3 Tasks You Must Complete To Ensure A Smooth and Hassle-Free Trekking Experience
Physical fitness is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to trek preparation.
Introduction
Trekking has gradually been gaining popularity over the years as one of the best ways to unwind, relax, and detoxify oneself from the insanity modern day lifestyles. Many fitness enthusiasts and tourists alike have come to realize the dual benefits one stands to gain from trekking, the mental and the physical, and have started taking full advantage of them.
However, many outdoor enthusiasts who try their hand, or rather, leg at trekking for the first time greatly underestimate the vastness and immensity of the wilderness and the sheer number of safety risks it poses to them. Trekking involves not just physical exertion, but being emotionally stable and mentally prepared for it as well. After all, one cannot peacefully trek in the jungle even in the peak of physical fitness when their mind is a mishmash of worries and crippling anxieties. Possessing navigational skills and knowing the basics of safety & first aid are other crucial skills which more serious and regular trekkers must imbibe in themselves.
To get the most out of a trek, you need to be sufficiently prepared for it. Besides being mentally prepared, emotionally stable, and physically fit, there are a few more things you can do to ensure a relaxed and hassle-free trekking experience.
Here they are:
Get sufficient sleep
You must ensure that you fulfil your daily quota of sleep at least a week prior to the trek if not more. Getting adequate sleep with an established sleep routine, where you sleep and wake up at the same time everyday, keeps your mind sharp, helps you regulate your emotions better, and keeps you calm, cool, and collected during moments of stress and strain. The forest is after all, as much of a mental challenge as it is a physical one.
Having a regular sleep routine also acts as a buffer against any kind of sleep deprivation you might face during the trek itself. Many trekkers do not sleep properly while camping in the jungle for an infinite number of reasons, but mostly because of the weather, anxiety about the forest, or due to the insects. Building a powerful reservoir of sleep before a trek can do wonders in helping you manage sleep deprivation during a trek.
Not having a sleep routine in place and missing sleep for multiple nights on the days or weeks leading to the trek will make you groggy, irritable, and anxious. Sleep deprivation is likely to make you more sensitive to any of the challenges you might face during the trek be they from the forest, while travelling, or during interactions with your fellow trek mates. Even with all the fitness and stamina in the world, the physical manifestations of sleep deprivation will pull you down and make you lag behind the rest of the group, thereby slowing the entire group down.
“Sleep seems important for restoring daily functioning, whereas deprivation of sleep makes us more emotionally aroused and sensitive to stressful stimuli and events. Sleep appears to be essential to our ability to cope with emotional stress in everyday life.”
Having a sleep routine in place will keep you mentally sharp, and will make even the most seemingly difficult tasks doable. On the flip side, not getting sufficient sleep consistently for days or weeks leading up to the trek will increase your desire for high calorie foods, make you crave for more stimulants (if you already take them), and force you to binge on sugary stuff to make up for low energy levels and sluggishness. All these downstream behaviours are likely to throw your metabolism out of whack and you are more likely to be moody, depressed, and sluggish on the trek. Even the most basic challenges will seem daunting and difficult.
Sleep is as essential to your survival in the forest and staying in the present moment as much as being physically fit is.
Pack your bags well in advance
Don’t be scrambling for essential trekking items at the airport or railway station with only minutes left to board your flight/train. Pack all your things well in advance so that your mind can rest easy during the journey allowing you to heartily absorb and take in the present moment. Don’t buy all your things and toss them all over the house only to dump them into your backpack on the day of departure in a hurry.
The biggest advantage of packing your bags well in advance is the breathing room you get to pack in whatever you might have initially forgotten in the days leading to the trek. Packing your bags in a frenzy on the day of departure leaves you with absolutely no breathing space to pack any items you might have forgotten to purchase or pack in initially.
Secondly, it keeps your mind from mentally checking in with itself multiple times through out the day as to whether you carried a certain item to the trek or not. This constant ‘mental check-in’ prevents you from completely immersing yourself in the present and your mind is torn between the past and the future. The past for obvious reasons and the future because once you realize you haven’t carried a certain item to the trek, your mind is busy contemplating what to do in the absence of that item and keeps playing the scenario in your head over and over again.
As your friends are happily engrossed in laughter and camaraderie, or are busy admiring the scenery out the window, your mind is busy thinking up solutions or alternatives to the forgotten item on the trek.
Save yourself the frustration of having frayed nerves and running helter skelter at the last moment to procure something you should have thrown into your bag weeks before. There’s no better feeling in the world savouring every moment with your travel companions and indulging in all the group shenanigans as you board your transport to your trek destination with the blissful satisfaction of having packed everything the organizer listed well in advance.
The mental satisfaction of having completed everything well ahead of time hits different, as some of you might happily recollect from the good ol’ days of submitting school projects with strict deadlines on time.
“There’s no better feeling in the world savouring every moment with your travel companions and indulging in all the group shenanigans as you board your transport to your trek destination with the blissful satisfaction of having packed everything the organizer listed well in advance.”
Leave on time from work
Don’t leave from home or work in a hurry on the day of travel. This will leave you anxious throughout your journey.
Did I switch off all electrical appliances and turn off the gas supply?
Did I shut all the windows?
Did I close all the taps?
Did I throw the leftover food into the refrigerator?
Did I leave a spare key with the neighbour?
Did I shut down my computer?
Did I lock the main door?
Thoughts like these and much more will flutter around in your head and consume your peace, preventing your mind and body from getting that much needed rest and relaxation during the journey vital to getting you through the hectic work week ahead.
Since you left late from work, got home, and packed your bag in a furious frenzy, all the tasks you did at home didn’t consciously register with your brain. You did them in a passive state of being as your entire concentration was devoted towards reaching the airport on time and not missing your flight. Hence, the constant anxiety about all the things you should have done at home during your taxi ride to the airport or on the plane itself.
The process of getting home from work, packing, and departing for a trek is something that must be done in a composed and meditative frame of mind. It isn’t something that can be rushed through.
Keep your departure day free from all kinds of obligations and responsibilities, be they work, personal, or family related. They might not be physically demanding, but they will occupy precious mental space making you forget trekking related tasks in the process. Aim to accomplish all of your major tasks during the first half of the week so that you aren’t left scrambling between work and trek preparation related tasks during the second half. On the day of travel, try scheduling all your meetings towards the first half of the day so that you can still log out of office on time even if the meetings spill over to the second half. On many instances, participants have been forced to drop out of a trek at the very last minute because an evening meeting unfortunately spilled over to the night.
Try leaving office as early as possible so that you have enough time to get home and put things in order with a calm and collected frame of mind before departing for the trek. Also, don’t forget to maintain a sufficient time buffer to factor in the weekend and long holiday rush on roads leading out of the city or on the way to major bus stands, railway stations, and airport.
Conclusion
Being sufficiently prepared for a trek solves half your problems and you only need worry about the challenges presented to you on the trail.
If your mind is unsettled and anxious due to any one of the above-mentioned reasons, you not only have to focus on keeping those thoughts out of your head, but on the challenges presented to you by the trail as well. I’ve slipped and fallen on boulders in the past when my mind started wandering and ruminating which made me lose my focus causing me to place my feet on the forest floor incorrectly. Physical pain is the price you pay for a monkey mind that is not 100% focussed on the trail. So save yourself the risk of being unfocussed and anxiety-ridden on the trail by preparing for the trek well in advance.
What steps do you take to ensure a worry-free trekking experience? Do let us know in the comments bar to the side.
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