The world may be closing down but our trails remain open! We offer some tips for hikers used to heading out on group hikes, who now find themselves heading out on their own.
Category Archives: Hiking
Hike! Trails remain open
Challenging times, these. Fortunately, we possess a secret weapon in our efforts to remain healthy and sane.
Hiking.
You’re familiar with hiking’s already well-established bona fides, from relieving stress to maintaining a healthy heart and weight, to boosting your immune system. If ever there were a time when we needed to maintain our physical and mental well-being, this is it.
GetOut! Your Friday Nudge for Weekend Adventure
Before our GetBackpacking! trip last weekend on the 22-mile Neusiok Trail, we had a little hygiene talk: Share a little less on this hike, I advised. Handle your own water, resist the urge to sample a fellow hiker’s Cherry Cocoa Nib dehydrated breakfast. But I also said we would be spending the weekend in one of the safest places around: the wide-open spaces of the outdoors: few people, lots of room to breath in peace. Our typically worry-free playground seemed even more so in these uncertain times.
Lead a hike! A hike leader shares why she does
Temperatures are warming, skies are clearing, wildflowers are blooming and more people are getting the itch to hike. All of which means it’s time for our annual Spring Hike Leader Recruitment Drive. Not everyone is interested or inclined to lead a hike, but if you’ve ever given the notion a thought, there’s a good likelihood a hike leader lurks within. Today, one of our hike leaders — one I personally raised through our farm system — shares what led her to be a hike leader and what she enjoys about it. Kate Rice is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been leading hikes with us for two years. And, nepotism be danged, she’s also my stepdaughter.
GetOut! Your Friday Nudge for Weekend Adventure
A couple years back I was in need of a destination for our annual winter GetBackpacking! trip to the coast. Typically, the trip is on the 21-mile Neusiok Trail in the Croatan National Forest near Havelock. Unfortunately, the Neusiok was closed, still feeling the wrath of Hurricane Florence’s visit the previous fall. People love backpacking at the coast in winter, and I needed an alternative. Scanning a map, I locked onto Merchants Millpond State Park.