{"id":5776,"date":"2011-05-22T07:52:30","date_gmt":"2011-05-22T12:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/?p=5776"},"modified":"2011-07-16T15:35:10","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T20:35:10","slug":"6-ways-to-get-more-hikes-in-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2011\/05\/22\/6-ways-to-get-more-hikes-in-your-life\/","title":{"rendered":"6 ways to get more hikes in your life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pretty<\/a><\/p>\n

Jobs, kids and lives in general provide a zillion excuses for not<\/em> hiking (and a raft of other nots: eating right, exercising, calling your mom). I needed to hang around the house this weekend, so the least I can do to atone for not hiking is to suggest how to stay inspired and keep a hike in your life every weekend. <\/p>\n

1) Set an annual mileage goal<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ExcelPlan to hike 200 miles in the next 12 months. That’s 52 3.8-mile hikes, very doable. <\/p>\n

Create an Excel spreadsheet and update it when you get home. Works best if you’re the kind of person who likes to create to-do lists and actually do the stuff on your lists. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You don’t have to invest in a pedometer or GPS unit to record your mileage down to the last inch. A ballpark estimate is fine.<\/p>\n

2) Get a hiking partner who is neither friend nor family<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fess up: Friends and family are one of the reasons you’re not<\/em> hiking. They are all good people who deserve a fair share of your waking hours. If they were hikers they’d be glad to join you for a few hours in the woods. But they aren’t. Dragging them along just makes your hike (and their life) a drag. Don’t do it.<\/p>\n

\"Chris,Instead, find somebody in your neck of the woods who’s already hooked on hiking. Awhile back I hiked with a cool Winston Salem guy named Chris<\/a> I met on EveryTrail, which has social-media functions like Facebook’s that allow you to “follow” other people’s adventures. Chris and I have been hiking many of the same trails for months; this spring we started swapping e-mails about sharing our gas costs on our next 350-mile round trip to the mountains and back. <\/p>\n

The result was last month’s excellent hike at Panthertown Valley<\/a>, where neither of us had hiked before. <\/p>\n

We’ve got another hike penciled in for next weekend. Why this works: Once you have something scheduled with somebody, it’s harder to talk yourself out of it. And with just one person, backing out is, well, more personal and you’re just less likely to do it. <\/p>\n

3. Join a hiking club AND volunteer to lead a hike<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"LeadingJoining a club is standard advice, but here’s why it doesn’t always help: If the club has dozens of members, you can always rationalize that one less person hiking this weekend won’t hurt anything. <\/p>\n

But if you sign up to lead a hike, you’re committed. You have<\/em> to go. There’s a risk of making your hike a chore, but there’s the reward of being in charge for once in your life. <\/p>\n

Bear in mind you should do this only for a trail you know by heart, and you should pick the brains of other hike leaders to make sure you know what you’re doing before you head out. Sure, it complicates your hike, but it’s better than no hike at all, right? <\/p>\n

4) Volunteer with Scouts or take inner-city kids out hiking<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"BigAfter you’ve led a few group hikes and have a feel for it, you can kick it up a notch and volunteer to help other grown-ups take kids out on the trail. <\/p>\n

Signing up for a lot of volunteer programs requires major fortitude because groups create obstacle courses to a) find the committed volunteers; and b) keep the creeps and flakes away. So be prepared. <\/p>\n

Sample groups: <\/p>\n