A Trekker's Guide to Being Ready
There's a particular kind of quiet that settles in about forty minutes into a good trek — the chatter fades, your breathing finds a rhythm, and the trail slowly stops being something you're conquering.
Getting there has less to do with grit than most people assume, and everything to do with preparation. The trekkers who enjoy themselves most are almost always the ones who spent a few unglamorous weeks walking around and climbing stairs in new shoes. That's what buys you the moment on the other side: that stretch of easy silence with people who were strangers at breakfast, which is the part everyone remembers afterwards, not just the view on top.
Here's what that preparation actually looks like.
The Trek Starts Before the Trail
As a beginner should start with something you can finish in a single day: fairly uniform elevation and intensity, an optimal distance, one you’re comfortable walking with tiny breaks. A first trek should end with you wanting more, not nursing your knees in silence.
Our Imphal & Hornbill week is exactly the journey a first-time trekker should take. Not a trek, but a walk. You leave Kohima after breakfast, climb to the ridge, drop into the Dzukou valley, and are back at the hotel for dinner the same evening. One day, no camping, no multi-day logistics, nothing to carry but your own daypack. It’s not an expedition; it’s a genuinely beautiful day out.
And if you've never done anything like it at all, there's an even gentler place to begin. A trip like our Itanagar & Ziro week has no treks, yet you're on your feet for hours a day — seeing Apatani villages, wandering the Butterfly Park grounds, standing through festival evenings in fairly uniform terrains. A 2/5 on our difficulty scale, and definitely a good way to find out how your body reacts to a long day of walking, before you ask it to climb.
None of this requires being an athlete. What it requires is a body that isn't surprised by 4–6 hours of continuous walking.
What's the actual bar to clear before your first trek?
The benchmark:
Start about two months out.
Walk 5–7 km comfortably — not fast, but at a pace you can keep talking without losing breath.
Climb stairs, take them at work or home instead of the lift — the single most trek-specific activity to do in a city. Or you come with Salori to Dzukou — the way up to the ridge and our Mentors and Curators will be the perfect chaperons for your first trekking experience.
Add light strength training specially for the legs — your knees will thank you on the way down.
Work on cardio and endurance with incline walks, so breathing on slopes feel manageable rather than alarming.
What to wear:
Fitness gets you up the trail. Your shoes and clothes decide whether you enjoy getting there. This is the mistake we see most often, and the one that ruins the most days. It's the difference between enjoying the night and enduring it.
Here are some non-negotiable do keep in mind before going on your first trek:
Wear your trekking shoes for 2–3 weeks before you leave.
Use them for every one of your prep walks, so that when you’re at the trailhead your shoes are not a problem: no pinching, no hot spots, no shoe bites.
If you have a spot that tends to rub, stick a band-aid inside the shoe rather than on your foot — it stops the chafing at the source. Walking an uneven ground won't test your ankles, but five days of village paths and festival grounds will absolutely find a badly fitted shoe.
Dress for the movement, not the photographs.
Loose-fitting clothing avoids chafing
Cargo shorts with long socks are fine on a clean, open trail, but switch to full-length pants with pockets wherever a trek has undergrowth.
Pack a layer for the cold — on most treks, evenings turn cool faster than the afternoon suggests, and a jacket or shawl in your bag isn't optional.
Pack a poncho if rain looks likely, but real insulation if temperatures are dropping.
Pack an extra pair if it starts raining, find dry ground to rest, and change out of wet clothes as soon as it's practical.
How does the sky look?
The last piece is checking the weather properly — the forecast for the trail, not the nearest city, and the season, not just the week. For instance, Nagaland in early December, around the Hornbill Festival, is properly cold, so adding a warm layer for the evenings is essential. Ziro in late September is the complete opposite — green, lush, and wet, where rain gear matters more than insulation.
What to Pack
Depending on the weather and the terrain, here’s what you need to pack:
Sunny open weather:
Wear and/or carry a cap, sunscreen, sunglasses, and that genuinely blocks the sun — you don’t want to be peeling three days later.
Rains or cold in the forecast
Moisture-wicking t-shirts (avoid cotton, which gets heavy, holds sweat, and takes forever to dry). A rain poncho and waterproof bags for anything that must stay dry (cellphones, watches, even extra clothes.).
Bring a waterproof jacket or wind-cheater, trekking pants, and a light puffer jacket for the cold
Irrespective of weather conditions, your shoes stay consistent — trekking shoes with good grip, a taut sole, and high ankles, fitted true to size. And always carry an extra pair of socks.
A 20–35-litre bag is plenty for a day trek. If you’re likely to be back by the evening, even a 20-litre bag will suffice. But your bag isn't just there for a rain cover; it's carrying your water, your food, and your day.
Here’s what to pack in your bag:
2–3 litres of water with electrolytes. Drink before you're thirsty, not after — on the trail, you might not find a reliable place to refill. Carry a refillable bottle rather than buying plastic; it's a good habit to bring to the trail.
Non-perishable snacks with a long life. Carry dry fruits, nuts, chocolate, peanut butter sandwiches, dates and the likes. Eat something every 30–40 minutes rather than waiting for a big break; fats in particular help sustain muscle over a long day. You can find hot Maggi and parathas waiting at the trek viewpoints, and it tastes extraordinary when you get there — but that's hours away from where you start, and your body needs feeding before then.
Basic first-aid kit and your personal medication. Your Salori Mentors and Curators carry a kit as well, but your own medicines are yours to manage.
Self-care items and safety gear. Lip balm, a microfibre towel, a torch or headlamp (the day starts early and light goes fast in the hills). Use trekking poles for balance and to test uncertain ground ahead of you.
On the Trek
Looking after yourself is how you look after the group.
Pace
Start slower than you want to.
The first 30 minutes are where enthusiasm does the most damage — begin at a pace where your breathing stays easy, and settle into a pace where you can still hold a conversation. That's the pace you will hold all day, not something more than that.
Footwork and Gait
How you move matters as much as how fast.
Keep your steps short to increase efficiency and stability compared to long ones. Also, lean forward on steep climbs, so that if you do lose your footing, you fall into the slope rather than away from it. Also, most first-time trekkers become careless with descents — most injuries happen going down, when people let gravity set the pace. To avoid that, bend your knees, keep your steps controlled, and on very steep ground, place your feet side-by-side rather than one before the other.
Self-regulation
Stay hydrated and stay fed throughout, and take short breaks — long enough to recover, short enough that your muscles don't cool down and stiffen.
Most importantly, take your body's warnings seriously: nausea, dizziness, a persistent headache aren't things to walk away from quietly. Find a Salori Mentor. If you see someone experiencing these symptoms, get in touch with your Salori Mentor or Curator. In both cases, don’t wait for it to get better.
Above roughly 2,500 metres, altitude sickness becomes a real possibility, and it has nothing to do with fitness or willpower. Dzukou tops out just under that line — but "just under" doesn’t mean you’re "immune," particularly if you've flown into the Northeast only a couple of days earlier. Speak up if something feels wrong.
Keep your eyes 2–3 metres ahead of you to spot any loose rocks, an unclear turn, wildlife, or anything sharp that might put you in danger.
Trail Etiquette
The trail belongs to the people who live alongside it, and to everything already living on it — which comes with a short list of rules that aren't optional:
Carry your trash back. All of it.
Keep the volume down. No speakers, no shouting — the quiet is the point.
Stay on marked trails. Dark, dense, or unmarked routes put you and the whole group at risk.
Let anyone climbing uphill pass first.
Don't pluck flowers. The Dzukou lily grows nowhere else on earth — photograph it, leave it.
Be courteous to local people. You're a guest in a lived-in landscape — these are villages that run on trust and host you by choice.
If you meet an animal, stay calm, keep your distance, don't feed it or play with it, don't pose for photos with it, and follow your Mentor's instructions explicitly.
Cross rivers only where you're told it's safe, and unbuckle your waist belt first — river crossings cause more accidents than they should.
Remember. Your first trek might not be fully achievable; there’s nothing wrong in leaving early. It’s not a failure, its respectable.
After the Trek
The trek isn't over when you stop walking.
How you spend the next twelve hours decides how the next day feels — and on a trip like Hornbill, the next day is a village visit and a festival evening. You want to be standing for it.
Start by rehydrating seriously; you've lost a lot of salt, so alternate plain water with electrolytes, or a little lemon.
Eat a balanced meal with both carbohydrates and protein
Stretch gently if you're still feeling heavy — it helps your body clear accumulated lactic acid.
Change into dry, clean clothes, and dry your shoes properly; wet shoes left unattended will be ruined by the time you next need them. Stuffing them with newspaper and leaving them overnight works well.
Keep moving the next day — a gentle walk recovers you faster than stillness does.
Treks can look intimidating from the outside. But the truth is simpler than it seems — a little preparation, a few honest habits, and the trail does the rest. Your first one will teach you what your body can do. Your second, you'll already be looking forward to.
See you out there.