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Comment by joefife | Hacker News Reader

Exactly. Before covid my life revolved around a cycling group, hiking groups, two running clubs.

Now it's all be taken away.

You can’t go hiking where you live? Hiking is a very low risk activity.

This is a discussion about socializing. A hike and a hiking group are different things. BTW, need to find a hiking group post COVID, that sounds like fun.

But a hiking group primarily socializes while hiking. A small group, social distancing outside is a very low risk activity that should allowed in most of the world outside periods of strict lockdowns.

Maybe in the OP’s case it’s the kind of thing where you take a group bus to a trail, and that’s the problem.

The hiking group I normally lead for is having some trips but relatively few and nothing overnight. And, frankly, between the hassles and responsibility associated with leading right now (and following a bunch of protocols), carpooling problems, and just general concerns with being in a group of largely strangers, it's more trouble than it's worth. I have been hiking a couple of times with a few friends/friends of friends but mostly it's more comfortable to just go by myself.

Hiking trails near me are STILL closed due to the virus. For a while it was only open during weekdays and by appointment only. Now they've been flat out closed for a few months. Sure, I could drive half an hour to a completely open trail, but if I'm going to burn that much gas all the time I might as well start working in an office again.

It’s completely insane that your location decided to close all the trails. We took a 4,000 mile hiking road trip (up the east coast of the US and back down more inland) a few months ago and we never ran into a closed hiking trail.

I've seen parking closed or limited here and there. And some Mass Audubon properties, for example, may still be by appointment only. But, yes, in general I'm not aware of general trail closures in the Northeast.

Surely you can still be involved in outdoor groups without issue? I participate in an advanced dog training/sport group, and we still meet and just take the necessary precautions (work outdoors, social distance, wear masks).

A vaccine will hopefully bring some much needed sanity back into the world.

In my country Corona related deaths are about 1% of all deaths, but it’s treated as if it is extremely deadly.

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