I’m not sure when my captivation with night hiking began. Though I’ve been doing it as a practice since 2000, I’m guessing my initial smittance began years before, likely on a late afternoon hike that evolved, inadvertently, into a hike in the dark. Whatever, it was a part of my regular hiking regimen for a good 25 years.
Tag Archives: tips
The Evening Hike
Even when I was a kid I dreaded June 21.
The first day of summer? What kid dreads the start of summer?
Not summer per se. Rather, what that “start” represented.
The demise.
The demise, curiously, of sunlight. For June 21 (or thereabouts) marks the longest period of daylight of the year: 14 hours and 39 minutes. But from then on we start getting shortchanged, imperceptibly at first, on sunshine. A few seconds a day at first. At the end of June, the sun set at 8:37 p.m.; tonight (Sept. 3), it will be down at 7:42 p.m. By the end of September the sun will set at 7:02 p.m. and come Halloween it will be down at 6:22 p.m. Let’s not even talk about November and the end of Daylight Saving Time.
Embrace the Summer Hike: Here’s How (and Why)
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.
10 Thoughts for a late-day off-trail adventure
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!
A tip or two before you venture off (trail)
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.”