK2 white gas stove or Windpro :( As I have a dog with me, I do not want to leave stove cooking while I do something else as she might accidentally knock it over.

I do the coffee later if I'm having a tarp and it's cold morning, but the total time used is longer in that case as I have to unpack the stove again which is out of my backpack anyway during my sleep.

Every hike is different, hell every morning is different. Sometimes I am hiking by 6am, sometimes I sleep till 9am. Sometimes I cook first, sometimes I hike for a few, then cook later. My morning rutine depends on a million factors lol