Feeling SAD lately?
You know, Seasonal Affective Disorder—a depression that can set in when the days are short and the sun sets too early in the day. Once this mood-altering disorder takes hold, it can be hard to shake; it’s best to fight it off before it has a chance to make itself at home, leaving you hibernating uncomfortably.
I climbed into the frigid car this morning, turned the key and was met by a sluggish grind, followed by clicking, followed by quiet. A moment of worry, then a smile. The New Year would be getting off to an active start with a bonus three-mile “hike.”
Hiking is a gateway activity. You start with a hike along Umstead’s Sycamore Creek after a rain, maybe hike the Little Mountain Falls Trail at Virginia’s Fairy Stone State Park on a cloudless winter day. Before you know it, the notion of spending a day or more on the trail has a keen appeal. You’re hooked by the lure of outdoor escapes.
We want to hike with you in 2018. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been hiking since the days of leather boots and lederhosen. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know a hiking trail from a paper trail. We want to hike with you, and odds are we have a program that will meet your needs as you enter the new year.
A crisp, brilliant day without a cloud in the sky! It’s perfect weather for a hike. Except, you say, for the cold.
We love hiking this time of year. The air is typically dry, the diminished foliage lets you see deeper into the woods, the slanted winter sunlight seems to light the forest from the ground up.
