Do you love to hike? Alone or with someone, those who love to hike sometimes just get the urge to take off on a whim and hike with little or no preparation. Preparation is key when it comes to most hiking. It’s one thing if you’re just going on a small hike and feel that you don’t need much to take along. But larger hikes require a considerable amount of prep work.

The first thing I do is make sure I check the five day forecast. Now of course the weather can change on a dime, but it does help to check and make sure that you will not be dealing with any predicted weather extremes. It is not worth the risk. You then need to make sure you let others know where you’re going, then make sure you map out exactly where you want to go.

Take along plenty of water and food, in case you do get lost you may need to have some substance with you. Oh yah, if you do get lost and they have to search for you, you will end up paying for that search. It is very costly for authorities to search for lost hikers, so be prepared when you go out, don’t get lost!