{"id":32444,"date":"2021-01-08T09:49:05","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T14:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=32444"},"modified":"2021-01-08T14:26:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T19:26:25","slug":"maryland-welcomes-16000-hikers-to-first-weekend-of-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/01\/08\/maryland-welcomes-16000-hikers-to-first-weekend-of-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Welcomes 16,000 Hikers to First Weekend of 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annual First Day Hike Tradition Adapts and Grows<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Photo

Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford and Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio take a First Day Hike at Patapsco Valley State Park. Photo by Joe Andrucyk<\/p><\/div>\n

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/a> estimates that 16,237 visitors took part in First Day Hikes<\/a> in <\/span>Maryland State Parks during the three-day period from January 1-3, 2021. Following safety provisions to prevent spread of COVID-19, and taking advantage of the long New Year\u2019s weekend, hikers engaged in self-guided hikes over three days.<\/span><\/p>\n

The three-day weekend and staggered hiking times reduced crowd size and also provided a vast array of weather conditions at parks from around the state — visitors braved everything from rain, sleet, and cold, to unusually warm temperatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some parks set up First Day Hike \u201cselfie frames\u201d and other unique welcome signage to support self-guided adventures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again we\u2019ve started a new year with a successful First Day Hike, introducing a new, even better tradition of self-guided hikes over several days,\u201d said Maryland Park Service Superintendent Nita Settina. \u201cThe comments we received from our visitors demonstrate once again how important Maryland State Parks are to their well-being and happiness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The hike is an annual tradition across America\u2019s State Parks and for many Marylanders, including Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford, who joined Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio Jan. 1 at Patapsco Valley State Park<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because there were no scheduled, staff-led hikes this year, State Parks were not able to calculate total miles hiked, but instituted a new self-reporting survey. Using the online form<\/a>, 279 people voluntarily logged 966.5 miles.<\/span><\/p>\n

On New Year\u2019s Day 2020, about <\/span>5,000 hikers logged more than 10,000 miles<\/span><\/a> on Maryland\u2019s trails in parks and public lands. Maryland State Parks would go on to see record visitation in 2020, with more than 20 million visitors enjoying the park system, a 40 percent increase over 2019. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annual First Day Hike Tradition Adapts and Grows The Maryland Department of Natural Resources estimates that 16,237 visitors took part in First Day Hikes in Maryland State Parks during the three-day period from January 1-3, 2021. Following safety provisions to prevent spread of COVID-19, and taking advantage of the long New Year\u2019s weekend, hikers engaged  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,4998,23,12],"tags":[4861,2914,4035,4981,2974],"class_list":["post-32444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-hiking","category-land","category-parks","tag-boyd-k-rutherford","tag-first-day-hikes","tag-jeannie-haddaway-riccio","tag-maryland-state-parks","tag-patapsco-valley-state-park"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32444"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32458,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32444\/revisions\/32458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}