Trek Guide

Fall is the best season to hike, and it has four risks summer never taught you

Two hours less evening light, hypothermia above 40F, hunters on the trail and bears feeding all day. What changes in autumn and the one fix for each.

By Bishnu Adhikari · Sep 22, 2026

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Fall is the best hiking season of the year, but four things change that summer never prepared you for. You lose about two hours of evening daylight between late September and early November. Rain and wind can give you hypothermia well above freezing . Hunting…

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You lose about two hours of evening light

The single most common autumn mistake is starting a summer-length hike at a summer time of day. In Boston the sun sets at about 6:42pm on 22 September and about 4:37pm on 2 November. In London it goes from roughly 7pm to about 4:32pm over the same stretch…

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Hypothermia does not need freezing weather

Autumn cold catches people because it rarely feels dangerous. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is specific about it: hypothermia "can occur even at cool temperatures (above 40°F) if a person becomes chilled from rain, sweat, or submersion…

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Hunting season puts other people on the trail

From September to December, the woods you hike in may also be hunting ground. National forests and many state lands allow hunting, and hunters with firearms or bows use the same trails and roads. Forest Service guidance for visitors is to wear bright hunter…

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Bears are feeding for most of the day

In autumn, bears enter what biologists call hyperphagia. In a release on 14 September 2026, Great Smoky Mountains National Park described it as "an intense feeding state in which they spend most of the day searching for food" , during which a bear "may…

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The autumn checklist we would give a friend

October and November are the clearest months in the Himalaya. Our Ghorepani Poon Hill trek is five days, tops out at 3,210m and suits first-timers, with sunrise over Annapurna and Dhaulagiri from the Poon Hill viewpoint. US$500 solo, from US$370 each in a…

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Why autumn is still worth it

Every one of these risks comes with the reason people love the season: cool air, fewer bugs, clear views and colour you only get a few weeks a year. The same is true in Nepal, where autumn brings the clearest mountain skies of the year. Our autumn trekking…

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Frequently asked questions

Work back from sunset: take your realistic walking time, add an hour of margin, and start before that. In early November that often means being on the trail by late morning, because many places see sunset around 4:30 to 5pm. Yes. The CDC says hypothermia can…

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Keep reading

The risks behind real trail deaths, and the habits that prevent them. Why Maine is the uncertain one this year, and how to time a trip. Short days, snow and the avalanche forecast, from October on. Why October and November are the Himalaya's best months…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

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