Hiking News

Popular hiking guide “100 Favorite Trails” updated for the first time in over two decades

Posted by on Nov 20, 2020 @ 6:57 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

Popular hiking guide “100 Favorite Trails” updated for the first time in over two decades

100 Favorite Trails of the Smokies and the Carolina Blue Ridge, an essential guide for avid hikers, has been updated for the first time in 25 years.

The guide features a full-color map printed on waterproof paper for hikers to keep track of trails. 27 of the trails featured in the guide are found in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Originally created in 1966 by Bernard Elias, who hiked 10 to 12 trails a year and updated the information using a special shorthand he created. The map he made was an immediate hit among avid hikers — its portable package featuring the very best hikes in both the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains.

Elias updated the “100 Favorite Trails” map 13 times until its last printing in 1993 when his age prevented him from completing many of the map’s trails.

While previous versions of the map included trails more geared toward backpackers, the updated edition focuses on day hikes of varying lengths in the Smokies and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The newly updated map and guide is available for $12.95 in the park’s visitor center bookstores and at GSMA’s online store, smokiesinformation.org.

 

Two Kansas trails receive national designations

Posted by on Nov 17, 2020 @ 6:26 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

Two Kansas trails receive national designations

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism’s Flint Hills Trail and Prairie Spirit Trail state parks recently received America’s highest trails honor when they were designated National Recreational Trails by the National Park Service. Both state park trails are operated by KDWPT’s Parks Division.

“This is significant, not only for those parks and our state parks system, but for the state of Kansas,” said Linda Lanterman, KDWPT’s Parks Division director. “This is going to draw valuable attention to two great state parks and all they have to offer. And, ultimately, help the local economies that are developing along those trails. This is a big deal.”

The designation brings no monetary prize, but the parks can now use signage that denotes their high quality. The trails will also get special recognition on some maps of America’s trails. Both the Flint Hills Trail and Prairie Spirit Trail are built along abandoned railroad lines and required a tremendous amount of private labor to become reality.

The 117-mile Flint Hills Trail reaches from near Osawatomie to Herington, passing through landscapes that vary from steep, heavily timbered ridges to the Tallgrass Prairie of the Flint Hills.

Prairie Spirit Trail stretches 51 miles from Ottawa to Iola, and also crosses a wide range of scenic topography. The two trails intersect in Ottawa.

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Celebrate National ‘Take a Hike Day’ this Nov. 17, 2020

Posted by on Nov 16, 2020 @ 6:20 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

Celebrate National ‘Take a Hike Day’ this Nov. 17, 2020

It’s time to celebrate Mother Nature, so lace up your hiking boots, collar your dog, get some water and a snack and hit the trails on National “Take a Hike Day,” which is Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020.

This is day hosted by The American Hiking Society, whose mission is to envision a world where everyone feels a sense of belonging in the hiking community and has lasting access to meaningful hiking experiences, be that in urban, front country, or backcountry settings.

“We are so excited to partner with the American Hiking Society, says local recreation director Judith Sumner as we celebrate National Take A Hike Day.” “All of our goals are to foster a hike-local mindset encouraging people to explore their city’s hidden trails and neighborhoods.”

Sumner said that hiking may sound like an intimidating task that involves a long drive to a distant place, “However, we have local parks and trails right here near your neighborhood that are the perfect places for everyone to experience the benefits of nature.”

“With gyms not always readily available due to the pandemic, people can get their exercise just by going outdoors,” Sumner said. “You can run outside, take leisurely walks, climb over logs, even do a physical workout on a trail.”

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A Message to All A.T. Hikers in 2021

Posted by on Nov 15, 2020 @ 6:37 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

A Message to All A.T. Hikers in 2021

In March 2020, America began to feel the first impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which would upend almost every aspect of our daily lives. Eight months later, COVID-19 infection rates continue to rise and a widely distributed vaccine or treatment is still not available. We also find ourselves adapting to a constantly shifting political, social, and economic landscape. The world, in short, is characterized by uncertainty, and planning for the future is near impossible.

This uncertainty extends to the 2021 Appalachian Trail (A.T.) hiking season. Mandatory or voluntary quarantines are active in several A.T. states. Local, state, or federal closures and/or restrictions across the A.T. remain possible next year. And, the operations of Trailside businesses and service providers in 2021 remain uncertain.

Hiking the A.T. in 2021 will likely remain a logistical challenge underscored by health and safety risks. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) urges all hikers to stay local and exercise caution while so much uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic exists.

However, they know that many are planning long-distance journeys on the A.T. in 2021. To ensure hiker safety and health while on the A.T., they ask hikers to plan, prepare, and stay informed by undertaking the following:

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Shattered on the Pacific Crest Trail

Posted by on Nov 12, 2020 @ 6:52 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

Shattered on the Pacific Crest Trail

When they wake up broke, broken, and far from home, how do thru-hikers find the will to go another mile?

We usually focus on the pleasures of a long-distance hike. We tell ourselves the pain will dissolve into a march of panoramas from Mexico to Canada. But the truth of thru-hiking is that it is brutally physical.

This excerpt from recently published Journeys North by Triple Crowner and PCT trail angel Barney “Scout” Mann follows his northbound Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike in 2007, tracking his experience and those of fellow thru-hikers Blazer, Dalton, Ladybug, and 30-30.

Their stories map the glory of the trail but don’t look away from the fear, money issues, and injury that underwrite the experience. And any hiker will recognize the ties that bind this group of travelers.

Those considering a long-distance trek ought to know that to travel thousands of miles by foot is to race both the season and the body’s unfolding demise. Every mile has to be earned until, eventually and reliably, something in the body or mind gives. But it’s what hikers do next that defines their hikes—and themselves.

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Hikers find message dropped by carrier pigeon in 1910

Posted by on Nov 10, 2020 @ 6:33 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

Hikers find message dropped by carrier pigeon in 1910

  A couple hiking in northeastern France came across an unusual historical artifact – a carrier pigeon message dating from 110 years earlier. Jade Halaoui said he was hiking with his partner in the Ingersheim area when they spotted a tiny aluminum cylinder on the ground.

“I dug it up and I cut it to see what was inside,” Halaoui recalled.

Inside was a small piece of paper bearing a message the couple could not make out. They took it to the Linge Memorial museum, where curator Dominique Jardy enlisted the help of a German-speaking friend to translate the small script.

The message, dated July 16 and believed to have been from the year 1910, was authored by a Prussian infantry officer and details military drills in the Ingersheim area when Alsace was under German control.

Jardy said the aluminum capsule is believed to have been dropped by the carrier pigeon tasked with delivering it to its intended recipient. Jardy said the discovery was extremely unusual.

“It’s really very, very, very rare,” he told CNN. “It’s really exceptional.” He said the message will now be displayed at the museum.

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Combat holiday stress and weight gain with hiking

Posted by on Nov 9, 2020 @ 6:18 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

Combat holiday stress and weight gain with hiking

The holidays are drawing near, and it should be the season to be merry, but let’s face it — sometimes it isn’t. Unfortunately, the demands and heightened emotions this time of year can occasionally cause stress and anxiety. That stress may also lead to weight gain in addition to other factors such as sleep deprivation and parties with excessive food and alcohol.

John Muir, the great conservationist and outdoorsman, once said, “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”

Mr. Muir was correct. Hiking offers a lot — with far more benefits than we may overtly realize.

There are the obvious reasons we love to hike — the fresh air, epic vistas, mountain sunsets, beautiful waterfalls and all the sounds and smells of nature. But did you know that a walk in the woods provides tremendous welfare to our overall health — not only by improving our body, but also aiding our mental well-being?

Hiking is great cardio exercise and it boasts all the normal health benefits. It lowers the risk of heart disease, decreases cholesterol, reduces blood pressure, and is wonderful to assist in preventing type II diabetes.

And yes, it will help control that extra holiday weight by burning up to 500 calories per hour.

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A Parent’s Guide to Hiking with a Chatterbox

Posted by on Nov 8, 2020 @ 6:59 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

A Parent’s Guide to Hiking with a Chatterbox

It’s been a terrible year for all of us, especially kids. The pandemic has eliminated the kind of routine social interaction we’ve all taken for granted. No team sports, no movies, no museums, no sleepovers, no playdates. Parents face the dual tasks of making sure their kids are getting the physical activity they need as well as trying to replace the lost hours of socialization.

“The brain, like other body parts, needs exercise to stay healthy,” says Tracy Inman, associate director of the Center for Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University. “For our cardiac health, we know it’s important to do aerobic exercise, complete with sweating, huffing, and puffing. Athletic sweat looks very different from academic sweat. The gifted brain thrives on novelty and complexity. So your son’s endless questions strengthen his brain. He’s connecting that new information you provide to what he already knows, understands, or is able to do. The more complex the information, the more his brain works.”

There are seeming frivolous and silly questions, and there are also the more serious questions, the things that get talked about to make sense of what’s happening in the world. Those have spurred discussions about issues like racial inequality and gender identity that might never have taken place while stealing moments between after-school activities and work deadlines in a pre-COVID world.

While marathon conversations can be as exhausting as a slog up a mountain, they are also a learning experience. No adventure is as nerve-racking as taking care of a kid, but each trip is like a progress report, some assurance that you’re not raising a future junk-bond trader or an internet troll.

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Tallgrass prairie region provides a Minnesota hiking alternative

Posted by on Nov 7, 2020 @ 6:21 am in Conservation, Hiking News | 0 comments

Tallgrass prairie region provides a Minnesota hiking alternative

While wooded hikes are popular in Minnesota, the woods are not required, as the tallgrass prairie region in the southwestern corner of the state offers unique places to get out and view the diverse landscape.

Getting lost in the woods while on a walk is a common problem in fairy tales, and in renowned horror stories. Even if you leave bread crumbs behind, in the style of Hansel and Gretel, if you venture off the trail, all of the rocks and trees start to look the same, eventually.

Minnesota is renowned for its big woods hiking, even though roughly one-third of Minnesota is tallgrass prairie, not forests, that dominate the landscape. And when hiking there, one quickly realizes that superlative hiking in Minnesota is not dependent on tree trunks surrounding you and a canopy of leaves or needles overhead.

Much of the swath in the middle of the country collectively known as the Great Plains was covered with a sea of tall grass two centuries ago, before the first Europeans arrived. One of the most onerous tasks the first prairie pioneers faced was breaking up those vast oceans of grass (and their underlying root systems) with their plows so they could grow crops for sustenance and to establish the American agrarian economy.

Like the vast forests of virgin timber that once covered all of northern Minnesota, before the loggers arrived, the uncut tallgrass prairie is all gone. Almost.

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Italy’s New Coast-to-coast Hiking Trail Is Filled With Mountains and Beaches to Explore

Posted by on Nov 6, 2020 @ 6:32 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

Italy’s New Coast-to-coast Hiking Trail Is Filled With Mountains and Beaches to Explore

The Italian region of Calabria is bookmarked by two seas with mountains and beaches in between. And now a new trail has opened that will allow hikers to explore Calabria from coast to coast and experience the stunning nature that it’s known for.

The Kalabria Coast to Coast Trail connects the town of Soverato on the Ionian Sea to the town of Pizzo on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The trail is about 34 miles long with a range of landscapes and difficulty levels from medium to medium-high, so people of differing abilities and athleticism can enjoy it.

The trail was founded by the Kalabria Trekking Association in an effort to create “an emotional and sensorial journey” to the heart of Calabria, where hikers could discover the region’s local traditions and more. Along the path there is a wide variety of plants and wildlife for nature lovers to spot, while history buffs will appreciate Calabria’s past as part of Magna Graecia, giving the region more than a millennium of history and culture to learn about.

The Kalabria Coast to Coast trail is divided into three main stops averaging nearly 12.5 miles each. Hikers will be able to contact Kalabria Trekking volunteers by phone in case they are in need of assistance at any point throughout their trip. Tourists are also encouraged to check in and out of the trail so their trip can be supervised and they can easily be found in case of an emergency.

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A Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can’t Crack

Posted by on Nov 3, 2020 @ 6:55 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

A Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can’t Crack

Back in April 2017, a man started hiking in a state park just north of New York City. He wanted to get away, maybe from something and maybe from everything. He didn’t bring a phone; he didn’t bring a credit card. He didn’t even really bring a name. Or at least he didn’t tell anyone he met what it was.

He did bring a giant backpack, which his fellow hikers considered far too heavy for his journey. And he brought a notebook, in which he would scribble notes about Screeps, an online programming game. The Appalachian Trail runs through the area, and he started walking south, moving slowly but steadily down through Pennsylvania and Maryland. He told people he met along the way that he had worked in the tech industry and he wanted to detox from digital life.

Hikers sometimes acquire trail names, pseudonyms they use while deep in the woods. He was “Denim” at first, because he had started his trek in jeans. Later, it became “Mostly Harmless,” which is how he described himself one night at a campfire. Maybe, too, it was a reference to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Early in the series, a character discovers that Earth is defined by a single word in the guide: harmless. Another character puts in 15 years of research and then adds the adverb. Earth is now “mostly harmless.”

By summer, the hiker was in Virginia, where he walked about a hundred miles with a 66-year-old woman who went by the trail name Obsidian. She taught him how to make a fire, and he told her he was eager to see a bear. On December 1, Mostly Harmless had made it to northern Georgia, where he stopped in a store called Mountain Crossings.

A veteran hiker named Matt Mason was working that day, and the two men started talking. Mostly Harmless said that he wanted to figure out a path down to the Florida Keys. Mason told him about a route and a map he could download to his phone. “I don’t have a phone,” Mostly Harmless replied. Describing the moment, Mason remembers thinking, “Oh, this guy’s awesome.” Everyone who goes into the woods is trying to get away from something.

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The Best Hiking Pants for Women

Posted by on Nov 2, 2020 @ 7:05 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

The Best Hiking Pants for Women

Hiking pants are an essential piece of any outdoor kit: they defend your legs against weather, UV rays, and many natural hazards. Some can even serve double duty as acceptable business-casual wear. But a good pair can be hard to find. This is especially true for women, since there are so many variables at play: leg length, hip width, thigh-muscle circumference, butt size. Whether you are short or tall, petite or plus-size, you probably have a very specific list of criteria when you look for pants.

So Outside Magazine set out to find the best hiking pants for a variety of conditions and body types. Over three months, seven women tested more than 30 pairs from 24 brands. In the process, they logged close to a thousand miles on trails spanning the globe from South America to Asia.

The testers were all avid hikers, running the gamut of body shapes and sizes—tall, petite, lean, muscular, curvy. They ranged in age from 25 to 59 years old. Among them were several gear writers, a photographer, an actor, and a couple professional guides. They weathered storms and waded through knee-deep mud puddles in Patagonia, climbed through waterfalls in the Sierra Nevada, baked under the Jordanian sun, biked and hiked their way across the Mongolian steppe, and soaked up rainforest humidity in Peru.

The pants tested are all marketed as hiking pants, but these days we expect a little more versatility from our apparel. Choosing the right pair starts with identifying how you’re going to use them. If you are planning a thru-hike, you may want pants that dry quickly and can convert into shorts on hot days. If you do a lot of traveling, climbing, or biking, you might want a pair that serves double duty.

See the results…

 

4-year-old breaks hiking record with medical missionary family on Appalachian Trail

Posted by on Oct 29, 2020 @ 6:07 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

4-year-old breaks hiking record with medical missionary family on Appalachian Trail

  A volunteer physician family serving in the Northern African country of Chad took a seven-month break to hike the Appalachian Trail with their four children — their 4-year-old girl is believed to be the youngest to complete the iconic 2,193-mile hike from Georgia to Maine.

Doctors Olen and Danae Netteburg, Loma Linda University School of Medicine graduates (Olen 2007, Danae 2006), have been working as Deferred Mission Appointees — medical missionaries — in Chad at Bere Adventist Hospital since 2010. The 100-bed facility is an Adventist Health International partner site and is nearly 25 miles away from the nearest paved road.

Mother Danae, says their youngest, 4-year-old Juniper — whose trail name is “Beast” — completed the entire hike on her own two feet.

Her trail name rang true during a steep-hilly homestretch. Juniper sat down at the base of one of the hills and began to cry. She wouldn’t tell her parents why until finally she said, “Mommy is carrying my backpack, but I want to carry it!” She took the backpack and sprinted to the top.

The Netteburgs say Juniper would often be waiting for the rest of the family to catch up — sitting patiently on a rock or fallen tree.

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12 Reasons You’ll Love (and Hate) Night Hiking

Posted by on Oct 28, 2020 @ 7:11 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

12 Reasons You’ll Love (and Hate) Night Hiking

The second full moon of October, the Blue Moon, will fall on Halloween night this year. What better way to celebrate the convergence of a rare lunar phenomenon and the spookiest night of the year than with a moonlit night hike this weekend?

Night hiking isn’t something to fear or avoid. In fact, it can be pretty darn glorious in its own way (think starry skies, moonlit vistas, and endless cricket serenades). And for backpackers trying to put in big miles, it can become a necessity as the days get shorter heading into winter. Whether you start hiking before the sun comes up or stay on the trail for hours after sundown, hiking by headlamp can be a magical and unique experience.

Since you’ll be using your headlamp a lot as a night hiker, you should get one with plenty of features, like adjustable brightness, tilting, and red light settings. Eighty to 150 lumens is plenty of brightness for night hiking for most people. Still, it’s not a bad idea to get a headlamp with 200 to 400 lumens of output on the brightest setting. The super-bright light setting can come in handy with hard-to-follow trails or when you need to find something you dropped on the ground.

But night hiking also has a (figurative and literal) dark side. It’s important to be ready for potential pitfalls so you have a safe, fun journey, rather than a terrifying, insect-ridden horror fest. There are many reasons to love and hate night hiking.

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How exploring the hikes and waterfalls of Taiwan connected this writer to her family’s immigration story

Posted by on Oct 26, 2020 @ 6:57 am in Book Reviews, Hiking News | 0 comments

How exploring the hikes and waterfalls of Taiwan connected this writer to her family’s immigration story

After a number of attempts trying to fictionalize her family history, nature writer Jessica J. Lee found that her academic work in environmental history actually helped unlock how to tell the story.

“I had been trying for many years to write this story of my grandparents,” said Lee, the author of “Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan’s Mountains and Coasts in Search of My Family’s Past,” which mixes family history, memoir and nature writing.

Lee’s maternal grandparents were both born in mainland China, emigrating first to Taiwan before ultimately settling in Canada, and Lee had attempted to write her grandparents’ story in various ways, from short stories to a novel.

She found the answer in nature. “I realized that structuring the book around landscape and nature allowed me to bring my own language into the story,” she said. “And to really say I might have had all these communication gaps with my grandparents but this is a language through which I can understand the places that mattered to them.”

Throughout the book, Lee merged the story of her family’s migration with her own experiences connecting to the nature of Taiwan, which developed in part through hiking.

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Here’s the Ultimate Guide to Vegan Hiking Snacks

Posted by on Oct 25, 2020 @ 6:16 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

Here’s the Ultimate Guide to Vegan Hiking Snacks

One important part of planning a day hike is to make sure that you’re fueling yourself properly, especially for tough climbs or long treks. Packing the right food can help make the day that much more enjoyable. These vegan hiking snacks are portable, easy to pack, and satisfying during and after a long day on the trail.

They also don’t contain any animal-derived ingredients, so you can enjoy the great outdoors knowing that you aren’t contributing to the suffering of cows, pigs, chickens, or other animals used for food. The best snacks are those with a good combination of protein, healthy fats, and carbohydrates that will keep you full and give you lasting energy.

Trail mix is a classic hiking snack that is super simple to make at home, and you can customize it to include your favorite ingredients (even vegan chocolate chips) If you go for store-bought, double check the ingredients for honey and cow’s milk. Most trail mixes have the perfect mix of sweet and salty.

Vegan jerky can be made out of many different things, from mushrooms to soybeans. It’s great for a quick, salty snack, and the high protein content will give you sustained energy.

The protein and healthy fats in nuts and seeds are great for keeping your energy up during a day hike. Almonds, cashews, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds are just a few kinds that you might want to keep in your pack.

There are lots more suggestions here…

 

Lake Norman nature park to offer miles of hiking, biking

Posted by on Oct 24, 2020 @ 7:06 am in Conservation, Hiking News | 0 comments

Lake Norman nature park to offer miles of hiking, biking

Outdoors enthusiasts from across the Charlotte, NC region are the target market of a 606-acre nature park underway on the northern tip of Lake Norman.

Mountain Creek Park in Sherrills Ford will feature 19 miles of hiking and mountain bike trails when it opens next summer or early fall, along with kayaking and paddleboarding, picnic areas and a fishing pier.

The $8.5 million Catawba County park, on Little Mountain Road off N.C. 150, also will include dog parks, playgrounds, pickleball courts and a park office-educational center. The park is 40 miles from uptown Charlotte.

For more than a decade, Catawba County officials have envisioned the public park as a regional draw offering the types of outdoor recreation found in North Carolina state parks.

Much of the trail network will accommodate hikers, runners and bird watchers, officials said. Seven smaller segments will be for mountain biking only. A 1.2-acre mountain bike park will include a pump track and kids’ track.

Cite…

 

The Scariest Encounters Women Have on the Appalachian Trail Aren’t with Wildlife. They’re with Men

Posted by on Oct 22, 2020 @ 6:31 am in Hiking News | 0 comments

The Scariest Encounters Women Have on the Appalachian Trail Aren’t with Wildlife. They’re with Men

Statistically the trail is one of the safest places in the U.S., but when a tent is all that separates you from a potential predator, the danger becomes terrifyingly real.

As a 30-year-old nurse who works with terminally ill patients, Julia (who prefers to remain anonymous) asked herself one day what she would be proud of doing if she too were given a diagnosis of only six months to live. Shortly after, she left Pittsburgh to start hiking the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail—a highly coveted peacock feather in the cap of outdoor adventurers. But this epic odyssey from Georgia to Maine proved to be far more challenging for Julia because of one factor. Being female.

The Appalachian Trail is a microcosm of American culture but with far higher stakes. Statistically, women are way safer on the trail than on college campuses or in even their own homes. There’s only one rape reported every few years on the trail and the chance of getting murdered there is 1,000 times less than in America as a whole. And yet, the absence of deadbolts to lock oneself behind or of multiple witnesses around to deter violent men from attacking means the occasional trail creeper can be a million times scarier and more dangerous.

The only thing protecting a woman alone in a tent from that sketchy stranger she previously encountered on the trail or the seemingly cool one she’s been hiking with for weeks is a thin piece of nylon. “I physically ran into a bear,” says Julia, “and I’d take that over running into a crazy drunk dude any day.”

“Despite having overwhelmingly great experiences with trail men, all of the other women I spoke with encountered men, especially older white ones, who either made sexist, condescending comments or made them feel unsafe. I even got ‘smile more,’” Julia says. “It’s exhausting.”

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