“I’ll be right back,” I said, heading for the door. “Just stepping out for some air.”
I was helping to recruit correctional officers for a minimum security facility — “helping” may be stretching it. In fact, I was just making sure the laptops used to fill out applications remained charged; my colleagues with the Department of Adult Corrections were doing the actual hiring. We were two hours into a four-hour Saturday shift and traffic had slowed. It seemed like a good time to slip out.
It was coming up on 4 p.m. on New Year’s Day when I got the nagging feeling I’d forgotten something. Black-eyed peas, check. Resolutions for 2026, check. Sticky notes all around to remind me to write “2026,” check. What could it —
Oh yeah — a hike!
Last week we got ahead of ourselves with “5 Ways to Enhance Your Off-Trail Adventure,” a piece that assumed you might already have some experience venturing off trail. So this week, we go back a decade to a piece we wrote offering advice for those of you thinking about venturing off trail. Read it, then read “5 Ways to Enhance Your Off-Trail Adventure.”
I got into exploring off trail more than a decade ago because after a while, hiking the same blazed trails over and over became surprisingly routine. When I began veering off trail, every outing became more of a true adventure. With no script, these freelance adventures revealed new discoveries every time.
