I love trail hiking at local parks. Before and during the pandemic, I’ve been going once or twice a week, to parks in my county or the next, doing 3 to 7 miles of hilly trails. This is permissible under our state’s Stay at Home order, specifically called out as an “Essential Activity”. Broadly in life, hiking is the most healthy thing I do, and my favorite.
But I’m growing nervous about it. Parks are becoming weirdly crowded with people who are new to hiking and new to the park, sometimes needing directions and often spread out over the trail so I have to go into the woods to get around them at a safe distance. This past week a group of 9 assembled near me before setting out. Parking lots are often full. There’s always the possibility I’ll have a mishap driving there or hiking, and will need emergency help of some kind, exposing myself and others to risk.
I turn 63 next month and have COPD. I’m also male and hypertensive, which have sometimes been reported as risk factors (though both are debatable).
What do the Dopers think? Which dominates, the risk or the benefit?
I like to hike and I think that is your best exercise choice right now. So stick with it!
But if you know your local trails well, maybe stick to the less popular trails or parks. Or hike on streets or country roads.
There are a lot more people out than usual, that is true. Maybe on a country road or street you can see them coming better and keep distance. Or some parks have wider trails as well, wider than typical single track.
Is there a shelter in place/stay at home order in effect where you live? If there is and you’re following those guidelines, feel free to hit the trails. In my county hiking is allowed–before the order I was out on the trail 2-3 times a week. But like you, I’m reluctant to brave the new crowds who don’t seem to get the social distancing thing. So for now I stick to hiking on the sidewalk around the 'hood, which is a very poor substitute indeed.
Our local bike trails have been mobbed. For cycling, I am finding the roads far less crowded, which is opposite of usual. As you say, there are many newbs on the trails requiring lots of patience.
I would say keep hiking as the benefits likely outweigh the risks. But definitely avoid people as much as possible, especially given any chronic conditions. And avoid taking unnecessary risks, as you say, to avoid injury. Hiking itself is not usually risky, but don’t push your luck.
You should probably stay home. You have two confirmed risk factors there. Furthermore you can’t count on other people to use common sense and stay away.
Two days ago I went grocery shopping and people had to line up outside the store because the security guard didn’t want the store to be too crowded. There were lines showing six foot spacing that many people ignored (they ignored these things at the checkout as well). Furthermore some people didn’t understand instructions and/or had not heard of the precautions (literacy, language barriers, hearing impairments… whatever the reason, the person behind me, wearing a mask, thought she should walk three feet behind me).
There’s a popular park trail near my house. I go in the early morning hours (~7:30) because I have found that almost no one is there but me at that time. Which is risky too, mind you. But I guess I’d rather take my chances on getting mugged than getting infected.
I found the park near my home overly crowded, but walking along the roads has been fine. So I’m just walking around my neighborhood. Maybe you can find a pleasant suburban neighborhood to “hike” in without the crowds?
Find a place with wide trails and you’re probably fine. If you see passersby just steer as clear as you can from them. Wearing a mask or bandana (perfectly natural on a trail) would probably be a good idea as well.
Depends where you are. I’m not hiking, but I’m walking 45 minutes a day, and people I meet on the streets have been universally good about leaving space when our paths cross. It helps that with almost no traffic you can go into the street with minimal risk.
At Costco and the supermarket, which is the only other places I go people are leaving space. But we’ve been doing this for a while now, and are getting good at it.
I’m 68, but I figure that if I return from my walk (done at NY speeds) and am not short of breath I’m okay. I also want my lungs and body in general to be in as good shape as possible in case I come down with it. I figure the risk is minimal.
Shit, being alive is risky. You could slip in the shower, hit your head on the floor, and kill yourself that way.
What I would avoid is areas where you know there are going to be large crowds and limited space, but if you know of an area where you can be out in the open, I would think some fresh air would be good, for physical and mental health. Just don’t sprain an ankle or get a contusion: the last place you want to be now is at a hospital getting treated for an injury.
While the likelihood that you are going to be in close contact with people for long enough to get significant exposure, you have several factors that put you in the at-risk category (especially COPD). But the real concern, especially at your age, is that you may suffer an incidental injury (sprained or broken ankle, snake bite, falling limb, et cetera) that may send you to the emergency room, and at this point I would assume any ER visit comes with a substantial chance of being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So, while it is smart and healthy to get some time outside in sunlight and fresh air, both for your mental health and to stimulate your immune system, I would encourage you to select activities with a low potential for injury (walking on flat land or pavement, some kind of non-risky isometric exercises or jumping rope in the home, et cetera) rather than hiking outdoors. Of course, you are an adult and free to do what you wish, but recognize that should you get injured and require EMS you are not only putting yourself at risk but also taking away resources whether they are otherwise desperately needed.
Whatever you do, please be sensible and cautious. You don’t even want to get into a minor car accident or slip and fall in the bathroom right now.
Around here, all hiking trails are mobbed during the day. You have to find some hidden gems to get solitude. We go early, early in the morning for our trail runs and get back to the car by 9:00. Even that is getting a bit more crowded now.
Stranger, you have a well-deserved reputation for wise posts, so I hesitate to question you on this one, but you have me puzzled here. The odds of the OP, an experienced hiker, getting a snakebite are very low: in the US, about 7,000 people per year get snakebites. He’s much more likely to get bitten by a dog (about 5 million per year) walking in his flat, paved neighborhood (assuming he doesn’t live in the country). Falling tree limbs injure fewer than 700 people a year. A sprained ankle, which doesn’t necessarily mean an ER trip, is a very common jumprope injury.
At age 63 and as an experienced hiker, the OP isn’t exactly a doddering old person. I agree he doesn’t want to be in a hospital waiting room right now, but I’m more concerned about him ending up there because of the COPD or close contact with infected hikers than the unlikely dangers you mention.
That said, I’m hiking my neighborhood now that the gym is closed. There’s an 18% grade hill less than 2 miles away, and I do 10 circuits on that because it’s closest to the workout I was doing at the gym, the workout a personal trainer developed for me. Oh, and I’m also 63.
Agreed that the likelihood of those types of injury is low, and frankly he’s statistically far more likely to get injured on the drive to the trailhead than on the trail, which is why the tone of my post wasn’t frame as, “Do you have a death wish?” But for someone with his underlying conditions, any trip to the ER or urgent care poses a severe risk of contracting the virus, so it makes sense to minimize risks as much as possible. It obviously isn’t possible to avoid going into the bathroom and probably not feasible to not walk around the neighborhood but going out trail hiking is a choice that increases risk, although, again, not by a huge amount, and the bigger risk is just unnecessary driving.
I’ve seen a lot more fool-ass behavior in the last few days than going hiking; just last night a group of teens or twenty-somethings was climbing up and walking on the railings of the deck below my place; the were probably bored while waiting to pick up their takeout, and because no one is around there wasn’t anyone telling them to not climb up on the deck, but one slip and a header off the deck is pretty much a guarantee a trip to the most infectious environment in an area in which hospitals are already being overwhelmed. This is not the time to take unnecessary risks without serious consideration for the consequences. Or, as Samuel L. Jackson says, “Stay the **** at home!”.
Can you try to find a time to go when there are fewer people there? Maybe right at dawn?
I normally walk my dog before sunup, because I have to walk her before work. I’ve was trying to take this opportunity to walk her during the daylight now, but there are so many other people out, that we’ve returned to doing our long walk before sunup. We are still doing a short one in the afternoon, and we do a bike ride around the building, so she can run.
She normally goes to daycare a full day on Tuesdays, and a half day on Fridays, and she is really missing the exercise she gets, so I let her run with me while I bike for 5-10 minutes around our building (NOT on city streets, or even sidewalks), so she can run.
Anyway, I totally get why you are antsy. I have a job that keeps me on my feet for about 80% of the time. Getting enough “upright” time is hard.
OP, I just read an article on the importance of walking for people with COPD. And of course walking or hiking is excellent for people with hypertension. So DON’T stay home unless you live in an urban area where there are too many people walking to be able to maintain a safe distance, the same issue you have on hiking trails.