Hike’rizons Day Hiking Trip Expectations

We want you to have a wonderful day hike experience from start to finish! This document shares a minimum set of gear guidelines and sets expectations on how most of our trips go from planning to driving away.

Before your RSVP to any of our day hikes..

  • Did you check your schedule against the start and end dates?
  • Do you understand how far the start point is from where you live?
  • Do you have a way to get there?
  • Do you understand the hike distance and elevation?
  • Do you understand the required gear or special limitations of the event?
  • Did you sign the liability waiver? It makes a poor impression if we find you participate but didn’t sign it.

We don’t want to have to drop someone because they didn’t review the details of the event :(

Required Gear (All Seasons)

  • A GPS program on your phone that you know how to use and has a trace function. We generally like Gaia GPS.
  • Clothing appropriate for the season. All synthetic or wool. Zero cotton.
  • Sunscreen
  • Adequate water supply. Depending on the hike a water filter can be part of your water solution. (We recommend the Be Free filter and we like the HydraPak bags)
  • Rain gear. I don’t care where you are or what day it is, around here it might rain! Worst case, bring an emergency poncho (in summer) and the rest of the year bring a rain jacket and rain pants.
  • Food – bring appropriate food
  • Power bank for your phone; Your phone can be your flashlight, or bring a flashlight.
  • Leukotape for blister prevention (I wrap about 2 feet of it around a sunblock lip balm tube and keep it in my emergency kit).

Required Gear (Winter, Fall, Spring)

  • Gloves – we recommend these gloves (order one size larger) with this liner (I carry an extra set of liners just in case one set gets wet. They weight next to nothing and are compact)
  • Never bring ‘fuzzy’ gloves without a shell.
  • Gaiters
  • Two of these oven bags at your local grocery store in your emergency kit. If you get your feet wet, you can put on new socks and keep warmer than you would without them.
  • Flashlight or head lamp. Rechargeable with a cord to your Extra Battery for the win!

Required Gear (Technical Treks)

What We Expect from you:

We are not guides, and we do not get paid. We do this because we love going to amazing places, being with our friends, and making new friends along the way.

We work hard, and we expect you to, too.

Here’s what we expect from other members on these trips:

  1. Read the trip description to know the start location, elevation gains, and distances required before you RSVP.
  2. Please only sign up for trips you are or you know you will be ready for both in terms of equipment and ability.
  3. We work hard to not cancel trips. If weather or other unforeseen conditions come up, stay tuned for a ‘plan B’. We know people take time off and anticipate going, and we respect that. In return, please make this trip your “plan A’. We know and understand that something important and unexpected might come up and cause you to pull out of the trip. It is a little disheartening as a leader to have people cancel last minute because they would rather go skiing or they RSVPed to multiple things and decide they wanted to do something else. Or even because the weather is not ‘ideal’.
  4. Some trips cost money upfront to help pay for permits or expenses. Please know and understand our refund policy. Basically we don’t refund. Please find someone qualified to take your spot and they can repay you. We will help if we can but it is not guaranteed to happen.
  5. It is not required to participate but knowing some wilderness first aid is good. Here is an entire course on it.
  6. We may have a Messenger chat for a trip. We know there are a few people who don’t like to use social media. We don’t care if you use Facebook but sometimes everyone needs to be on the same page, that means everyone needs to be in one chat, and we have found Messenger is the best fit.

These trips are at least 4.2x more dangerous than sitting on the couch.

Please review and participate with our Liability Waiver. It makes a poor impression if we find you participate but didn’t sign it.

Social Expectations

The goal of this group is to create a community of friends that support and build up one another, primarily through outdoor adventures. For us, the destination is secondary to the relationships we develop while getting there!

We will encourage eating as a group (weather permitting, versus people vanishing off to their own tents to eat) and developing friendships on and off the trail.

We believe in learning from each other. Most events will have more than one hike leader in attendance and they will encourage participation, teamwork, and leadership from everyone – especially those new to the group.

This group enjoys adventuring with the same group of people and we hike/backpack/snowshoe four seasons all over the PNW

Dogs and Drones

In general we do not allow dogs on HikeRizons events. Even well behaved dogs can be a little unpredictable when in new places with new people and we have had enough issues to move to our current no dogs policy.

That said, we give activity leaders a great deal of latitude and they might allow their own dog or a dog they know well. If allowed on one specific event, it would be well disclosed to participants before the event.

Similarly, not everyone loves drones in the backcountry. If you wish to use a drone, please bring that to the event leader’s attention, and better yet, if there is a group chat for the event, get their feedback as well.