The 10 Essentials for Hiking

This week we sat down with Nancy East and talked about the 10 essentials you need to carry in your daypack or backpack. The 10 Essentials are absolutely vital to every hike you go on, no matter what the environment or season, it’s important to individualize the rest of what you take in your pack, to suit your specific hike. Nancy walks us through each item and why it is necessary in our packs.

Nancy East has been an avid hiker and backpacker for over 25 years. She has completed three 900-miler maps of the Smokies, and she and her friend Chris Ford achieved a fastest known time (FKT) record during the last Smokies-900 map. and thru hikes of the Tahoe Rim Trail, the Wonderland Trail, Tour du Mont Blanc and many regional trails. Nancy is also a member of Haywood County's Search and Rescue Team, is on the founding board for the WNC Wilderness Safety Fund, and is a semi-retired small animal veterinarian.

She spends a substantial amount of time these days advocating for and teaching hikers and backpackers how to stay “safe and found.” She creates resources for this outdoor education effort on her blog, Hope and Feather Travels.

Her most important jobs of all, however, are wife to her high school sweetheart, Larry, and mom to three teenagers who keep her young at heart.

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