Hi Im Ron Beacom, host of Second Act Life at 50 plus.

I'm here today with Dennis Pulaski, executive director of the Chippewa Nature Center, outside of Midland.

And Tony Lewis retired from his job, and it.

But I consider him a professional, a lifelong backpacker and hiker.

I've invited them here today to talk about hiking and backpacking.

I don't present myself as a great outdoorsman, but in 2022, I spent four nights and days with a buddy of mine from college hiking on Isle Royale, sleeping on the ground.

Great experience.

And then in the fall of 24, I did day hikes with the same friend on the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah National Park.

Both great experiences, and Tony was a mentor for me, preparing especially for the first trip because I wanted to do it right and I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting into.

So I've asked both of them today, first Dennis and then Tony to give us a little background and some information.

If you want to consider hiking and backpacking as you go forward.

If you're looking for a new passion or hobby.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Dennis Pulaski.

I'm executive director here at Chippewa Nature Center.

And throughout my whole life, I've been an avid outdoorsman, particularly hiking and backpacking, really focused on day hiking and day packing here and in recent years, I've done day hikes all over Michigan and the Great Lakes Bay region, and then beyond to the eastern side of the country and even out west of it.

And it's a great way to see if, doing something more extensive is something you'd like to do down the road.

But just testing some trails and going out for a few hours at a time to understand your fitness level and what gear that you might need.

So for me, day hiking is a great way just to get out and understand the seasonal changes that are happening in the natural world.

And no better way to do that for me than with day hikes.

You can get away from the crowds that are just in a short distance away on the trailhead, and you can get out a ways from them and really have a great, great connection to nature.

there's lots of ways to get out and enjoy the natural world.

we'll talk a little bit more detail about backpacking down the road with Tony, but if you're just trying to get your feet wet a bit with this, day hikes and day hiking is a really great way to get started with that.

So one of the first steps to do before you do any outdoor adventure is really to check the weather and understand what you might be getting into.

Michigan's weather can be really unpredictable and you can go from snow, to sunny temperatures in the summertime.

You have extreme heat, and so understanding what kind of weather you might be facing is really a great step, because that helps you understand what kind of clothing you might need to wear.

When you think about clothing, particularly in some of the warmer temperatures, if you're going out there, make sure you're planning for rain.

And that can be something just as simple as a rain jacket can go over top of your gear to keep your dry.

Rain pants, of course, are also another great addition, just to kind of keep your whole body dry.

When you think about dressing starting from the base layers to try and ensure that you have a base layer that can move moisture away from your body and wick that away and into the next layer so that you're not soaking and sweaty.

Clothing.

Throughout the day, we also have a lot of insects, mosquitoes, ticks, and those kinds of things.

And so long pants, are really a beneficial thing to have if you're going through brush.

A long sleeve shirt is also helpful for that.

And then also sun protection.

I tend to to rather than using sunscreen, I tend to use long pants or a long lightweight shirt in the summertime.

Just to keep the sun off me.

If you're going to be out there for a long period of time, to have some kind of sun protection is really important.

And then also, just having some kind of protection for your hat head as well.

So in the summertime, a brimmed hat is really helpful.

And this is one that I've used for all kinds of hikes and paddling trips through the years.

Some people like a full brimmed hat to protect the tips of their ears in the back of their neck.

Whatever your personal choices that you might use, gardening or just out on, small hikes in town, you probably already own gear like that.

Another element that I think is really important in Michigan.

For me, any condition is to always have a stocking cap, some kind of warm hat and warm gloves with you, because sometimes, there's a little bit of chill that you're going to get if you stop after a hike and you could cool off a little bit just to warm up a little bit.

So the key is to dress for the conditions and really understand your body.

You know what?

When you are cold or when you're not cold.

And so what may be too warm for me might not be quite enough for you.

So just plan to understand your body and what the weather is that you're going to face.

So if you're hiking the part of your body that's really going to take probably the most abuse, it's your feet.

And so, good sturdy footwear is really necessary.

As you go out and start hiking, before you put the shoe on, though, I think, having a good synthetic or a good wool sock is important to draw that moisture away from your feet, to keep your feet dry.

And in most cases, particularly in lower Michigan, a sturdy tennis shoe, really will do the trick for you.

Has good grip on the bottom.

And it also, you know, does a lot of good a good job of protecting your toes as you're hiking along the trails.

When you're in some of those, other conditions on the trails that are maybe muddy or damp, a little bit more rust, robust boot can be important.

This provides a little bit more ankle protection.

It's also this one is waterproof.

And so if you are out on muddy trails or wet trails, a boot like this that's a little more robust is something for you to also consider.

A little additional support as you are doing day hiking, particularly if you have sore ankles or bad knees are the addition of some trekking poles.

These have really helped me in recent years.

So these extend out.

You want to have the poles be so that your elbows are about at 90 degrees, and they just help give you a little bit more stability on the trail.

And over the long haul, even with a light pack or even with no pack, they really do relieve a lot of stress on your knees.

So if it's something that you're new to, you don't have to go out and buy collapsible poles like these.

You can use, second hand cross-country ski poles, just making sure that the length of them are about, height, so that your elbows are about 90 degrees.

Really, really important.

When any kind of hiking is making sure you're staying hydrated, 1 to 2l of quarts of water per day per person is is really a good standard to go by.

Make sure that you bring water with you really in any conditions.

Even in the cold temperatures, you may think you're not thirsty, but you're really losing a lot of, moisture by breathing out.

And so making sure you have some water, some other essential items to bring along.

For me, anyway, are some snacks, whether it's jerky or a, protein bar or an energy bar, just to give you a little bit of extra fuel as you're hiking and burning off a lot of extra calories, this can really help, keep you out on the trail just a little bit longer.

While if you're just out for a day or even part of a day, the chances of having some kind of first aid issue come up is probably pretty limited, but it's also really still a good idea to bring a, some basic first aid kit with you.

Band aid, something to handle blisters, something to handle, some basic wound management.

I would also put into that sunscreen and, mosquito repellent, kind of all ties into helping make you comfortable while you're in the outdoors so that you can enjoy your time out there better.

And so that you're not going down the trail carrying all this stuff in your arms, just a small daypack, can really go a long way toward carrying your water bottle and your snacks and your first aid kit.

And if it's not raining at the time when you get on the trail, you can put your rain gear into here.

Keep everything tucked together.

It's a great way to hold all your stuff together as you go up for your day.

Hike.

so while day hiking doesn't seem like it has a lot of, risk involved with it, it's still really important to make sure you're practicing safety.

And so one of the first things that I always encourage people to do is to make sure you plan ahead and let someone who you trust know what your plans are when you're expected to be back, someone that will miss you if you're if you don't come back.

And so, kind of planning ahead, preparing so that there's word that that folks know that you should be back in a certain time.

Again, going back to the water, so that you can continue to make good decisions while you're out there in the field, making sure you're staying hydrated, that you have a snack, go on.

So that so that, you're able to function at your best.

And just taking some time to drink your water is a great way to encourage you to take a break.

You're not in a race while you're out there.

Take a break.

Relax a little bit.

Stay on Mark trails as a way to to understand where you're going to make sure you can get back safely and then always keeping an eye to the weather, before you go out, understand what's supposed to happen throughout the day.

But then avoid hiking in extreme conditions thunderstorms, blizzards, high wind situations, so that you can maintain your safety while you go.

So one of the responsibilities that we think about when we're out in the outdoors is making sure that it's still an exciting and a place for other people to go to.

And so trying to minimize the impact that we have out there on our, on our trips is really important.

So, there are a number of leave No trace principle principles that people consider, but thinking about staying on trail again is an important one so that we're not.

So we're minimizing the impact on the environment.

Picking up trash that you might see along the way, is an extra, extra step, but at a minimum, making sure the trash that you're producing is coming back out with you in your pack.

So you've assembled your gear.

You've got a real interest in getting out and doing some day hiking.

Where do you go?

So we're really fortunate in the Great Lakes Bay region to have a number of areas close by for you to test the waters a bit and on some trails.

And again, I would recommend going out and some places that are well marked to understand if this is something that you'd like to do more of.

Right here at Chippewa Nature Center just west of Midland, there's a 18 or 19 miles of trails that you're able to use.

Little Forks Conservancy has preserves all throughout, Midland County that you can go and hike on.

Bay City State Park has a number of trails that are available.

All of those are excellent opportunities to get out and try your hand or try your feet at day hiking.

If you want to extend a little bit beyond that into the bigger parts of Michigan, the pigeon River area, which is in northern Michigan as well as Lumberman Monument area sort of by Hale and Glennie area up into the Upper Peninsula.

Some of my favorite areas are Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, a number of nice day hikes through there, as well as to come in in Falls State Park.

So we're really fortunate in Michigan to have so many opportunities to do day hikes.

So what I do would encourage you to, to assemble your gear, start getting, stuff ready for spring and get outside and enjoy it.

My name is Tony Lewis.

I'm recently retired from a career at my Michigan Health, and, I've been involved in, outdoors, adventuring stuff for most of my life.

Starting when I was young, with hiking and then developing into rock climbing.

I grew up in the UK, so, I'm very familiar with the mountains and, climbing there and then, cycling, mountain biking, kayaking.

In the last 20 years or so, I've done a number of, backpacking trips, in the mountains at western United States and some trips in Europe, thinking of some of the great national parks out west, like Yosemite Glacier National Park, visited the Sawtooth Mountains, did a very long hike through the Sierra Nevada during California called the John Muir Trail.

And then in Europe, Altavia #1 The number one is a long hike through the Dolomite Mountains in Italy.

And, One reason I like to go backpacking is, just to be able to get further out into the wilderness and nature and really enjoy some scenery.

I always find that, you can see some wonderful places, state parks, national parks on day hikes.

But, some times to truly appreciate, I feel like you can just get further and further away on the backpacking trip and get to some of the more remote locations that that a lot of people are just going to be able to get to.

So I think that's one of my favorite parts about the whole experience.

So how to get started in backpacking?

Assuming that you're already probably a day hiker and you're looking for that progression from day hiking and seeing some of the great outdoors and spending a bit more time on a longer trip from backpacking.

As we learned from Dennis earlier, all those things apply to backpacking, from the basic gear that you need for day hiking, the weather protection, and the safety gear, you you're going to utilize all of that again for, for backpacking.

The difference being, of course, now you need some extra gear for being able to spend the night out and, having food to feed yourself and give yourself energy on your trips.

so the first thing is learning your limits.

How much hiking you can manage?

An on day trip and extending that into into a further trip.

You're not going to be able to do a lot of miles as you would on a day trip and extend that out, you know, multiple days, unless you know what you're capable of.

You're going to have to learn something about your gear.

Be prepared for that.

Of course, pitching a tent, in a rainstorm is a lot more difficult than pitching a tent and and beautiful weather.

So always a good idea to practice that kind of thing at home.

Before.

Before you start out.

start small to begin with.

Look at, small trips that, just one overnight, but is the ideal.

So you can get used to your gear and, and, and not be stuck somewhere far from home if the gear isn't working out for you, do something low mileage.

Is it, easy to get back to the car just in case things don't turn out the way you think they would?

There's plenty of small trips around Michigan that are easy to accomplish on a weekend trip.

So you have all the day hiking gear, but what what additional gear do you really need to get going with backpacking?

First of all, obviously, I think the main consideration is, is shelter.

I have a small backpacking tent here that only weighs a couple pounds, that, it's pretty typical of today's, backpacking tents.

You're going to need a sleeping bag.

It's got to be warm enough, for the conditions that you anticipate.

It can often be colder than you really think it's going to be.

So, this is a typical down sleeping bag that, most backpackers will carry these days.

Weighs between 2 and 2 and a half pounds.

With that sleeping bag, you're going to need a mat of some kind.

This adds to your comfort to a great deal.

This is an inflatable mat, and as you can see, it compresses down to quite a small size.

You can inflate it yourself with a few breaths of air.

And the advantage of that also is it's keeping you insulated from the ground, as the ground can get pretty cold underneath you.

And, sort of negates the, the value of your sleeping bag at that point.

You're going to need something to put it on.

And of course, this is, I think it was a 60 lead.

A backpack is sort of typical.

Modern backpack is quite light, So it's got a nice air flow panel on the back that aids in sort of keeping your cool as you're going along.

I put it on.

And the important thing about these sort of backpacks is it's got a good hip belt, which transfers a lot of the weight from your shoulders onto your hips, which makes it a lot easier to carry.

That's what that looks like.

Dennis mentioned earlier about using trekking poles very useful for a day hike.

And I consider them even more essential for backpacking.

You know, typical pair of, trekking poles here that are collapsed down to portable for portability here.

But, especially when you've got a big pack on your back that seems to be an extra strain on your knees.

You need that extra leverage going uphill sometimes.

And in particular, some of the, situations we found is some of the bigger mountain ranges out west.

You might be end up fording some streams, depending on the amount of water coming down those streams.

Having a pair of trekking poles.

So you've got the stability so you can get across that stream.

You might be waiting up to shin deep or knee deep.

That really adds to the safety aspect.

so one thing you're going to need on the trail is a means to purify water.

You're going to be getting water from the streams and small lakes along the way.

But, I'll save to drink water directly from those sources.

So, the modern way, really to, to ensure that the water is safe is to use one of these, small water filters, the light.

And they're fairly easy to use.

These are two examples from a company called soya that, make it very, very popular.

Water filters.

You collect the water in a bag like this and squeeze it through the filter.

Takes a little time to do it, but it's it's not too inconvenient.

Then another thing.

Of course, you're going to want to eat on the trail, and you're going to eat dinner or something when you arrive at your campsite.

Means to cook that food.

Most backpackers these days are most.

I'd say people are using these small, very lightweight stoves.

This just screws onto a small iso butane, canister.

I think this weighs about three ounces, so it's very light.

This type of fuel is readily available, most places, outdoor stores and so on, and especially around national parks where you're likely to go backpacking.

Small pot here.

The heat, the water up for the food.

I I'll be, eating on the on the trail.

Probably lightweight.

And then typically most backpackers are eating some kind of one of these, freeze dried meals, lightweight, nutritious, quite a lot of calories.

These meals are very easy to prepare because, all they take is hot water to reconstitute their, it's just a matter of, putting the stove together.

These work pretty fast.

Boil some water in this small pot, pour the required amount of water into into the bag.

Takes about five minutes to, to leave it there and reconstitute.

And, you're good to go.

You're eating food in about 5 or 10 minutes.

So, they're not exactly like a home cooked meal, but they're pretty good.

Really.

Another thing about food is that, most national parks, state parks.

There's always a risk that, you're going to be in a habit habitat where bears exist.

So protecting your food from bears or protecting bears from your food is, is very important.

So you're going to have to have a means of doing that.

Typically, most people are putting all their food together at night in a stuffed sack and, throwing a lion over a tree branch and hauling it up into a tree, hopefully a long distance away from the trunk of the tree where bear can't climb up to get it.

are other, means of protecting your food, and one of them is a bear canister, and, it's a hard sided plastic container that, adds a bit of weight to your pack, but, that the definitely the best way to stop bears getting your food.

And some of the national park jurisdictions, like Yosemite, actually require those.

So if you're hiking in certain areas of the country, then you're absolutely going to need one of those anyway.

So we've seen all this gear, and I've got to admit, it does cost a bit of money to get started with all this.

And, not many people are going to really want to invest in all of this just to try out backpacking.

So good piece of advice is if you've got friends who are already backpacking, maybe you can borrow some gear just to get started.

There are some outfitters that rent gear as well, so maybe for your first trip, run some equipment, see how it works for you, and then you get a better idea of what kind of thing you might want to buy.

If you really want to commit yourself to to enjoying this great pursuit.

So what are some of the mistakes that you could make, as you start this adventure?

I think one of the first ones is probably carrying too much, equipment with you.

I mean, most people seem to overpack.

And, you don't really need all those extra changes of clothes.

You just need.

The clothes are going to protect you from the elements and, ensure you have the right ones for safety.

Just as Dennis mentioned about rain gear and worn gear and so on.

It all adds up.

So, I when I go on a trip, even 4 or 5 days, I mean, it seems the longer the trip, the more weight you're adding just because you got to carry more food.

I tend to want to keep it in the, 28 to 33 pound range, something like that, including everything that's on my back.

When you start going up to towards 40 pounds, it could really, sort of lower the enjoyment of the trip how much you're carrying, how much it weighs you down.

So that's, that's one thing to be prepared, to be aware of another thing, as we mentioned, you just got to have that, protective gear for safety.

You don't want to end up getting suffering from being wet and cold.

So having having that appropriate rain gear and extra warm gear is essential.

Another mistake that's easy to make is not being prepared food wise.

I'm got to ensure that really, you have enough food to to get you through the length of the journey.

You anticipate enough calories to keep yourself going because hiking is a calorie intensive pursuit.

So, you know, along with these meals, plenty of other snacks to eat during the day, high calorie foods like, nuts and trail mix and, some of those energy bars is important to have.

So don't go out there with with too little food.

So another area of, of misstate really is it's not really being prepared for the, physically for, for what you're about to encounter.

It's always best to keep the trips on the low mileage side to start with, just so you can get a feel for it and know that what you're truly capable of, of hiking, especially when you're not used to hiking with that extra weight on your back compared with the day hike.

As Dennis mentioned in the day hiking section, we are really fortunate in Michigan with, all the great places that we can explore and go out hiking, and there are a number of, good areas in Michigan to take a short backpacking trip.

We have the North Country Trail that runs all the way through Michigan.

That's a multi-state, long distance trail.

And, people can get out on sections of that.

You don't have to do it all at once.

Just do parts of it.

For loop hikes, we've got, Manistee River trails.

Very popular trail that makes a nice weekend backpacking trip along with the Jordan Valley pathway.

That's another good one.

Pictured rocks, of course.

Makes a nice hike from end to end of about 4040 miles.

A lot of people do that in 4 or 5 days.

And we have the banner to Ireland say that provides some wonderful scenery for some short backpacking trips as well.

you can see some wonderful places, state parks, national parks on day hikes.

But, some times to truly appreciate, I feel like you can just get further and further away on the backpacking trip and get to some of the more remote locations that that a lot of people are just going to be able to get to.

So I think that's one of my favorite parts about the whole experience.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this segment with Dennis and Tony.

Advice on hiking and backpacking?

For more information, we encourage you to check out the National Park website.

Drill down and look for advice and information.

There are Facebook pages, YouTube videos, a lot of places to look around.

You can also, check out the website for the Chippewa Nature Center and contact them.

We're happy to answer any questions for you and any any advice.

And there are also the Outdoor Outfitters in our region that if you go in and talk to, there's professionals.

I'm sure some of them have experience, can offer your advice and help you decide what type of gear to buy.

So again, thanks for watching.