With the daytime highs hovering around 60 degrees for the past several weeks, it’s hard to believe that we’re still in winter. However, fear not, spring will soon be here and so will the Tiburon’s Flat 14er Challenge. Keep an eye out for a formal announcement to be coming from the Skipper in the not too distant future.
However, before we get into the fun of nature walks and hikes, let’s take a brief moment to talk about some basic equipment that you may or may not want to have ready to go. I’ve found most of my gear at REI, but you can often find something that will work for you at other fine retailers such as Dick’s, Target, etc. This will be the first of at least two posts that I will be making on this subject so keep your eyes open for another article in the future.
First, you always want to start with a good base. For walks on flat ground a good pair of tennis shoes or walking shoes is usually a safe choice. However, when the ground is uneven a good pair of hiking boots is a must. The tread on boots tends to be better and will keep you from slipping as much on loose gravel or dirt and the added thickness in the toes will help lessen the impact of stray tree roots that seemingly pop up at just the wrong moment. Believe me, you may think that you’ll see and step on or over all the tree roots and rocks in the trail but there’re always a few that will catch you when you least expect them. And when you catch them they’ll hurt like blazes, but with a good pair of boots they won’t hurt quite as much.
The next item is a necessity for those of us with bad joints. A good set of knee and ankle braces always come in handy for me. Others may find wrist or elbow braces as good assets to have with them. In my case the braces help stabilize my knees and help to keep me from twisting or turning them in the wrong position. This in turn helps to keep me on the trail and out of sickbay (i.e. the doctor’s office).
And finally, an absolute necessity here in Colorado is sunscreen. Hugh Jackman (aka Wolverine) is a huge endorser of this product having had to deal with several bouts of skin cancer over the past several years. A good thing to remember when buying sunscreen is that the fairer your skin the higher the protection level you are going to want to put on. You will also want to get one that protects against both UVA and UVB rays. With my skin I’m usually putting on SPF 100+ while others in the group can safely get away with SPF 30 – 50. While it may not completely prevent you from getting skin cancer it is certainly a good defense.
So I’ve given you something to get started. Next time we’ll chat about some of things that are optional that you might want to add to your gear that I’ve found to be quite helpful.
Be safe out there.
Doug