Out and Back

Crescent Beach, Oregon

 My family is getting into hiking. Though we remain rank amateurs, we are learning.

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.