kjoyce4Coronavirus has changed the way we live every day life, including how we spend our free time.
I’ve always been a list maker. Bucket lists, Grocery lists, To Do lists, and when spring rolls around, the peaks I want to climb over the summer.
Of course, with a pandemic shutting down the world around us, those lists have been pushed to the side. Chloe and I have switched up our hiking style a little, and hopefully this post will inspire you to get out on the trail safely while we wait for a new normal.
While there’s never a “good” time for a pandemic, here in Vermont it’s mud season, so the cycle of snow and thaw we’ve seen every few days for the past month has made the blow of not being able to see the mountains a little softer.
The other positive to come out of this, and the true saving grace, has been finding new trails.
Coming from the Adirondacks, I always resented Vermont for having less trails. Vermonters will fight you on this by the way, and I never got why. The Adirondacks have thousands of trails, different terrain and mountains within minutes of my old apartment. Here in Vermont the mountains are shorter and further from where I live, but I didn’t realize how many short but sweet trails I had discounted when I moved here.
In the past month, I’ve hiked tiny trails just yards from the highway and explored mountains behind local schools (all found using AllTrails of course). It’s become a fun challenge to find safe hikes that are less popular. I’ve always stuck to the path more traveled as a solo female hiker, for safety, but for now I’ve been looking for hidden gems I know I’ll see a couple people on, while avoiding the most used spots.
Another big thing has been keeping Chloe on a leash more often than not. Admittedly, she’s gotten worse and worse on-leash the longer she’s been out of training, so this has meant leashing her every time I see a new person. Officials here have asked us to keep pups on a leash and while I admit I’m not perfect, we’ve been trying to follow that rule on every adventure.
While cabin fever has started to settle in the past couple weeks, hopefully more sunny days will mean more adventures close to home until we can finally get back out there.
How has COVID-19 changed the way you hike? Have you and your dog been out on the trail since this started? Leave your experiences and advice in the comments!
