The importance of sharing the trail

This weekend I celebrated National Trails Day and went on a beautiful hike on one of our favorite trails, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. I hiked a section on Lake Townsend in the city of Greensboro.

As I mentioned on my ‘About Us’ page, we hike with our two German Shepherds, Hope and Maverick. My personal rule is to never hike alone. YOU can, but I don’t like to because I am just about scared of everything!

Hope and Maverick make the best hiking partners when my husband, Patrick, has to work. He works every weekend but one each month so I’m usually hitting the trails with the pups.

This time of the year it starts to get real hot. It’s early June and I already have a tan (that’s unheard of where I’m from!). The pups and I stopped off the trail for our first water break, and I had just removed my pack from my back, and see someone with an orange shirt coming at us at a good pace. He was trail running and as he ran by we smiled and said our ‘good mornings.’

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the breed, German Shepherds have “the willingness to put their life on the line in defense of loved ones.” Our pups do not like when someone walks, runs or bikes up from behind us without warning. It’s a threat to them and they go into protective mode.

We continue our hike and decide to turn around right at the two-and-a-half mile mark. Again, looking ahead, I see a human coming up to us at a good pace so I pull the pups’ leashes just off the trail so the second trail runner we ran into can pass with ease. Again, we said our ‘hello’s’ and kept going.

Towards the end of our journey, we are hiking up a hill and out of nowhere I hear, “hello, it’s me again!” The second trail runner had caught up to us and he kindly warned us he had to pass us. I thanked him and proceeded to tell him, ‘I appreciate you saying ‘hello’ because my dogs don’t like being run up on without warning.’ He laughed and said, ‘I can’t imagine!’

This is a friendly reminder that sharing the trail is so important. In our case, we know our dogs don’t like being run up on. So, we will always make a conscious effort to say ‘hi’ to a fellow hiker if we are approaching them (even if they don’t have a dog).

A simple greeting is what makes hiking even more special. We all hit the trail for different reasons but we’re all there for the same benefits.