How to books for through hiking / long trips

[Thomas G]

I am looking for good books (or other resources) on doing long backing trips.   Planning a trip on the nascent Idaho Wilderness trial late summer. It is about 300 trail miles but only crosses one paved road and not many gravel roads so logistics are daunting. I have been backpacking for 30 years but always trips of less than a week so some uncharted territory for me

thanks

[Atif Khan]

It’s slim pickings for good how-to books on hiking. Long Trails by Liz Thomas, maybe. Or Trail Tested by Justin Lichter. But these and others just give a general gloss.

Logistically, for longer walks with few resupply points like you describe, water (several pounds a day) and, to a lesser extent, food (a couple of pounds a day), will be your main weight variables, both affected by terrain, daily distance, temperature, natural sources, and a host of other factors.

[Steve Thompson]

Add Jardine’s Beyond Backpacking and Chris Townsend’s book to the list but neither offer much on resupply logistics.

Are you going the full 300miles?  And out for how long?   And some other questions:  how heavy a pack are you willing to carry on resupply days?  Do have someone willing/able to resupply you?   Do you have an extra bear can you can cache yourself?  Are there campgrounds with bear proof storage boxes a short distance from your main route?

Me, 10 days of food at a shot I can manage.  (Though I may push that this summer).  I’ve walked in, and driven in resupplies sometimes leaving them in a bear can stashed close to my main route. And I’ve left resupplies in bear proof storage boxes at trailheads and at forest service campgrounds that require 10, maybe 12 mile out and backs to retrieve.

All that said, I worked up my time.  I had plenty of week long group treks then started going solo. Then add distance and days and playing with different resupply method ms to build experience and confidence.

perhaps a bit more detail on what you are thinking will help with crafting more specific advice.

[John S.]

Heather Anderson just wrote an article for Gossamer Gear and has a book coming out next month.

https://www.gossamergear.com/blogs/our-blog/heather-anderson-mental-health-trail

“We wrote Adventure Ready to help people prepare for their hike—logistically, physically, and mentally. But beyond that, we wanted to cover post-trail aspects as well. Because the journey doesn’t end at the terminus. It ends with the universal challenge of coming home.”

https://anishhikes.square.site/product/adventure-ready-preorder-/16?cs=true&cst=custom

[Thomas G]

Thanks all.  Here is quick overview of the route.  I’ll post more next week.  I am heading out on a trip in Escalante this evening

https://thebigoutside.com/americas-newest-long-trail-the-idaho-wilderness-trail/

[Bethany S]

I just ordered Anish’s new book, it should be here next week. I can let you know if it might be helpful?

[MJ H]

If it’s that remote, maybe using caches is best? Collin Fletcher talks about that a fair bit in The Man Who Walked Through Time.

[Ben H.]

You’ve done shorter hikes… you are just stringing them together. Now comes the logistics. Based on your knowledge from shorter hikes you have to be able to estimate how far you are going to hike in a day and how many days of food you can carry at once. Overlay that with your trail map and determine your resupply points. They don’t line up perfectly (they never do)? Can you resupply sooner? Yes? then you have your resupply points. No? Then you are going to need to revisit your assumptions about how far you can go without resupplying or not do the trip… or pre-hike in a remote resupply.

[Author]

Posts