Accidents can happen on any trail no matter the length. There are safe hiking practices that every hiker should learn.

These safe hiking practices will help minimize accidents and also increase your chance of being rescued if something does happen. Whether you are hiking 2 km or 100 km, these tips will help you and your family stay safe.

Learn these safety practices alongside the 7 leave no trace principles and you are ready for adventures with your family.

If you are new to family adventures, start small, continue to learn and build from there.

Safe Hiking Practices Every Hiker Should Learn

Trip Plan

Before you leave to explore the trails, it is important that you leave a trip plan with someone that is not hiking with you.

The trip plan should include:

when you are leaving.
when you should be back.
when they should worry and contact the officials.
Bonus: Include the vehicle you are driving and the license plate.

Adventure Smart has a great resource that you can use that helps you easily create trip plans and send them to your family and friends.

Training

Hiking trails can vary in difficulty. Some trails are easy wanders like the easiest trails on the TrailCollectiv app while others are more technical and require additional knowledge.

Stay within your limits and learn about safety practices on the trails you are exploring.

For example, some trails are scrambles and knowledge of how to hike a scramble safely is important. They have a completely different rating system.

Moderate and challenging scrambles have a different set of safety precautions to learn like where to hike on a particular trail to avoid sending rocks down below to your friends which could be life threatening. Only the easier scrambles like Mount Lady Macdonald are currently being included in the TrailCollectiv hiking app.

in many areas bear spray is important to have to protect against bears and cougars.

How can you know if a trail is good for you beforehand?

On the TrailCollectiv hiking app, there are trails rated easiest, easy, moderate, hard, and hardest.

Don’t be afraid to turn around on a trail if the terrain becomes too difficult. Some places have more dangers like the changing weather in the Canadian Rockies and animal safety. Learn what to bring before you go out on an adventures.