You know why you haven’t taken up backpacking?
Because you think you have to hike with 40 pounds on your back with every footstep you take.
Well, you don’t. If every backpack trip we took involved lugging a full pack for days on end, we wouldn’t backpack, either.
100-plus degrees? 80 percent humidity? And a “feels like” rating of Phoenix?
Certainly doesn’t inspire thoughts of a day on the trail. A long day, at least.
That’s why this time of year we pull out our Summer Shorts: hikes long enough to sate your thirst for trail, but short enough to prevent heatstroke.
I used to love hiking in summer heat. The past couple years, though, not so much. Coming into this summer I got to wondering why.
As we’ve settled in to summer’s steady drumbeat of 90/90 — temperature/humidity — days, I’ve been trying to sort out what I don’t like about summer hiking, as well as what keeps me on the trail. The latter first.
It wasn’t even a blisteringly hot day, It was April, temperature in the upper 70s under clear skies. Dry, clear skies. Perfect day for a hike. Yet I was nearing the end of a 14-mile outing that included a relentless 5-mile climb to start and a knee-punishing 3-mile descent near the end. I was pooped, and while the last mile back to the car was a mellow downhill, I needed refreshing. I needed the clear, cold waters of Basin Creek. I pulled off my hiking shoes and socks, rolled up my pant legs and dipped in up to the knees.
As has been the case since the early ‘90s, this Saturday, the first Saturday of June, is National Trails Day. It’s a day when all throughout the land we celebrate our trails, by hiking, biking, paddling or sprucing them up. And we do so largely by taking part in a bevy of organized events.
“Have you ever thought about living off the grid?”
The question took me by surprise, in part because we had been talking about federal grants at the time and usually when Anthony changes topics he signals it by saying, “Random question … .”
