You’ll Kick Yourself if You Make Any of These Common Thru-Hiker Mistakes

It’s that beautiful time of year where all you lovely future thru-hikers are thinking to yourselves, “oh shit! This is really happening! Am I really doing this? Ahhhhh!”

The 2025 thru-hiking season is around the corner, especially for Appalachian Trail hikers starting in February or March. If you haven’t already started, now’s the time to begin thinking seriously about your fitness, gear, and the logistics of your hike.

Sure, you could wing it. People do it all the time, and a little devil-may-care spontaneity is an important skill for any thru-hiker navigating the constant uncertainty of trail life. But, you know, a little bit of prep actually can be slightly useful sometimes.

It helps to know a bit about what you (TENTATIVELY) expect the experience to be like. It also helps to know about things thru-hikers often get wrong. With that in mind, here are eight common — but avoidable — thru-hiker mistakes to watch out for.

1. Overpromising, under-delivering on GPS check-ins.

Photo: Ariella Nardizzi

One of the best things about being out of cell service is the rare opportunity to disconnect. Even so, it’s nice to have a GPS device like the Zoleo Satellite Communicator or Garmin inReach for peace of mind.

One of the most common (but least discussed) thru-hiker mistakes is to assure your loved ones that you will check in every day, for sure, during your thru-hike. That would indeed be ideal, but rare is the hiker who actually remembers to message daily.

It takes discipline, especially on rainy nights when you’d really rather stay in the shelter with your trail friends. And the more you get drawn into the coziness of trail life, the harder it is to maintain daily contact with the outside world.

There’s also the fact that sometimes the device just plain doesn’t work. Maybe it loses battery, or maybe the tree cover is too dense to get a good connection.

None of this is comforting to your loved ones back home, who are anxiously waiting for your nightly check-in and wondering if something’s wrong because they haven’t heard from you.

Before you leave for the trail, set the expectation with anyone on your GPS contact list that you will try to get in touch every day but that they shouldn’t panic if they go a few days without hearing from you. They will still be anxious every day you don’t text, but it will be better if they know to expect it.

2. Skipping tick check.

Stuart Meek, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s the end of a long day. You’re tired, you’re dirty, everything hurts, and all you want to do is snuggle into your sleeping bag and drift off. OR, another thing that could also be pretty fun is if you do NOT go to sleep and instead strip naked and inspect every part of your body for ticks the size of poppy seeds. Every. Part. Of your body.

Look, I didn’t say it would be fun. OK, I did say that; I lied, and I’m sorry. Nightly tick check is one of the most tedious, inconvenient, and pointless-seeming camp chores, but don’t skip this delightful ritual.

Ticks carry some pretty nasty diseases, most notably Lyme. If you carefully remove ticks within the first 24 hours, chances are good that any tickborne diseases won’t transmit to you.

Inspecting yourself for ticks and never finding anything is certain to bring up thoughts like, “this is stupid” and “ow, I hate this.” But if you catch even a few ticks during your hike, it will have been worth it. It’s also an opportunity to check for suspicious rashes that might be an indicator of a tickborne infection already in progress, as well as blisters starting to form and other discomforts.

Tick check. It feels dumb, but it takes less than five minutes per night. Just do it.

3. Not protecting the Three Fuhs on cold days.

Photo: Oliver Hudgins

If you’re going to be out hiking in the mountains for six months, assume it’s going to be freezing at least some of the time.

Part of dealing with cold weather as a thru-hiker is protecting your gear. Almost every thru-hiker sometimes makes these three mistakes: neglecting the Three Fuhs (phone, filter, and fuel), all of which are vulnerable to the cold.

Freezing temperatures can make your smartphone’s lithium-ion battery drain more quickly, so keep it in an interior pocket close to your body on freezing days and overnight. (In your sleeping bag is safest.) Cold weather won’t damage the phone battery, but your magic rectangle won’t do you much good if it’s dead. Keep it warm, use it sparingly, and consider leaving it off altogether until you really need it.

Same with your water filter. Hollow-fiber filters like the Sawyer Squeeze (and Katadyn BeFree and Platypus Quickdraw) can be damaged if they freeze and may then be less effective at removing contaminants from your water.

Avoid the problem by keeping your water filter inside your sleeping bag if there’s even a chance the temperature will dip below freezing. Put it in a ziplock to prevent it from leaking in your sleeping bag. If the weather is truly bitter even during the daytime, keep the filter packed deep within your pack or, again, close to your body.

Finally, fuel. Cold weather makes the pressure inside your fuel canister drop. Hence, the stove either won’t ignite or will burn inefficiently when heating your morning coffee. Same drill: keep it warm overnight inside your sleeping bag, and if it’s frigid all day, warm it with your body heat before it’s time to cook. Same for your lighter.

4. Not practicing snow skills.

Photo: Lindsey Gordon

You probably won’t need advanced snow skills if you’re hiking the AT within the normal weather window. Not so on the PCT and CDT, where high-elevation sections of trail often require hikers to carry ice axes and wear crampons.

How many thru-hikers actually know how to use an ice axe, whether for self-arrest or anything else? Most of us buy an ice axe because we’re supposed to have one, watch a few how-to videos, and head out there hoping/assuming we’ll never actually need the dang thing.

“Learning by doing” works great for most thru-hiker skills, but it’s a mistake to not put at least a little effort into figuring out how to perform a potentially life-saving self-arrest with your ice axe. Contact your local mountaineering organization and see if they’re offering any classes this winter. Ned Tibbets of Mountain Education often teaches hands-on snow skills courses geared at PCT hikers.

If you head out on the PCT with no clue how to use an ice axe or read snow, you won’t be alone. That doesn’t mean it’s best practice. Be prepared. Be the leader.

And make sure you actually carry this gear when you need it! Even the mountains of southern California can be snowy and dangerous in the early season. We’re all conditioned to avoid needless extra weight. Start looking at your ice axe as an essential piece of gear, akin to your sleeping bag. Too many people try to put off carrying snow gear until the last possible moment. As a result, they don’t have it when they need it.

5. Forgetting things at camp.

I’ve forgotten my trekking poles more times than I’d care to admit … fortunately, I’m incapable of functioning without my poles so the mistake quickly becomes apparent.

When you pack up to leave camp — or the hostel, or your hitch, or literally anywhere you’re not planning to return to — do not go anywhere until you’ve looked behind you and made sure you’re not leaving anything.

I had a buddy on the AT who hiked 13 miles, realized he’d left his Garmin inReach at the shelter that morning, and hiked all 13 miles back to retrieve it. He put in a good 26 miles for the day but ended up exactly zero miles closer to Maine.

Hey, we’ve all been there. I’ve lost sunglasses, a sit pad, and worst of all, my tent stakes. My ex lost his phone.

For people who have so few possessions, it is incredible how easily we thru-hikers tend to misplace things. It sort of makes sense, though. By definition, we’re just passing through. Once we leave a location, we rarely return, which means we only get one chance to make sure we have all our stuff.

Do yourself a favor and make it a reflexive habit that every time you stand up, you look around, I mean really look, to make sure you aren’t leaving anything behind. If you can do this every time, you will save yourself much heartache, inconvenience, and possibly some frustrating bonus miles.

6. Not bringing earplugs.

Introducing the shrillest, most annoying night bird known to man, the whippoorwill. Wildreturn, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Oh, you’re not an earplugs person? Well, you are now. If you’re thru-hiking, especially a popular trail like the AT or PCT, you’re probably going to be sleeping in very close proximity to a wide cast of characters on a regular or semi-regular basis, both on the trail and in town (if you stay in hostels or campgrounds).

Some people snore. Sometimes they get up in the dark to pee and trip noisily over the guylines of their tent. Sometimes they go to bed later than you, get up earlier, or toss and turn on their crinkly-ass sleeping pad all night. Even if you camp alone, sometimes you’re kept awake by tree frogs or whippoorwills or howling wind.

Earplugs weigh very little and occupy barely any space. Earplugs can mean the difference between a great night’s sleep and eight z-free hours lying awake hating your life. They are an investment in your happiness. Bring them.

7. Underpacking socks.

Photo: Madison Dragna

Has enough time passed that it’s appropriate for me to bring up my disgusting trenchfoot on here again? After several days of rain and endless mud puddles, I got trenchfoot on the AT. It was terrible. The key to treating trenchfoot is to keep your feet as clean, dry, and warm as possible. Fortunately, that is super easy to do on the AT (sarcasm).

As part of my self-administered treatment program, I went from one pair of hiking socks to eight pairs. This was admittedly a little overkill, but I had trenchfoot, guys. Eight pairs meant I always had a clean, dry pair to sleep in and I could rotate the remaining seven throughout the day and always have several pairs drying. Bottomless dry socks: what a luxury for a thru-hiker.

I don’t carry eight pairs anymore, but I always have one nice pair for sleeping and two or three pairs for hiking. We thru-hikers are always looking to streamline our gear lists. I myself tell people to be careful about overpacking clothes if they want to keep their pack weight under control. I make an exception for socks. Your feet are the stars of the show: they take a beating on a thru-hike, so make their wellbeing your priority.

Sidebar: Besides my actual socks, I always bring these compression socks from Amazon. I usually put them on when I get to camp and wear them for a few hours until bedtime. They’ve made a world of difference with my plantar fasciitis. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but I’m just putting the information out there just in case.

8. Not drinking enough water.

Photo: J Taylor Bell

I’ve said this before, so if you’re one of my numerous Kelly Floro superfans who reads every article I ever wrote, sorry. But hydration is crucial, guys. On and off the trail, drinking enough water is one of the simplest things we can do to make our lives better, yet very few of us actually do it. I myself am dehydrated at this very moment, despite the full bottle of water on my desk as I type.

If hydration matters for a thru-hiking has-been like me, imagine how important it is for an up-and-coming hiker like you. Many thru-hikers don’t like hearing this, but if you are setting out to walk hundreds or thousands of miles through mountainous terrain, you are an athlete. Start treating your body accordingly. Good hydration clears up brain fog, energizes you, and lowers your risk of injuries.

Hydrating is tough for a hiker. It’s not as simple as turning on the tap — so do what you can to make it easier.

• Keep your filter backflushed so filtering goes faster. I cannot overstate how much of a difference a clean filter makes. You don’t notice the flow rate gradually diminishing over time, but trust me, it’s happening.
• Get a pair of waterproof mitts to make water collection gentler on cold mornings.
• Pop your stove out and make yourself a cup of warm tea if you’re struggling to choke down cold water. Counterintuitively, good hydration is key to avoiding hypothermia.
• Carry flavor enhancers like Mio, Crystal Lite, electrolyte tabs, or herbal tea sachets to make boring old water taste more exciting.
• Drink on zero days as well. Hydrate like it’s your job!

Featured image by Chris Helm.