First hike?

“I was just curious how everyone was first introduced to hiking. I started hiking while I was still in the Navy stationed at Norfolk VA. I worked a rotating watch section which gave me 80 hours off while the ship was in port. I would hike and camp at Kerr Dam and take trips to Shenandoah National Park.”

“First organized hike was Cub Scouts, but I had been playing in woods and fields near our house or in the country at my cousins' since about kindergarten. The older I got, the farther afield I was allowed. The Scouts (now getting some bad press) just showed me how to do it in a more planned and thoughtful way. My older brother was a baseball player. He didn't start hiking and backpacking until he was in the Navy, stationed in Oakland. He learned his skills as an adult in Yosemite and the Sierras. But I had years of practice, if not grandeur, on him by then.”

“Cub Scouts. We walked from the little league ball field up to some oil rigs in the Baldwin Hills. (in LA)

Still quite a thrill for a 10 year old city rat who thought the Ballogna Creek (essentially an open sewer draining south central LA industry) a river.”

“My first backpacking trip will be in 8 days.”

“My dad started me hiking when I was just a little bend in the trail.”

“My first hikes were with my parents. We would do weekend trips that were maybe a mile hike in and out, and also dayhikes. My first longer trips were with Boy Scouts. I was lucky to have a really good troop with very knowledgeable leaders.”

“My first backpacking trip was with the Boy Scouts. We did an overnighter at Massaweepie in the Adirondacks. My first hikes were also with the Boy Scouts.”

“My first hike with a pack was from Silverton to Durango walking on the railroad.”

“Anybody else have their first backpack still? Down in the basement, stuffed with a hunting vest, is my original BSA canvas rucksack with canvas shoulder straps, that I got in 1963 when I turned 12. It was my bookbag in college, too.”

“First trip was age 10 or so, Porcupine Mountains wilderness area for a week,followed by a week of canoeing along the brule river on the wis/mi border.I had a stepdad who was a bper and survival instructor.”

“A visit to Baxter State Park last summer got me completely hooked. I like the "trails less traveled". Now I'm exploring my hometown state park, Camden Hills. I love walking through the woods!”

“Interesting survey on another site...34% of bp'ers went on their first trip between ages 11-15; 28% from 16-20; 10% from 21-25, continues to decrease from there. Shows that, usually, if you don't start hiking young, chances are you won't start later.”

“I started out doing lots of caving and you have to do LOTS of bushwacking to get to most caves. just seemed natural to walk up mountains carrying gear. So I got into backpacking. That (and caving) lead to Rock climbing. I about 23 years old when I did my first BPing trip.”

“Hyper, the Porkies are beautiful! I first started hiking (day hikes only) when I was very young. Since he and my mother divorced when I was 2, I would visit him in the summers during school. We would usually spend a total of a couple weeks camping. When I got a little older - junior high - we did some bike camping.

I went on my first backpacking trip early last summer in Jay Cooke State Park in N Minnesota. I haven't been doing this long, but I'm hooked. I'm looking forward to my first hike of the season in a week and a half, then possibly a trip to the Olympic Peninsula.”

“My first hikes were as a kid in the Smokies, when I was about 6 or 7 years old. We'd go up there for summer vacation.

Then we stopped going when I was about 10, and I didn't hike again until a few years ago when I was on business in Cleveland, TN near the Smokies. After my business was done I decided to play hooky for a couple days and re-visit the Smokies, and fell in love with the mountains and hiking all over again. Now I'm probably hooked fer good.”

“BSA”

“My mother was always sort of a wild hare, and so were her brothers.
The youngest went to work for the California Division of Highways back in the late 40's, and moved to a dip in the road in Northern California where he cow-boyed as a side line.
My mother used to take me up there for my school vacations.
We'd fish in the Eel river and walk in the woods hunting for deer when I was a kid.
After that, my mother made a habit of taking me along whenever she and my stepdad went fishing in the Sierras.
The first actual "hike" I went on was with a group of medical personnel.
We went down to the Havasupai Indian Reservation in Arizona on a treatment weekend for the indian population there.
I was 24 and dating a clinical psychologist.
We had our belongings carried in on horseback, and we stayed in a small dorm, but that was the first time I actually saw people carrying backpacks.
One guy was even carrying a small siamese cat sitting in a open-topped beer box on top of his frame pack.
This was in 1973.
After having a few years to think about it, and having been so impressed with my visit to that "cosmic" reservation, I planned a weeklong backpacking trip down to the reservation with my boyfriend in 1977.
I was never the same after that.
In 1980 I left my good job in Southern California for the High Sierras.
I moved to Mammoth Lakes, and so began my descent into backpacking madness.
The rest, as they say, is history.”

“I started hiking with other friends in my neighborhood at 12 years old.”

“I started hiking sometime just after I learned to walk. We lived in the real woods back then, 40 miles to the nearest pavement, no phones and we made own electricty. My dad was big on hunting and I got dragged everywhere. First BP was a 4 day outing at 7, was a cross country thing, dad got lost but wouldn't admit it. First BP without an adult was at 13 and I took a 12 year old with me, had a great time. That was over forty years ago and the miles just keep adding up.”

“Hiking was about age 11 in the woods and fields of northeastern Pennsylvania (Bradford County), where I grew up. We would go all day long. First overnighter was age 12 with a friend. We hauled our bags and food about a mile up the creek to a lean-to we had built. GOOOOOOOOOD TIMES!!!”

“Boy Scouts. I think my first real overnighter was to Duck Lake in the Sierras (near Mel!). My most memorable overnighter in the Scouts was to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.”

“My father took me hiking when I was 5. Then we stoped when I was 10, and I joind the Boy Scouts. Now I joined up with you fools and I love it more than ever.”

“We went up north for two weeks every summer while my dad was in summer camp. I'd wander the woods surrounding the cabin we rented. It's a wonder I never got lost and that my worry-wort mother let me go. At 15 I took my first backpacking trip with a friend's family. We went down to Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon.

Abby is going on her first hike this Saturday if it doesn't rain! Or maybe it doesn't count because she doesn't walk? Cross your fingers for good weather for us!”

“Joy, Make sure you get pictures! :o)

My first desire to backpack came when my Dad took the family to Isle Royale on his boat. I was day hiking and fell in love with the wilderness. I swore I'd backpack it one day. Didn't start backpacking until 3 years ago. I love it and will go to Isle Royale yet.”

“My first day hikes were with my father and older brother when I was 4 or 5. First overnight trip I was 7 or 8. Got more into it when I joined Boy Scouts at age 11.

P.S. - My Eagle Scot card was signed (stamped) by Richard Nixon - quite an honor?”

“At 32 I went to Colorado by myself and stayed at Colo Spgs at my mom & dad?s. I bought a backpack on a whim and drove off into the mountains for a couple of days and was forever hooked.

My inspiration had come a year earlier when me, the wife & kids spent a few hours at the Grand Canyon followed by a few hours in Zion NP. I was really envious of the backpackers I saw getting ready to start or just completing an adventure into the backcountry I could only dream about.

I took my kids on their first backpacking trip when the girl was 6 and the boy 4.”

“Joy - for the love of God, don't take a WAGON!!!”

“dayhiker, joy and I will NOT be taking a wagon. We got a really neato kelty kid carrier.”

“Boy Scouts.
Yes, I still have my 1st pack, well the frame anyway, made out of wood.”

“My very first hike of 10 miles or more was either Mount Fuji at age 12. My first overnights were along Flume, Lincoln, Liberty, Lafayette, the Haystacks and a few others in the White mountains at 13 and a Baxter St. Park hike at around the same time (mebbe 14).”

“My first campout was when I was 8. The older kids built a lean-to cabin in the woods and because I helped they asked my parents if I could camp out with them. Practically the only thing I remember about it is when John Large took a squirt on the fire, and the smoke engulfed the cabin where I was already in my sleepingbag. That sucked...I couldn't get out of there fast enough.”

“First Hike? My first hike was when my father took my brother and I out in the middle on nowhere and left us there for a week. It was kinda like when he taught us to swim, he threw us in the lake, h.e.l.l. it wasn't all that bad once we got out of that f-ck'n guney sack.”