If you’re thinking about getting into overnight hiking but have no clue where to start, I got you. Before I went on my first ever overnight hike, I had nothing but a brand-new tent and sheer determination. It turned out to be quite a disaster as far as easy overnight hikes go, and I got so many things wrong. My bag didn’t fit, not to mention it wasn’t even meant for hiking, I got cold at night, I overdid it on the first day, I got blisters and was in agony from my bag rubbing the whole time. But somehow, I still enjoyed it. Ain’t nothing like nature to make you forget all your pain!
Thankfully, I didn’t let my first experience stop me from trying again. Here I am, a few years and a few hikes later, with all the tips and tricks to help you get out there with much more ease.
First Thing’s First – Know the Basics
Before we dive right into the juicy stuff, here’s some things you’ll need to know about overnight hiking before we get started.
What is overnight hiking?
Overnight hiking is when you hike a longer trail over multiple days, meaning you’ll be camping along the way. Most people carry all their equipment with them, including a lightweight tent, food, water, and everything else they’ll need to survive a few days in the wild.
What should I sleep in on an overnight hike?
Most people sleep in a lightweight tent on an overnight hike, but there are countless sleeping options when it comes to overnighters. You could go ‘cowboy’ and sleep under the starts, or you could choose a hammock or a bivy. Depending on where you are in the world, you might be able to sleep on the floor of a hiking hut with just your sleeping bag and pad.
Once you home in on your personal preferences by trial and error, you will get to know your ideal sleep setup for overnighting.
How do you train for an overnight hike?
Along with practicing hiking by going on shorter day-hikes, it’s important that you are fit and strong before you tackle your first overnight hike. Training daily in the gym or at home (any way you like), gives your body the best chance at keeping up with demanding terrain, the elements and unforeseen challenges on the trail. To level-up your training, practice day-hikes with a fully loaded overnight pack. But make sure you rest for a few days before you set out on your hike. The last thing you want is to be exhausted before you even start!
What to Avoid!
Here we go, keep reading to find out all the mistakes I made on my first ever overnight hiking trip, and most importantly, how to avoid them.
1. Carrying too much stuff
This is the most obvious mistake that most first-timers make, and the truth is you won’t know how much is too much until you test it out. Technically speaking, your fully loaded pack should weigh no more than 15% of your body weight. For someone small like me, that’s not very much! But if you can get as close to that as possible, you will stand the best chance of ever wanting to hike again!
In terms of what to ditch and what to keep, think of it this way… If you don’t need it to survive, then you probably don’t need to bring it. Things like food, water, tent, and warm clothes are essential. Things like books, cosmetics, and headphones… not so much. We’ll dive a bit deeper into the specifics of what to pack down below, but if you’re looking for a comprehensive overnight hike packing list, check out this article.
2. Not eating enough
When you’re hot and sweaty you never feel like eating – but I’m here to tell you that it’s non-negotiable on the trail. Forgetting to eat or avoiding food is the quickest way to run yourself ragged when you’re hiking with a heavy pack. You’ll be burning calories with every step, much more than you would on a normal walk around the neighbourhood. Keeping up adequate nutrition is vital in staying hydrated too. The nutrients in your food also help your body to absorb the water you drink, meaning there’s less chance you’ll get dehydrated.
The best way to make sure you’re eating enough is to carefully pre-pack 3 meals for each day, plus snacks. If in doubt, always pack extra dinner. When I tell you that hiking dinners hit different, you better believe it!
3. Getting dehydrated
A huge key to surviving and recovering from your first overnight hike is making sure you stay hydrated. Plenty of us pack all the water we need, but then forget to drink it. Your water is useless to you if you don’t drink it throughout the day. That’s why I like to use a Camelbak on all my hikes. The water is right there ready and waiting, without having to stop or take off my bag while I’m hiking. This means that I’ve got the best chance to drink enough throughout the day, rather than arriving to camp hot, stressed and in need of recovery. Trust me when I say it’s much more effort stopping to take your bag off than you might think.
Another helpful tip to stay hydrated is to take breaks throughout the day, preferably in the shade. It can also help to pop a couple of hydralyte tablets into your water bottle during or at the end of each day.
4. Not cutting your toenails
Gross, I know, but this will honestly make or break every single overnight hiking mission you’ll ever go on. Cut your toenails as short as you can the night before you set off on your hike. This prevents your toenails from digging into the front of your shoe when you’re walking downhill (even on a gentle gradient). I made the mistake of forgetting this on my first ever overnight hike and boy did I pay for it. I was lucky not to lose any nails, but I had a painful bruise on my big toe for 6 months until it finally grew out. Plenty of people lose toenails on their hikes, but if you follow this simple trick, you’ll have the best chance at avoiding that!
5. Bringing the wrong first aid equipment
I always carry a small first aid kit in my pack, but on my first ever overnighter I didn’t have everything I needed to keep my feet happy. You really don’t need much in a hiking first aid kit, probably less than you think. A first aid kit probably won’t save your life (unless it’s a snake bite), but it will help you have a better time.
My go-to items in my kit are tape, mini scissors (to cut the tape), and bandaids for my feet and toes. Taping your toes and heels up once you start to feel them rubbing a little bit will save you from the agony of blisters. And if you do end up with blisters, having some antiseptic and a small splinter probe on hand will help. Bandaids are also very handy for covering up other places on your body that your pack might be rubbing, like your hips and collarbones that are copping some stress from the hip belt and straps on your pack (if it’s not quite the right pack for you).
Don’t forget other vitals like bigger bandages and general pain killers. If you’re hiking anywhere in snake country, bring snake bandages and most importantly, know how to use them.
6. Picking the wrong hiking buddy
Your own preferred hiking pace rarely matches anyone else’s, so choose your hiking buddies wisely. If you’re hiking solo and are thinking about walking with others you meet on the trail, here’s a few things to consider:
- Some hikers like to hike alone but re-convene and chat at camp.
- Others like to walk with strangers.
- Make sure that if you want to hike with a stranger you meet on the trail that you ask them first if they actually want company, and secondly, ask them what their pace is. If you’re slow and they’re fast it just won’t work.
If you set out on your hike with a buddy, you should agree before you go on things like wake-up and bedtimes, plus what equipment you’ll share and what you won’t share. Agreeing on a pace and how often you’ll stop also helps – are you a ‘stop every 10 minutes for photos and snacks’ kind of person, or a ‘power through to camp’ kind of person?
7. Taking unnecessary items to stop from being bored
If you think you’ll be bored at camp, think again. By the time you finally make it to camp after walking all day, set up your tent, make and eat dinner and get ready for bed…the last thing you’ll be thinking is that you’re bored. Which means it’s highly unlikely you’ll open that book you packed or get out the deck of cards you brought. Leave the entertainment up to the other hikers at the hut (which you could easily join!) and get to know yourself with some quiet time instead.
Everyone is different, and this preference is based on my own experience – but I can’t count the number of times I’ve brought a book with me and not even touched it. I’m usually passed out within 30 seconds of my head hitting the pillow once I finally settle in.
8. Picking the wrong spot & not pitching your tent properly
Finding a place to pitch your tent is a bit of an art. You want to make sure you find a spot that’s not too rocky or with too many sticks or nuts on the ground. A flat sandy or clear soil surface is best. Sometimes there aren’t that many good options when you arrive at a campsite, so do your best. If I do have to sleep on a slight slope, I prefer to have my legs running downhill with my head at the top (like most sane people would). Even the slightest inclines are noticeable when you’re laying down.
Another thing to keep in mind is avoiding being lazy when you pitch your tent, especially for your first ever overnight hike. You want to make sure that you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night in a panic to put up your rain fly. There’s nothing worse than being startled awake by the feeling of rain on your face, and dreading having to get up (and more wet) to throw over your fly in the dark.
Even if there’s no rain forecast, it’s a good idea to set up your tent fully – which includes pegging it down properly and putting on the rain fly. As your skills and experience grow, you’ll get to know when you can get away with a lazy pitch, and how well you can tolerate a midnight fix if it comes to it.
9. Bringing too many clothes
This one gets its own item because it’s oh-so-easy to do. There’s a fine line between packing enough to stay warm, and packing more than you’ll wear. The thing I like to keep in mind when packing my clothes for hiking is whether I can wear all the clothes I packed at once.
If I can easily layer every single item of clothing on at once, then I am making the most of my clothes ability to keep me warm. If worst comes to worst, I can huddle in my sleeping bag with even my rain jacket on (yes, I have done this before).
Make sure you bring enough clothes to stay warm, but don’t bring doubles of any item (except maybe underwear and socks, which we’ll get to later). Another thing to avoid is bringing a spare set of clothes for the next day. When you hike out, you’ll get just as sweaty and dirty as you did on the way there. So, you might as well just stink for one more day and not have to worry about such a heavy bag!
10. Having the wrong backpack
Although you don’t need much fancy gear to get started with overnight hiking, something I think is worth the money is a proper backpack.
This was one of my biggest rookie errors on my first overnight hike. I had my old faithful 80L travel backpack that I didn’t know was completely unsuitable for hiking. Not only was it not designed for hiking, but it had also seen a lot of wear and tear over the years. After years of picking up the bag by the right shoulder strap, the strap had stretched a bit. Not a problem for carrying luggage from A to B on a trip, but a huge issue when you’re spending 6 hours a day with 10kg on your back.
I ended up with so many blisters, raw skin on my hips and collarbones, and an aching back. It was torture on the second day, and I was just wishing for the end the entire day. So naturally, my next bit of hiking kit was a brand-new hiking pack. It felt perfect the moment I tried it on in the shop, after having tried on almost every brand and size they had. The first time I took my North Face Terra 65 on a hike, it was bliss! No sore spots, not even any rubbing on the hip belt…it’s amazing the difference a women’s-specific, made for purpose backpack can make (hah!).
PRO TIP
A huge factor in the comfort of my hip belt comes down to which pants I wear. It sounds pedantic, and it is, but it’s the tiny adjustments that make all the difference on multi-day hikes. I try to choose a high-waisted pair of shorts where the band sits higher than the bag’s hip belt. I also prefer a smooth waistband on the paints and try to avoid belts and scrunchy elastic waists. This is because the more fabric that’s pressing on your skin under your hip belt, the more rubbing and damage you’ll do. If there’s just one smooth layer of fabric under the hip belt, there’s so much less that can go wrong.
11. Not bringing something to heat up food with
Carrying a hiking stove might sound like a luxury to some, but nothing boosts morale like a hot cup of tea after a huge day of hiking. Plus, being able to have a warm dinner, even if it is just dehydrated camp food, is a game changer. A hiking stove, like this Jetboil that I use (which you can get from Anaconda stores) is also useful if you need to treat your drinking water. Along with using purification tablets, boiling water is one of the easiest ways to purify your water ready for drinking.
12. Not wearing-in your shoes first
Another big rookie mistake that happens even to the most experienced of us, is wearing brand new shoes on a multi-day hike. You need to make sure you’ve given your shoes a good run before setting out on your overnighter – which means wearing them nonstop for a few weeks or taking them on at least 5 day-hikes. This gives them a chance to soften and mould to your feet, avoiding agonising new-shoe blisters.
But the other thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need to manage your expectations. Your shoes could be your trusty old runners that have never let you down, but until you walk in them all day with 15kg on your back, you won’t truly know what they’re like. You can never go on a multi-day hike and not expect just a little bit of discomfort at times.
13. Being cold at night
When you sleep on the ground outside in the elements, you’ll be colder than you would be at home in your bed. You can expect to be a bit colder than normal at night, so make sure to take this into account when you’re picking your sleep set-up. Always opt for a warmer sleeping bag if you’re tossing up between a few options. You’ll be grateful for the few extra grams and the few extra dollars you spent so that you can be warm at night.
I’m a cold sleeper, so no matter what I bring, the cold usually gets me eventually. Something I’ve recently added to my sleep set-up is an egg-carton foam mat. I lay this out underneath my normal air pad, and it helps stop the cold from rising up underneath. It’s been an absolute game changer for me, and it doesn’t hurt that it makes my sleep that bit more luxurious!
14. Trying to hike too far
Something that I try to avoid when hiking for the first time in a while is planning to cover too many kilometres in one day. I like to aim for 10 to 15km in a day, because I like to walk slowly, stop a lot, take photos, and take in nature. Plenty of people will say that 20km or more is good for them – but to keep it safe when you’re starting out, less is best. Hiking less distance will also leave you plenty of time to set up camp and relax before dinner and bed. This also means you’ll be better rested and ready to tackle your second day on the trail.
15. Trying to camp for more than one night
In addition to hiking too far in one day, you also don’t want to be exhausted with no option to go back on your first overnighter. One night is ideal to test out your setup, get to know your gear (what you’re missing and what you didn’t need), and to learn a bit about your hiking style. It also means that if something goes wrong or breaks out there, that you don’t have to suffer through more nights before you can get things sorted.
16. Being afraid of hiking ‘out and back’
It’s not surprising that no one wants to retrace their steps, why go backwards when you can go forwards? But planning only loop or point-to-point hikes severely limits your trail options. If you open your mind to the idea of hiking to a camp then hiking back the way you came the next day, you’ll find so many more options. This probably also means that you won’t have to drive so far from home to find a good trail. Plus, I really like this style of overnighter when I’m on a short time frame. That’s because I know exactly where to go, and how long it took, so that I can plan my journey out with optimum timing.
17. Wearing cotton or heavy fabrics
I’m not about to tell you what you can and can’t wear, but I will tell you one thing. Heavy fabrics (like cotton and denim) do not fare well on the trail. That’s because they’re heavy to carry, they take forever to dry, and don’t offer that much warmth when compared with their weight. Even if you don’t have any fancy hiking clothes (like merino or quick-dry synthetics), just make sure you wear your lightest, and fastest-drying clothes.
If you get rained on, or if you sweat a lot in the previous day, your clothes probably won’t dry out overnight. Believe me when I say it feels awful putting on wet or damp clothes on your second day of hiking!
18. Not bringing a change of socks
Lots of people include socks in the ‘don’t bring more than one’ category. But I am not that person, I just cannot wear the same socks two days in a row. Think about it this way, your feet are the only part of your body that feel every single step of your journey. They are sweating all day and walking through endless sand, dirt, and puddles. Treat them to a fresh pair of socks in the morning and you’ll be thankful you did!
At the very least on a longer hike, you want two pairs of socks on rotation – one to wear and the other to get a chance to dry out fully before you wear them again. Excess moisture inside your shoes leads to friction, rubbing and all sorts of painful issues.
19. Not planning properly
There are a few vital questions you need to ask yourself before you head out on any multi-day hiking adventure.
- Where will you camp?
- Does the campsite need to be booked?
- Will there be water available at the camp, if not, how will I carry all my water with me?
- Do you have a backup plan if the water tank at the campsite is empty? Is there a local Facebook group where you can check this in advance?
- What will you do in an emergency? How will you contact the outside world, is there any phone reception?
- How will you get to, and home from, the trailhead? If someone is picking you up, how will you contact them when you’ve arrived?
Answering all these questions before you go will mean that you’re prepared for anything. Knowing what to do in an emergency, and how you’ll contact help, is one of the most important considerations on an overnight hike.
20. Not knowing where you’re going
Most trails have markers that are fairly easy to follow. But the best way to avoid getting lost is to familiarise yourself with the trail before you go by looking at online maps. Note any big turns or side-trails that you’ll need to take or avoid. You can also check out blogs and photos to get a bit familiar with where you’re going.
I always download some form of offline map to help me in a pinch. I use AllTrails (the paid version) to download offline maps to my phone, which I can use to navigate if I somehow end up off-track. There are tons of other free and paid hiking apps you can use.
Whichever method you choose, get to know the app and the map. Practice navigating with it on a day-hike first – knowing how to read a map could save your life.
21. Forgetting rubbish bags
This is something that’s easy to overlook, but that I always use. No matter how lightweight or environmentally conscious I’m trying to be, there’s always something I need to throw out. Just one plastic rubbish bag will do, it’s easy enough to carry it out and put it in the bin when you get home.
22. Not bringing a toilet trowel
Yep, the non-glamorous part you were hoping to avoid. Everyone needs to do their business, so do it responsibly. If you can’t make it to a bush-loo at your campsite, dig a hole that’s at least 15cm deep and fill it in when you’re done. Be sure to go at least 60 metres from any water body (like a lake, stream, river, or the ocean).
It’s best-practice to pack out your used toilet paper, but sometimes you just can’t. Technically you should get the toilet paper underneath your poo in the hole so that it decomposes better. But just like it sounds, this is tricky and fraught with danger, so use a stick and do your best. Carrying hand sanitiser on the trail can never hurt either.
23. Forgetting to check the weather
A bit of rain can’t hurt, but too much rain might. Flooding or damaged campsites can be a huge problem for your hike. Check for extreme weather warnings in the area before you depart and don’t be afraid to cancel last minute. It’s always better to be safe at home than it is to be stuck in a hairy situation out on the trail.
Checking the weather also prompts you to make sure you have the right clothes on hand – a rain jacket for winter weather, or sunscreen and a good hat for sunny summer days.
24. Hiking in the dead of summer (or winter)
No matter where you are on the planet, hiking in the shoulder seasons are bound to be milder, as well as generally more pleasant. Here in Australia, it’s practically impossible to hike in a lot of places in summer because it’s just too hot, and there is often no water available. Do your research for your own location and pick the right season to go.
25. Not telling anyone where you’re going
If you’re out having a grand old time on a hike, but no one knows where you are, this can be a recipe for disaster.
Choose a trusted friend or family member to leave your itinerary with. Make sure it includes:
- Where you’re going,
- the name of the trail,
- your planned start and end points,
- how long you intend to take, and
- when you plan to be back.
You should also tell them when and how you plan to contact them or check in, either while you’re out there, and/or when you get back safely. If you don’t check in when you said you would they can send help.
26. Having all the gear and no idea
A common phrase us Aussies like to use is “that idiot has all the gear and no idea”. We can have all the top-of-the-range gear and most expensive equipment, but none of it will save us if we have no idea how to use it.
The best way to avoid making this mistake, and looking like an absolute galah, is to test out all the gear you plan to bring before you set out. This could mean pitching your tent a few times on the lawn at home, sleeping in your sleeping bag for a night, wearing-in your shoes, and cooking up a meal on your camp stove at least once. Nothing makes a hiker cringe more than seeing someone rock up to camp and slowly start peeling the plastic and tissue paper off their brand-new tent!
27. Leaving your intuition and common sense at home
The biggest thing to remember is that as complicated as all the technical stuff seems, all you’re really doing on an overnight hike is going for a walk outside. The whole point (hopefully) is that you just want to enjoy nature. Take the time to slow down and enjoy your surroundings, and remember that if something feels off, or your intuition is trying to tell you something, it’s probably for a good reason. Be considerate of other trail users, clean up after yourself, leave no trace as always, and respect what you came to enjoy! 😊
Ready to go and want to know exactly what to pack?
Head over and check out the 33 Essential Overnight Hiking Items You Should Pack.
Not quite ready for an overnight adventure? Check out this packing list for your first day-hike instead.
