It was the podcast you hope for setting out for a long walk: a tale of adventure and intrigue from a distant time that makes you think, Man, I wish I’d been there. That sense of longing fades to wistfulness when you realize you could have been there. Or some place very much like it.

The podcast was on Climbing Gold, titled “Dope Lake: Misfts.” The episode, the first in a series, was about by a plane that went down in a small lake in Yosemite’s high country in 1976. The plane wasn’t immediately located because of its remote location and the fact the lake it went into quickly iced over. One other thing: the plane was flying low to avoid being detected, because it was carrying 6,000 pounds of pot. (One quibble: The podcast claims the pot, the popular, at the time, Mexican variety, was valued at $4 million. In fact, Mexican sold for $10 an ounce at the time, thus making the haul worth just under $1 million.)

A pivotal part of the story is the misfit climbing community that existed at the time in Yosemite. A community defined by climbers who would stealth camp near the best climbs, and spent as much time avoiding eviction notices from park rangers as they did climbing. Climbers who arrived in the valley with little more than a dollar to their name. Climbers who were living large if they had a sleeping bag. Climbers, nearly all male, who were young and knew they didn’t have forever to live the misfit life.

Not my moment

I was nowhere near Yosemite when this scene was happening in the mid-1970s. Rather, I was 1,200 miles east, living along Colorado’s Front Range, which also had a lively climbing community. Writer/climber Jon Krakauer (“Into Thin Air,” “Into the Wild”) and other climbers who were soon to dominate the climbing world were honing their skills in El Dorado Canyon outside Boulder. I was introduced to that scene on a cold November afternoon when Bobby, my roommate and a climber, dragged me along to watch the canyon’s climbing elite spider their way up Bastille Crack, Yellow Spur and other routes that would become classics. I’d occasionally tag along to watch when Bobby would head up for an hour of bouldering at Horsetooth Reservoir outside town. Once he tried to convince me to climb Long’s Peak with him in February. Around 3 a.m., about the time he should have been breaking camp and starting his summit ascent, he instead stumbled back into our apartment. “Man, was it cold!”

Despite Bobby’s influence, the climbing bug didn’t take. I was, frankly, too lazy and unmotivated at the time. This was not my moment to seize.

I remembered this as I continued listening to the podcast. Good for the misfits for recognizing and seizing their moment. Conversely, it wasn’t my moment, so why rue it’s passage?

Rather, live in the present and seize the moments that comes along today.

A New Year’s deadline

For me, that moment won’t involve climbing. I dabbled in indoor climbing gyms for a few years, only made it to real rock twice. I liked it, but that was 15 years ago, and the physical difference between 50 and 65 is significant. I may not be able to muster the stamina or generate the muscle required to climb, but I am still physically capable of other outdoor pursuits, which brings us to the “thankful” portion of this post: I’m thankful I can still act on any number of moments out there to seize.

Which leads us to the, for lack of a better description, New Year’s deadline portion of the post.

I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions. If you want to achieve something — drop 20 pounds, run a marathon — why wait until an arbitrary date to start working toward it?On the plus side, using January 1 as a goal gives you focus — and a deadline. And launching that search more than a month out gives you time to come up with something meaningful, time to recognize, to be open to, those moments worth seizing. 

Right now, I have no idea what that seize-worthy moment, or moments, might be. The last time I remember setting serious goals was when I turned 55 and seized on the number 55.  As in, do a 55-mile backpack trip, run 11 5Ks (55 total Ks), do a 55-mile trail run.

A moment worth seizing

Critical to seizing a moment is to be in a position to seize the right moment. In my case, I’ve ruled out climbing as being impractical for physical reasons. Another factor: time. I work full-time making, say, thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail a bit impractical. In fact, my goals likely won’t focus on feats of strength and stamina as much as they did when I turned 55.

Year of the Trail is next year in North Carolina, and I’m involved in helping to make that happen; if I’m smart, YOTT will play into my plans. We moved to a town near the Virginia border, so new adventures in the vicinity could be part of the plan as well. I’ve also become curiously interested in birding. Will 2023 be my Big Year? And, prompted by “Dope Lake,” I’ve also been thinking about moments missed, but that could still be seized in the future. Moments don’t necessarily have to be seized in the moment; if a moment continues to stick with you, it’s still a moment worth seizing.

Thanksgiving weekend is an appropriate time to begin watching moments to seize. For many, you have several days removed from the daily grind, freeing up mental space otherwise consumed with mundane functions. And, of course, Thanksgiving is a reminder to be thankful that you are capable of seizing the moment that resonates with you. 

When you discover that moment? Don’t wait until New Year’s Day to act. Seize it now.

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And if you aren’t?

If lethargy has you bound to the couch, think about this: Today sets the tone for the next 364 days. Which isn’t to say that if you’re sick you should drag your butt outside anyway. Rather, if you’re simply suffering from a touch of malaise, a year-starting hike — even a walk through the neighborhood — could be just the thing to snap you out of your funk. No need to make a big deal of it, to go 10 miles or set a 4-mile-per-hour pace. Just get out and enjoy. 

Need a little more inspiration? Then consider today’s hike a down payment on an adventure you’d like have this year, an adventure that would best be served by moving today, rather than not moving.

To that end, we share a trip GetBackpacking! did three years ago, Virginia’s Triple Crown, that we plan to do again this year. A 37-mile, 4-day trip that offers all the motivation we need to get in some trail time on this, the first day of the new year. 

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But in the last couple of years I’ve discovered a flaw in that way of thinking. For me and for many others, about the only time we have to think about goals is during that slow period between Christmas and New Year’s. A lot of businesses close that week, and even those that stay open, well, who’s actually working (apologies to you financial types whose fiscal year coincides with the calendar year)? It’s the one time many of us have to actually think. 

And plan.

For me, that planning process starts with reviewing the year past and the goals I’d set forth. I’m less interested in the goals met (hiking 12 new trails!), than in those not met. For example, I wanted to do at least one 10-mile hike a month. I wound up doing half that many. Why? Time? Injuries? Physical ability? In fact, I just wasn’t all that interested in hiking 10 miles in a day. That was a goal of a previous me. What drives me more now? I thought about this and realized what I’m really into now are shorter adventures, but more true adventures. 

In 2022, we moved to a small down north of Greensboro, near the Virginia line. A couple miles from our house is a recently (2017) designated game land. It’s only 1,705 acres, but man is it ever wild. Consisting mostly of farmland abandoned within the last 30 years, it’s a prime example of successional woodlands, a fecund forest ripe with bushwhacking opportunities. It also has still-discernible old farm roads that lend the occasional hand in way finding. In the past month I’ve had four one-hour adventures that were unique escapes worthy, for me at least, of the adventure crown.

So shorter, truer adventures will be high on my list for 2025 (at least in the cooler weather months; it’s a bit buggy and overgrown otherwise). Getting to know this game land better is a goal that excites me. And the goals that excite you are the ones you’re most likely to achieve. 

Sometimes those goals aren’t easy to identify right off. That’s the topic of a post I wrote last year: “Mulling a 2024 goal? Make it the right one.” If you need some guidance in your goal-finding path, check out that post here. 

If you’re fortunate enough to have a goal that excites you spring to the fore, one bit of advice: Don’t wait until January 1 to start on it. Get to it now.

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But hey, it’s the goal that has risen to the top and the one that’s proven the most motivating. Through the first five weeks of the year I have added five new trails to my hiking vitae. They are:

Fox Trail

Mayo River State Park, Mayodan

1.8 miles

Not only was it my first time on the trail, it was anyone’s first time! Mayo Mountain celebrated January 1 with the grand opening of its Fox Trail. I first hiked the park’s lone 2-mile trail shortly after it opened in April 2010. Can’t wait for more, I thought. It was a bit of a wait, 14 years, but it was worth it. The new trail explores a part of the park with rolling terrain and minimal understory. With the original trail, you can now get in a 4-mile hike at Mayo Mountain. Learn more here.

Iron Ore Belt Pit Trail

Haw River State Park: Iron Ore Belt Access, Greensboro

0.4 miles

OK, so it’s only a connector trail, but it serves two functions: one, it provided access to a long-abandoned ore pit; and, two, it offers a 2-mile option by shortening the nearly 4-mile Great Blue Heron Trail. The 2-miler makes this a good option for new hikers just beginning to build endurance. Learn more here.

Haw River State Trail: Longmeadow Trailhead

Haw River State Trail, Graham

1.8 miles (one way)

The Haw River State Trail covers 70 miles along its namesake river, from north of Greensboro to Jordan Lake. Rather, it will cover 70 miles; to date, 20 miles have been finished, including this stretch in Graham at I-40. This is flat hiking that can get a bit muddy after a rain. It appears to get less traffic than other stretches of the trail, making it great for a contemplative, escapist stroll. Learn more here.

Pioneer Camp Trail

Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area, Snow Camp

3.4 miles

Cane Creek is fast gaining a reputation as the place to go for a long hike in the Triad and Triangle region. It opened in April of 2020, at the beginning of the Pandemic, with 4.5 miles of trail at the Pine Hill Trailhead, and just last fall added 5.9 miles with its new Oak Hill Trailhead. There are two connecting loops at this trailhead, Pioneer Camp being the longest. The hiking here is similar to what you find to the southwest in the Uwharrie Mountains, with lots of surprising elevation; as one hiker on a GetHiking! hike Sunday groaned: “Does this ever go down?” Yes … eventually. Learn more here.

Lookout Trail

Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area, Snow Camp

2.5 miles

This is the shorter of Pine Hill’s two trails, but atop Cane Creek Mountain, topping out at just under 1,000 feet, Lookout connects with the Northern Approach Trail on the Oak Hill side of this Alamance Parks natural area. Lookout provides the best view in the park, a view that will get better with a planned observation tower to be built nearby. You can now hike nearly 10 miles of connected trail at Cane Creek, with another 6 miles coming soon. Plans call for an eventual 24 miles of trail at Cane Creek. Learn more here.

New trails: a good way to add new perspective to your hiking in the new year.

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Anything but resolutions.

At the start of any new year we look at a blank slate and ponder how best to fill it. Traditionally, we’ve referred to these slate-fillers as resolutions. And over time, the term has become burdened with negative connotations. Primarily because “resolutions” tend to be things we don’t really want to do. They’re things we think we should do. Like lose weight.

Admirable and healthy as losing weight might be, in and of itself it’s hard to muster the motivation to see you through 10, 20, 30 pounds or more.

This is why I don’t make resolutions. Rather, I set goals. While you may think this is a simple matter of semantics, well, it probably is. But to me, “goals” has a more positive connotation. Something to cheer about when achieved. Think of the enthusiasm of a soccer announcer when the rare point is made: “GOAL!” Think about it: have you ever heard anyone shout “RESOLUTION!”?

Goals excite us. The following goals, for instance, the one’s I’ve set for 2024. And because I love a good gimmick, we’ve borrowed from “The Happiness Project” author Gretchen Rubin and her 24 for 2024 List, which looks at goals based on a format involving the numbers 2 and 4. You’ll see.

• 2 backpack trips of 4 days each. I got out once this year, for a two-night trip on the Appalachian Trail. That’s unacceptable. I have no idea where these two trips will be, I just know they will be.
• 1 weekly hike of at least 6 miles (2 +4). I’ve gravitated to shorter hikes over the past couple years, and I love them. Still, I need a good leg-stretcher on a regular basis. My first weekly long hike was this past Sunday at the Butner Game Lands. Not sure where this week’s will be.
• 24 books read. Good thing I like a quick YA novel every once in a while.
• 24 new trails. This is the one I’m most excited about. It’s so easy to get stuck hiking the same trails over and over — not that a hiking rut is the worst rut you can dig. Still, I love discovering a new trail, new either to me or new period. The latter was the case with my first new trail of 2024: the 1.8-mile Fox Trail at Mayo River State Park, which was inaugurated as a First Day Hike on New Year’s Day (see photo). 

I have other goals for 2024 — 24 total, of course — but these are the outdoor-relevant ones (most of the books — say, 8 [2×4] — will be adventure related). And they’re good, goal-worthy goals, no? The kinds of goals that will motivate a person to make 2024 a satisfying and, more importantly, memorable year.

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