First Day Hikers start off 2021 at Taughannock Falls

On Jan. 1 hikers from all over the area flocked to Taughannock Falls State Park for a yearly tradition, the First Day Hike.

First Day Hikes are part of a nationwide initiative to encourage people to get outdoors, and nearly 55,000 people across the U.S. participated last year. The event at Taughannock has been held on New Year’s Day for the past 10 years, according to Environmental Educator Josh Teeter.

Teeter said that his first year hosting the event only brought in six people but that attendance has steadily grown since then with about 1,600 showing up in 2020. At one point in recent years, the park had the most well-attended First Day Hike in the nation, drawing people from Pennsylvania and Canada to see the falls.

Usually, the event starts at 1 p.m. and includes a big group photo at the base of the falls. This year, the event was altered to comply with pandemic safety protocols and ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Taughannock’s Gorge Trail is wide enough for social distancing,” Teeter said. “We have plenty of parking, and with the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. format, it spread people out throughout the day. We didn’t have fire pits like we usually do along the trail — we didn’t want people to gather.”

This year was warm enough to draw a crowd and just cold enough to keep the trail from turning into a muddy mess. The rain held off until after the event, and there was picturesque ice on either side of the falls with lots of rushing water down the middle.

Teeter said that about 1,185 hikers came through this year. Participants were greeted by park employees, who were handing out bandanas, pins and granola bars.

The New Year’s hike often serves as a way for community members to get back into an active routine after holiday celebrations. While some local parks chose to cancel their events this year due to COVID-19 concerns, Teeter said that management at Taughannock felt the event was important to have.

“It feels good to get moving again if they haven’t been doing much,” Teeter said. “It’s good for everybody. There have been studies done that show getting outside helps with attention, helps with healing. It helps with stress and depression. It’s good for your blood pressure and your heart.”

T-burg resident Mary Spicer attended her first First Day Hike this year with a group of people from the gym she belongs to, Journey Fitness in Ithaca. She said she wasn’t sure what to expect but that the event ended up being upbeat and welcoming, while also adhering to COVID protocols.

“It was some piece of normalcy for everybody,” Spicer said. “Lots of families and lots of dogs. I did not see anyone without a mask on. People were very courteous and stayed spread out. I didn’t feel unsafe at any time. I would definitely do it again.”

Spicer is the vice president at Maguire Family Insurance, which falls into the essential services category. Spicer worked throughout the pandemic and said that she often walked park trails during her lunch breaks to help manage stress.

“It’s my only time by myself,” Spicer said. “I always have responsibilities or something to do, but when I can go outside and take a walk and enjoy it, that’s my time. Half the time I don’t even listen to music — it’s just a way for me to regroup and focus.”

With recreational activities limited for most of 2020, Teeter noted that state parks saw a big increase in their attendance numbers. This was both a blessing and a curse, as employees were sometimes forced to block off parking spots and entrances when visitor numbers got too high.

“It really demonstrates how important parks are to our culture,” Teeter said. “People really needed the parks more than ever this past year, and we saw a lot of people where it was their first time ever going to any state park. It made it a little harder on the staff because the new people didn’t understand how the park system worked at all. But we were super happy to be there for everybody when they needed it.”

Teeter attributes the success of the season to the small, tight-knit parks department.

“I’ve never seen one agency be so cohesive and so family-like,” Teeter said. “We’re just trying to create safe places for people to enjoy and be stewards to the land we’re entrusted with caring for.”

Teeter said that he saw a lot of familiar faces at this year’s First Hike and recognized hats and scarves they had given out at previous events. In past years, the park has hosted a series of First Saturday, guided, educational hikes, but those events have been put on hold for 2021.