{"id":1523,"date":"2020-08-16T21:53:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T04:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigromano.com\/blog\/?p=1435"},"modified":"2020-08-16T21:53:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T04:53:55","slug":"trails-too-crowded-take-a-break-from-hiking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigromano.com\/?p=1523","title":{"rendered":"Trails too Crowded? Take a Break from Hiking!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/craigromano.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/AlternativeRecBlog-1024x586.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1436\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\n\nLong before Covid-19 disrupted our lives and closed or strongly altered many of our activities, I avoided crowds. I just don\u2019t care to be around large groups of people. I\u2019m no introvert. I love company and companionship\u2014but not crowds\u2014and especially unruly and clueless ones.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s no secret that our trails, parks, and forests have been inundated with people this year, due to the fact that hiking and camping are a few of the things that you can safely still do during this pandemic. But many of our natural areas simply cannot sustain the number of folks currently taking to them. And exacerbating the problem is the sheer number of clueless visitors that are wreaking havoc on our public lands by leaving garbage and human waste behind\u2014ignoring rules and regulations\u2014and doing what they damned well please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No thanks.\nI don\u2019t want to be around any of that. I hike and go to the woods for\nrejuvenation, not frustration. And during these trying times I want to be far\naway from boorish, selfish, and slovenly behavior. I am fortunate in that I can\nhike weekdays and travel far from cities to hit the trail. And hike far up the\ntrail. And so far this summer I have been having a great time on the trail\noften seeing no one, or just a couple of folks. I always welcome fellow hikers who\nare respectful of Leave No Trace principles and practice good outdoor etiquette.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trails\nI have been hiking all summer have been so lightly used that I have seen a bear\nnow every week! It has been a great hiking season for me so far\u2014especially because\nI know what is going on in the popular trail corridors and I know what I am\nstaying far away from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what if you can\u2019t take off on a weekday- drive a little farther or hike a little farther? Do you really still want to be on a trail with hundreds or thousands of people\u2014shoulder-to-shoulder during a pandemic and having to endure scores of people who will be blasting music, crapping on the trail and leaving other filth behind? If this is the case\u2014take a break from hiking for a while! You can still get outside and get a great workout by doing other activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of my\nfavorite hiking alternatives include kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, bicycling,\nand running. It\u2019s easy to find a small quiet body of water nearby\u2014or a large\none with lots of space to ply away from the masses. If you live west of the\nCascades you are close to plenty of protected coves and bays on the Sound and\nStrait. And there are lots of quiet backroads nearby\u2014particularly on the islands\noffering great biking options\u2014and crowd free. And wide open rail trails away from\nthe city are great for mountain biking (as are old logging roads) and running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe this is the year that you try a new outdoor pursuit? Hopefully next year the trail madness will subside. The trendy hikers will have moved on having exhausted their selfie allotment\u2014other things will have opened again siphoning the less-than-enthusiastic newfound hikers\u2014and a few newbies will have actually become good trail stewards. Hopefully too our elected officials (let\u2019s work on voting in some enlightened ones) will also see how badly underfunded and inadequate our parks and trails systems are\u2014and start expanding and enhancing them so that will also alleviate crowding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in the\nmeantime\u2014I will look for you on a remote trail somewhere far from the cities\u2014or\non a rail trail, placid lake, protected saltwater cove, or on a quiet country\nroad!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>And if you are looking for plenty of trails free from crowds, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Craig-Romano\/e\/B001JP2NLY\/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1\">please pick up one or two of my well researched books<\/a> offering lots of trails less taken.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Long before Covid-19 disrupted our lives and closed or strongly altered many of our activities, I avoided crowds. I just don\u2019t care to be around large groups of people. I\u2019m no introvert. I love company and companionship\u2014but not crowds\u2014and especially unruly and clueless ones. It\u2019s no secret that our trails, parks, and forests have been&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,20,22,26,28,29,30],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-hiking-and-running-in-the-age-of-covid-19","category-musings","category-paddling","category-running","category-trail-less-taken","category-trailhead-issues-and-concerns","tag-trail-talk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trails too Crowded? Take a Break from Hiking! &#187; Craig Romano<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/craigromano.com\/?p=1523\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trails too Crowded? Take a Break from Hiking! &#187; Craig Romano\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Long before Covid-19 disrupted our lives and closed or strongly altered many of our activities, I avoided crowds. I just don\u2019t care to be around large groups of people. I\u2019m no introvert. I love company and companionship\u2014but not crowds\u2014and especially unruly and clueless ones. 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