Not Ladylike Hikes: 2024 Recap

5 minute read

This one is a bit bittersweet to write. Not only is it a recap of the year, but it serves as a final “goodbye” to one of Not Ladylike Community’s flagship programs.

I count the first hike as one I went on with my pal Robin in 2020. We went out to “south Elk Island”, hiked for about an hour, and she brought a fancy picnic. The weather turned sour very fast, so we snacked then packed up and headed out.

I was working up to making this a “real” thing I could invite strangers to.

(This became an important lesson for NLL)

HIKING IN 2024

We went on 50 hikes as a group!

We welcomed a few new hikers to our groups, some of whom came back a few times!

We hiked in all weathers. The really cold and really hot hikes had less folks come out, that’s for sure!

Our Sunday Sunset hikes were underattended, but I stand by my choice! The setting sun on a warm summer night can’t be beat.

We had a lot of smoky days, and while we didn’t cancel (and probably should have), folks took precautions and hiked with masks on.

We had different people choose some of the trailheads, for which Lisa is super grateful.

For our full list of trailheads, you can check out our spreadsheet here.

TOP MEMORIES OVER THE YEARS

When the chickadee landed on Lindsay’s hand
Ruby’s first hike! Birdee’s first hike!
“Car pants”
Every time a stranger showed up
Every time a stranger showed up a second time!
Driving out to Drayton Valley with Mom and Dan for a day hike
Christmas handshakes and well wishes
Grounding circle in the parking lot at the River Queen
That time in Dawson Park where we watched the waxwings
Every time I showed someone the murals in Kinnaird Ravine
Crossing two footbridges in one hike
Our new year tradition up at Keillor Point
The time we helped a hungover youth find a bus stop
The time Lisa rode a scooter up the hill into Forest Heights and then had to put it in her car and drive it partway home so she could turn off the trip

IN AND OUT LIST

If I were writing an “in/out” list for NLL Hikes 2025, this is what it would look like!

IN	OUT
stating our values and mission at the start of every hike	letting the strongest personality dictate what our hikes looked like
carpool program
hikes on bus routes
compassionate conversations
accessibility notes
promoting our group in other places

One of my important lessons from this group is I needed to remind people the purpose of this group more often, and that if I want to help bring society toward a more just place, I have to be strong enough to model it in my group.

Interacting with strangers is hard, especially if the only place you interact with them is in one spot. I did a lot of my explaining our mission and values online, but not everyone in the group was reading that info.

People bring their own “baggage” into these spaces and I was not ready or able to manage that every weekend. Not only did I learn a lot from that, but I recognized that without a lot of changes, I was not getting the hiking group I wanted. Not really.

I WILL MISS…

It’s been 2 months since our last hike, and I already miss so much! I miss the routine and habit. I miss seeing my parents and new friends every weekend.

Unfortunately, none of those are enough to bring me back.

I was burntout y’all.

And all it took was one interaction with some of our regulars for me to see this, and to recognize that the work I had put into it, was not being sowed.

This was a political group. I said land acknowledgements, I talked about the brutal division of land from its original stewards, I spoke about how we access our green spaces and who accesses them, I reminded everyone about what they used to look like, and I spoke about the future of land use in our city. And yet I was told: “don’t get political, this is just a hike”.

I asked for openmindedness. I got a repetition of the same closemindedness and harm that I was trying to push back against with every hike. With our very existence.

I know that I could have done more.

But it was an easy decision to put my energy elsewhere.