The Amateur Hiker

After realizing that yes, maybe we could do this hiking thing (just on a much smaller scale than the videos we'd been watching), we were looking for inspiration. Yes, there are countless day hikes and weekend trips we are grateful enough to have access in our area within a several hours' radius. But then we came across some videos about New England Trail , one of 11 national scenic trails "intended to showcase our country's spectacular natural resources and beauty," as the National Park Service discusses on their website here .  The 215-mile New England Trail is a lot more manageable than say, the Appalachian, which runs from Georgia to Maine. It's in our own backyard, running from Long Island Sound in southern Connecticut up into Massachusetts and the New Hampshire border. As I've spent 19 years in Connecticut and lived in Massachusetts until my late twenties, this entire area holds a special place in my heart and mind. It's literally our "stompi

  I've always been interested in hiking, but not exercising. Go figure. That may have something to do with growing up in New England, where the mountains are smaller and the possibilities for day trips innumerable.  That being said, my interest (and my husband's!) in hiking was really piqued last spring as we were surfing through YouTube. Within a few weeks' time, we came across two hiking channels. One was Live Sutton , which was chronicling four-year-old Harvey Sutton's quest to become the youngest person ever to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. The other was First Church of the Masochist Hikes , following cantankerous Matt "Masochist" Hengst hiking all the way from Key West through Canada.   "You sit down and watch OTHER people hike?!" someone asked us incredulously. Yeah, I know. But it wasn't purely for entertainment's sake. As we watched, both Dan and I found ourselves asking, "If a four-year-old can do that, why can't we?&q