First Day Hike
Episode Guest
Dia Hitt, Chief of Education and Interpretation, South Carolina State Parks
Rob Barrett, Director of Interpretive Programming and Education, Tennessee State Parks
First Day Hike Stats
Established: 1992 in Massachusetts
Adopted Nationally in 2012
Created to celebrate going outside, getting exercise, and experiencing nature
Number of participating parks in 2022: 884
Number of hikes hosted in 2022: 1175
Number of participants in 2022: 60.048 participants
Number of miles hiked in 2022 – 117,104 miles
Speed Round
What is your earliest park memory?
Dia: So my earliest park memory was an inner city park called Lincoln Park in Kansas City, Missouri. My mom would take me there Sunday mornings and we would spend the entire day. I would climb trees, we’d have picnics, and I’d jump in mud puddles. It was a Sunday tradition every day until we moved to a new state. Lincoln Park is always going to have a spot in my heart.
Rob: So that is a tough question to answer. I know it was somewhere in northern Virginia and I have snippets of memories of being in one of those backpacks that you carry kids in. I can remember the color and texture of the backpack and then like seeing the trail and smelling the trees.
Fortunately for me, park use was ubiquitous in my childhood. When we went on vacation, we went to parks. When we had the weekend, we were in parks. So I had this time where without my parents knowing they were teaching me how to be a park user and without me knowing that I was being taught, I was taught that these spaces are for you, and here’s how you use them.
And that’s what I love about being an interpreter, is now I get to do that and support that for so many people. I get to say, welcome to this space, it’s for you, and here’s how you use it. And that’s what First Day Hikes is all about. So hopefully, there’s some little kid out there, in a backpack on New Year’s Day, having these fragmentary early memories, and they grow up to work in parks.
What made you love the parks?
Dia: I was an inner-city kid. So my world was concrete skyscrapers and dirt. What I loved about parks was it was a whole different world. Everything smelled weird. The trees had texture, like things fell out of trees. I was just like, what is this thing? What is this place? And that made me fall in love with parks.
Rob: I think, subconsciously, the thing that I love about parks is, being a kid with ADHD, being in nature is a place where that skill set is rewarded because you’re the first to see the bird. You’re the first to notice the wind direction change. All of those sensory moments can be overwhelming when you have to be focused. You can kind of get rewarded as you explore nature.
What is your favorite thing about South Carolina State Parks (Dia) and Tennessee State Parks (Rob)?
Dia: The diversity. I can go from the mountains to the coast and all in one spot in a heartbeat. So if I wake up and I want to see a sunrise on a mountain, I can get up there and then the next day I could go listen to the sound of the ocean.
Rob: The moment when I feel connected to the resource and I realize that I’m part of this greater tapestry, and I find that in various ways at various sites, but it’s kind of I just know it when it hits.
What is your favorite thing to do at South Carolina State Parks (Dia) and Tennessee State Parks (Rob)?
Dia: So this is going to sound a little weird, but I find the water feature at every park. I find the sound of water either tumbling or roaring or there is always somewhere that there’s a water source or water resource that I find.
Rob: I’m a simple person. I want to hike. Put me out on a trail. Let me get a mile away from somebody else and just enjoy nature.
What park have you yet to visit but is on your bucket list and why?
Dia: So I’ll be honest, I haven’t been to very many of the national parks, and so I really want to go out to Yellowstone, because I used to work with wolves, and I want to go out in the wintertime when the wolves are out.
Rob: All of them I haven’t been to. I have to choose one. That’s going to be really hard. So I’m going to choose three. Dry Tortugas, Denali and Glacier.
What are three must-haves you pack for a park visit?
Dia: Water, water, and water. But also I tend to pack things I can pull on and pull off because I get cold and hot fast. And so, and then of course I need the backpack.
Rob: Okay, so of course there’s all the safety stuff. So I’ll say the safety bag to encapsulate all of that. But then, sturdy shoes and a hiking stick.
What is your favorite campfire activity?
Dia: I’m a ghost story girl. I like to hear the local legends and the cultural legends in every area. I have a habit of collecting cultural tales. And so the more you can tell me about the culture and the ghost stories of your region, the happier I am.
Rob: Cooking foods on an open fire that you wouldn’t expect somebody to cook on an open fire. So, deep frying donuts on an open fire, or making a flatbread with a marinated chicken, and a pesto sauce, something fun like that.
Tent, camper, or cabin?
Dia: Actually, a hammock. I’m a hammock camper.
Rob: I’d like to say tent, but the older I get, I think it’s cabin.
Hiking with or without trekking poles?
Dia: I would say without.
Rob: I collect hiking stick medallions and the little nails don’t go into the trekking poles. So always with a hiking stick.
And what is your favorite trail snack?
Dia: I usually take nuts because I’m always low on protein, so I want more protein.
Rob: A nice trail mix with nuts and dried fruit and maybe a piece of chocolate.
What is the best animal sighting that you’ve had?
Dia: That one’s hard. I think it’s probably the time that I was in Alaska and I was hiking in the Grizzly area and I could see the pathways that they were walking. I was like, oh, okay, no biggie. I came around the corner and there was one crossing from one side of the pathway to the other. We both kind of just stopped and looked at each other and went, what are you doing here? And I backed up and he backed up. And then we both kind of agreed to go the other way and I went one way and he went the other and I was like, Oh, thank goodness.
Rob: Kind of a fun story. And it deals with a deep winter hike. I was going to see whooping cranes fly over a state park in Florida. And they didn’t come because, you know, they just weren’t feeling it that morning and turn and was talking to this guy turned out to be the author, John Yao of the armchair birder, and he was there to experience the whooping cranes. I was able to tell him a place where he could go see a batch that were migrating on their own somewhere else. And so it was just just that fun moment. You never know who you’re going to meet in the park.
What is your favorite sound in the parks?
Dia: When you’re in a clearing and there’s no other sound and all you can hear is the wind and the trees.
Rob: The call of a hawk as it captures its prey.
What is the greatest gift the parks give to us?
Dia: Tradition and family and peace.
Rob: Protection of things that would otherwise be lost.