The weekend forecast: it’s another good one, another guaranteed to have the new converts to hiking flooding the trails and, in some cases, causing our state parks to restrict access. The solution: hike where they ain’t.
Here are five shorter hikes that are less well-known, less apt to be crowded this fine September weekend. We provide a brief description, then a link to where you can find more info on hiking it yourself.
We are so ready for fall — and the fall hiking season, which begins this weekend.
We know: the calendar says fall doesn’t start until September 22. But we have long associated Labor Day with the passing of the torch from summer to fall. Even in the wack-a-doodle year of 2020, when up is down and down is sideways, we can’t shake the holiday’s unofficial hand-off.
I just returned from a five-day retreat of sorts, a portion of which was spent thinking about trails. All kinds of trails, and the role they play in our lives. It was something I didn’t realize I’d been thinking about for so long: all the way back, it seems, to the first time I looked into the sky and saw a contrail streaking across the sky, the sign of a journey being taken from unknown Point A to unknown Point B. The initial joy of that journey? Imagining where those two points might be.
Several mornings this week when we walked out the door, we could feel it: with temperatures in the low 60s — rising only into the low 80s — summer’s stranglehold was loosening. It may have a full month of residency left according to the calendar (fall doesn’t officially start until Sept. 22), but fall has begun elbowing its way in. Sure, we still have some hot days remaining. But the transition has begun.
Wednesday, we talked about “back door” hikes, hikes that are off the beaten path, hikes at some of our favorite places, but without the crowds. He brought up these hikes because escaping the masses will be even more of a challenge as the fall hiking season approaches,