travel and rhum

One of my hiking friend feels anxious when he has to wake up early next day for hiking and as a result isn't able to sleep that night or sleep very late when he tries to sleep early. As a result he always feels his sleep is incomplete and as a result low on energy during hike. On other days he sleeps normally and on time. But whenever there's a hike next day, he doesn't get sleep and the more he tries to force sleep to avoid sleepless Night before the trek, the more he has difficulty falling asleep. Any suggestions would be very helpful as he loves to hike but doesn't go often to more than a days hikes due to this limitation. He says that the primary reason for issue is that he heard somewhere that if one doesn't get good night's sleep before hiking day, then hiking is not good for the body plus one has lesser chances of completing the hike.

So I would say that I am somewhat of a novice hiker but I enjoy pushing myself when travelling so I've tried a few notable hikes/peaks. When trying to assess where these would be rated (and therefore figuring out what's another reasonable "next" challenge that won't be too crazy) however I always find myself scratching my head. For instance, on "Fatmap" I saw one of the trails I did (Wasson Peak in Arizona) listed as "Difficult" hiking, and on the same site I see Longs Peak (CO) listed as "Moderate" alpine climbing… I see many things that proclaim Longs as one of the most difficult day hikes possible so I just scratch my head at how something else would call it moderate– is it being compared against multi day expeditions? For my purposes I'm only doing day hikes right now, so it's just tough to get a rough idea of how something new would compare to what I've done (obviously too, different parts of the country probably have different barometers- what's "difficult" in the southeast may not be if that same trail was in the west). As another example, Precipice in Acadia had so many warnings I saw about it, I was too worried to even attempt it my first visit to the park so I only did the Beehive… That was cake, so ended up doing Precipice when we returned a couple years later and it ended up being nowhere close to other trails which had significantly less words of caution. Part of this I feel is due to the distance factor– distance seems to be the biggest determiner at least for me in terms of how difficult something will be (i.e. a 3 mile Precipice will be easier than anything with even a slight incline that is 6+ miles long)

I've put together a list of notable things I've done below:

Tier 1:
Longs Peak
Half Dome
Multi-peak White Mountains in the winter
(Out of these 3, I would put them neck and neck in terms of difficulty to me. Though based on the definitions I've seen, Longs would be the only one that's considered "Class 3" by virtue of the other 2 not requiring hands on rocks?… Seems a bit arbitrary as the other two were just as hard in my book)

Tier 2:
White Mountains in the summer
(This is tough for me to judge since I know there's variations in the trails and it's not like I did the same trail months apart on the different seasons to figure out the difference in difficulty)
Mount Pico (Azores / Portugal)

-Huge dropoff to Tier 3-
Tougher trails in Acadia (Cadillac, Precipice, etc)
Wasson Peak in Arizona

One of the next trails I'm eyeing is Old Rag in Shenandoah.. at first blush I'd put that in the Tier 2 category of my list, but I'm pretty much solely basing that on distance. Are there any other notable trails that would fall into my Tier 1/Tier 2? Or is there an easy way to draw the lines to differentiate these different hikes? I'm figuring above my Tier 1 is legit rock climbing with special equipment and/or multi day "expeditions".. I've tried guided rock climbing before but that is about the furthest I intend to take that

If there's anything in my rambling that sounds off or can be explained differently, let me know! I'm starting to get more into hiking and I'm trying not to sound like too much of a noob when I open my mouth!

I am getting back into hobby hiking. I am looking for some good trail food/ snack suggestions. Particularly protein options for someone who does not eat fish. (For example: canned/ bagged tuna, mackerel or salmon etc.) I have already been looking at beef sticks and jerky but I was just curious if there was other alternatives anyone could possibly suggest? Thanks!

I feel a really strong desire to make multiple day hikes in nature, without seeing a soul and forgetting my phone. However, I live in the Netherlands, a county with almost no natural forest, no elevation whatsoever and absolutely no wild camping allowed.

Of course nature is beautiful here and I do walk a lot, but it feels insufficient.
My ultimate goal is to thru-hike the Appalachian trail. But how do I go from taking a stroll through the woods with pristine kept paths to surviving in woodlands bigger than my country? I don't know how and where to begin building the necessary skills.

So I Am joining up in the swedish army soon as an arctic ranger, and we’ll be marching alot. Mostly in heavy duty boots and with about 110 lbs of gear. Do you guys have any tricks to prevent your feet getting all soary after walking really far?

Hey guys so I’m new to hiking, and I just completed my first 10 miles hiking yesterday, when I returned home, the moment I took off my shoes…I almost passed out 🤢
I think it’s pretty normal to have bad smell after a long hiking without taking off the shoes during the entire trip…But I never expected the smell to be so bad, I’m planning on camping and hiking for a couple of days in the future. One thing I’m certain is that I will definitely loose my shoes and let it breathe after a few miles walking, and I’m thinking about getting some anti odor socks(not sure if they exist)
Are there any other ways to prevent or make things not that bad? Or I just have to bear with the smell?
Any tip would be helpful

PS. I air my shoes the whole night and the smell is gone, I think it’s probably the smell from wet socks and keeping my feet in the shoes too long, thanks everyone for the tips.