Shout it out: "I AM A DAY HIKER!"

Tom Mangan, of Two-Heel Drive, has a great post affirming the value of day hiking.  Check it out at his blog.

I am a day hiker, not a backpacker. For years, I've thought that "backpacker" is what I should aspire to be.  That is "real" hiking.  But over time, I've come to accept that I'm not going to make the transition from hiker to backpacker.  And I'm good with that.

I'm lucky to be a hiker at all.


I grew up on a farm in rural Illinois and my family went camping occasionally. But it wasn't so great for Mom; she did not view outdoor cooking and cleaning as a vacation from indoor cooking and cleaning. So we did not go very often. When I was older, I made a couple of canoeing and fishing trips to the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota with Dad and other family/friends. Mom would have a delightful stay-cation at home without husband or children around.

I went to church camp in southern Illinois, where we did some day hiking.  I loved it, especially learning about plants and animals that we would see along the way. But without family or friends who hiked, I did not hike once I was back home.  In high school, friends (non-hikers), sports, and boys took up my time and energy.

As a college student at the University of Illinois, I didn't even think about hiking.  Even though I was a biology major and loved thinking about the outdoors, I didn't spend much time experiencing the natural world first-hand!  I didn't have any friends who hiked, let alone backpacked. And there weren't a lot of hiking opportunities, at least that I knew about. I spent most of my time studying, hanging out with friends, and drinking beer.

Graduate school in North Carolina is where I really bloomed as a naturalist. I learned how to watch birds. I caught frogs for the first time since I was a kid. I saw my first salamander. I took an eight-week tropical biology course in Costa Rica.  I was learning everything that I could about ecology, evolution, and animal behavior.  I was flourishing.

In North Carolina, great hiking is everywhere. My husband, who was then my boyfriend, is an Eagle Scout, so he knows a thing or two about hiking and camping. He bought me a pair of binoculars (Christmas gift) and a pair hiking boots (birthday gift) and we began hiking. We hiked on the coastal plain, the piedmont, and the mountains. We hiked in Delaware, when I visited his home state to meet his parents. 

But I did not backpack. I had no backpacking equipment.  No tent, no sleeping bag, no backpack, no camp stove.  Nothing.  And I was living on less than 10K a year, so absolutely no money. We did a bit of backpacking in Costa Rica - climbing the tallest mountain to camp at the top.

We moved to Maryland and hiked there. Vacations in Utah and Arizona and North Carolina that centered on car-camping and day hiking, with one or two overnight backpacking forays as part of the larger trip.

We decided to move to Catalina.  I planned a three-week cross-country car-camping extravaganza to get our family (now numbering four) from Maryland to California. Day hiking at Wyalusing State Park in Wisconsin, Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa, Badlands National Park and Jewel Cave in South Dakota, Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and at the big kahuna: Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Now we're hiking on Catalina.

But I've never gotten the urge to backpack. The idea of hiking to a beautiful overlook?  Love it! The idea of tackling a tough route? I'm all in!  But do all that while carrying 25+ pounds on my back? Not appealing.

So I am a day hiker.  Yes, I will shout proudly to the world, "I AM A DAY HIKER!"