Top Hiking Gear for Beginners

Hiking can be intimidating for some as it throws you into an environment that you don’t know much about. It is especially stressful trying to find out what the best gear to use is. It doesn’t have to be this way though. I have a multitude of hiking guides on my website with various degrees of difficulty such as Blackrock Summit or Grayson Highlands. Once you find a hike to go on, it is best to make sure you have some baseline gear that will make the hike easier and more enjoyable. At the end of the day, hiking is supposed to be fun, right? Here are some of the top hiking gear for beginners that I suggest you have before going on your first hike.

Hiking Boots

No matter the length of the hike or difficulty, it’s always nice to have some hiking boots. These either come in hot top ones where they go up past your ankle or ones that stay right around ankle height. The purpose of hiking boots is to have more stability when hiking on different terrains, protecting from your feet getting wet and ankle stability. The pair I have are called Merrell‘s and I love them. This is by far on top of the list of top hiking gear for beginners and it’s easy to see why.

Filtered Water bottle

When going hiking, ideally you want to be as light as possible in gear. Bringing 5 water bottles isn’t an ideal situation, especially when going on multiple day hikes. Having a way to filter a water source so the water will then be drinkable is key. I recently bought a new water bottle that filters it and you drink from it as well. My old source was using a sawyer filter. I had to attach it to a water bottle and then filter it into something else. This was very time-consuming. For the one I use now, all you do is scoop up the water, press down and drink. It’s called the Grayl Geopress and it’s great.

Portable Hammock

Hiking is about being one with nature, getting away from all the noise, and truly appreciating the little things in life. So if you’re like me, I love to hang out at the peak of the hike for hours. Some hikes make this a little bit more difficult as there are no real comfortable spots to sit down for this length of time. Having an eno handy is a great way to put to use those trees that are the perfect length apart. An eno is a portable hammock that you hang between two trees. Bring a book and you can lay in the eno for multiple hours without wanting to move.