There are two ways to learn about hiking. You can forge head-first onto the trails, make mistakes, and hopefully learn from them. Or you can take the shortcut trail to the summit of efficient hiking by learning from someone else’s missteps. While there’s nothing wrong with the first approach, it will likely lead you to acquiring some unnecessary gear, not to mention blisters. Trust us, we’ve been there and done that. Hopefully the posts here, a collection formed from lessons learned the hard way, will help set you on the right path.