As a female, what do you wish you'd been told?

[ShoelessWanderer]

This weekend I'm teaching a backpacking 101 class with two other (male) instructors. Over half the students are going to be female, so I'm having a special "Girls Only" session...so, I wanted to know....

As a female, what are things you'd wished you'd known when you were first getting into backpacking?

[Blissful]

Love to teach it with you! haha I'm sure they will want to know about hygiene, personal safety, animals and bugs

[sbhikes]

I wish all instructors would tell women to stop leaving dainty little piles of TP everywhere. Either learn ways to not have to use TP or else pack it out or bury it.

[GracefulRoll]

Talk to the doc about going on BC nonstop without the week break, eliminating periods while on the trail. No one wants to pack out tampons or pads.

[ShoelessWanderer]

I wish all instructors would tell women to stop leaving dainty little piles of TP everywhere. Either learn ways to not have to use TP or else pack it out or bury it.

One of my pet peeves as well and will definatly cover that as part of the personal hygiene section.

You are Piper? The writer Piper??

[ShoelessWanderer]

Talk to the doc about going on BC nonstop without the week break, eliminating periods while on the trail. No one wants to pack out tampons or pads.

Will definatly cover that, along with correct LNT for pads & tampons for those of us who sadly can't use BC.

[Creek Dancer]

Not just for women, but here are a few things I learned on my own:

A small pack of baby wipes are a girl's best friend. Unscented works fine.

Leave the deodorant at home. Doesn't work well enough to cover the funk in your clothing after you have been out a few days.

If you have trouble falling asleep, follow the same routine you would at home and do things in the same order. Ear plugs are helpful.

Always keep a pair of clean and dry socks just for sleeping. Store them in your sleeping bag.

This a little graphic...butt...if you are having trouble going #2 in the woods, sit on a log to give yourself balance and go on the other side of the log. Oh, and bury the stuff please.

Absolutely do not leave any TP in the woods. Carry it out or burn it later in the campfire. Some people rationalize leaving TP in the woods because it's biodegradable. Doesn't matter. Nobody wants to see that in the meantime.

Take the opportunity to allow others in your group to hike ahead, or you hike ahead of them. Experiencing the trail alone feels great and you get a completely different perspective than you would with a group. There will be no chatter from others and you will be able to see the trial in all of her glory - not just the back of the person in front of you.

And lastly, relax. Just relax.

[lori]

That the things you need to really worry about are not bugs, animals or people - you need to learn to navigate for yourself and not get hurt or dehydrated. Top priority.

Bug bites are a nuisance - true, ticks are dangerous, so are skeeters in some places - but a head net and bug repellent (permethrin on pant legs helps a ton!) and nightly tick checks will take care of the problem. Animals, look and stay far clear, keep your hands/feet out of holes in the ground, they'll not bother you (usual caveats for not going alone and/or without bear spray in grizzly territory). People - hike right on by, be friendly, and if someone sets off your internal alarms don't be afraid to yell at them, blow whistles, wave a trekking pole... Don't be out there by yourself either. Statistically you're safer on trail than down the block from the grocery store.

Wet wipes are a good remedy for the sticky icky feeling at the end of the day. Change into warm dry stuff when stopping for the night, use a wet wipe - if you are careful about the order you wash parts you can get away with using a single wipe per day - and get comfortable before the sun sets and temps drop. Don't get chilled, mind your layers and prevent being cold to avoid the problem of getting warmed up again...

[sbhikes]

One of my pet peeves as well and will definatly cover that as part of the personal hygiene section.

You are Piper? The writer Piper??

Ha ha. Never thought of myself as a writer, but yeah, I made my trail journal into a self-published book. My mom's idea.

[ShoelessWanderer]

Ha ha. Never thought of myself as a writer, but yeah, I made my trail journal into a self-published book. My mom's idea.

I have one of your quotes on my facebook page that a fellow whiteblazer posted. So glad to finally find the author!

"It's an evil trail. I'm sure of it. It is not a benevolent entity. It calls people then it treats us like jealous lovers. It breaks up with you, wants you back, spits you out, pines for you and basically does absolutely nothing for the you that lives in normal society. And even with all that, here I go again."

[Creek Dancer]

Great quote! That just about sums it up!

[Blissful]

That the things you need to really worry about are not bugs, animals or people - you need to learn to navigate for yourself and not get hurt or dehydrated. Top priority.

While that is true, the above mentioned are also what women new to backpacking are concerned about. (are there bears, snakes, spiders) You need to look at it from their viewpoint and address other likely concerns also. Which is good.

Unfortunately in many cases, you cannot prevent getting hurt trailwise. You can stumble and fall. You can get blisters. You can twist an ankle or develop a knee issue downhill. They could probably use a first aid course on top of basic backpacking tips.

[Ladytrekker]

I am the organizer for a hiking/backpacking meetup group in Florida and I have alot of women that are new to backpacking. The things that I have really had to hammer home on is hydration for some reason water is not thought of as a necessity. I have had women bring diet cokes instead of water on an overnight hike insisting that they cannot live without their diet cokes. So, I make sure if they are hiking with me they have water and a way to get water.

Women who watch calories need to realize how many they are burning and that they need to give back to their bodies while doing so much exercising especially when adding a pack and carrying the extra weight.

Bathroom issues comes up alot for women. I carry biodegradeable wipes that I use each and everytime to keep clean only a woman will understand this.

Also women are less likely wanting to drink or cook with filtered water have had to work with them on that and once they see you don't roll over and die they will try it but I have had a few that carry excessive water to avoid filtration.

[kestral]

Please tell your newbee lady hikers that you can get a huge change in menstration with the increase in excercise and diet change. Even post menapausal ladies can get hit with a nasty, unexpected period that can ruin your plans if you're not prepared. Happened to me

[ShelterLeopard]

This weekend I'm teaching a backpacking 101 class with two other (male) instructors. Over half the students are going to be female, so I'm having a special "Girls Only" session...so, I wanted to know....

As a female, what are things you'd wished you'd known when you were first getting into backpacking?

That my period might stop for several months because of the sudden amount of physical activity.

[Mammoth]

Will definatly cover that, along with correct LNT for pads & tampons for those of us who sadly can't use BC.

If it's appropriate for your group, mention the Keeper/Diva Cup. I wish I'd known about that so many years ago, and being comfortable with it enables me to plan trips whenever the heck I want.

Maybe you could mention something about women trying to pack their packs in different ways.
I was packing my backpack with all the heavy stuff near my shoulders, because that's what men told me to do. Then a fellow female hiker told me to put the heavy stuff at the bottom of the pack because our center of gravity is lower. She said, "It's like how we hold babies: men hold babies on near their shoulders, women hold babies on their hips."

I'm sure this doesn't apply to everyone, but it saved me a lot of aches once I started putting weight at the bottom, and the advice always stuck with me. So it might be an idea to suggest that they experiment with the weight arrangement.

[lori]

While that is true, the above mentioned are also what women new to backpacking are concerned about. (are there bears, snakes, spiders) You need to look at it from their viewpoint and address other likely concerns also. Which is good.

Unfortunately in many cases, you cannot prevent getting hurt trailwise. You can stumble and fall. You can get blisters. You can twist an ankle or develop a knee issue downhill. They could probably use a first aid course on top of basic backpacking tips.

I've had wilderness first aid courses. Generally, don't hike alone is at the top of the list of priorities. There's just not a lot you can do out there beyond getting help. The ideal group size is four - one to stay with the injured, two to go for help....

Oh, I know the viewpoint - women ask me all the time, they join my hiking group just to learn how to backpack. They want to know what I worry about and that's pretty much what I tell them. And then the conversation turns to the bears and snakes and so forth, and I am letting them know exactly how many times in last year's 600 miles of hiking I encountered those things. It's not that anyone should dismiss the concerns, it's that we need to let people know there are more pressing ones that have a higher risk factor. Like bee stings, if you're allergic, or turning hypothermic.

[stonedflea]

my first backpacking trip was back in decemeber. a friend of mine and i did the foothills trail in south carolina to get my feet wet.

i wasn't concerned about bugs or snakes or anything. i don't really recall being concerned about anything except being cold. i'm a very cold sleeper and in past camping situations, my experience has been ruined or very bad because i would always wake up shivering in the middle of the night. i knew if i couldn't sleep or get warm, it wouldn't matter how great the trip was otherwise. maybe talk to them about how women are generally colder sleepers than men, and what different sleeping pad options there are out there.

maybe discuss temp ratings, compression size, etc. before i started researching things for my thru-hike, i thought my coleman sleeping bag was amazing. when i got on REI and other websites, i had no idea what the +20 meant beside the bag's product name. i think i actually had to google it. then i found out that my coleman was a 5 lb. hunk of +40 synthetic goodness that would never be good for a backpacking trip because i'd never be able to get it in a stuff sack that would fit in my pack.

when one of my non-hiking friends learned that i sleep w/a sleep pad, she jokingly said that it wasn't real camping then. perhaps people new to backpacking have the idea that you're just roughin' it, and while we are, there are still a few luxuries that we allow ourselves.

the friend i hiked with was an experienced hiker, but he was well aware that, that was my first time backpacking. tell them not to expect to keep pace with someone who's used to carrying 30# packs up and down a lot of mountains. if it's your first time out, there's no shame in being the slowest one.

also, i'm not sure who mentioned it, but +1 on how to pack a pack. i just crammed everything into mine when we went, and each day i would spend at least an extra ten minutes in the morning figuring out where to put everything when we were ready to head out.

oh! and i think it might have actually been here that i saw it, but on the baby wipes... if they're going out on a multiple-day hike and are concerned about weight, they can always dehydrate the wipes prior to leaving and then just use a tiny bit of water to rehydrate them as needed.

[ShelterLeopard]

Leave the deodorant at home. Doesn't work well enough to cover the funk in your clothing after you have been out a few days.

Ear plugs are helpful.

Always keep a pair of clean and dry socks just for sleeping. Store them in your sleeping bag.

Take the opportunity to allow others in your group to hike ahead, or you hike ahead of them. Experiencing the trail alone feels great and you get a completely different perspective than you would with a group. There will be no chatter from others and you will be able to see the trial in all of her glory - not just the back of the person in front of you.

And lastly, relax. Just relax.

I agree with all of your comments, but especially the things above. Deodorant often makes you smell much worse in combination with days of trail grime. And after a while, you're so used to natural smells that "rain forest fresh" makes you want to gag.

And definitely let people hike alone. It is a completely different experience from hiking with other people.

[Creek Dancer]

That's true about how deodorant and soap smell REALLY strong after we have been on the trail a few days. There have been many times that I could smell the perfumed soap of day hikers coming up from a road crossing before I could actually see them!