NPR’s Rob Schmitz speaks with Julie Martin of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation about the three-decade-old tradition of January 1 “First Day Hikes.”
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Many people start New Year’s Day with an aspirin or maybe eating a little brunch and then maybe watching some college football. But for some, tomorrow will be a chance to do something good for their bodies, even if the gym is closed. They’ll go take a hike. The tradition of what’s called First Day Hikes goes back more than three decades. It started in Massachusetts, so we invited Julie Martin to talk about it. She’s director of visitor experience and programs for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Welcome to the program, Julie.
JULIE MARTIN: Thank you so much, Rob. We’re really excited to welcome people. Our staff are preparing and getting ready.
SCHMITZ: Julie, I want to go back a little, and I want to understand what was the idea behind these First Day Hikes in the first place?
MARTIN: So the idea of a First Day Hike actually started at the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton. The park supervisor there at the time – his name is Pat Flynn – he wanted people to recognize that parks aren’t just places where people can go and recreate in the summer. So when he was a seasonal worker in Ohio State Parks in the ’70s, they had a popular program in February where they brought people out to hike, and they offered them soup. And he said, this would be a wonderful idea to try here in Massachusetts. So in 1992, he started First Day Hikes and ran a program, and almost 400 hikers came that day. And, shall we say, the rest is history.
SCHMITZ: And walk me – or hike me – through this. What do folks do on this day, and how big has it gotten?
MARTIN: The hikes have grown substantially. So in the spring of 2011, Priscilla Geigis, our then-director of state parks and now our deputy commissioner for conservation and resource…
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