PAUSES Make HAPPY Hikers: Young and Older
Many non-hikers’ childhood memories of hiking on the trails with family include painful forced marches with no opportunity to enjoy the surroundings. They got hungry, tired with feet hurting. Their parents may even have berated them for their lack of enthusiasm. It’s no wonder they grew up to be non-hikers.
Parents’ recollection of the same hike:
• The distances were short,
• Kids were in awful moods and didn’t want to move.
• The parents had plenty of time to view the surroundings while waiting for kids to catch up or get moving.
Beginning hikers who are not particularly fit and are thrown in with a group of enthusiasts’ on a trail might have a similar experience like that of the children, and not come back. Trailers new and ole’, young or older, this is so not the goal.
Pauses Are Gifts!
Experienced hikers know that regular short pauses make it possible to keep trailing all day. How often should you take a trail pause? Each individual and each party is going to have to figure out what works for them. A group in which every member nibbles and sips as they move along the trails can go hours between pauses, while another group might need to have a break for at least a few minutes every hour.
• Allowing regular pauses is a good way to allow everyone to tape incipient blisters, correct shoe issues, adjust packs and add or remove clothing as well as maintain fueling and hydration.
• Too few breaks and people get sore, tired and hungry, causing them to slow down later in a hike.
• Too many breaks or breaks that drag on too long make any hike take longer than it should.
• Breaks should be short enough that muscles don’t cool down and get stiff. Otherwise getting started again hurts. Generally that means that 5-10 minutes is a lot better than anything longer.
Everyone Can Make Good Use of Pauses
Later in the day on the trail, the group is going to move at the speed of its slowest member, so breaks should be scheduled to take care of the needs of that person. If you are the strong, smart member of the group and you want the group to stay together, devote your smarts and strength to supporting the group by helping the other hikers take the pauses they need.
Adjust Schedule to Kid and Newby Needs
With young children in the group, break scheduling on the trail can become challenging. Kids really do need more rest and recharge time than adults. Kids have smaller energy reserves.
• Regular breaks of 5 minutes after every 15-20 minutes of hiking might be needed to maintain energy, and more or longer breaks to investigate the surrounds might be needed to maintain interest. When my son started backpacking at 6 years old, we stopped to read books on the trail. A few times we even stopped for naps. By the time he was ten, we had hiked to the top of Mt Whitney with only short snack breaks (and an overnight at 10,000 feet).
• For preteens, for every ½ hour to 40-minute stretches of hiking, 5-minute breaks in between become reasonable.
If the intention is to be able to explore and experience the grandeur of your outdoor surroundings whether in a group or individually, happy and of sound mind, allowing adequate pauses on the trail will have the inner and outer spirits thanking you.
Trail On Trailblazers!
Trailulive Collaborator and Trainer,
Scott Saifer
