Depending who you ask, you may hear that Reddit is only good for cat pictures and political ideology debates. Not true! There are a number of excellent OffHiking-friendly subreddits on the site. Here are a few of our favorites.

/r/CampingandHiking

A reddit for backpackers who are traveling across the world from remote mountains to everyone’s favourite hostels. Here you will find anything and everything on the topic, from transport, accommodation, food, health, and gear.

Approx. 37.6k subscribers, 14 new submissions a day – With nearly 40,000 subscribers, this is the most active outdoors subreddit on the site. It has a large number of photo based submissions but also carries fantastic conversations about the outdoors.

/r/backpacking

A reddit for backpackers who are traveling across the world from remote mountains to everyone’s favourite hostels. Here you will find anything and everything on the topic, from transport, accommodation, food, health, and gear.

Approx. 15.7k subscribers, 5 new submissions a day – While not expressly about backpacking in the wilderness, it is definitely the dominant discussion on the subreddit.

/r/hiking

Approx. 11k subscribers, 6 new submissions a day – This is a community focused on your hiking experiences, encouraging submissions of your hikes and the views they provide.

/r/outdoors

Outdoor recreation: keeping humans fit, fed and happy for 10,000 years.

Approx. 10.4k subscribers, 2 new submissions a day – A generic outdoors subreddit, the content varies widely from photos to how-to to discussion posts.

/r/myog

Tips, tricks and How-To’s for making your own outdoor gear. Tents, tarps, hammocks, stoves, packs and anything else you can think of.

Approx. 5.3k subscribers, 1 new submission a day – Obsessing over the weight of your pack down to the ounce is what this community loves to do. Looking for every opportunity to trim weight to the bare minimum.

/r/Ultralight

Approx. 5.2k subscribers, 1 new submission a day – As one of the smaller communities on Reddit at a paltry 5,200 subscribers this group is dedicated to the art of ultralight hiking. Obsessing over those ounces to help strip down your weight and minimize the strain as you hike.

/r/hammocks

Hammocks are a great lightweight alternative for ultralight campers and hikers. Also, they’re really comfortable.

Approx. 4.9k, 2 new submissions a day – The community focused to those who hike and make use of the swinging sleeping quarters.

“Are those comfortable?”

“What about your arch support??”

“Don’t your feet get cold?”

I don’t mind the questions. Really, I don’t. I’m a big fan of Vibrams and am happy to evangelize about them to anyone who will listen.

The core of the questions though is: “Why do you wear them?”

Well, after thinking it over, here are the four reasons I wear them!

Awareness

I have grown to really like feeling what I’m walking on. One of the top question I get is “What about walking on rocks?” As if their presence were offensive and our feet should not be forced to interact with such things. I think, if we dig deeper, many people have an almost phobic fear of discomfort, even when hiking.

The truth is, I love feeling the ground underfoot. Sure, I avoid the points or potentially painful rocks, but all it actually means is that I have to pay a little bit more attention to where I place my feet. When I wore boots I would go stomping down the trail hardly paying mind to what I’m walking on. I did that because my foot was in an armored tank and only in extreme cases did I need to worry about it. As a result, I rolled my ankle because I would simply not look where I placed my feet.

Comfort

It sounds crazy, but it’s true! In college I backpacked wearing standard hiking boots, and I vividly recall the joy which comes from ending a hike and pulling off the boots and socks, often changing directly into flip flops. Even in boots my feet and ankles would end up sore and in pain at the end of hikes, so how much comfort was it actually saving me. Ever since I began hiking in my Vibrams I’ve noticed that when I finish a hike I still change shoes but now I do so because the shoes are dirty, not because my feet are throbbing in pain..

Vibrams are like gloves, comfortable and close fitting such that they are part of your foot more than something worn on it. As I noted above, one of the top questions people have is “what about arch support?” and the fact is, I joyfully do away with it. The arch is a natural shock absorber that your body comes built in with. Your arch is designed to distribute the pressure of impact, but you have to let it do it’s job and stop trying to help it.

Noise

I’m not usually trying to sneak up on wildlife, but when I compare the noise made when I hike in my Vibrams versus the noise I make in any other hiking shoe (even sneakers), it’s startling. It allows me to better enjoy the sounds of nature, birds chirping, or even water burbling along next to the trail.

Easy to clean

And lastly, the chores we all hate. After a hike, for me to just be able to take my shoes off and toss them in the laundry machine is pretty fantastic. Especially when they end up looking like this:

Note: Now, there may be health reasons for you to not to wear Vibrams. Check with your doctor or podiatrist to learn more.

Flavor is an interesting thing, it’s the sense that is tied most closely to memory. Hikes are the same way for me. As unique as the different cuisines are around the world, there are only five flavors which all food is built on: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, and Umami.

Each of these flavors has a hiking parallel.

The “Sweet” Escape

Life stresses us. And for many, chocolate or soda are sweet temporary escapes. In that same way, these hikes are the quick jaunt into the wilderness that provide the refresh and escape that are so refreshing.

The “Sour” Challenge

This is a fairly popular flavor for my hikes of late, I look for hikes which try me physically. So many sour candies make it a challenge for the eater, forcing lip puckering suffering in a physical competition.

The “Salty” Meetup

This is the hike for a group of friends, just as a social activity. Maybe it’s a day hike not too far from the city, or maybe it’s a casual backpacking trip for a 3-day weekend.

The “Umami” Vista

Sometimes we just want to stand atop the ridge, walking amongst the trees and the wind and look out over the world. Sometimes it’s a hike we do simply so when we get to the peak, exhausted, we can sit down and relax as we view the world around us. Sometimes the hike is purely for the things we see, both at a distance and up close.

And finally:

The “Bitter” Mistake

Hikes go wrong. Weather doesn’t cooperate. Plans get botched. Gear gets forgotten. And sometimes it’s just not there. That fire or passion to hike. Sometimes you get on the trail and just hate it. Those hikes feel horrible and can completely bum you out, wrecking your desire to hike.

The truth is that most hikes are combinations of these flavors. Just like with cooking, the best meals are a proper balance of more than one flavor. Sure you can have a hike that is just a beautiful vista for you to soak up, or an excuse for a gathering with your friends. But why not both? Or what about an escape that challenges you physically.

So when you go hiking, consider these flavors and figure out your ideal hike. And do your best to avoid any bitter aftertaste!

Post photo “Fantasies And Escapism by Martin Gommel” on Flickr

Pennine Way

429km / 268 miles

From Derbyshire to the Scottish Borders, the trail runs through the UK and across the Pennine mountains crossing over Hadrian’s wall as it winds it’s way. The trail is best experienced between May and September, with a recommended northerly direction as it most often puts the wind at your back. The Pennine Way trail was the brainchild of Tom Stephenson, starting it’s creation with an article in 1935 in the Daily Herald before then petitioning Parliament for its creation. The trail was completed in 1965 when its last segment was opened.

Official Website
Wikipedia: Pennine Way

Southern Upland Way

341 km / 212 miles

Living fully within the boundaries of Scotland it runs from Portpatrick to Cockburnspath. This path opened in 1984 and traverses coast to coast of Scotland. Recommended to be trekked from April to June when the southern uplands are driest, though it is also possible to be enjoyed in the fall in September and October. The trail, aside from the treasures to be found on the Scottish lands, has its own new treasures with way-markers that say “Ultreia!” and give clues as to where to find kists with their own little treasures.

Official Website
Wikipedia: Southern Upland Way

South West Coast Path

1,014 km / 630 miles

Following the coast from Minehead to Poole, the United Kingdom’s longest walking trail traces the southwest outline of England’s land for over 600 miles. This path’s origins are as a route of patrol for the Coast Guard as they move from lighthouse to lighthouse watching for smugglers and ships in distress. The highest point on this trail is 1,043 feet (318m), so it is far from a mountain climbing trek but perfect for hikers or walkers looking for a unique experience in some of the world’s most scenic coastal vistas.

Official Website
Wikipedia: South West Coast Path

While not as big as the United States, the United Kingdom has a rich cultural history and breathtaking views across the nations and isles. These are just three of the longest trails and walking paths in the UK, there are many more trails and paths to explore should you find yourself in need of a trek.

Image taken from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons

I snapped the photo while hiking Mount Si outside of Seattle (trail report forthcoming.) It was the first time I hiked Mount Si and the first time I’d seen this defacing of the mountain. After snapping the photo I spent probably the next mile just thinking about graffiti and defacing nature in general. It made me so angry, a sign of the ultimate disrespect.

After a while on the trail, my anger cooled and I became more philosophical about it. As much as I hate this graffiti, I realized that nature has the last laugh. As ugly and unpleasant as the graffiti is it won’t outlast that mountain. The mountain’s rocks will remain long beyond that paint runs and rinses away.

Part of my history is that I started a niche site for a game called: Magic: The Gathering. It’s a card game that mixes Bridge, Poker, and Chess with the flavoring of Lord of the Rings. My fan site turned into a career as I now work for the game’s maker, Wizards of the Coast, and I am using my experience building that site to build OffHiking.

I’ve been an outdoors person for much of my life. My family camped a great deal including a trip to Yellowstone in my formative years. I earned my Eagle Scout weeks before I turned 18. Scouting played a very large part of my love of the outdoors, allowing me an opportunity to hike part of the Appalachian trail during a summer camp trip. It also introduced me to the joys of camping, rudimentary living, fire making, rafting, and other things that non-scouting kids never get to do.

In college I continued hiking, taking several trips with a group of friends. We were largely based around hiking the Benton MacKaye trail. Life turned and I moved back to Florida and hiking stopped. Even with scouting, I never really loved hiking through Florida’s sticky, flat, sandy outdoors.

As I began hiking again this year, I took stock of the online resources and found that there was a number of excellent resources online, but very few of them are high quality content combined with high quality website. Most often you find great posts in community forums or low quality websites.  Sure you have outdoors magazines and hiking organizations, but they’re not internet content websites.

That is what drove me to create OffHiking.com.

Right now, it’s just me. My pack. And my laptop. But in the coming months I’ll be looking to get more people contributing and building a top notch resource for hikers and backpackers.

So here we are.

OffHiking.com has launched and I’m looking forward to building a top tier hiking, backpacking, and outdoors website.

The ‘Trekker’ was introduced today by the Google Maps team as part of their “Next Dimension” press event. It weighs roughly 30 lbs the pack hoists the spherical camera housing above the hiker’s head, to avoid the hiker’s head.

Don’t expect to see this pack for sale at your local outdoors store, it’s not a consumer product, but rather a tool in Google’s arsenal for capturing and sharing the world around us in a digital fashion.

Perhaps the exciting idea I take away from this is that there might be teams hired by Google tasked with hiking some of the world’s most famous trails, collecting photos as they go, to archive the trail in a digital form.

For those more technically minded individuals, they say the rig runs on two Lithium batteries for a full day’s use, and it’s built using Google’s Android.

Speaking as an already tall hiker, I just have to say that the idea of hiking with a pack that goes up what appears to be 2 feet over my head just makes my back hurt imagining all the low branches I’ll have to navigate around.

Photo at the top of this post is courtesy of Google.

To mark the day, here are three things you can do!

Donate to your local trail organization.

Most donations will take the form of financial donations, supporting their organizations for another year. But also you can sign up to volunteer your time to help with trail work, repairing, clearing, and maintaining the trails. If you’re interested in doing the latter, definitely check out the American Hiking Society’s resource for National Hiking Day Events across the country.

Introduce a friend to hiking on your favorite trails.

The “excuse” of National Hiking Day is a great opportunity to reach out to that friend who’s always expressed an interest in hiking. Bring it up to them and say that you’re heading out for a hike to celebrate National Trails Day and you wanted to invite them along.

Easy! And fun!

Plan your next hike!

Even if you aren’t able to get out and hike, whatever the reason, one thing you can absolutely do is sit down and plan your next hike. The act of planning and preparing is something small yet satisfying, and is exactly the kind of thing this day is perfect for.

Don’t simply decide where you’ll hike next, but when. Mark it on your calendar and give yourself an appointment to keep. You’ve got a date with the great outdoors!

And in the meantime…get outside this weekend! Enjoy the trails!

Tiger Mountain is among the most popular of the Issaquah Alps. There are over 80 miles of trails on and around Tiger Mountain, all interlocking and connected. The trail which leads to its summit is roughly 6.2 miles round trip, though the WTA website lists it as a 5 mile round trip. The trail climbs over 2,200 feet to the 2,500 peak.

Parking requires Washington’s Discover Pass

Reference link: WTA Trail Info

Trail Report for Tiger Mountain Trail #3

After months of rain, the weather’s newfound propensity for clear blue skies in Seattle is a breath of fresh air. I wasn’t sure last night if I was going to go on this hike or not, mainly because I had struggled sleeping the last few nights and I may have to take this morning as a chance to regain my lost sleep. Thankfully last night was quite satisfying and I woke up refreshed and ready to go hiking.

Today’s hike was to Tiger Mountain. Exit 20 on I-90 and turning right provides ample access to this mountain and its spiderweb of trails. I left the house meaning to hike the North trail of Tiger Mountain, but I quickly found myself drawn to the long line of cars and the hike for the “West Tiger Mountain Trail #3.”

The trail climbs over 2,000 feet in its 3 mile path, and on this trail I met a number of interesting people. One of whom was an gentleman I hiked up on, he was clearly weary and using two climbing sticks which looked far too short for his roughly six foot frame. As I passed I wished him good morning, and before I knew it we were in a trail discussion.

Trail discussions are those polite conversations we hold with each other as we’re intent on our own destinations. And this man, whose name I never learned, shared with me that 25 years ago he had been in a head-on collision and declared dead. So he was in pretty good shape taking that into account. His next fact stunned me though. Seven years ago, his total elevation change for the year totaled over 900,000 feet. Talk about motivational coming from a man likely in his late fifties and having been through a horrible car accident. I never got his name. I may never see him again. But I’ll never forget him.

I continued up the mountain leaving this man behind as our conversation waned and he turned his focus back to conquering this mountain.

The first ¾ of the trail is largely in wooded trails with leaves providing shelter from the sun. It’s a rich humid woods. The air is cool still from the previous night, despite having begun to endure the sun’s rays.

This trail alternates between switchbacks and long winding trails to make its ascent, preferring the latter for much of the start and making abundant use of the former for the latter half. The trails were well kept with only a few spots of either muddy patches or fallen wood even around the path.

Next up on my trail meetings was a threesome of young hikers, two women and a man. I had stopped to snap a photo and catch a breather, they stopped behind me to get drinks of their water. One of their group half-jokingly asked to make sure they weren’t invading my quiet time. I assured them they were fine, and as my Vibrams are wont to do, they started up a conversation.

I answered their questions about the Vibrams, talking about hiking in them. They had hiked the Rattlesnake Ledge a few weeks ago and had seen a guy hiking the trail without any shoes at all. I shared about the guy I had seen when I was on Rattlesnake Ledge, he ran up and then down the mountain, at least twice, having lapped me both time. I can only wonder if he had gone any times prior.

The final .9 miles of the trail is a real trial, constant upward climbing with the last .3 miles being especially taxing with a sharp ascent and the lesser maintained trail. It is around this area that you come into contact with the Tiger Mountain Cable Line which is a deceivingly trail like looking path, but is clearly less maintained than the rest of the trail. Hiking on it is not expressly forbidden but there are warning signs that it is less maintained.

The peak for Tiger Mountain is a beautiful view, though it is likely outshone by Rattlesnake Ledge and others in the area. It is no less a great spot for sitting with your family and enjoying a mountain top picnic. I happened to find a shady spot to lay down and relax for a bit, as I laid there I noticed a small marker for someone who has left this world, a quick search online turned up a memorial in the Seattle Times. Turns out he was a school counselor who died too young.

Travelling down the trail I had several more discussions, talking with people on their way up, reassuring them they’re almost there or that they can do it, and of course discussing my footwear. Another thing I did was be extra vigilant for litter along the way, I had brought a plastic bag and I hung it off my belt so that I could easily collect the garbage and get it out of the wilderness.

Overall I enjoyed this hike, the weather was amazing and the views made it worth the work, but I definitely underestimated the intensity of this hike and its 2,200 feet climb.