One time, several years ago, I decided to do a 52 books in a year challenge. I didn’t read 52 books that year. But I DID read way more books than I would have otherwise. Which is not nothing.
So. I don’t know that we’ll really make it to 52 hikes this year. I hope we will, and having Dave plus all the kids in it with me should provide some extra motivation/accountability. Plus a hike is faster than reading a book. At any rate, though, even if we come up short, I’m pretty sure we’ll hike more with this goal in mind than without it.
I came across the 52 Hike Challenge through the hashtag on Instagram. You can read more about it and sign up here, but it’s pretty much just what it sounds like. They give one mile as the minimum distance for counting as a hike (with the caveat that more experienced hikers should do more than that). Our personal rule, we’ve decided, is that local hikes have to be two miles in order to count for the challenge, but we’ll make exceptions and allow hikes of at least a mile if we’re somewhere new and there’s a short hike we want to do.
The weather hasn’t been very cooperative, so we haven’t gotten out for any hikes this year until this past weekend. So we’re counting January 17 (which happens to be Abe’s birthday) as our official start date. 52 hikes before Abe turns four!
We went with one of our local favorites for hike #1: the old Roswell Mill. It’s a fun one for the kids because it leads past a bunch of mill ruins to a big dam and waterfall.
Abe’s just sitting around being newly three in front of some mill ruins:
It’s been a very rainy winter; I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the water flowing so fast (or so brown) before:
Once we passed the dam, we walked up and through the residential neighborhood nearby and checked out the Founder’s Cemetery:
And the playground:
Then we walked back down to where we’d parked, only to realize that we hadn’t hit two miles yet. So we headed over the bridge to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area land on the other side of the creek to walk for while longer:
And climb up some rocks:
Abe didn’t climb. He just watched:
One hike down, fifty one to go!
I think this is a GREAT idea! I do a Missouri thing called 100 MO Miles, which, like you said, is just a little way to make me more intentional about moving (though it does lead to this internal debate about whether miles on trips count since they are out of state because I’m weird like that). Happy hiking!
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Great post!
Love the idea of a 52 Hike Challenge! Probably should not include my morning jog in the neighborhood! 🙂
Yeah….we could stick in our weekly walks to pick up pizza down the street and call it done, but that doesn’t seem to be keeping with the spirit of things 😉
Love this idea, and I think it’s definitely possible to do one a week. We’re selling our house this spring to hit the road in an RV for a year with our three little ones, and I think being outside all the time will help keep everyone sane 🙂 Maybe I’ll consider starting once we start our trip!
We have lots of short and one long (3 1/2 weeks) trips planned this year, and I’m guessing those will definitely be when we knock out the majority of our hikes :). I’m excited for your trip–can’t wait to follow along!