 |
| Crescent Beach, Oregon |
The
terminology: out and back (you go out, get to the end and turn around to end up
at your starting point), loop (as the name suggests, you go in a big circle and
end up back where you started) and point-to-point (you end up at a different
place than where you started).
The
difficulty rankings: easy, moderate, difficult. Though people have done studies and even
math
(!) to determine a ranking scale, it’s, of course, kind of a subjective thing.
Easy
is easy. Usually short (as short as ¼ of a mile, no longer than 2), flat, this
is the trail for strollers and wheelchairs.
Moderate
is a leap up from that. Longer: the ones we’ve been on have been 5-6 miles. Some
changes in elevation. My phone tells me, when I do one of these, that I’ve
climbed anywhere from 40 to 60 flights of stairs.
Moderate
is currently our sweet spot.
I’m
a little hesitant to try difficult. These trails cover longer distances (8+
miles), with more elevation changes and more difficult terrain, requiring
things like “scrambling,” using your hands as well as your feet.
 |
| Hot Springs Trail, Big Bend, Texas |
I
once wrote an article
about thru-hikers, who hike for months at a time. Once they’ve hit their
stride, so to speak, they hike around 20 miles a day, carrying all their stuff,
then sleep in a tent on the ground, to get up in the morning and do it all over
again.
Nah,
I’m a proud “slack-packer.”
I
feel I am roughing it if my hotel doesn’t have a spa. 😊
 |
| My husband and daughter at Hood River, Oregon |
Nice
day hiking, a shower, dinner at a restaurant serving locally sourced produce in
some sort of cuisine before sleeping in a bed. Perfect.
