If you head into the wilderness I’m sure you know not to leave trash behind – Pack it in, pack it out, right? But what else do you need to know to protect nature (and avoid being an a-hole)? I’ve been teaching people about how to Leave No Trace when hiking and camping for decades. …
Leave No Trace
You’ve probably seen those news stories: “Search and Rescue finds Unprepared Hikers Lost/Injured in the Woods”. But that’s never going to be you right? Yup, we all think it won’t happen to us. But it definitely could. No one expects to get lost, get stuck hiking in the dark or hurt themselves, but they do. …
We’ve all heard this advice: “Make sure you are prepared. Check trail conditions online before you go.” But how do you actually find trail conditions? How do you find out if the trail is muddy, snowy, unmaintained, full of bugs, or closed? I wish I had one easy answer for you. Wouldn’t it be great …
When we talk about going hiking, there’s a lot of chatter about “being prepared”. But what exactly does that mean? What things should you do before a hike? Over the years I’ve developed a bit of a routine before each hike. Keeping this simple checklist in mind makes sure that I stay safe on the …
As a Leave No Trace trainer, I’m pretty passionate about teaching people the importance of keeping the wilderness wild and minimizing our impact. While I’m pretty well-versed in the theory behind leaving no trace while hiking with a dog, I don’t own a dog. So I didn’t feel qualified to write a post about how …
Recently I wrote a post called “You Killed A Bear” that ended up getting way more online attention than I had anticipated. My message in that post was that less experienced hikers should read up about bear safety before they head out for a hike or go backcountry camping. Lots of people asked questions about …
A Quick Note: This article was originally published in August 2016. The aim of this post was to shock people in order to raise awareness. I know it’s an uncomfortable post to read and that many hikers and campers might feel a bit confronted since they don’t engage in the kind of behaviour discussed here. …
As part of my “Ask Taryn” series D. from the Rockies messaged me on my Facebook page to ask about backpacking hygiene. She writes: My partner and I are planning to do the full 180km Sunshine Coast Trail in September and were hoping you had some tips in regards to hygiene…How can we cleanse without …