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What Is A Zero Day?

If you have watched any hiking videos, or read blogs or books on the subject, you may have heard people talk about “taking a zero day” while in the middle of through-hiking a trail. Sometimes they take a string of them in a row, other times it's a regular one day a week, sometimes it's a sporadic zero day here and there. So what is a “Zero Day?”


Simply put, a zero day in the backpacking or hiking world is a day in which you accomplish zero positive miles on the trail. Sometimes this is due to weather or an injury forcing you to hunker down in one spot, other times you're in town doing laundry, resupplying, and resting. For our family, at least at the beginning, our zero days are days when we return to our “normal” lives of work, sports, and other activities.

Like most other hikers, our zero mile on trail days aren't completely free of the trail – we're doing laundry from our last section, repacking for the next, looking at maps, ordering supplies, and so on. I've been using these down days to set up our website, start this blog, work on curating content, recharging all of our electronics, and other digital sundries. We've also been squeezing out some time here and there every day to walk.

I know, it sounds redundant to walk or hike during a zero day when we're not actually on the trail, but it helps keep and get us in better shape for what's ahead. And the truth is, some days when we're not on the trail I feel a need to walk anyway, to keep moving, like I'm not able to sit still even when I have some time to relax.

What do you do on your zero days? Do you plan for zero days before you start your adventure, or just take them as the need arises? Do you have any special rituals for those times (a certain change of clothes you wear, etc)?

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