If you’re anything like my family, you want to get outside to hike a lot more than what you’re doing, but life gets in the way on a regular basis. You start the day, week, or month thinking, “This time we’re actually going to do it. We’re going to hike and explore and see the beautiful mountains and areas around us. And then a kid breaks their arm, or your car is due for an oil change, or you have to work overtime, or you forgot about a lunch with an old friend. There are a million obstacles that push our goals aside, but most of the time, it happens for one simple reason:
The goal never becomes part of daily life.
When hiking stays trapped in a calendar, an app, or a vague intention, it’s the first thing to disappear when life gets busy.
A lot of our goals typically live in calendars or apps, AKA out of sight. We put it in our notes app and then forget it’s there until next year. And on the occasion when we do remember we made a goal to hike more, we tell ourselves it’s too late as we’ve already missed so many days or weeks, and it’s pointless to start now. That mentality is flawed. We’re not doing this to check off a list. We’re doing it to create meaningful experiences and bond more with the people we care about while doing the things we love.
In my family, we decided to include the kids more in the planning portion of our weekly hikes. Even though our oldest is only 3 years old, we give her a few options. These can be familiar hikes or new ones that she just chooses by which one sounds the coolest. Getting her excited about a hike gets us more excited instantly, and makes it a lot easier to follow through!
It’s not about hiking harder. It’s about hiking more, getting that quality time together in the mountains
Ok, now to the nitty gritty. I want to share the framework we’ve used that’s actually gotten us out hiking every single week! There are 4 parts to it:
Apps are great. And there are definitely a lot of scenarios when apps are exactly what you need. But for a goal involving the whole family, apps aren’t going to cut it. We want something everybody can see all the time. Awareness reduces friction and increases accountability for everyone in the home. A physical tracker shows progress and generates a lot of excitement. And the right physical tracker can become part of the home!
For my family, we found “52 Hikes a Year” to be the perfect goal. There’s no minimum distance or time requirement or other qualification on what counts as a hike, so we can be flexible as long as we’re making sure we get out on the trails at least once a week. We’ve found this helps us if we have a busy day and we don’t want to push our hike back, we just do a quick run to a nearby trail and let the kids explore for a little bit. Some of these quick excursions have been the most fun and created lifelong memories for our kids!
We use this framework as a guide, not an absolute. If we miss a week that’s ok. The important thing is that we’re reminding ourselves to get outside and spend time together in the open air.
For families who want a simple, visible way to make hiking a regular part of life, we designed the 52 Hikes a Year board to support this exact framework.
This is one of the biggest reasons families quit early – they set the bar too high.
A hike doesn’t need to be long, remote, or impressive. Short local trails, neighborhood paths with elevation, state parks, and even repeat routes all count. If it gets you outside and moving together, it counts.
Consistency matters far more than distance or difficulty.
That’s completely normal – and expected.
Very few families hit all 52, and that’s not the point. Even completing 15-25 hikes in a year often represents a huge shift in how much time a family spends outside together.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s momentum.
Yes – and in many cases, it works better with kids involved.
When kids help choose hikes and physically mark progress, they feel ownership over the goal. That turns hiking from something parents “plan” into something the whole family participates in.
Short, flexible outings are often the most successful.
Life is always going to have it’s interruptions – especially with kids.
Families who stick with outdoor goals don’t avoid interruptions; they build flexibility into the system. Missed weeks don’t erase progress. Busy months don’t mean failure. The goal simply picks back up when life allows.
That mindset is what will keep you going year after year.
Most families don’t need more motivation – they need a goal that fits into real life.
Hiking more consistently comes down to making the goal visible, flexible, and shared. When progress lives somewhere you see every day, it stops feeling like another forgotten intention and starts becoming part of your routine.
If you are looking for a simple way to turn “We should hike more” into something you can actually follow through on, the 52 Hikes a Year board was designed to do just that.
If you’re here, you’ve probably heard of the 1000 hours outside challenge, and your first thought might be: “That sounds super cool… and super impossible.”
If you’ve ever started the year saying, “We should hike more,” and then blinked and it’s suddenly summer… you’re not alone. That’s why I decided
