What seems like eons ago now, I learned about First Day Hikes. It was probably around the time I learned about Hike Naked Day (June 21st of every year) when I was hiking on the Appalachian Trail in 2010. Once you get absorbed into the hiking and outdoors community you start seeing this vast world of activities going on all around you. While I have never hiked naked, though I *have* come across people who were hiking naked on the Florida Trail in February 2011—that’s another story for another time—I have done plenty of First Day Hikes in the last 14 years. The most recent one before this year’s was in 2022, so it was time to reengage with the activity. The period of travel after Christmas makes it difficult as we’re often visiting family in DFW but we will attempt to get outside if we can to put a few miles on our hiking boots to kick of the New Year.
First Day Hikes are part of a nationwide initiative led by America’s State Parks to encourage people to get outdoors. On New Year’s Day, hundreds of free, guided hikes will be organized in all 50 states. Kids and adults all across America will be participating in First Day Hikes, getting their hearts pumping and enjoying the beauty of a state park. Last year nearly 55,000 people rang in the New Year, collectively hiking over 133,000 miles throughout the country!
This year my husband Chris and I spent New Year’s Eve in Wichita Falls at a B&B we love and left my son with my parents for the week and will return to get him for school next week. Before leaving Wichita Falls to drive home we detoured down to Lake Arrowhead State Park, a new to us state park just south of Wichita Falls. It’s part of the Cross Timbers and Prairies ecoregion, though I personally think it is just beyond the heart of the western Cross Timbers. It’s much more prairie-like here with less tree cover than just east towards Fort Worth.
It was in the high 30s when we arrived at the state park and dreary gray. I have been back living in Texas since 2010 and winters still continue to shock me. What can I say? My blood needs sun and warmth in winter and south Florida ruined me forever on that. However, I can still manage to find the beauty in the steel coloring of January and there was plenty of beauty around. I think Texans tend to forget this, especially away from those “star” central Texas landscapes.
There were quite a few Chickasaw plum (Prunus angustifolius) thickets in the park, the perfect place for wildlife to hide and create a home but also a wonderful place to feast in the summer when the plums are ripe. If you squint you can pretend it’s a cypress dome! I wonder how many people walk by these patches of plums and don’t realize what a marvel they are?
Decorating the plum thickets were these spider egg cases and there were far more than the couple I photographed. I picked my way across a thinner space in the thicket, careful not to poke myself with those thorns (look closely), to spy on the egg cases. I found no adults but I believe they are yellow garden spider egg cases (Argiope aurantia).
It was the wrong time of year for blooms but seedheads will fill the need for divine color by giving you texture! There were so many dried American basketflowers (Plectocephalus americanus) in the prairie alongside the trails that I imagine summer out here is pretty spectacular.
The lake was severely low, still in a drought, but that allowed us to spy several mussel species, including this fragile papershell, which was still alive. Many of the other mussel shells we found were emptied by other wildlife for meals.
We came across what was labeled as a Sandstone Outcrop on the trail map and the scene reminded me of Inks Lake State Park in many ways. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself transported to other places when I come across tiny scenes in a trail, places I remember from long ago or a conglomeration of memories that makes the scene in front of me mean so much more. I would have loved to have spent more time looking at the mosses and lichens on the rocks but I’d forgotten my macro attachment for phone and was without a good field guide.
You don’t have to travel across the state or even to a state park for a First Day Hike. There is likely a county or city park nearby that has enough of a path or trail for you to walk on and to explore. And if you missed a hike for New Year, there’s no reason you can’t go for one on Thursday or Saturday. January 1 is arbitrary and I know so many who reset each quarter, solstice, or even in late August/September when school starts.
The point is to get out there and start noticing.
Some small housekeeping news:
Over the next month to six weeks I will be working on some essays here about Galveston and my relationship with that island. I touched on some of it here in Nostalgic Thoughts from Bryan Beach and I think it’s time to start writing it down. It’s been almost 22 years since I lived on the island and yet it sometimes feels like yesterday. It’s one of the handful of places I can return to and feel like I’m home, even despite the island’s massive facelift after Hurricane Ike.
Also, I’m working on getting some links set up for folks who might be interested in tipping or paying for my work. I’ve decided not to use Substack’s payment set-up for several reasons but primarily I’ve always hated the paywall method of putting writing behind a curtain for only certain people to see. I mean, I get it, we buy books or newspapers to read certain things, but I’m a product of the very early 2000s Blogger era and the internet was Wide Open. And I can see where paywalls work for when you are taking/offering a class or something similar. It just doesn’t work for me. And yet…I would like to get paid for my writing. So, hopefully by the time my next essay is out I’ll have that system set up. My work will always be available for viewing but if you feel inclined to send a few $ my way every now and then, I will be much obliged! I’m trying to do more of that myself for people I read this year, too. It’s hard when the price of everything is going up and everyone is asking for money, which is also why I prefer the tipping method for the moment.
I hope everyone everyone has a great holiday season and if you got out for a First Day Hike, let me know in the comments or hit reply to this newsletter and tell me where you hiked!
Misti writes regularly at Oceanic Wilderness and In the Weeds. She hosts one podcast, Orange Blaze: A Florida Trail Podcast, and recently retired The Garden Path Podcast.
Thanks for sharing a beautiful First Day Hike! I’m amazed how similar the tones are in Texas compared to here in New Brunswick (photos of my FDH were what illustrated today’s post). But no spider egg sacs, thankfully. 😅
I had no idea you were missing Florida so much. (And that Chickasaw plum is such an important plant for wildlife.)