terrain About

Built for hikers, by hikers.

HikeLoad is a free hiking planner for routes, gear weight and food — built and run by Ray Kootstra.

person Who's behind HikeLoad

Ray Kootstra
Ray Kootstra
Founder of HikeLoad · long-distance hiker

Ray builds and runs HikeLoad — and walks the trails himself. These diaries are his own multi-day hikes: the real highs, the low points, the gear that mattered and the people he met along the way. No AI, no invented experience.

lightbulb Why I built HikeLoad

Planning a multi-day hike means juggling a lot at once: the gear you carry and what it weighs, the food you need for every day on the trail, the route itself, and where you will sleep each night. When I went looking for one tool that brought all of that together, I couldn't find it — so I built it.

With HikeLoad you plan a hike day by day, upload your GPX route and keep track of where you're staying, weigh every piece of gear in your pack, and build a food list with weights and calories linked to each day on the trail. All in one place, and free.

landscape On the trail

I have been hiking for more than six years. My first multi-day hike was the Pieterpad in 2022. Since then I have walked solo through the forests of the Veluwe, followed the Geul through South Limburg, spent six days alone on the Sörmlandsleden in Sweden, and taken on Scotland's Cape Wrath Trail — the hardest thing I have done.

Alongside HikeLoad I review gear and write honest trip reports of my own multi-day hikes: what went well, what didn't, and the gear that actually mattered out there.

hiking Trails I have walked myself

Every trail diary is a hike I actually did, written up from my own notes and photos.

The river Geul running past a wooden bench under a large tree in South Limburg.
Geul
South Limburg, Netherlands · 3 days · 47.1 km
A narrow sandy trail cutting straight across open heather and grass on the Veluwe Zoom, under a moody grey-blue sky.
Veluwe Zoom
Veluwe, Netherlands · 3 days · 47 km
A wet, puddled sandy path winding through open heathland on a grey morning on the Pieterpad.
Pieterpad
Netherlands · 6 days
Rolling sand and heath plain on the Veluwe under a wide sky, scattered trees along a sandy path.
Veluwe
Veluwe, Netherlands · 6 days · 101 km
The iconic orange Sörmlandsleden trail sign with double arrows, deep in a Swedish birch and spruce forest.
Sörmlandsleden
Södermanland, Sweden · 6 days
Looking down a deep Highland valley with mountains rising on both sides, on the Cape Wrath Trail above Corryhully.
Cape Wrath Trail
Scotland

fact_check How our content is made

Trail diaries are first-hand: my own multi-day hikes, the real highs and low points, and the gear that mattered.

Guides and tools are built on HikeLoad's own data — verified gear weights, GPX trail data and climate records. We don't fake first-hand trips: where a guide references trail conditions or experience, it comes from real route data and named, linked sources.

Some gear links earn us a commission at no extra cost to you — see our affiliate disclosure.

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Spotted a mistake, walked one of these trails, or want to work together? Contact me or see press & partnerships.