Ritual Hiking

Plus, an Outdoor News Site calls it Quits, an Attack on Climbers was Thwarted, the Next Outdoor Exercise Trend, and more

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Odds are if you’re looking for a new hike to do, you’re going to end up finding some list of superlatives online: the ten best hikes in wherever, or five hikes with great views, or fifteen “secret” trails they don’t want you to know about. This is just how the internet works right now, and from the perspective of someone who runs a hiking blog, this is also pretty much the only way I can get Google to look at the hundreds and hundreds of trail guides on the site. (I don’t roll with those ‘secret’ / ‘hidden’ lists though – that’s a surefire way to get yourself on a crowded trail).

It's easy for us—and I include myself in this—to be caught up in a completionist hiking mindset. These suggestions become to-do lists, unceremoniously crossed-off as we continuously search for the next set of directions. That’s why I think it’s important to have some go-to hikes you continue going back to, or even better—your own unique hiking traditions.

Let me take you back to the fall of 2005. I was in my third year of living in Los