Multiday Hiking for Seniors Part 1: Practical Hacks and Workarounds
For many of us, hiking - regardless of our motivation - is also about creating memories that will last a lifetime, such as this pitch in the Tassie Highlands. It had been raining and foggy when we arrived the previous night but, in the morning, this astonishing landscape was revealed as the mist lifted. It remains a banner memory.
So you’ve decided to bite the bullet: after years of thinking about it, you’re finally tackling a multiday hike. Good on you! Or perhaps you’re still thinking: you really want to do one, but you’re unsure because you’re no longer a spring chicken and you’ve never done one before, or it’s been a darn long time since you did!
The old bones aren’t quite what they used to be. You remember your canvas pack, those forty kilometre days, that squeezy tent with its tiny door and that hard, hard ground. But you also see old folk hiking hundreds or even thousands of kilometres. Sometimes those folk are much older than you! How do they do it? How can they do it? How can you join them? What is their secret?
Age in and of itself is NO barrier
This article aims to inspire older folk – let’s say, fifty-five+, though we all know fifty is the new forty! – to try something you might not have tried before, or which you haven’t done for years: a multiday hike. That means you’ll be carrying everything you need for dinner, breakfast and a night in the tent!
Articles for hiking seniors usually provide tips that apply to everyone – let someone know where you are going, check the weather forecast, etc. We won’t bother with that because we assume you’ve only gotten older, not dumber. On the contrary, those extra decades have given us wisdom and insight that are a great advantage on the track!
We older folk know and understand our bodies and we have often developed mental toughness. We have good reasons – often family – to stay active and healthy; we or people we love may have had a brush with death, so we’re less likely to take things for granted and more likely to be grateful.
Hiking with family in Tuscany. It doesn’t get any better than this!
Best of all, low-impact regular hiking improves your healthy weight, blood pressure and blood cholesterol level, while increasing your cardiovascular fitness, physical and bone strength! Win-Win!
More Miles on the Odometer
Of course, some older folk are fitter and healthier than some younger folk but, all things being equal, we are old cars with decent mileage on the clock. Parts are worn and, unlike shiny models fresh off production lines, older Toyotas need more regular servicing and don’t leap from standing starts like Teslas! Nevertheless, don’t worry: that old Toyota gets us to the top of the hill too!
Grey and grizzled, you may no longer be shiny new, but still get to all the places you’re aiming for.
Our ligaments are less stretchy, so we’re more prone to tendon issues. Joints, especially knees, spine and hips, are worn. Our sense of balance deteriorates, our temperature regulation switch gets sticky, lower testosterone and oestrogen levels mean we don’t build muscle as easily and quickly as we used to, and we are often less strong. Sometimes, menopause and andropause cause a loss of self-confidence. Our skin is thinner and more delicate, we heal more slowly, we often take more prescription meds. Happily, none of these things need stop us from doing a multiday hike.
1. Check in with your health professional
If you have any chronic or acute conditions, check with your GP or specialist before tackling a multiday hike or starting a new exercise regime. Hiking boosts the health of almost everyone – it’s particularly effective in reducing depression and stress – but a particular approach could provide a better outcome. Your GP may suggest strength training or medication tweaks to ensure you enjoy your hike and most improve your physical health.
2. Understand Your Motivation
This is relevant to all hikers but especially us older ones, because it determines the kind of hike we choose. Whether it’s physical or mental challenge, improving our physical or mental health, enjoying beautiful environments or spending time with a partner or family, knowing why you want to hike helps you choose the right multiday option.
Photography, particularly of flowers and landscapes, comprises a large part of my hiking enjoyment, so we schedule our walks at a pace and in places that allow for that.
3. Acknowledge Strengths and Weaknesses and Choose the Right Hike
After all these decades, you know your body. Be realistic. If a two hour stroll up a small hill leaves your knees aching for days, do you really want your first multiday hike to include days of twenty-five kilometres (15mi) with a thousand metres (3280ft) elevation gain? Choose a flatter hike instead.
If you’re still unfit, choose a shorter distance – and NO distance is too short. Set up the tent one kilometre (0.6mi) from the trailhead if that’s challenging for you. On the Walls of Jerusalem hike, we’d budgeted a rest day. We’d had longer, more demanding days than planned and just two kilometres from camp we reached a beautiful spot, and stopped to overnight there. It turned out to be the most memorably glorious pitch of the trip, and we had a whole day to enjoy it!
This amazing pitch in the Walls of Jerusalem was an unplanned stop…
… but it was the most beautiful spot of all.
Choose the right level of challenge that suits your personality, fitness and motivation. Forget arbitrary ‘shoulds’ implied by young guns on social media. Social media creates a skewed, often false image of what is possible and enjoyable.
Nearly every multiday hike, even long-distance ones, can be modified to bring them within reach. Loop hikes also often have shorter alternates. Geoff and I planned our eleven day loop within the Walls of Jerusalem National Park with bailout options, very conservative daily distances, plus a rest day.
Sometimes you can tweak routes to avoid difficult sections. Long distance thru-hikes include long days that can almost always be split in half – we did this to good effect on the Bibbulmun. There are many other ways to make longer days easier.
Begin your first multiday hike by scheduling conservatively. You can always increase the distance, but it’s better to have a great short day than a death trudge. If you lack confidence, try a single overnighter, perhaps a loop leaving from the campground you plan to stay at so you end up right back at your car. Camp as if the car isn’t there, knowing you have backup should you need it.
We set our own schedule for this: much further but slower, adapting it into a three day, two night loop hike.
4. Train.
If you lead an active lifestyle and day hike regularly with a daypack, skip this paragraph: your day hikes have already set you up nicely for a multiday hike.
Most young folk can tackle a multiday hike without much or even any preparation and, though it won’t be much fun initially, their well-oiled joints and stretchy ligaments are unlikely to be permanently damaged. We older folk need to give our bodies a bit more TLC!
If you’ve been sedentary, there’s great news: you may soon be fitter than you were during your desk job! However, a multiday hike carrying a pack – even a lightweight one – places new stresses on the body. There’s cardiovascular fitness to consider, but a pack also changes the way we walk, and places different loads on different muscles particularly in the back, legs and core.
Luckily, these muscles quickly strengthen to support the associated ligaments and tendons when you give them a chance. Even regular short daily walks, or several longer ones each week help, even more so with a pack whose weight you gradually increase (as ballast, use water bottles that you can empty if they get too heavy!). A short-term gym membership also develops specific muscle groups and heart/lung fitness. Do what you can: every bit helps.
Loaded up on a training day hike in one of our local Adelaide Hills parks
Having said that, don’t let a lack of fitness stop you. Even slow, gentle hikes make you fitter! After the 1,000 km (620mi) Bibbulmun track, we caught up with several other older hikers who had finished around the same time we had. We had trained differently beforehand, from extensively to none, and we all hiked the entire distance. Two months after completing the hike, all of us still had lingering aches, but none of us regretted a thing, and we had improved our cardiovascular health. Octogenarians have completed this and other long-distance hikes too:
Age in and of itself is no barrier.
5. HYOH (Hike Your Own Hike)
This is important for everyone, but especially older folk. Don’t try to compete with those young bucks or your younger self – you will fail. Remember that speed and distance don’t define contentment, enjoyment or satisfaction unless you want them to. Focus on what motivated you to get out there in the first place. Let the younger folk go on ahead. If you want to hike in a group, choose people who hike at your pace.
6 Reduce your Pack Weight
Going lighter significantly reduces wear and tear on the body, and reduces injuries if you fall. If you haven’t done any multiday hiking in a long time, you are in for a wonderful surprise.
All hiking gear has become lighter… much, much lighter. Forget those packs that weighed 3.5 kg (7.7lb) *empty*, like our trusty old canvas Macpacs: now, our pack, tent, sleep system plus kitchen weigh less than that one empty pack! Isn’t that fabulous! Ultralight and lightweight gear, including budget options, open up overnight hiking to so many more people.
Our trusty canvas Macpacs in Italy before we discovered lightweight gear - at 3.5 kg (7.7lb), they are now only used for training hikes!
New materials mean that today’s moderately priced and even cheap tents are as good as more expensive tents of old, at a fraction of the weight: even two person budget tents weigh under 1200g (42 oz)! If you are cashed up, you can get a two person tent that weighs around 600g (21 oz); one person tents for an astonishing 300g (10.6 oz). Freestanding tents with large doors, or non-freestanding tents with side doors and an offset pole may be preferable to top entries that require crawling out over your pillow.
You can find much lighter sleeping bags and mats that are still thick and warm enough for arthritic hips; ultralight quilts and twin quilts save even more weight.
New stove systems such as the Caldera Cone Tri-Ti are a fraction of the weight of the trusty Trangia: our entire kitchen for two including stove (plus spare stove), large pot, 2 cups, a mug, two sporks, firesteel, matches, cloth, two small fuel bottles (empty) plus a plastic jar is less than 600g ((21 oz) or 300g (10.6 oz) pp; we can easily cut it to 400g (14 oz) or 200g (7 oz) pp on shorter trips.
You can now buy commercial freeze dried and dehydrated meals, or, as you’re likely an experienced cook, you can make your own using the “freezer bag cooking” method we describe in our food preparation and recipes, so you only need boil water in camp. Food comprises a significant proportion of pack weight once you hike more than four or five days, so choosing lightweight yet nutritious options makes a huge difference.
Home dehydrated Moroccan Lamb and Couscous - yum!
Having said all that, don’t be afraid to carry a heavier item if it contributes significantly to your comfort and health. A pillow can prevent neck pain, and many backpackers swear by their ultralight chair. The extra weight of a thicker mat is worth it if it prevents hip, shoulder and spine soreness, especially for side sleepers. Look for inflatable ones at least 6 cm thick, and an R-value above 4 because cold ground exacerbates aches.
7. Choose Appropriate Footwear
This is more important as we age because we older folk lose fat padding from the bottoms of our feet, and we often have chronic issues such as bunions, flatter arches, and toenail, ligament or nerve problems. We may need shoes with more cushioning or arch support, or even orthotics. If you experience consistent foot pain during or after hiking or walking, consider seeing a good physio, podiatrist and/or orthotist to diagnose the exact problem: it may be eminently treatable. Don’t assume it’s an inevitable consequence of ageing.
Hiking boots have become lighter than the old full grain leather bricks; you may prefer trail runners or hiking shoes, which are like sneakers but with better grip and more support in the sole. Rocker soles can reduce strain on foot, ankle and knee joints. Whatever you choose, ensure it’s familiar by the time you go on your hike: unfamiliar footwear contributes to falls.
8. Use Trekking Poles, and Use them Correctly.
Using trekking poles on a steep, slippery downhill with hands out of loops and over the top of poles.
After reducing your pack weight, trekking poles have the next biggest impact on reducing wear and tear on the body, particularly the knees and on steep descents and ascents. Although you use more energy walking with trekking poles, the load is spread more evenly through the body because a proportion of the weight is offloaded from the lower back, hips and knees into the upper back and arms. I find ascents significantly easier with them; after two knee operations, Geoff finds descents easier.
Trekking poles improve circulation and lymphatic movement in the arms, and can help certain hikers with circulatory problems in their hands and fingers, and women who are prone to lymphoedema after a mastectomy. As always, check with your health professional if you have any chronic conditions.
Older folk commonly have a poorer sense of balance than younger ones, and trekking poles are fantastic on tricky terrain such as rocks, loose gravel and especially on river crossings. They have saved me from numerous faceplants.
Even straightforward stream crossings are made easier with trekking poles.
It’s essential to use trekking poles correctly. They should be the right length, and wrist straps should be deployed with your hand inserted from below so you need only a loose grip, eliminating strain on fingers and hands. The wrists rest in the straps and bear only a passive load – most is in the upper arms and back, while the shoulders are relaxed. Using trekking poles without straps requires a permanently tight grip that causes problems in the fingers, hands and wrist. The only time I don’t use straps is on very steep, rough ground where the chance of a slip is high, and when being tethered as you fall can exacerbate injury.
9. Embrace New Technologies.
The Hiking Rev suggests that we embrace the wonderful new gps, communication, PLBs and phone mapping app tools. They are fantastic for staying in touch with family and friends, particularly if you prefer to hike solo (hiking with a buddy is always a safer option, and you may want to consider doing so if you have a chronic serious condition that can flare unexpectedly and render you unconscious).
10. Manage Heat and Cold
Just as aircon in old cars gets dodgy, the heat regulation system in older folk tends not to work as well as when we were new. Due to changes in skin and sweat glands, weight, circulation and the higher prevalence of chronic medical conditions and drugs used to treat them, many hikers over fifty overheat more easily and are more prone to heatstroke. I sweat less than I used to but, annoyingly, somehow manage to get almost as stinky! In chilly weather, our peripherals – toes, fingers, noses – often feel colder. All of these things can be managed.
A mixture of sweat and a splash of water in very hot weather in Cinque Terre, Italy
Here are some ways to manage heat:
Hike in cooler seasons – midsummer in Australia is out for Geoff and me, except in alpine areas
Avoid hikes in the tropics, or plan them carefully with much shorter daily distances (see our Thornsborne hike for some ideas)
Wear appropriate clothing: hats and light-coloured, loose, lightweight merino or long-sleeved shirts
Consider lightweight hiking umbrellas that attach to pack straps. Hiking umbrellas provide shade as well as rain protection, are cooler than hats, but don’t suit overgrown tracks or windy conditions
Start early and finish late, with a long siesta during the middle of the day
Choose hikes with tree cover
In hot, dry environments wet your hat, shirt or try a neck cooler
If you encounter unexpected heat, consider changing your schedule by reducing daily distances, including more rest stops, or adding a siesta
Stay well hydrated (see Part 2)
Know the symptoms of heat stroke and heat exhaustion and First Aid treatment for them.
A little siesta and a drink of water in the Dolomites, Italy.
Cold is easier to manage.
Dress appropriately (understand and use the layering system)
Wear gloves and warm socks, combine a beanie with a thin wool balaclava. Utilise warm clothing materials such fleece, lightweight merino, down or synthetic insulation like Climashield and Primaloft
Choose a sleeping mat with a high R-value, and a warm bag
Choose your campsite carefully
Hike in the appropriate season
Synthetic pants, merino base layers, fleece jackets, plus rainshells, beanies and sun hat in our packs: layering for every temperature on the track.
11. Protect Skin and Eyes
Our skin becomes thinner and heals more slowly as we age. Wear long sleeves, hats and use moisturiser on dry skin; apply sunscreen to exposed skin. Wear sunglasses (consider prescription sunnies rather than overglasses if you wear prescription lenses) and insect repellent where appropriate. Treat minor scratches, bites and wounds promptly.
Still not sure? Meet Oliver and Virginia, who had slept in a tent only four times before, who had only day hiked, who had never hiked more than 10 km… and who nevertheless completed a 1,000km thru-hike when Oliver was in his seventh decade:
Oly and Virg at Yourdamung Hut
We met Oliver Sta Maria and his partner Virginia on the first day of the 1,000km Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia. They had previously travelled around Australia for nineteen months in their 4WD and camper, and were familiar with survival in the outback. They loved day hiking from their 4WD, and slept in a tent beside their car only about four times on Cape York and Fraser Island: this was their entire camping experience. They had never hiked more than ten kilometres before and decided to do the Bibbulmun track after talking to a friend who had walked it in sections over five years.
Oly says,
“When we walked the Bibbulmun, I was 72 years old. I researched a lot on the internet about the track, and our training comprised walking with our packs five kilometres every day for six weeks in the local park. Apart from our 4WD experience, the internet research and six weeks of training, we had no idea what we were in for.
“When I started in Kalamunda my pack weighed 22 kg (48.5 lb) so we were on a very steep and fast learning curve from our fellow hikers! They taught us about tenting, dehydrated food, bounce boxes (posting stuff ahead), and we had lighter and warmer sleeping bags sent to one of the early track towns. I reduced my pack by 8kg (17.6lb) to 14kg (30.7 lb).
“My age has never hindered me in my life. I was the lead walker on the track and was able to set the pace. We took many rest stops and arrived later than others, but always in daylight.
“Virginia and I are both determined people and want to complete whatever we set out to do. The Bibbulmun is hard, and your mind and emotions are all over the place, but every day we conquered something new, like 20 km distances, hail, rain, freezing cold, aches and pains, hills and mountains. Our limiting beliefs were repeatedly shattered.
“The only thing we could have done differently was to have one extra recovery day in the towns and to have eaten a lot more: I lost a lot of muscle tone.
“I believe anyone of any age can complete a long-distance hike at your own pace. It will be a life changing experience.”
Necessity is the mother of invention: Oly and Virg wearing DIY rain gear!
Multiday hiking is enormously satisfying and empowering. Age in and of itself is no barrier. Hike on!
Many thanks to Community Health Nurse/avid hiker Teresa, Dr B, Paramedic N, and Sports Dietician Erin for checking multiple drafts.
Inspiring and Useful Links by older hikers:
One of the most experienced, long-established providers of hiking information in Australia, Australian Hiker
Caro Ryan aka lotsafreshair
Dan Cousin’s website contains a wealth of information
Todd Dietz’s excellent video for thoughts on hiking from all age groups
