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A tent is pitched on a grassy cliff-edge overlooking a sunset over the sea.

Hiking Skills For Great Adventures

Index
  • Planning Your Adventure
    • How To Plan A Hike
    • How To Get To The Trail
    • Hiking In The UK — Where To Go
    • Hiking Resources — Quick Link Guide
  • Solo Hiking
    • How To Plan A Solo Hike
    • Why I Love Solo Hiking (Even When It’s Hard)
  • Wild Camping In The UK
    • Guide To Wild Camping In The UK
    • Leave No Trace
    • A Wild Camp On The Coast To Coast
    • A Wild Camp On Loch Lomond
  • Bivvy Camping — Beginner Know-How
    • Gear Guide — How To Get A Good Night’s Sleep
    • How To Find A Spot
    • Bivvy Safety
    • Simple Bivvy Camp Meals
  • Gear And Equipment
    • How To Choose A One-Person Tent
    • Day Hiking Gear For Beginners
    • Osprey Renn 65 Rucksack – Review Of My Trusted Rucksack
  • Trail Skills
    • Learn How To Navigate
    • Foot Care
    • First Aid

Tips And Skills, And Inspiration From The Trail

Welcome to 10 Mile Hike tips and skills, a miscellany of practical guides and inspiring stories to help you plan your next adventure.

All the guides and articles below are based on decades of memorable adventures — from the good to the bad, and the painful to the sublime!


Whether you need to know how to choose the perfect tent to survive a storm or where to pitch it to watch a magical night sky, or you want to know what it’s like to go for your first bivvy camp, you’ll

Browse By Section

Planning Your Adventure

The Best Way To A Great Hike

Your Hike Starts Here

Be Prepared For The Trail

Main Guide A map, guide and paper notes and pen are in a stack beside a cappuccino in a cafe

How to Plan A Hike

27 In-depth Tips

From choosing a trail to how to work out a budget, discover everything you need to know to plan your hike.

Plan Your Adventure →
A dark green Great Western Railway train waits on a station platform

How To Get To The Trail

Tips For Public Transport

Discover how to find the best bus and train routes, and get the best price train tickets.

Get Me to the Trail →
A hiker walks along a cliff path and this is a low down view with a detail of her legs and cliff path behind.

Hiking in the UK

Where to Go

National trails and national parks, organisations and challenges – where will you go?

Find the Best Places →
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Hiking Resources

Quick Link Guide

These are my go-to resources to plan my hikes, from school holiday dates to maps and guides.

Check the Directory →

Solo Hiking

Hike Your Own Hike

Going It Alone

Build Confidence and Find Inspiration

Woodland wild camp on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. My feet, resting on a rucksack, are stretched out through the tent door. Strong shafts of golden light filter through the trees.

Why I Love Solo Hiking (Even When It’s Hard)

Here’s Why I Keep Going Back

From wild camping, freedom, resilience and quiet moments — what resonate with you?

Be Inspired →

Wild Camping In The UK

Get Set Before You Go

Wild Camping Essentials

Nights Under The Stars

Main Guide A backpacking tent is pitched up at dusk at the bottom of mountains in the Scottish Highlands. The sky is an array of soft oranges and pinks.

Guide To Wild Camping In The UK

Prepare For A Fantastic Adventure

From what you need to where to go, staying safe and notes on the UK law, get ready with this comprehensive guide.

Go Wild →
Wild camping beside a cliff wall with an open rucksack and the contents spread on the grass around it.

Leave No Trace

The 7 Principles

Learn how to protect the environment — including how to go to the loo outdoors!

Leave No Trace →
My tent set up beside a drystone wall at dusk, with rolling hills and moorland behind.

A Wild Camp On The Coast to Coast

The Most Memorable Night Of The Trail

A nip in the air, a huge moon in a dark sky reserve — this is what it’s all about.

Wild Camp In The Dales →
Wild camping beside a cliff wall with an open rucksack and the contents spread on the grass around it.

Wild Camp On Loch Lomond

Permit Required

This was a real adventure! Discover what it’s like to wild camp beside Loch Lomond, and how to get a permit.

West Highland Way Wild Camp →

Bivvy Camping

Wild Camping At Its Simplest

Beginner Know-How

Get Ready For Your First Adventure

Main Guide I'm sat up in a bivvy bag smiling at the camera. There's a misty sunrise behind.

How To Get A Good Night’s Sleep

What Do You Need?

Discover the simplest bivvy gear and clothing that you need for a good night’s sleep.

Bivvy Gear Guide →
A bivvy bag and rucksack lie on the grass on a clifftop. The sun is setting, dipping below a headland in the distance, giving the scene an orange glow.

How To Find The Perfect Spot

Open Skies Or A Leafy Glade?

What makes the perfect bivvy camp — and how to find it.

Pick Your Spot →
It's dark and I'm sitting on the ground with a head-torch on drinking from an enamel mug. There's a hazy shadow of trees behind me.

Bivvy Camp Safety

From Animals To Emergency Contacts

8 safety tips, plus a guide for women going solo.

Stay Safe →
A view of a beach beyond a camping gas stove. There's a pot on the stove and a mug waiting beside it.

Simple Camp Meals

Backpacking Meals, Or Make Your Own?

What to eat, how to cook it and how to pack it. Plus my favourite bivvy camp meals.

Eat Well →

Gear And Equipment

What Do You Need?

Choose Well

Guides and Occasional Reviews

Essential Guide Durston X Mid and Wild Country Zephyros 1 pitched in the Scottish Highland

How To Choose A One-Person Tent

Small Tent, Big Decision

A tent is major investment and choosing one can be a difficult decision. Based on my experience, here’s how to get it right.

Pitch Up →
A group of hikers walking in the hills are seen from behind. They're all carrying daysacks, some are using walking poles, and they're wearing an array of clothes suitable for a day hike.

Day Hiking Gear For Beginners

Get Out There

Everything you need for a comfortable day hike, including a free downloadable check list.

What You Need →
Close up. Sitting at a picnic bench with my Osprey backpacking rucksack beside me, fully packed and with a map strapped to the outside. On the table, there's a can of coke and a Swiss army knife.

Osprey Renn 65 Rucksack

A Review of My Old Faithful

My women’s specific backpacking rucksack — old, loved and still going strong in 2026! (And still available from Osprey).

Read the review →

Trail Skills

Be Comfortable And Confident

Ready For Anything

And Ready To Go!

Main Guide An instructor in a red jacket sits on a rock talking to participant who's reading a map. Everyone is soaking wet in torrential rain on Dartmoor.

Learn How To Navigate

Be Confident In All Weathers

I took my son on a National Navigation Award Scheme course. Here’s what it was like and I why I recommend you do it too!

Don’t Get Lost →
A close up of walking shoes - resting on a rocky beach with the sea and a ship in the background

Foot Care

How To Look After Your Feet On A Long Distance Walk

Discover tips from choosing socks and shoes and lacing up (there’s more than one way!) to surgical spirit and dealing with blisters.

Look After Your Feet →
A large, red first aid kit opened with a dressing, glove and scissors on view.

First Aid

What To Pack

Wondering what you need? Here’s how to personalise your first aid kit.

Your First Aid Kit →

Wondering Where To Go?

From national parks to iconic national trails, discover some of the UK’s most stunning scenery with these in-depth guides.