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Three Decades Old, But I’ve Just Now Heard of First-Day Hikes
Do you participate in an outdoor hike on New Year’s Day?
It was 1992 when a Massachusetts man came up with an idea to get people outside on New Year’s Day. Back then, less than four hundred people went for the hike in a nature reserve south of Boston (Source).
Now, it’s a popular thing to do on New Year’s Day! After seeing posts advertising first-day hikes on my social media feed, I investigated the trend. I follow several land trusts and conservancies and park services on social media because I am a naturalist and conservationist myself. I also used to work for a land trust in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin but was never there for a January first event (I started the job in mid-January 2019 and resigned in early October of the same year). I think it would have been a great event. But, I never got around to organizing many of my own events because I quit before I was able to do that — I ran events organized by the previous outdoor and education manager, the title of the position I held. I sought change and although it was encouraged by the organization, ideas were shot down and change was resisted. Funny enough, the pandemic hit within six months of my resignation! Now they are hosting a lot less labor-intensive community events. It was a good decision to leave as I am an…
