Home Turf

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Followers of our blog and social media know that we are avid day hikers. We enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, but when given the choice, we'll choose a hike 9 times out of 10. We plan a lot of our travels around trails, giving campgrounds bonus points if they have easy access to a hike or nature walk. We love all terrains because they're unique and beautiful in their own way, but we prefer the mountains. Not only do we find the aesthetic appealing, but we like getting some gain on our hikes. Even better when that gain leads to a nice view.

What you might not know, however, is that we were not always like this. While we were not strangers to hiking, we didn't consider it a true hobby until many years into our relationship. Anthony and I met in 2012, when he was living in downtown Boston and I was just outside the city. We certainly walked a lot, as Bostonians tend to do, but our walks were on asphalt, not dirt. We moved to Quincy, just south of Boston, in 2013. This was when we adopted Tanner, and the three of us began searching for our preferred way to exercise together. Our apartment had a little nature trail out back, and we were also a short drive away from some great trails in the area, including Blue Hills, the go-to locale for outdoor recreation in the metro-south.

This was also the year Anthony and I got our first Fitbits, which upped our motivation to hit the trails in order to get more steps and more active minutes. We still remember our Blue Hills hike in September as the jumping off point for "real" hiking. Later that fall, we explored the Fells north of Boston, and we started our White Mountain hikes with the famous Flume Gorge. Only, you can see by our attire that we were still in "explore" mode more than "hike" mode. Am I actually wearing dangly earrings on a hiking trail?!

Despite these valiant attempts early on, we didn't get serious until years later. What is serious? Actually getting appropriate gear. We bought our first pairs of hiking boots in June of 2017.

This means that hiking wasn't on the agenda much for our 2017 East Coast Road Trip, which we took in April. We still mostly stuck to the cities on that trip. All that changed the following year on our West Coast Road Trip. Even though we still dotted our route with cities, we included tons of hikes in amazing destinations like the Marin Headlands, the Redwoods, and Columbia River Gorge.

What changed between 2017 and 2018? Honestly, travel. We wanted to see sights beyond the cities, and we wanted to go places that not all tourists go. When we attended a friend's wedding in Los Angeles in June 2017, we decided to hike to the Hollywood Sign the morning of the wedding. We sat up in our hotel room the night before perusing our options, and we ultimately chose a trail rated as difficult, because we knew it was the most epic hike in the area, and this was our chance to do it. We needed to brush up on rattlesnake preparedness, hydration in dry climates, and wildfire risks, but in the end, we got a huge confidence boost and learned a lot about different terrains, as well as our abilities to hike more challenging trails.

We carried that confidence to Iceland in October, where instead of just visiting Brúarfoss like most tourists do, we decided to hike the entire Brúará Trail, which included three waterfalls with the most beautiful blue cascading water. This hike is still one of our favorites of all time.

The funny thing about these non-local hikes is that they served as gateways to more challenging hikes closer to home. New England terrain is tough, especially up in the mountains. Outsiders think because the mountains are smaller that the hikes aren't as intense, but the trails rarely give hikers a break. They are straight up the side of the mountain and covered in rocks, roots, and boulders. The White Mountains are located in one of the most dangerous climates in the world, and the weather can change without warning. Adequate preparation is important, but having your wits about you is even more important.

From 2018 onward, the local trails were our playground. Sometimes we stuck to the easier trails closer to home. Other times we went to the mountains. We ascended our first 4000-footer in September 2018. In 2019, I took my harp to some of the most beautiful summits in the Whites. In 2020, we challenged ourselves to hike every trail in 50 Hikes in Eastern Massachusetts. In 2021, we climbed our second 4000-footer. Then in 2022, we hit the road. We have now hiked in over 90% of the states we have visited.

The hikes we choose during our RV travels are not necessarily the same ones we would do if our circumstances were different. Because we travel with our pets, we do not take all-day hikes that would leave them alone for too long. Instead, we usually limit ourselves to half-day hikes at most, with an extra hour or two of give time in case we get held up or need to take things slower than expected. We have also discovered on our travels that we don't need to take long, strenuous hikes to get big bang for our buck. We have seen some magnificent sights on easier, shorter hikes, and in popular destinations, we haven't needed to trek far off the beaten path in order to find solitude.

Hiking is just one of many hobbies we like to enjoy on the road, so we make sure that the trails we choose aren't too taxing. Otherwise, we might be too sore to engage in other activities when we're in a specific place. Back when we took vacations, we tried to cram in as many activities as possible into a short period of time, and a few times, we paid the price. We wised (and aged!) up a bit as we began our RV travels, and now, if there is a trail we can't hit, we just put it on the list for next time we're in the area.

We tend to stick mostly with hikes rated "easy" or "moderate" while we're on the road, with a few "hard" level hikes thrown in. We use All Trails to plan the majority of our hikes, including gauging difficulty. All Trails lists the difficulty of the trails, but we still like to calculate it ourselves based on distance and elevation gain. Sometimes a trail rated as hard might be more in the moderate range for us. Sometimes it's the opposite. This largely depends on where we are.

We have learned that most areas of the country rate their trails slightly more challenging than reality, as compared to New England trails. So a classic "moderate" trail in New England, especially in the mountains, is typically on the more difficult side of moderate for us. However, a "moderate" rating in other parts of the country is usually on the easier side of moderate for us. A few exceptions are the heart of the tallest mountains out West, where a rating of "hard" might even require special mountaineering equipment. We saw this as we researched trails in states like Utah and Colorado. On the other end of the spectrum are National Parks. These trails tend to be notoriously overestimated in terms of difficulty. We have noticed many trails that are rated as "moderate" but are actually quite easy. This is probably a good thing, because the National Park Service understands that these parks get lots of visitors who don't hike regularly, and they don't want injuries. For us, we take the difficulty rating with a grain of salt and run our own calculations to see what we're in for on a hike. This certainly doesn't mean we happily choose difficult hikes in National Parks. We tend to still stick with easy and moderate hikes because even these usually have beautiful views and features.

One noteworthy exception was the Apgar Lookout Trail in Glacier National Park. It was rated as hard, and we will gladly admit that the hike kicked our butts. Even still, the distance and gain wasn't so different from the trail we took up Mount Chocorua in the White Mountains of NH in 2022. We do believe that trail was rated as "moderate" when we took it and it has since been upgraded, but on our day at Mt. Chocorua, we had such a great time that we even tacked on extra miles to hike over to Middle Sister Mountain. With Apgar, we literally counted the steps as we made our way back to the trailhead. What was the difference?

We can attribute our reactions to a few differences. First, the weather on our Apgar hike was not ideal: Sunny, temperatures 80+ degrees, and we were still nursing sore thighs from a horseback ride two days prior. Mount Chocorua was a perfect fall day, with cool, crisp air, and we had done a really good warmup hike the day before, so our muscles were nice and limber. Also, mental state can make or break a hike. We went into our Apgar hike knowing it would be a challenge, but we figured since it was a National Park hike, we could handle it. Only, the terrain isn't comfortable for us. We're not used to switchbacks! In New England, most of the mountain trails are straight up and back, with lots of rocks to climb up. Out-of-towners hear this and cringe, but we're so used to this type of terrain that our muscles have adjusted. We tend to find rocky climbs easier on our legs than ascents made of dirt.

Case in point, we take our theories with a grain of salt, because sometimes we need to factor in other variables. However, for the most part, we can safely say that our hikes in New England remain some of the more challenging we've done anywhere. Whenever we're lucky enough to find a hike that has boulder scrambles, we smile to ourselves because we feel like we're home again. That's what happened during our hike to Lake Louise, a glacial lake in Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. This remains our favorite hike in all of 2023.

When we return to New England after months away, it's always a humbling experience. Our muscles may know what to do, but that doesn't mean they have an easy time. When we camped for a week in southern Vermont, our first hike was a doozy. Granted, I had made a wee little mistake. When I checked the map to see what hikes were in the area, I saw the Lye Brook Falls Trail, and that name rang a bell. I thought we had hiked that trail before, back when we were looking at wedding venues in 2014. Because our hiking evolution was still very young at that point, I thought the trail would be easy for us now! It wasn't until we got to the trailhead that I checked the stats on All Trails and saw 4.5 miles distance, moderate. There was no way we did this trail 10 years ago!

As we hiked the first mile of the trail, nothing looked familiar, not to mention this "moderate" was definitely "Vermont moderate." Not a lot of reprieve, especially for the two of us who were mostly flat-landing in the Midwest all year. I stopped mid-trail and looked at my old photos on Dropbox to see what trail we actually did in 2014. Turns out, we ended up taking a tram up one of the ski resort mountains and did a little summit loop. Why did I think we had done Lye Brook Falls? I had seen it on Google Maps and probably researched it and then deemed it too intense for us. So now here we were, duped and unprepared. Still, we hiked on.

The plus side was, we had already been hiking our tushies off as we made our way east, and the terrain gradually became more and more familiar. We also considered this a warmup hike for the big one we had planned later that week.

The highest point in Massachusetts is Mount Greylock, known for being a point along the Appalachian Trail and having a really amazing war monument at the summit. Only, the mountain is on the opposite side of the state from where we used to live, and so we never hiked it. We never even took the auto road to the top! Now, we were only a few towns away, right across the border. A Mount Greylock hike would be our official welcome back to our home state. We had our choice of trails to take, but we were in New England now, so we knew what we needed to do: Take the only trail marked as "moderate" in a sea of hard trails up the mountain. This would be a little longer distance-wise, but the elevation would be slightly less steep. We would take the Cheshire Harbor Trail most of the way, eventually meet up with the Appalachian Trail, and follow it to the summit. The whole trail was an estimated 6.4mi, but we planned to hike a little bit at the top, too.

Why this hike would be rated moderate when the comparable Mt. Chocorua is rated hard, we'll never know. Our theory is that they want hikers to know at a glance which trail is the "easiest," even though none actually are.

The trail started more gradually and even had switchbacks. We hated it! Thankfully, as soon as we hit the 1-mile mark, the terrain became exactly what we had expected. It had lots of rocks and tree roots, and for the most part was a straight shot up the mountain. Every step was a brain teaser, as we made sure we didn't place our foot on a loose rock or accidentally trip or lose our balance. We had also gotten a lot of rain recently, so the trail was slippery in spots. We're not saying this is fun. In fact, I had an emotional breakdown somewhere around mile 2 because of how un-fun it was! But that's the beauty of hiking in New England. One minute you hate everything and want to quit, and the next you're feeling fantastic because you know you're accomplishing a tough feat.

We also really missed the camaraderie on the local trails. That's not to say the camaraderie isn't there in other parts of the country, but here, it means something. Most of the time, New Englanders are full of attitude and in a rush to get from one place to the next. On these trails, everyone encouraged one another, letting each other know that the hike would be worth it. (We beg to differ about Lye Brook Falls, as the waterfall was lackluster compared to the dozens of others we had seen that week. What can we say? RV life spoils us). One guy heading up Greylock even remarked what a beautiful day it was with a huge smile on his face. We could all stand to think that 90% humidity with mosquitoes and spider webs sticking to us is a beautiful day, but we have our limits.

The hike paid off at the top. First, we passed by this quaint, peaceful pond, and after one more short ascent, we made it to the summit. We enjoyed the views for a while and even mustered up the stamina to climb the 90 steps to the top of the monument.

Nothing like two quintessential New England hikes to retrain our bodies and minds for our home terrain. More trails are on the agenda as we finish up summer in Massachusetts and aim to complete our 100 mile quest.

We are proud of how New England has prepared us to tackle trails all over the country. Hikes here are often underestimated. The mountains might be small, but the trails are just as steep. Here, it's rare to find a trail that has been catered to the hiker. Other places, it's not uncommon to find steps and walkways built into the trails. We have grown to love the trails that seem truly nature-made; they connect us more to our earth. We push through the pain and the tiredness because we know that we will be happy when we've made it. And every time the path clears, we hit flat ground, or we see an incredible view, we know we've earned it.