Let's know about trekking in Iran

What’s trekking?
Trekking is a kind of walking, which takes you along trails winding up, down, over, and around mountains. Trekking brings individuals to feel the nature on foot, giving them unique experiences of scenic locations that may not be accessible to many.

Let’s uncover the difference between hiking and trekking:
Hiking and trekking are outdoor recreational activities that many of us participate in and most adventurers deeply enjoy.
The first and most distinct difference between hiking and trekking is the duration.
A hike usually lasts less than a day, between 2 to 8 hours, however, a trek can last anywhere between a few days, weeks, or even months!
Hiking involves a long energetic walk in a natural environment on hiking trails or footpaths and its trails are usually in the midst of forests, mountains, and hills that you wish to visit. On the other hand, Trekking involves a long vigorous hike in a wild natural environment for multiple days and its trails change during the course itself. From mountains to roads, to the forest and even the beach sometimes!
Iran with its geographical diversity of forests, mountains, hills deserts, beaches, etc., brings hikers with the field needed to enjoy trekking and hiking.
A true hill walker plans a multi-day trip with spending nights in mountain huts, bivouacs, and tents and walking along mountain trails, ridges, and gorges.
Trekkers hold the power of where they wish to trek to and which trails they seek to explore, giving them more liberty than hikers!

Good to know some HEALTH BENEFITS of HIKING and TREKKING?
As well as fun and riveting, hiking and trekking can improve your mental and physical health.
Let’s know about a few benefits of them:

1. It lowers the risk of heart disease and improves your blood pressure.
Hiking and trekking regularly improve your heart and blood pressure, minimizing the chance of stroke.
2. Better overall fitness.
As you hike with a heavy backpack, it boosts your core strength and it also builds your endurance. Hiking and trekking are both weight-bearing exercises, which build up bone density. Also, these activities do amazing things to your muscles, for example, build up strength in your thighs, lower leg muscles, hip muscles, and hamstrings.
3. Improves your mental health.
As you know Stress, depression, and anxiety have a way of building up when you’re cooped up indoors too long. So you can Get away from the stress of everyday life and escape to the outdoors and hitting the trail. This will help you to keep your mind free from worries.
4. Hiking and trekking burn calories.
Hiking burns between 440 and 550 calories per hour according to Livestrong research. Burning calories helps you lose weight and tone your muscles.
5. It makes you creative.
Spending time outdoors and soaking all the Vitamin D from the sunlight can improve your mind that can also make you more creative. Vitamin D or the sunshine vitamin increases attention span and improves our ability to focus.

Essential equipment:
Always remember to bring sufficient food and water even if your hike is expected to last for just a couple of hours! Sometimes hikes can lead to discoveries along the way which increases the duration of your planned hike, so having sufficient essentials is important.
Trekkers will need to prepare their backpacks with essentials that are required, such as clothes, food, and sleeping equipment. This requires trekkers to plan out the duration of their trek which will determine their ration of essentials.
Here’s a list of equipment that is worth the investment:
1. Hiking boots.
Comfortable sneakers for short day hikes are sufficient but for longer overnight hikes good hiking shoes or boots are essential. For trekking, you might want to think about boots with ankle support.
2. A backpack.
A light day backpack with a hydration pack for day hikes is perfect. But for longer hikes and treks, a 50-60L backpack should suffice, because you need to carry your food and tent. Also, make sure it has a waist belt and adjustable back support.
3. A tent.
If you intend to hike during warmer seasons, a 3 season tent will do, but if you plan to hike during winter, make sure your tent has a skirt and can withstand wind, rain, and snow.

A sleeping bag, Compass, maps, and a GPS device.
Before you go on any hiking trip, make sure you have a detailed map of the area. For longer treks, it’s good to have a GPS device or a compass too. Make sure you know how to use them.
With Trekking and Hiking tours of KEY2PERSIA, come to the professional experience of Trekking/Hiking in amazing natural attractions of Iran land.

Now that you are familiar with trekking, its benefits, and the essential equipment for it, you can get more information about good trekking routes in Iran by reading our next articles