Sorry if this has already been beat to death. I looked at a few of the old posts, but never found what I was really looking for. I am new to hiking as I am a middle aged fat man who got the stern look from my doctor last week. Basically he said lose weight and get my blood sugar under control or pick out a nice spot to be buried in. So my wife and me want to start hiking. We have been walking about a mile a day just to build up some strength and when I get home from the ship later this year we are going to start hiking the trails, easy ones first, in the parks here in Tennessee. I will need a backpack for our hikes to carry water and snacks and a source of carbs for myself. As our hikes will be less then 10 miles to begin, What type of pack should I be looking for. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

For dayhiking, any comfortable book pack will do. You'll find lots of those on sale in August. Put 8 lbs. of weight in it and carry it around the store. You and your wife should each have your own.

While the articles on the home page of this site are mostly concerned with overnight (and longer) trips, there are a couple that apply to the dayhikes you'll be doing. The most important is Hiking Essentials, the things without which you don't want to leave home, even for a very short hike. There's also a day hiking gear list, not all of which I take (for example, I don't take a water filter but I do take a few chlorine dioxide tablets for water purification).

I think you'll enjoy hiking and eventually want to go beyond that to backpacking for overnight and longer! It's a fun way to get healthy!

Oregon was right on with everything. A comfortable day pack is a great pack for what you will need. A water bottle, maybe those chlorine water purification tabs, perhaps a mini med kit, and you will be all set plus whatever creature comforts you would like to have on the trail.

Enjoy! Tennessee is a beautiful state. Did some backpacking in the Smokies and loved every minute of it. I can not wait to get back.

Thanks for the help. I have a Duluth pack (Book size) that the ship gave us as a safety award a couple of years ago which should work nicely for me. I will look around the local K Mart and Wal Mart for a book bag for the wife. Once we get to a point where we get more serious (better physical condition), we can look into better packs to carry.

Thanks agian for the advice as you just saved me some money just starting out.

everyone is spot on and i like your tactic of using the backpack first and then upgrading as you get more serious...the only thing i will add to the beginning stages is perhaps a camelbak or hydration bladder. I started with a regular book bag, and quickly got annoyed of digging around in it for my nalgene everytime i wanted a drink...granted you can snap a caribiner to the strap or something along that sort...but for me,,,and i stree me...i took a camelbak bladder and strapped it to the backpack so i could hydrate whilst still moving. they even make the camelbak unbottle now...a harness type thingh to strap to anything without a hydration sleeve...
again thats just me...but you may want to consider it

btw i've recently deciced to save and spend the dough on a technical daypack...which is nothing more than your avg backpack with a builit in slot for the hydration bladded 2l, and some other convient straps for my hiking poles etc...this was after two years of making due with the backpack

enjoy the lifestyle...you'll be getting healthy without realizing!!!

And, I bought a hydration pack for day hiking and took out the hydration bladder. I would rather fish out the water bottle. To each his own.

lol exactly whatever works for you...i personally am a klutz sometimes and would spill my nalgene alot

the only way to see what works is to go out and try...luckily alot of places will take returns...especially REI

I really liked the option of the slot because of the fact I use my day pack for many uses. For instance, great to fill with water when at a festival when all I have in the main stage area is my ground cloth, "tobacco" pipe, and the bladder, as opposed to having weight in the bag for an overnighter. I always feel like the bladder is going to pop lol.

To each his own

Just found this deal, unfortunately only good through tomorrow (July 31):
Free day pack from Staples.

Nuts, can't make it there today, and as I have one, it would be for the wife, and she will definately want to try one on first. Unfortunately she takes care of her father today So she can't go up town. oh well, I'll get her one when I get back from the ship in October.