Let me start with something most hiking articles won’t tell you: hiking alone is not for everyone, and it’s definitely not where you should start.
I do it most weekends now, and I love it, but my first solo hikes were not particularly enjoyable. I noticed I got more tired than when hiking with others, felt the effort more, sometimes I was even bored. In short, I wasn’t entirely convinced I wanted to keep doing it. Life eventually left me no choice – I had to move for a job, so if I wanted to keep hiking, I had to go alone. Now I’m glad I do it, but if someone had told me to jump straight into solo hiking without experience, it would have been a mistake.
I can’t recommend too much to start with company. Do several hikes with other people first, understand what to expect from your body, how much water you actually drink, how your legs feel on the descent. Then, when you go alone, you’re not learning everything at once.
Table of Contents
Why solo hiking is harder than it sounds
There’s one thing that nobody ever says: when you hike alone, the physical effort is the same, but you perceive it much more.
When you do it with someone, conversation occupies part of your attention. You’re not fully focused on how much your legs hurt or how thirsty you are. When you’re alone, there’s nothing between you and your body. You will be hit with the full force of the fight between the climb and your breath.
This is not a reason to avoid solo hiking, it’s a reason to prepare for it with honesty. Don’t lie to yourself about your fitness level before you go, we’re all weaker than we think. Start with shorter trails, tourist-grade paths where other people are likely to be around. The mountain summits have been there for millions of years, they’ll wait a few more weekends while you build up to them.
Another difference is responsibility. When you hike with others, there’s division of labor — someone remembers the snacks, someone checks the map, someone notices when the weather is changing. When you’re alone, everything is yours. This is intimidating, scary and unbelievably beautiful.
How I plan a solo hike, from start to finish
I’m blessed to live in a region with abundant mountains and natural areas. I could hike a different trail every weekend for years without ever repeating one. This is the planning process I’ve developed through the years, and it applies regardless of where you are and whether you’re going alone or not.
Step 1: Choose the destination
I look for something reachable by car in a reasonable time, within my current fitness level, and completable in a single day (I’m not opposed to multi-day hikes, but I’ve never done one, and I’m not going to have my first one solo). Usually I’m aiming for a summit, but sometimes it’s a forest trail or a specific point that I want to reach. I like to use Google Maps in satellite mode with 3D view to get a sense of what I can see from the top, as well.
Step 2: Find the route
I search the summit or area name on YouTube and Google, focusing on results from Wikiloc, Komoot and other outdoors activity websites. I want to see what other people have actually done — where they parked their car, which trails they took, what conditions they encountered. This is the most important research step, and skipping it is how you end up on a trail that’s impassable or paying a hefty price to park your car (as if the taxes we pay are not enough to maintain the roads).
Step 3: Simulate the route on OsmAnd
OsmAnd is an Android app that you can use to download detailed trail maps for many places in the world. The maps are based on the Open Street Map project, usually regarded as the “Wikipedia of maps” because it is a community-maintained, free-to-use website containing maps from all over the world, including hiking maps. I use OsmAnd to trace the route, calculate distance and elevation gain, and estimate time. I either trace the route manually or download a GPX track from the web and import it. This becomes my navigation during the hike. I don’t know if the same app exists for iOS, but I’m sure there are countless similar ones. I use this particular app because I’m used to it and it has all the features I need and then some, but feel free to use whatever suits you best.
Step 4: Check the weather obsessively
In the days leading up to the hike, I check forecasts repeatedly. If there’s any meaningful chance of rain, I cancel. I know there are ways to hike in rain, but I don’t know them, I haven’t practiced them, and learning them alone is not a risk I’m willing to take. Recognizing the limits of your own experience is not weakness, it’s the best way to stay safe.
Step 5: The day before
Final weather check. Tell someone where you’re going — the trail (they are usually numbered, at least in my country), the summit you’re aiming for, your expected return time. Prepare enough food (I eat snacks every 2-3 hours, like almonds or fresh fruit, and I usually cook rice and chicken with vegetables for lunch; even a simple sandwich works, if you don’t feel like cooking). Pack your gear: proper hiking shoes, trekking poles if needed, first aid basics, and a powerbank.
Step 6: Water
I bring at least 4 liters, because I know I drink a lot. This is my non-negotiable after the two times I ran out. When it happened, the physical consequences were manageable, but the mental ones were devastating. Dehydration made me irritable, pessimistic, and significantly less capable of making good decisions. 4 liters is a huge amount that I rarely finish (I almost never come close to finishing them, either), find your sweet spot between cautiousness and weight and go from there.
On the trail, alone
I check the GPS more frequently than when hiking with others. When you’re alone, not losing track of where you’re supposed to be is everything, so this is another non-negotiable.
I walk at my own pace — no need to slow down or speed up for anyone, which turns out to be the most peaceful way of walking. I also take fewer and shorter breaks, because breaks with company have a social dimension that breaks alone don’t. They’re both physical recovery and reconnection with nature.
The way your attention is directed changes a lot when you’re alone. Without conversation to occupy part of your mind, you notice more of the reactions of your body, of the environment, of the sounds. This is both more tiring and more rewarding, it produces the mental clarity that allows you to let go of the background noise of daily life and find your place in nature.
There’s one practical mistake I made early on that’s worth flagging: you must always research the state of a trail before setting out. Once I didn’t (not properly, at least), and it turned out to be in awfully poor condition — the vegetation had completely invaded the path, no sign was visible, I had no reference point, I also ran out of water (since the hike became much longer than expected). A friend of mine had come with me for his first hike, and that really ruined his experience. Never forget to verify that the trail you intend to walk is currently walkable. Forums, recent Wikiloc logs, local hiking groups — someone has almost certainly been there recently and reported on conditions.
The final summary
Solo hiking gives you something group hiking doesn’t: complete ownership of the experience. Every decision is yours, every kilometer is yours, every view is yours. You’re there with your thoughts, your gear and nothing else. You deserved the reward, and you know it.
Just don’t forget that it requires a kind of preparation that group hiking doesn’t. Research your route thoroughly, tell someone where you’re going, bring more water than you think you need. Start with trails that are within your ability and work outward from there. The mountains aren’t going anywhere, take the time to be ready for them. After that, the sky is the limit. I’m going to warn you: having lunch on the top of a mountain will become addictive. Thank me later.