Cory and I kicked off 2024 with our traditional hike up Multnomah. This time we did it for sunset.
Hello all! I hope your 2024 is off to a good start. Let’s catch up!
Each year Cory and I have a goal of going on 100 hikes. Last year I went on 107, and Cory on 102. So far as of today January 8th, we have gone on 6! We might go out tonight for one yet, but I’m a bit unsure of our plans. Sometimes I get asked what constitutes a hike for us? When is it a walk, and when is it a hike? How do I track our hikes? Are we out on 100 different hikes or are some repeats? Starting off a new year I thought I would explain as it’s a yearly goal we have and is not only a huge time commitment, but my main source of inspiration for my art and what keeps me moving and able to paint!
We live near several hiking trails and so do repeat hikes with our evenings being limited to how far we can drive after work. A hike as we define it is picking a hiking trail and generally going as far as we have time for or doing a loop hike. For us it’s a few miles or can be several miles (especially when we have time on the weekend). Hiking is time out, walking in nature. We don’t count walking around the city with a very small exception- in snow. When it snows it adds enough of a challenge so if we have to put on snow shoes or cleats and go a distance of at least a couple miles we would likely count it. Once it snowed and we strapped on our snowshoes and hiked up to Mt Tabor to the top and back home, about 7 miles we later calculated. That definitely was a hike!
Now, to track hikes I am old-fashioned. When we come home from a hike I write down where we hiked in a planner I keep at my desk. At the end of the week I count how many hikes we went on and add it to a running total that I write at the top of the next week. I really like to do most things this way. I write out my day in a planner, I keep a paper calendar at my desk, I write notes on sewing plans in a sketchbook I keep for that purpose and, biggest of course- I am a painter. If I can do it by hand I prefer it that way.
Here I am hitting hike 100 in 2023 at Rooster Rock state park.
This is Cory on his 100th hike in 2023 at Powell Butte.
To hit our goal we hike while on trips to see family of if we go on vacation, so it’s something that we are doing all the time. Hiking has been such a help for managing my scoliosis, I can’t say enough good things about it!